Write articles for fun

By : Deny EY

The problems faced by each blogger could be almost identical, the main
difficulty is in terms of finding inspiration.

This is why articles about how to find inspiration is always busy to read people, too crowded and noisy-person writing it.
There are many ways to get inspiration, depending on the content of the blog and also the situation at that time.
One way is:

Write articles for fun, the point is to write something to please yourself, not to please others, and not to patronize other people, because a lot of other people probably actually more intelligent, more knowledgeable than your own. Have fun, throw your words letter by letter with a cheerful heart. Write something that you enjoy, even when you read it again. Your hobby is very valuable, so when you have fun indirectly will make others around you come to feel happy, this is the nature of humans as social beings, come to feel happy when others too pleased.

Blogging Tips : Improve Your Blog

Blogging Tips

Take a Trip to the ‘Mall’ and Improve Your Blog

Today’s task in the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog project is to go Shopping!

OK - I can hear what you’re probably thinking:

“What? This ProBlogger dude has lost his mind - what does shopping have to do with blogging?”

Stick with me for a second and let me explain….

The reason I want to encourage you to go shopping is twofold:

A. It’ll get you away from your blog for a bit - I was chatting with another blogger yesterday and we both admitted to each other that we’d been in our PJ’s all day blogging (it was 4pm for me) and needed to get out more - sad but true.

B. It’ll give you a chance to do some observation exercises that could help your - this is the main reason for today’s task and is based upon an experience that I had today at a local shopping centre (or ‘mall’ as many of you non Aussies would call it).

The Exercise:

1. Step away from the Computer (come on, you can do it)

2. Grab a notebook and pen (do you remember them? They are the things you used to use before your primary form of communication involved typing)

3. Head to your local shopping centre/mall/CBD shopping area (easier for some than others I realize - apologies to those in rural areas, this may or may not work in your local general store)

4. Once at the ‘mall’ take 30 minutes or so to go ‘wandering’ with no agenda (don’t do your groceries) except to ‘watch’ and ‘observe’ in some of the following ways:

• Who is there? Who are they with?
• What are they doing?
• What are they buying? What products are particularly in demand at the moment?
• How do they make their buying decisions?
• What are the retailers doing to get people’s attention and stand out?
• What messages are they using in their marketing?
• What colors/design techniques are in at the moment?
• What other things are ‘hot’ or in fashion?
• What sales techniques are sales staff using?
• What are retail outlets doing well? What are they doing poorly?

5. As you watch, make some notes. Don’t attempt to find any ‘lessons’ or try to tie it back to your blog yet.

6. Once you’ve spent half an hour or so on ‘observation mode’ find a spot to sit down (a food court perhaps) with a coffee and go over the things that you’ve noticed and see if there’s any lessons there that you might be able to apply to your blogging?

This process might seem a little random and pointless - but it’s something that I’ve done on numerous occassions over the last few years and each time that I’ve done it I’ve come away with at least one new idea that I want to apply in my blogging.

Some of the ideas have come directly from things I’ve seen retailers doing in their marketing (for example, today I saw a store using an attention grabbing technique that I want to try to apply to one of my blogs to draw readers eyes) - while others are more lessons about ‘people’ and how they operate and once or twice I’ve even seen illustrations to use for posts or even ideas for new blog post topics. Once I even spotted a trend that gave me an idea for a new blog.

If nothing else it’ll get you out of the house for a bit!

Blogging Tips: To have a Niche Focus with Your Blog or Not? Tips on Making the Decision

Blogging Tips

In this guest post Sherice Jacob from iElectrify and author of Get Niche Quick explores a question I get a lot - how should a blog be niche focused or not?

At one point or another, all bloggers have had to sit down and make a crucial decision with their blogs. Do you focus exclusively on one topic or do you cover several related subjects in an attempt to “cast the biggest net” and capture a larger share of visitors? Once you’ve decided - how will you profit from your new blog?

And as a side note, you can profit from your blog with more than just money. Added exposure, loyal readership and a greater marketing reach are just some of the many untapped “profits” that result from a popular blog. But deciding whether to “niche-ify” or expand is that one critical tipping point that influences your blog’s success more than any other.

Ultimately, your decision will likely reflect the amount of information on the subject, plus how much time (or not) you want to devote to it. Here are a few tips and insights to help make your decision easier.

To Niche or Not to Niche?

To successfully write a niche blog, you not only need an interest in the subject, but you need to come up with timely, detailed content about it that no one else has. Don’t be afraid to go deep into the subject - something that your competitors haven’t done because they either don’t know the answers or they’re afraid to do more than just skim the surface. Become known as the person who goes a little deeper, uncovers a little more and shares it with fellow fans and readers and you’ll reap an extremely loyal audience.

There is a downside to niche blogging, and that is the issue of “boxing yourself in”. Do you have enough to say about the subject to actually warrant a full-scale blog? Or will you run out of steam within the first few months? Sketch out possible titles and topics for articles if you have to - just to see how much time and effort you can devote to this blog.

Then there’s the question of serving ads or not. Consider your audience and their reasons for wanting to visit your site. Do you want to create more of a community around the topic or accentuate it with relevant, focused ads? Either way, you’ll need to prepare yourself to cultivate that niche blog until it thrives on its own.

One Blog, Many Topics

Having one blog cover several topics can be a great choice if you have the self-discipline to stick with it and give each topic its own space. My own blog (www.ielectrify.com) focuses on design and marketing tips - but each of these branches off into their own niches as well, such as copywriting, social marketing, email marketing and so on. A larger blog like this takes more time to develop and you may find yourself blogging for a year or more until you get a sizeable audience. That’s because there’s no defined topic. People who are interested in email marketing might not want to know about social networking, or people who are looking for copywriting tips might not care about adding audio or video to their site, but all of these sub-sections are necessary for the “big picture” of what it takes to have a successful design and high-converting content.

When It’s Good to Go Big

You’ll want to create a larger blog with broader categories if you have a subject that includes so many “pieces” to the overall puzzle that it’s impossible just to focus on one part alone. ProBlogger is a great example. Not only does it teach you how to make money with your blog, but you also find blogging tools, blog design details and freelancing/job posts as well - all conducive to helping you make a solid income as a blogger.

In the end, the decision to go with a niche blog or a larger content-focused blog depends largely on your goals for it and what you want out of it. Either choice has the potential to become a remarkable success as you continue to grow and develop it. Now get out there and start blogging!

Blogging Tips : 31 Blog Post Ideas For Small Businesses

Welcome to the inaugural post here at Mark-Hayward.com! If you know anything about me, either from my Twitter profile or my former site MyTropicalEscape, then you know I am very much pro-collaboration and in favor of using the power of social media and the internet as a tool that allows us to help each other. (I want to see us ALL succeed in 2009.)

As a small business owner in tough economic times, I thought it was time to assist others and provide information and inspiration for those in the world who either own a small enterprise, or for those who would like to take the next step and become an entrepreneur.

Truly, I want to give back and spread the knowledge that

I have gained over the past couple of years in terms of moving beyond fear (and actually owning a business) and also in online promotion for small business.

Sometimes we are too busy to do anything else but act as customer service manager, webmaster, and head toilet scrubber. Thus 31 Blog Post Ideas for Small Businesses is my first offering to what I hope will become a space for collaboration and creative growth.

When thinking about the thirty-one ideas, I wanted to avoid posts that are nothing more than simply spamming folks with “My Business is Great” style missives.

The real power of blogging is not the hard sell, but rather, to help connect you and your (potential) business customers on a more human level.

Moreover, I have found that the most successful blog posts allow the reader to learn something new and provide some type of value. I tried to remember that as I brainstormed these particular ideas.

So, as the New Year dawns, if you find yourself lacking in time to come up with creative ideas for blogging, below are 31 post ideas that should help to get you started.

(Please note: It was supposed to be 52 Blog Post Ideas for Businesses but my ferry arrived at its destination early and I ran out of time. :-) If you have an idea for a small business blog post please leave it in the comments below.)

1. What are you passionate about?
2. Have you done something unique such as complete a marathon, serve in the Peace Corps, veteran, etc?
3. How did you get started (securing financing, permits required, etc).
4. What allowed you to move beyond fear and pursue small business ownership?
5. What cause do you care about (refugees, stray animals, etc)? How has your business supported your favorite charity?
6. A day in the life of…your bookstore, shoe store, marketing firm.
7. What makes your business different or separates you?
8. Define your customer service philosophy.
9. Promote your competitors.
10. Photo or video walking tour of your business.
11. How is your business or service conducted in other cultures? Are there any differences between carpet cleaners in NYC and Afghanistan?
12. Interview your customers.
13. Monthly or weekly wrap up post about your biz.
14. Humorous post on horrific client.
15. Why you love doing what you do.
16. How does your business cope during a tough economy?
17. Monthly specials, promotions, or clearance items.
18. Feature any eco/enviro friendly products or infrastructure that you have.
19. Provide the most convenient methods to get to your business and perhaps list out any unique or historic landmarks around you.
20. Describe any improvements or upgrades you have made.
21. Comparison post – if you sell sneakers why are Nikes better than Adidas? Or why would a customer want a WordPress site as opposed to Flash?
22. Tutorial post that’s specific to your industry, which might be a common task for you but could really help the readers (e.g. programming an Iphone).
23. What do you do during your time off (shows you are human)?
24. Does your family have a family history in the business? For example, was your pizza place, marketing firm, or bike shop started by your great grandfather?
25. Highlight a special client.
26. When do new shipments arrive?
27. A helpful post or tutorial specifically for others in your industry.
28. Define the origins and shipping procedure of your product (How did that coffee get to your café? Where is it grown?)
29. How can I get into your line of business - - What type of training is required to be a web designer? Do you need certain skills to run a B&B?
30. What is your personal history and qualifications?
31. Why are you located where you are?

Please feel free to leave other blog post ideas in the comments! And if you like, join the growing list of folks by dropping your social media information into The Sandbox.

Blogging Tips : Discover Hundreds of Post Ideas for Your Blog with Mind Mapping

Today I want to extend that post (you knew I would) with a practical exercise that any blogger with a blog can do. It’s something that can take as little as 10 minutes (or that you could do more comprehensively) and something that I do on those days when I’m struggling to come up with something to write about (we all have them).

It’s an exercise in mind mapping - here’s what you do:

Get a whiteboard, piece of paper, note book, tablet pc or something else to write on (there are also various mind mapping tools and software options out there - but I find a pen and paper can work just fine) and draw five circles across the middle of the page. In each circle write the titles of the last five posts on your blog (if you want to do this more comprehensively go back further and do it with more posts).

Now take each post in turn and spend a few minutes brainstorming on ways that the post could be extended. For each idea draw a line out from the circle, draw a square (or use a different color) and write the idea inside of it.

Remember last post where I suggested how you could extend a post in numerous ways including by answering a question that a reader asked about it in comments, taking an opposite view point, writing an opinion piece, doing a followup ‘how to’ etc.

The key at this point is to let yourself be as creative and outside the box as you want. Any idea is allowed at this point.

Let me take a recent post of mine (why you should use AdSense on Your Blog) and show you how it might work:

At this point I’ve got 7 potential new posts to write that extend upon my original one - coming up with them took me 2-3 minutes - if I were doing this seriously I’d give it more time and come up with 20 or so posts.

These ideas are logical next steps for readers wanting to explore this topic - some of them based upon actual questions by readers. Do this with the other four posts you’ve written and you’ll have plenty of ideas for new posts to cover in the coming week or two.

You might want to stop this exercise at this point if you feel you’ve got enough topics to keep you going - however while you’re in a brainstorming frame of mind - why not take it a step further and think about how you might extend the topics you’ve come up with. The beauty of thinking forward even further is that you could quickly come up with a further 10 or so posts and be able to map out the next few weeks of blogging.

Lets do it now with the post above - just for fun (click to enlarge).

You can see that I found some posts easier to extend than others. This is OK as not every post is in need of a follow up one - while others will have multiple next steps (some will even have a longer series of posts that you could run).

You can take this exercise as far as you’d like into the future (you get the idea I’m sure so I won’t keep going).

You can see that I’ve come up with 15 ideas above (not bad for 5 minutes of brainstorming) - some of them for multiple posts (series and ongoing weekly columns). Do it with more than one post and you will find that you’ll often come up with more posts than you can actually use on your blog.

The key when you do it is to let your creativity run wild (because it can take you in some wonderful directions) but then to be ruthless in culling ideas that don’t actually add anything to your blog. Remember - everything that you post on your blog either adds to or takes away from your blog’s perceived value - so not everything that you come up with should make it through to the front page of your blog.