Can you really write a quality blog post in 15 minutes? Yes, but that should just be your time actually writing the post, and not the time doing the research and preparing to write. I don’t want to mislead anyone here. If you are writing about a topic that you don’t know much about it could takes a couple hours just doing research. But a quick 15 minute article should be written about what you know, what you enjoy, what you are passionate about.
The part of writing an article that can take the longest is doing research. This is why I recommend making it a habit of doing research on a regular basis. This way, when it is time to start writing you already have a head full of information. But you can’t be expected to remember everything you read, so always do research with an eager mind and a ready pen. Write down any stats, thoughts, and figures that you think might be useful. read more
We all have it. The email inbox reaches 1,000 unread messages like some virtual red flashing light indicator of procrastination. You’ve got 600 tweets to read and 45 DMs to respond to. Your WordPress blog is still version 2.5 and your WordPress Theme only works with WordPress 2.1. The To Do pile on your desk resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You’ve got Netflix movies stacked upon Blockbuster videos past due to return. And your blog is begging for a blog post.
As mentioned in the last article in Nothing to Blog About, not every idea is worth publishing. Not every blog post is publishable. Not every blog post should see the light of the public eye. And sometimes that type of blog post is stopping us from producing blog content.
I can’t tell you the many hours I’ve spent struggling over a blog post, determined it had value and needed to be published. I’d beat at it, thrash it, rip and tear it apart, only to decide it wasn’t ready, nor was I, to have this ever be published.
Has this happened to you? A blog post you want to publish sits in your drafts or stares at you from your blog screen screaming, “NO! NOT YET!”
If people judged me by the number of ideas I generated in single day on the subject of WordPress and blogging, I’d be the Einstein of the blogosphere. If they took a peek into the all the various files, folders, virtual and physical, I have to store all of those ideas, they’d pack me up and send me to the mental institution.
I come up with ideas for things to blog about constantly, rarely running out of ideas. The problem is that few of these see the light of day, or I get so caught up in the ideas, I can’t get past the idea to the Publish button.
As part of this series called Nothing to Blog About, we’re talking about how to stir up your mental pot when the bloggy brain bogs down and content cannot be found. From among the various options suggested already, I’d like to resurrect the traditional idea file. read more
In the last article in this new series called Nothing to Blog About, I asked you to go back to your roots, in a sense, to start over and find that “lovin’ feeling” you’ve lost about your blog subject matter to re-energize your creative blogging spirit.
What happens if you can’t find it? What happens if you’ve really lost that lovin’ feeling? read more
In this new series called Nothing to Blog About, we’re looking at the various ways your blogging creativity can be temporarily dried up and plugged up, and how to break the dam. Today, my recommendation is to go back to your roots.
Go Back to the Beginning
I know all there is to know about blogging, right? I’ve been doing this longer than most people, in fact, before some tweeters and bloggers were even born (that’s a scary thought!). I’ve been through all the various blog struggles and hoops there are to blog through. I’ve survived all the names changes from website to online journal to weblog to blogging to microblogging and the belief that social media is a new concept. I’ve had my content stolen, been accused of stealing other people’s content, abused by trolls and comment spammers, survived changes in web technology and many upgrades, and lived to blog on another day. So I’ve been there, done it all, haven’t I?
Have I? What I’ve done is forgotten what is was like to start blogging. To be the new kid on the bloggy block. read more
That’s right. Leave. Get out of here. If you got nothing to say to the world through your blog, leave, quit, stop. Get away from your desk, your computer, your office, your home, your life. Go away.
Not forever, just long enough to clear your head and mind and find your creative juices again.
As part of this new series called Nothing to Blog About, we’re looking at the various ways your blogging creativity can be temporarily dried up and plugged up, and how to break the dam. My first recommendation is for you to leave your blog for a vacation. read more
I’ve been at this blogging thing since before 1994 and faced many a time staring at my computer with dread. Not again. Honestly. Ain’t nothing left to say. It’s all been said before. And I said it. Tank’s empty. It’s boring. I’m bored.
A blog calls to you, begs you to feed it. Your readers want your words, and the need must be fed. What do you do when you can’t think of anything of value to add other than what you ate for lunch?
A couple years ago, when blogging was still in its infancy, a post title like this was fairly common, along with titles such as: read more
Driving home last night, I was listening to On the Media radio show on NPR. They were reading their Letters section with corrections to some of their past stories.
After they’d reported on the most recent corrections, they summarized that section of the show by saying:
We’ll do our part to keep screwing up to give you something to write about.
I’m sure they heard my laughter all the way to their studios.
Honestly, I can’t say when I’ve heard a better description of blogging.
Ah, a day in the life of a blogger and computer geek. It began with an attack from two ten year old emil viruses and ended with the star blog of the article I was working on disappearing.
Blogging can be easy and fun, but if you do it for a living, it has its ups and downs, good days and bad. In my ongoing series on Lorelle on WordPress called “Blog Struggles,” I share some of the hardships associated with blogging, from the early days to present. Today, it was a bad day. Two weeks of research down the drain.
I’ve been working for two long hard weeks on an article about an open source program with the focus on an excellent community fan blog. Just before hitting the Publish button, I visited the site to verify some information.
The site I’d visited so often in the past ten days greeted me with a big white page and a note that the site had been “discontinued” without further explanation or link to an alternate resource.
Can you really write a quality blog post in 15 minutes? Yes, but that should just be your time actually writing the post, and not the time doing the research and preparing to write. I don’t want to mislead anyone here. If you are writing about a topic that you don’t know much about it could takes a couple hours just doing research. But a quick 15 minute article should be written about what you know, what you enjoy, what you are passionate about.
