Last night I met one of my blogger CEO friends at a Communitech function. I won't identify him because I do not want to embarrass him. His CEO blog is not current. No entries in the past month. His excuse - he was too busy. When is a CEO not busy?
It got me thinking of how to keep people inspired to keep their blog current. Here are my "9 ways to keep inspired to blog"
1 - Keep a file of blog ideas. As I come across things that might be of blog interest, I clip them and add them to my file. I have a physical file an electronic one.
2 - Get a few blog entries "in the can". Sometimes I feel creative and the blog entries just flow. In these times, it is easy to write an extra entry. Then when I post it, there is usually only a few minutes of polish to make it right.
3 - Book reports are an easy way to create a post for me. I am going to read anyways so may as well do a short summary and comment on the books I read. I usually post my review on Amazon as well so this brings a bit of added traffic to the blog.
4 - Borrow a complete entry from someone else who has a good entry. I follow a few blogs and can easily use technorati to search for blogs that might have appropriate entries I can use. Of course I ask for permission but no one ever says no. I do the same thing with articles.
5 - Use a guest blogger. I have not done this but am sure many people would be willing to do a few entries if asked. This is a great way to cover if you are on a vacation.
6 - Just start to write anything. I find usually this gets the juices flowing and soon I have an entry.
7 - Use and comment on a quotation. There are lots of sites with quotations out there. Just choose one that resonates and post it with some comment.
8 - Entries do not have to be books. Short is fine. I like to limit my time for a post to less than 20 minutes. Readers do not like them much longer and it makes blogging justifiable in my mind.
9 - Just Do It (Nike - feel free to sue for trademark infringement but know that I have a lot of runner friends)
Hi Jim, Some great tips there, I think I pretty do almost all of those anyway and you're right...it' doesn't take effort, it takes commitment. I think a lot of people get disheartened when they don't get many hits in the early stages.
ReplyDeleteI love number 9 though, that made me chuckle! :D
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if CEOs chop wood or wash dishes, but those "mindless,mindful" tasks often generate creative thought for me.
Do you come up with flashes of brillance when you run? Or does the running produce that beautiful relaxing empty plain? I love it when you suddenly realize you aren't thinking, but just going,flowing,being.