Blog Content – What’s in Your Planner?
By: Gayla Baer
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I know lots of people who actually have IT together well enough to actually have a plan of what they are going to research, write and so forth.
Unfortunately, when you’ve been writing about the same topic for so long, you kind of feel tapped out after a while. This can make it near impossible to plan anything worthwhile.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been feeling like I’m coming to that point in my whole “sharing my blogging tips” approach and I’m having a terrible time finding that ‘thing’ that ignites that passion I had even as recent as a month ago.
I’m a bit curious to learn where some of you get your inspiration, motivation and energy for that matter.
It’s probably just a phase, I’ve been known to have them before – the kids are back in school, things have begun slowing down and rather then running in twenty billion directions at once, I’m now faced with actually having to think.
So, what’s in your blog planner? Do you have one? What methods do you use that aren’t just a rehash of old content, reworked posts from all the bloggers before you?
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August 23, 2007 Filed under MomGadget
Gayla,
The biggest help for me in coming up with content has been setting up a schedule for the “type” of content that I put up.
For example, weekends are all about links – Saturday is link love to other sites, and Sunday is rehashing of links to content that I wrote the previous week.
During the week I have a minimum of 2 “core content” posts that I put up, and for those my inspiration comes from life itself, audio and video podcasts that I subscribe to, books that I read, comments from readers of my blog, and just general ideas that I have about things I can write about that will help people out.
Overall, my goal is to write enough content so that I stay motivated about my main topics, but not so many that I get burnt out or run out of material.
For me, 2 to 3 core content posts each week, with the occasional off-topic post or meme seems to fit the bill nicely.
Using the tool Stumbleupon in the category(ies) of interest to you is a good post starter. Chances are good you literally will stumble upon something that jump starts your imagination.
I have short bursts of inspiration where I end up with two or three little essays I save for when I’m feeling “all tapped out.” I also comb through magazines for ideas when I’m away from the computer. I hate feeling tethered to my laptop, but this way I’m always “researching.”
It is hard since I post everyday but I get inspiration from other blogs in my niche, Google Alerts about my topic, magazines that are applicable, seasonal and news events,and reader suggestions.
I can relate Gayla! That’s where having a few different niches can help. I keep a running list of ideas but they don’t all come to being.
Gayla, I have only been blogging for a few months, but seem overwhelmed by ideas at times, and then there are times when the well is dry.
I have a blogging planner – just a basic spiral notebook! I jot ideas in it all the time. I even place my “idea notebook” on the nightstand when I go to bed because sometimes the ideas come at 3 AM.
I am an eBay coach/consultant, and many of my posts come from questions asked by my clients and students.
I also frequent sites like Stumbleupon, eZine Articles, and Entrepreneur.com and read other articles that will spark something new in my mind.
As I mentioned, I have only just begun the blogging adventure and have many ideas rolling around in my head.
Thanks for all of your great sites!
Blessings-
Suzanne
I also use Stumbleupon. But since my blog is about food…it’s pretty easy to come up with ideas and inspirations for recipes.
Thanks for all the tips. I like the idea of having 2 to 3 meaty posts per week and the rest filled with interesting tidbits. I suppose it goes without saying that a person can’t be on top of everything all the time.
While I keep a running list of topics I’d like to focus on, by the time I get around to having time to focus on them, I’ve lost my inspiration to that topic altogether.
I’ve used stumble for inspiration before, that seems to work nicely at times, but I can’t always count on that either.
I guess it’s just that time of year where I dig deep to find a purpose.
Do you ever go through that?
I think that’s easy to get free content. Just go blogwalking, read their articles, and make your opinion about that, finally post it to your blog. Do you agree??
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