I've been blogging recently and would like to write something fresh each day. The problem is finding something worthwhile to write about. I don't want to rehash news that dozens of others are already writing about but then it can be hard to find worthy topics. Any tips?
Hi. I would ask what your blog is geared towards. Is it about news? About politics? Sports? Or kind of off the wall about anything from garbage disposals, to power lines? Let everyone know what you're blog is about and the answers here from everyone will probably help you a lot more. Cheers~
News is only one type of post. Also consider: 1. How-Tos 2. Reviews of products or books or even websites in the niche 3. Interviews. You should never really run out of ideas - there's always something to review or someone to interview at a bare minimum. Also take part it conversations. See what others in the niche are blogging about, and respond to their post, or share a different opinion on your own blog rather than in the comments (link to that post obviously).
www.adigaskell.org/blog/ is the url. It's a general dump of ideas and thoughts, but mainly about marketing.
haha, good lord you do write a little bit about everything don't you. Well, since this topic is about tips for writing I can take you back to the old school ways about 18 years ago that I still use today if that happens. I simply draw a circle in the middle of the page and write my category. Then start drawing small lines to all the topics I can come up with from there. Then all the topics from those sub-topics so on and so forth. When I was younger those circles started with things like Parents Getting Divorced and Choosing Where to Live. I'm getting off topic here, but if I told you to writing Marketing Techniques in one, and branch out what would you come up with essentially? Lets say Email marketing, social networking, pay per click advertising, blogging, and video marketing. Now take each one of those and think of everything you can on those topics. You'll soon realize you have all of it already in your head, you just had to dig it out a little. Good Luck~
Thanks for the advice. Strange sense of deja vu reading it. Must be too much caffeine I guess the other thing is not just having a topic to write about but having a contribution worth sharing within that topic.
yea, being all over the place with topics can definitely pull you in several different directions. Like jh's recent blog link up there says. "Now is the time to plan." When things are a little more organized it makes writing and effeciency that much easier...
One of the great things about blogging is that it isn't so much about saying something first as it is about saying something unique. Unlike the bigger media outlets that are more interested in getting "the scoop" blog readers are more interested in a unique perspective. I don't care how many times I have read about a topic--if you have an interesting take, I'm happy to read your stuff too.
You could always take a different angle on a topic you've already written about. For example, I wrote a blog post on how to pick freelance writing job. Then, I wrote another on how not to pick freelance writing jobs. Read through some of your old blog posts and see if there's anything you can expand on - a topic that wasn't fully explained. Pay attention to news and current events. Write about how that news affects your readers. Sure, topics may be covered ad nauseum by other bloggers, but has the topic been completely covered? Is there something being left out. Is all the coverage going one way? You can go the other. Another example, I read a lot of news that said auto loans are so hard to get right now. Then, I stumbled upon one site that said auto loans aren't so hard to get after all. That writer took a saturated topic and came at it from the completely opposite angle.
Here are some random topics to give you some ideas. 1] Which colour of blog attracts most readers 2] Blogs that were great once, but are now dying. 3] Ten Tools for the discerning blogger. 4] What does your blog say about you? 5] Romance between bloggers. 6] Husband blogger Wife blogger.
Exactly. I usually read on news and other events that interest me first and foremost then from that that's where my own view takes precedence. What I thought about the news and how I can provide a better or a different angle to an already established entry.
I was reading up about blogging earler this afternoon and one tip that really stuck in my mind was - try to write from the perspective of an expert and not a reviewer. Apparently this is one of the easiest mistakes to make as a blogger and I think it does make sense.
Let's face it, most people are not going to be, or ever become, proficient writers. I know people who are extremely well educated who haven't got a clue when it comes to good writing. The best approach is a natural one, don't pretend or force yourself...just write about what you know like you were sitting at a table talking to a friend sitting on the other side... don't try to be Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio the Nobel prize winner for Literature in 2008...be natural...talk about what you know.
And I'm assuming when you decided to start a blog you had a particular niche in mind, presumably one you know something about? Just write an update on what's going on in it if you can't think of anything in particular.
Thanks guys. It seems that most of the topics are about the science of marketing so I guess that's as good a central theme as anything
If your intention is to monetize your writing, you should spend some time doing research with the google adwords tool to find topics that will drive traffic to your site.