Five Ideas for Generating Purposeful Content

Jason Katzenback — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:32:43 +0000

Blog writers face the same kinds of struggles and challenges that other writers do. It’s not easy, day after day, to come up with new ideas for your blog. Yet, if you only go through the motions and throw something up just so you’ve got a post for that day, it weakens your site and your credibility. So, what do you do when you have blog writer’s block?

I don’t have all the answers, but there are a few tips that have worked for me:

Read other blogs: One thing that makes the blogosphere different from the rest of the Web is the dialogue that takes place, not just in the comments section, but across blogs in a given niche. Problogger may write something one day, and the next day you’ll see something by Copyblogger that expands on the idea. Don’t steal someone else’s idea, but find your own way to apply what’s out there.
Take a break: Get out from in front of the computer. Go for a walk, breathe some fresh air or get some sunlight. If you want a real change in perspective, take your laptop to the mall or a Starbucks. You’ll be surprised what odd places your muse might be hiding.
Rework an old idea: Peer back through your archives, maybe even back to your earliest posts. There’s a good chance most of your readers haven’t read those early posts. Take one of them and update it. Add some new information or insight you’ve gained since you first wrote the post.
Outsource: Hiring someone to write your blog doesn’t have to be a long-term thing. Jump on one of the bidding sites and hire someone to give you a few weeks off while you regroup. Use that time to queue up some new posts, too.
Stop whining and write: Sometimes, you’ve just got to look past your current situation and force yourself to type something – anything – to get started. Write a post or article. If it’s crap, don’t publish it. Instead, rework it two or even three times, whatever it takes to turn that post into gold.

None of these ideas guarantees you’ll come up with the next big thing in your niche, but they can’t hurt, either.

Skribit Social Suggestions – Might be cool

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:59:28 +0000

Was Twittering and noticed a reference from “Problogger” about this new tool he was checking out called Skribit. The concept of the tool is to help bloggers (like us) figure out what to write about based on readers (like you) requests and votes.

Like any “Social / Web 2.0″ tool, the effectiveness of this will be directly related to the involvement from its users, but personally, we really like the idea!

No matter what your business is, it is always wise to listen to your readers, customers, listeners and so on. Now for bloggers, Skribit makes it very fast and easy…. or so it seems.

So is this tool worth while?

Dont know yet, we just installed it about 45 minutes ago and need to give it a bit to see if any of you actually send in suggestions

Check it out and let us know what you want us to moo about. To use the tool, simple locate the “Skribit” box in our sidebar, directly under the sponsor banners and click in the “What should we write about?” section. Next enter the topic you would like us to write about.

If you like a suggestion already there, then vote for it.

It looks like when a suggestion is answered it disappears… need to figure that out for sure though.

Thats pretty much all there is to it that we can see right now. We will update everyone on our opinion after a few days of use.

Interested to know if any of you have any previous experience with this and any feedback about it? Also, if you have not tried it, what is your initial opinion of it?

John Cow dot Com » writing

Five Ideas for Generating Purposeful Content

Skribit Social Suggestions – Might be cool