I’m frequently asked where all the ideas come from to write five days a week. What follows is a sampling of where the inspiration and ideas come from.
Be controversial; preferably not with every post but sometimes. I wrote “Social Media Favors Chicks Over Dicks” for a couple of reasons. First, I really think it does and, second, the title provided some link bait. It succeeded on both counts. Folks weighed in on the other side of the issue and the post ranked well for readership.
Share things that have worked for you. When I wrote “How I doubled my htc EVO battery life,” I had no idea it would become the most popular post ever on this blog. I was simply writing about finding a way to make my mobile device more useful.
Answer questions you are asked by one person for the masses. Chances are, if a friend is asking you a question like, “where do you come up with ideas for blog posts,” they aren’t the only one who will benefit from the answer. Pay attention to the questions folks are asking you. Those asking probably consider you a subject mater expert and that means there could be a blog post in the answer.
Write about things you know and of which you want to do more. “The Public Speaking Preparation Guide” lets those who want to hire me as a public speaker see how I would prepare for their presentation. Share your work and thought processes so readers get to know you better.
Share what you are doing at the moment. “The value of systemizing business processes” was produced in a about 15 minutes at the end of a long day when I was actually systemizing a business process.
Tell people how you did it. “The power of social media audience” shared the story of how a single tweet went viral and earned me a few bucks from Amazon.com affiliate revenue. It’s important that when you share a how-to that you also share the measurable results. Don’t just tell the folks how you did it. Tell them why by sharing the result.
Ask what people would like to see you write about. About once a month on Facebook or Twitter, I ask what you would like me to address. Typically, five to seven ideas emerge from those requests.
So, what would you like to see me write about in the next few months?
I use all four the one I have a problem with is number 5. Everytime I write a question the replies I get are not useful since people might take it a whole different route. I will keep trying.
As for the EVO Post I think that mostly when I write about a gadget people end up visiting that post the most and over a larger period of time. I guess people are so into gadgets that if you post a solution or issue you get lots of traffic like I did when I posted info on the Ipad2 and how it broke in a few days. I am still getting lots of hits on a post that is more than a month old.
I’m lucky to have a group of followers who always come up with great ideas for me to write about.
Gadget posts are great. I’ve got a couple more on my mind right now. They do, however, take a bit longer to write. Need to set aside some time to write a them.