Day: February 26, 2008

Nancy’s post for today is found at Blog-World Watch and is on the topic of how to find content for your blog.

After you have been blogging for awhile one of the biggest problems becomes “where do you find things to write about?”

Here are several techniques that I personally use to find content for my own three blogs.

1. Start a note card and keep it with you when you are out and about. When you think of an idea jot it down. Some of my best ideas come to me while I am sitting watching my kids at a soccer game or sitting in a waiting room in the doctor’s office. Another great time is while I am walking on my treadmill. I keep a card and pencil there to jot down new ideas.

2. I have a list of 10 topics written in advance and I have broken them into my various blogs and if I need a topic, I just pick up my list and start writing. As most of my blogging is done first thing in the morning before I start work and coffee has not cleared all of the dust from my brain my advance topic list is a lifesaver.

3. Use Google News. When I have to write and I am totally tapped out, I go to Google News and enter my top keywords. There is always something in the news that pops out. Although I may not blog on that topic, sometime the article gives me a new topic, viewpoint, or spin-off idea.

4. Subscribe via feeds to at least one professionals forum in your industry. I can easily follow what is happening and is the buzz in my own industry by rapid scanning topics and the first 250 characters of the posts using My Live as my RSS feed portal. I like My Live as it has no ads and is totally customizable. This provides a wealth of content ideas and new topics.

5. Write ahead if you can on the weekend. If you are using WordPress, I have found that to write ahead on the weekend and set your blogs for a future publishing date help to keep the pressure off of you. When you blog from your topic list and publish ahead, blogging stays fun and easy.