On a slump: Getting blogging and content ideas
SEO tips, search engine optimization |
Image by ianmunroe
It’s Monday once again. This means another full week of work; dealing with clients, measuring and analyzing stats and gauging strategies. Unfortunately, since search engine optimization squarely falls in the cracks between creative and analytical in nature, we normally get momentary episodes of mini-writer’s block. It isn’t really as extensive as your old fashioned burnout but it’s just as annoyingly counter-productive.
You know can knock any copy or blog post out of the ballpark. But the problem is that the ideas just won’t come; and we’re all aware how much of a time suck it is to look for a topic to write about. What you need is to jog your mind a bit by doing some light to heavy reading. Here are a few entertaining and informative sites that can help squeeze out your creative juices and get the work day properly started.
All-Top
Guy Kawasaki and company have done a great job with All-Top, aggregating the freshest written pieces from across the Internet. You’ll find a LOT of links to headlines and posts organized by topic and by source site, blog and other references. Niche topics range from those relevant to our general field like SEO and social media to those you can simply traipse through when bored or when you need a tad bit for research like comic books, electronic music and even pets among many, many others. You can even submit your site as a source link so other All-Top searchers can read your contents-another good way for spreading brand awareness and for driving inbound traffic.
Wikipedia
For some of us (and most students and noobies in the industry), the default research site browsers automatically point to is Wikipedia. And it really can get thorough most of the time with a wealth of information on just about every subject you can think of and it proves to be such a time sinkhole because you’ll probably find yourself links deeper from your original research term. The downside though is that anyone can alter entries on it except for such entries for countries and various world leaders. As a time-tested practice, it’s best to double check on the facts you find on it to make sure you’re not spewing anything deliberately modified for inaccuracy.
Cracked
Sometimes all our noggin needs is a little shove, a jolt of smart humor to wake it up, so to speak, and get the juices flowing. Among those sites that are as informative as much as they are funny is Cracked.com which dishes out as a lot of interesting facts and is well-known for their funny TOP 10 posts that are filled with well-researched facts. A word of caution though, it’s another time sinkhole so just makes sure you snap out of it once your head is ready to write a piece of your own. Also, most Cracked articles play with irony, sarcasm and exaggeration, you should be able to shake the unnecessary wit and straighten out your own voice to avoid unwittingly carrying their writing style.
Twitter Trending Topics
As with most blogs, you should write a piece that’s both timely and well researched to attract readers, prompt them to engage in conversation with you and to keep yourself connected with the latest news. Checking out the Trending Topics on Twitter is one of the best ways to know what everyone’s talking about and through your blog post, join the conversation with new information and share your opinions. From your Twitter page, make a quick scan of the topics and click on each one to find out what exactly people are saying, know the popular opinions through retweets and click through shared links to know the source and other background details. If you already have a specific topic in mind, you can also head on over to http://search.Twitter.com to know what people are saying in real-time.
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RSpears @ July 25, 2010
[...] The solution, however, is plainly simple: keep a blogging schedule and stick to it. If you find it hard to find for a topic to write about, find time to list possible topics in advance and follow it up with hefty research. [...]
[...] The solution, however, is plainly simple: keep a blogging schedule and stick to it. If you find it hard to find for a topic to write about, find time to list possible topics in advance and follow it up with hefty research. [...]