Blog knowledge - Stockpiling blog post ideas

This has come at an appropraite time for Digital Signals; I was wondering what to blog about this week and after reviewing the list of draft posts I have lined up, I decided instead to write something that was related to this very subject.

This is now going to be the second of my blog knowledge posts that I've written. This one is going to be focussed on stockpiling/recording ideas when they occur.

Writing and maintaining a blog with good content is a commitment. There will be days were either your energies are not focussed on your blog or you simply can't seem to find what you want to write about.

I find ideas for what I'm going to write about come in fits and bursts.

Obviously there will be posts you may write that might be initiated by industry news or events, these will generally occur independently of any need for you to develop ideas.

But the majority of your blog, unless you are writing an industry "news" blog, should come from content that has taken some time to formulate. From ideas that may have been brewing for a while or trends that you've been watching develop.

They might not take you that long to write, as often posts come from ideas that have been compiling in your mind for a number of weeks, but sometimes it's getting the initial idea down as a post when it occurs, then seeing how it could take shape as blog content later.

I currently use blogger to write Digital Signals. I'm working on a new site with some colleagues that will be based on WordPress, but whatever platform/site you use, you should have some facility for saving draft content.

I will often have upwards of 15 blog posts waiting for me to finish at any one time. These are ideas that I've conceived over a period of time. Most make it to publishing at some point in the future, others get pulled into other posts and some get redeveloped into new ideas.

All of them have helped me though when devising new content for Digital Signals, either by generating new ideas or by providing the platform for a post that just needs developing.

But often I find getting the idea down somewhere initially is one of the most important tasks I do in this process. The copy that sees that idea develop from the initial seed can take sometime to mature, but without the idea in the first place that process won't begin.

Provide yourself with the tools to record these ideas as they occur. You might not always have access to your blogging platform, so you may need to record initial ideas via some other method.

I still haven't managed to acquire myself a laptop or equivalent since I wrote a similar post on Online personal development a few months back. So I make do with either brief notes on my old school Nokia 6300 or even, heaven forbid, write an idea down in my work book I usually carry with me.

Whichever method works for you best, just ensure that you can take note of an idea as it comes to mind, where ever you are at the time.

In a similar vein, if you can record any other supporting information to assist with the posts content, then carry the required tools to do that as well. The number of times I still kick myself for not having my camera with me.

It's not easy writing a blog, especially if you are the only contributor on a regular basis.

Make the process easier for yourself by improving the efficiency of your blog post writing.

• Record ideas when they happen,
• Write what you can at the time to increase the chances you have of recalling the original idea and ease the idea development
  
• Carry your tools, whatever they may be, with you
• Have a drafting facility to allow you develop ideas when you have the time
• Allow ideas to evolve as you think about the post more, you might want to change the focus
  
• Review old blog posts to see if you can expand an existing post

Not all ideas are suitable for sitting on, some need to go to press immediately. Others may take you a while to get the thoughts out of your head and on to the screen.

Either way, ideas are invaluable, record them as they happen and work out where you are going to go from there later.


Related reading:

Blog knowledge - The power of the internal link - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/blog-knowledge-power-of-internal-link.html

The rewards of finding time - Online personal development - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2008/11/rewards-of-finding-time.html

The perfect time to post - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/02/perfect-time-to-post.html

Quality, not quantity - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/02/quality-not-quantity.html

blog comments powered by Disqus