Blog Posts Are Where You Find Them
A close friend of mine and I were talking online the other day about 'what he wants to be when he grows up,' so to speak, and one of the things I advocated is that he write a blog. Not only is a blog a good hobby that increases your writing and literary skills, but it separates you from many in whatever particular vertical that you're in. His response is quite common in that "I don't feel like I do anything special, at least not enough that someone would want to read about it." Well let me tell you a little bit about this person and you tell me if it wouldn't peek your interest.
He's a 23-year-old pop/metal musician; he's going to school for web design and graphic design; he's a budding self-taught photographer that captures amazing images; he works as a fraudulent security investigator for a well known software developer; he wants to work with kids (in a high school concealing), especially those afflicted by meth addiction and he's struggling day-to-day in the current economy trying to find his way. Knowing this about him, he feels there's nothing to talk about!?! Well let me count the ways:
- Write to upstart musicians that have never started a band, tell them how to find other like-mined musicians.
- What do you look for in a singer?
- How can you be a band on a budget?
- What's good equipment on the cheap?
- Push your music online for open feedback.
- Talk about your job, what's right and what's wrong in the process.
- What is the likely future of your position?
- Talk about internal processes (be mindful not to out your company in so doing) and how they can be streamlined.
- Talk about what inspires you as a person, musician, lover and friend.
- Ask questions openly about your photography, music and design to solicit expert advice.
- TALK ABOUT METH! It's going to be a hard pill to swallow but it's high time that America wake up to this epidemic.
- Talk about what can help parents understand what to do, how to talk to their kids and what the warning signs are.
- Talk about being 23 in a shitty economy.
- Talk about your dreams.
There are countless other bullets I could put in this kid's gun, but the force is strong with this one and I hope to be his Obie-Wan (short of the dying in a light saber dual, though if you gotta' go that's not a bad way to step out). Thinking about this really inspired me to think about what I do when I get frustrated and cannot come up with something to say in my blog.
Therefore, here are some tips that just might help you as a creative resource:
- Checkout Slideshare.net – post the presentation and write an evaluation of it and your takeaways.
- Watch videos online, post them and write an evaluation of it.
- 'Copy & Paste' a chat that you find funny, interesting or telling. (Be sure to let the other participant know that's what you're going to do)
- Make up a chat you wish you had!
- Things you overheard and how you interpret it.
- Once you get enough blog posts, you can do a 'greatest hits' or 'best of' for that year.
- Numbered lists! People LOVE numbered lists! 8 reasons why this, or 10 steps for maximum that.
- Ratings and reviews of anything that you do with great frequency and could honestly answer blog comments about.
- Go to TED.com, post a video and tell the reasons why.
- Take some photos and post them to your photo sharing site of choice and tell people about those photos.
- Construct your own ranking system for something that you use, do or interact with and make it a reoccurring post.
- Create themed post for the month, season or holiday.
- Expose your weaknesses and ask for help.
- Take a topical moment in your life and post comparative viewpoints on that point.
- Recant a story from your childhood.
- Talk about the things/brands you use the most everyday and why you love or hate them.
- Create a fictitious character and put them within a story as a metaphor to a directive.
- Advocate charities and ways of being good to one another.
Going to the well - These are easy topics that you can always pull out for content and should be easy for you to write:
- Talk about family.
- Talk about your job.
- Talk about something topical in the news (the faster you do this the more traffic it usually aggregates to your blog); be sure to link to your source.
- Talk about your favorite things, hobbies, music and anything that will allow your reading audience to feel as if they have a deeper understanding, and more importantly, a more intimate connection to you and your posts.
Brilliant blog inspiration from brilliant bloggers:
