If you have yet to start a blog or have been blogging for awhile, read this book. First, there are tons of resources. Tons. Whether the basics of where to host a blog to advertising to etiquette, there’s something you can use and will want to implement after you finish reading. I know I did, and more than once.

I also really enjoyed the interviews throughout the book. Not only did they provide insight about blogging, but gave me a blog to check out and get ideas from. Even though each one was different topics and way different from my blog, it’s helpful to get inspiration from those.

Plus Joy is a great writer and the book flows so easily. With the advice and wisdom of a well known blogger, the book is encouraging and as I mentioned, so helpful, so be sure to grab a copy! Although I just found out that since it’s so popular, it’s currently on back order.

Blog Inc., by Joy Cho

Lists

Coming up with fresh ideas is as simple as starting a list. While working for a law firm, we had to come up with 50 unique titles for a series of informative articles. After about 35 topics, things get a little hard, but consider this. Fifty blog posts could mean weekly updates for your site for the whole year. Not so bad, eh? Make sure to look at the comments that your blog is getting. Reader questions are a great jumping off point. If someone is asking, others are bound to be wondering too. You could also check out your competition and look for news topics related to your industry or client base. As you come up with topics, you may even see a potential blog series. That is pure gold.

Then what?

When you create a long list of potential titles, some will be better than others. If your title sounds too iffy or obscure, just cross it off the list. There will be plenty of other ideas. Just start narrowing it down. You don’t need to come up with a year’s worth of blog posts at one time. That would be way too daunting, even for us! Just try to come up with eight or 10 solid topics.

Create a Spreadsheet

Start a spreadsheet that outlines topics for the next two months. List any major events relevant to your business, seasonal sales or promotions, and think of relevant evergreen or seasonal topics that will keep your site current. Creating just four blog topics for each month is a great schedule to stick to. Looking a month or two ahead is a good way to make sure that you stay current without getting bogged down.

Schedule Your Posts

Once you have ideas and fresh content, it’s time to post it. We really like the schedule a post feature that WordPress has. It’s an easy way to give yourself some breathing room. We’ve found that staying a few weeks ahead is the best way to make sure that your website stays fresh. If you’re committed to posting every Wednesday but don’t have an article when hump day rolls around, it’s not going to get done.

So, we hope that you find these tips useful. You can also check out our blogging schedule template, which can be downloaded from Google Drive Do you have tips for generating new blog topics or sticking to a regular schedule?

1 Books, Magazines and Newspapers Are Your Best Friend

- Open up a magazine to a random page and tell yourself ‘I need to find inspiration from the page I look at’ look at the page until you find a word or image that captures your attention and then think of how you could apply it to that blog post you need to write.

- Read, Read and Read. Staying up to date with not only the latest trends but politics, world events, local events, people, places and things will be a great source of inspiration. Read through your local newspaper or on the net (though I think newspapers are more fun!).

- Grab a novel, a pretty coffee table book or even a book you have no interest in and read some of it – not only will you learn something new, enjoy a great story, feast your eyes on pretty pictures, or if its a really awful book learn what not to do. Think about what you can take away from this book and apply it.

2 Mind Map Your Brain

- You need a piece of paper, pen (or pencil or quill what ever floats your boat) and a dictionary for this one. Open up the dictionary to a random page and the first word you look at write down in the centre of the piece of paper and draw a circle around it. draw a line of to the next word or thing you think of that reminds you of that word and keep going for a good couple of minutes until you have a plethora of words scrawled all over your page. You’re sure to find inspiration from at least something you wrote down (or a bit of a laugh if its a really inappropriate or odd word you had to start off with).

- Write in the centre of your page what you need to find inspiration for. then draw lines of from to other things you have thought of so far – see if you can expand them further or take it to crazy ideas that you think won’t work or you’ve done in the past – you may find that the perfect idea will evolve.

3 Mood boards, Mood Books and Pinterest 

Collect pictures of pretty things you love, a style that’s inspired you or even pictures of funny cats. You can just stick to pictures but including colours, colour schemes, textures, trinkets, texts, quotes and anything else you can pin or put into a book will give you a great visual of things that you can take inspiration from. You can pin them on a board, to your Pinterest account or put them in a scrapbook or folder!

4 People Watch

Put yourself in their shoes, imagines what shoes they would have, try to guess their hobbies, wonder where they have traveled before, look at their outfit, guess what they ate for lunch, what do you think would be on their Ipod, what do you think inspires them? these are just a handful of questions and ideas you can use to spur off thoughts and ideas that you can apply  to your lack of inspiration!

5 Do the Exact Opposite of What I’ve Said

Or you can let the idea and inspiration come to you and just wait until something catches your eye or clicks in your mind, it will feel like it was fate!

I am considering adding a daily Diary letter link to my other blog on a page so people who are interested in my daily musings can check in once in a while and see what I am up to. I will try it on my very next day off (looks to be Tuesday this coming week) and see how it gets received. I use to belong to a photo a day challenge whereby you take a photo of yourself daily. I am considering making one as a page on here also..but pause at appearing narcissistic. I want to interact with my readers but really don’t want them thinking I am in love with my own face. There is so much I want to do with this blog and I am only just considering other things beyond my poetry. Please comment if you have any suggestions or if you like one of the suggestions already made.

Hugs all,

Bekki

Carve out a distinct segment and decide a catchy title that captures the essence of your diary. Keep in mind that a diary, like your garments, is associate extension of you. for many individuals.

Decide However Usually You’re Getting to Post

Some claim that posting a minimum of once on a daily basis is best. Some conjointly say that 3 fast posts on a daily basis are way more effective than one long post each 3 days. Nevertheless others still claim that, after they update a diary each alternative day, they get a lot of readers than once change 2 or 3 entries during a single day. Write whenever you would like – it is the content that matters!  No matter you are doing, keep in mind that, for many bloggers, it’s all concerning reading, and lots of of them would favor quality over amount. Once you start, you will find that you simply attract a definite audience, and you will got to alter however you’re employed your journal to appease and keep the readers you’ve got obtained.

 Look Round the Net for Blogs that Folks Like to Browse

Leave a note that truly has one thing to try to to with their website in order that they grasp you truly took the time to listen to the fabric announce. don’t expect something back reciprocally. simply commenting can cause others to be a lot of doubtless to go to your diary and do constant. Often, after you build comments to sites, a link to your own personal website can already be enclosed along with your comment, unless you’re posting from one hosting website to subsequent.

 Don’t  Repeat Yourself 

Also, don’t keep writing identical factor over and over and over. In different words, say one thing once instead of many times. as a result of once you repeat yourself or keep writing identical factor, your readers head to sleep.

Swing Time and Energy into Your Web-blog

Always bear in mind that once you square measure making a web-blog post, place time and energy into it. Your readers are able to tell if you’re simply writing to fill your quota for the day or if you truly Saturday down and thought things out before writing out your web -blog post. Keep connected along with your readers by being descriptive, talking on to them, and by adding in quotes and statistics whenever you get the prospect to try and do therefore. In doing therefore,  your readers square measure certain to keep engaged and dependable to your web-blog.

Dont Use Yelling or any Nasty Words

Words that are shouting often create bad impact on reader, they dont prefer to read blogs that are vulgar, defamatory, inaccurate, harassing, hateful, threatening, invading of others privacy, sexually oriented, or violates any laws. Always be clear,helfpul and be soft spoken to your audience . You need to use innocuous language , dont be slandering. Please remember to use courtesy when posting, refrain from personal attacks and do not use profane or obscene language. Your posts will be read by thousands of people and will be archived for years to come.

Divide and Make Policies

Divide your written material into 3 processes: content written material, structure written material, and descriptive linguistics written material. Being additional specific whereas written material can assist you specialize in specific grammatical errors. Again, take it slow.
-Edit content. Review your article keeping an eye fixed out for sections that do not be. explore for unfinished paragraphs and fragments. when characteristic them, work towards fixing the errors.
-Edit structure. Write your articles during a means that the reader are going to be ready to follow your content. Structure your content victimization bullets or daring headers.
-Edit descriptive linguistics. Lastly, edit grammatical errors. Try to use good writing software’s that helps you to write good blogs and delcisious content. If you dont have good content then you cant have good audience to browse your blog.

So I won’t claim that this is an original idea because I have seen a few people try (and even succeed!) at this sort of thing before, but I think it would be fun and challenging. I am thinking of doing an “A book a day” type of deal for 2013. I would try and mix up what I would post each day to keep it as interesting as possible, reviews, mini-reviews, insane-fandomness, maybe some gif-filled posts, who knows! I don’t know that I would necessarily read one book each day in 2013 (though I’m not ruling it out), but with work that could be difficult, so I would focus on definitely reading 7 books a week in order to keep up a good pace. There is no theme or genre type for the books I’d be reading considering the amount is too large to effectively do so, and some novellas would be acceptable so that I’m not trying to essentially read 400+ pages a day and generating bags under the bags of my eyes. o.o

I would be reading both new and old books as well, and many would be in eBook form since my eBook collection is so massive which would help with not having to buy a TON of books just to do this or raid libraries. If any of you think this is a cool, fun idea that you would be interested in me trying, and that could be fun to watch me go crazy doing, than please leave a comment and let me know! I am more than willing to give this a shot, but some positive response to the idea would be greatly appreciated. ^.^

Also, this would not necessarily mean I would stop doing any other kinds of posts. I may participate in memes again (especially Stacking the Shelves & Sunday Post), post about bookish/bloggy goodness such as with readathons to join, and any other random stuff that strikes my fancy (hey randomness IS in the name of the blog after all). I hope that you think this is interesting and not boring or overdone and would like to see how the journey will go for me next year if I do indeed confirm I’m doing so. Thanks!

Sometimes you run out of ideas or you’re just too lazy to type. But then, there are times when you feel like no one is reading your blog post anyway so why write, right? Wrong.

Blogging is a dedication. It’s not a gift nor a talent. It’s a skill. It develops through time with perseverance, inspiration, hard work and not giving up. But how do you spice up your blogging life when you’re in the rut? Here are some tips I based on my personal experience.

1. Join blog challenges. There are plenty of blog challenges you can join. Blog challenges keep you on your toes and it helps your readers understand and know you more. It also helps in keeping your blog updated.

2. Daily Prompts. WordPress has a daily prompts section that you can join. There are plenty of topic suggestions to write about each day and it helps in keeping your blog updated and your posts interesting and different from the usual write ups that you post.

3. Be part of link parties and blog hops. Link parties and blog hops help in widening your blog network. You get to meet new bloggers, find new tips and learn new things. This helps not only in meeting new friends but chances are, you’ll also get new followers or readers.

Since link parties and blog hops are usually themed, it challenges you to come up with a good article that you can submit for these blog hops and link parties to entice your readers.

4. Reviews. Reviews are rampant in the blogging world. From product reviews to outfit reviews and book reviews, the blogging world has it all. So if you’re running out of blog post ideas why not try writing a review of your favorite book, product, movie or fashion blogger. Reviews helps your reader know about what you prefer and what you do not like. Reviews also open opportunities of collaborations.

5. Be part of photo challenges. If you’re a fan of photography, why not join a photo challenge? This will give you new ideas for photography themes and subjects and you can also write an article about the photo that you took. This will also help you gain new visitors and readers who are photography enthusiasts.

Kik : MarieUnique12

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Facebook : Marie Jeanne Simeon

TALK TO ME BABIES !

Back when I first began blogging several years ago I would write, on average, two blogs per day, but of course, like many things in life, this was mostly the result of being excited about starting something new, as well as having a 20-year backlog of stories and thoughts to write about. After my first few months of writing I began to taper off a little bit since around that time I moved to Florida and was no longer unemployed with most of my day free to write.

At first I tried to keep up the same rate of publishing, but soon after moving the demands of my new job, as well as the number of ideas that popped into my head on a daily basis beginning to slow, and I was forced to except the fact that publishing 1 blog a day was enough. I remember the first time that I went back-to-back days without a publishing a blog was when I went on a trip with my parents and brother to New Orleans back in early April of 2010, which was about 7 or 8 months after I first started blogging.

I knew that it would be tough while on vacation to publish a blog, but I figured that in the airport or late at night after the rest of the family had gone to sleep that I’d have enough time to at least crank out one. Unfortunately my plan was immediately foiled and my obsessive compulsive, loves to have a game plan and stick to his routine, self, was unable to write anything during our 3-day trip because my laptop’s hard drive died about 5-minutes after I first arrived at the hotel.

I remember after arriving back home I literally wrote about 5 blogs in one sitting because I had such a backlog of ideas in my head, and was also very uncomfortable with the fact that I hadn’t published a blog in so long. Even though it had only been 3-days the fact that I had gone from publishing 2 blogs per day to not even writing 1 for 3-days straight made me feel uneasy and scared that I wasn’t going to keep blogging much longer. Obviously I was eventually able to adjust to the fact that, particularly during the college basketball season, I am not going to have as much time to write, and as a result may only get to publish a blog every few days.

I have been comfortable with my recent output of 10-12 blogs per month and publishing one, usually, every 2-4 days, but after having so little time to write during this past month I am once again having to deal with anxiety over my blogging production. The rational side of me knows that I need to chill out since my lack of writing time last month coincided with the start of the college basketball season and a particularly heavy travel month for the team, but pushing that sensible thought toward the back of my mind is the feeling that my blogging days are winding down.

Of course I know that there will probably never be another time when I publish a blog every day, let alone 2, but I would like to think that this month I will get back to writing as much as I was prior to the season starting. In past seasons it was often difficult with my work and travel schedule to find time to write, but when push came to shove I always found time and wrote blogs in sprite of my schedule. In the end it is my hope that this past month was just an anomaly, and that in the future I will be able to revert back to my normal routine for writing because there are too many stories I want to tell, and thoughts I’d like to share, for me to publish a few occasional blogs each month.

• 50 Ideas to Immediately Combat Writers Block

• Creative Writing Prompts  (hover your mouse over any number and a box with prompt inside displays).

A whole slew of Generators from The Writer’s Den:

• Plot Generator

• Exercise Generator

• Plot Twist Generator

• First Line Generator  and more

• From Writer’s Digest Creative Writing Prompts

• 50 Ways for Writers to find Article Ideas

BONUS:

Where Do Writers Find Their Ideas?
Ten authors answer the question, ‘Where do your ideas come from?’

Sample:”My standard answer is “I don’t know where they come from, but I know where they come to, they come to my desk.” If I’m not there, they go away again, so you’ve got to sit and think” – Philip Pullman, English writer

Where do Ideas Come From – Rod Serling

From Poets and Writers E-newsletter

In somewhat related and extremely disturbing news, a right-wing politician in Hungary has encouraged the government to draw up “a list of Jews,” according to Reuters.

Also: Did you know there was a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo? They are apparently backed by Rwanda, and last week they took the city of Goma. There are many interesting opinions on the excellent site AllAfrica.com, including this one, which is critical of the UN’s ineffectiveness:

What is the United Nations doing in DRC if it cannot defend a small African city like Goma, women and children?

UPDATE, 11/29/12: Here’s another story about what’s going on in Goma.

I had a conversation with Anna today that made it even clearer how incredibly similar we are. She had a date last night, and for once the kid didn’t have an eyebrow ring or a jail record. He showed up in business pants and a bmw, and needed to be in bed at 10 to wake up at 6. She said “It was just so FUNNY! I was on a date with a GROWN UP”. It reminded me of how I felt this past Saturday. My friend/neighbor Kate had a dinner party. A real dinner party. Complete with candle abras, wine, world issues and people I don’t know. Grown ups. I sat there and felt like I was having an out of body experience. I had a wonderful time and they were truly interesting and good people, but its these things, these experiences, that really hit the reality hard that I am actually an adult, despite how I feel. And I’m constantly looking down on my body from above, wide eyed and open mouthed, “this is so FUNNY! Where am I?!” Just like Anna did. I wore cut off shorts and a tribal shirt and a tie dye cardigan.

But I’m coming to realize that being an adult and being young can be the same thing. I am youth and I am age at the same time and instead of feeling inadequate for that, I’m embracing it. Because its beautiful. Because more people are this way than I previously thought, even grown ups. Its not holding on to childishness, its holding on to youth, despite how old you are. We, as children, are conditioned to believe these ridiculous standards of adulthood and what life will be like when we grow up. What its supposed to be. And I think that, for me at least, I felt like a failure for not living up to what I thought I was supposed to be like at this age. The spectrum needs to be broadened. Yeah, I don’t have an empty sink or a clean bedroom, but I’m a good mom and I have my own business. I’m my own spirit, and that’s all I truly want for my girls as they get older. To love their own skin. I am letting go of what I’d want listed in my obituary. Whats printed in newspaper ink isn’t living. My Gerad has really taught me this. Adventure is anywhere you make it. Living is squeezing every bit of pulp out of the moment that you can, no matter where you are or what you are doing.

“let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”

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Ok Art Talk. I dyed my hair blonde. It makes me feel like I’m sunshine. My wonderful friend and hair dresser felt creative and styled my hair in 20′s finger curls and with my already red pout, I looked like I just stepped out of Boardwalk Empire. I went home intent on doing a self portrait series to depict this but looking through the lens in my sun room, I saw the naked trees, the zebra print rug, and the sun bursting in, flushing everything in a pinkish white bath of light. I thought of this one photo of Marilyn. She’s wrapped in white, a soft sadness in her eyes, and bathed in the same pink light. So my 20s shoot turned into a more late 50s, early 60s feel. I took off my clothes, wrapped myself in as much white as I could, and sat in that light. I positioned the camera at a somewhat voyeuristic angle. Like someone was spying on a private moment. And I was so happy with how they came out. I really love taking self portraits. Its not because I’m vain. Its because sometimes its hard to explain fully to someone else your vision in your head. Sometimes its easier to achieve it by yourself.

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PS, I’m thinking of starting a blog documenting the last year in my 20s and completing the bucket list. It would be separate from this. I think the idea needs more development, but could go in a really interesting direction. Thoughts?