What to blog about today?

Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 8:57 am

What to blog about today? [ 3:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ever sit down to start your blogging and just stare at the screen? You know you have and it is the one thing that stops a lot of people from making blogging work.

The key is to have a topic. If you are like me once I have a specific topic sitting down and cranking out a blog post is easy. Coming up with the idea is where the problem usually comes in.

This is one of the reasons I rarely have trouble when I am doing my niche blogging simply because I have already created a list of topics when doing my keyword research. If you are not sure about doing keyword research check out EZ Keyword Research. So do the keyword research for your blog and you won’t lack for topics.

The real problem comes in when I am doing a blog like this where I am not as focused as I should be. I cover a lot of topics here although it is all about WordPress or blogging. It is a very general topic.

Now when I am getting lots of questions (you may have noticed I am always soliciting your questions and that is the reason) it is easy. Here is where you can use a survey of your readers to get future topics.

There are other ways to generate topic ideas.

First keep a notepad or tape recorder with you. I carry a little note pad and a digital recorder with me most of the time. I get ideas for posts at the strangest times and places and if I don’t make a note I will never remember when I finally sit down at my machine.

You can use Google News to keep track of what is new on your topic. Grab the feed of the news query and add it into your favorite feed reader (I use Google Reader) and you can just check it every so often and see what topics are hot. Quite often this will give you an idea or a different angle to address a topic.

Personally I like to add these into a mind map because it is easy to move them around and categorize and re-categorize ideas. Of course regular readers know that I tend to map out everything.

I find that once you understand how to use mind mapping that it makes it easier to write. Having your ideas and parts of your topic in order before you start writing always makes it easier and your content better.

Check out Discover Freemind to get a free download of mind mapping software and the opportunity for some training on how to use it.

Hopefully you will implement these ideas and next time you sit down ready to blog you will start writing instead of staring at the screen.

And oh yeah, leave your comments and questions below so I have more ideas for new topics .

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.

After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.

If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.