Even though you are super excited about the subjects that you are blogging on, you will find yourself out of ideas after certain point. I guess, that’s what happened to some of my colleagues, who started blogging with me as a part of one of our MBA class, and quit blogging after few months. Though I have continued blogging from past 3 years, the path was not that easy. On various occasions, I found myself without any major ideas to blog about, and thought of stopping to blog altogether. The issue I was having was ….. I was unable to come up with new content every time. My life is not that boring, but I work a full time job and normally interact with the same people for the same kind of work. Thus, it became challenging to find out different content for my blog. And hence, through this blog I am going to provide you with my experience on how I overcame that situation, and how I was able to find out different content for my blog.
Keep learning: The most simplest way to keep learning is through reading. By reading different experiences and mistakes of other people, you can avoid doing the same mistakes that they have done in the past. Let’s assume, if you read an article and don’t find anything interesting to blog about, then don’t be discouraged. Now, this is the extra knowledge that you have, which you can use it anywhere. Opportunities are endless. But yeah! If you are seriously looking to expand your blog, then you might want to read the blog related materials. For example: If I were to have a photography blog, I would subscribe to different photography magazines, blogs, books, etc., and I might read photography related materials online as well. Let’s say, you are not that of a big reader, then its ok too. In this world of multimedia, you can find interesting stuff related to your blog on YouTube, Vimeo, TED Talks, etc. Yeah! You might need to develop a habit to watch these videos regularly to come up with new content, but you don’t have anything to loose here. The only thing to gain is the knowledge.
Observe yourself: Though this is a very simplistic approach, it’s very difficult to understand. Let me explain. Few years back, I also thought that my life was boring. I was meeting the same people, and doing the same work. I had a 8-5 job, and I was happy. But it didn’t give me much content to write about. Thus, I had to depend highly on my readings, which took me a long time, since English is not my first language. But few years back, I started looking myself from an outsider’s perspective. I go home every day, and analyze my recent achievements, and how did I achieve them. Boom! With this idea in mind, I always found myself new content. From interacting with people to leading my team, I was full of content without realizing it. This approach didn’t just gave me new ideas on how I can increase my number of blogs, but it also gave me a different perspective on my work, and how I can improve what I was doing. Sometimes, it takes us self-analysis before we can look at the same problem with a different angle.
Provide advice: As my blog became popular, and I got some reader base, lot of people started instant messaging me for advice. If you already have a blog, then you know what I mean. People asked me all sort of things from how I would resolve their situation to how they disagree with my opinion on a given blog post. Though I liked having that discussion with them, I was not utilizing those discussions to the fullest. And I quickly realized that…..if I turn these communications in to a blog post, then I will not only answer my reader’s questions, but it will be out there for everyone to read instead of just few people whom I was communicating personally. And within few weeks, it became a big success. I got few guest posts on my blog, and I was able to share some of the ideas, which I gathered from my discussions with these people. By providing advice to people through your blogs, you will not only answer their questions, but you will also get a reader base, which is interested in your specific subject.
So, next time when you think about giving up blogging, please go through these ideas. I hope, you learn from this blog, and don’t stop sharing your knowledge. By the way, do you have any other ideas through which you have found new content for your blogs? If so, please share it with me here.
Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi
Keep your recommendations updated: Do not just wait for someone to write you a recommendation. If someone (for example a friend, colleague, professor, customer, or client) praises you for your recent work or assignment, you might ask this person: “Would you write me a short note restating that so I can include it in my resume or LinkedIn Profile?” The chances are….. they will be happy to do so and they might even like your initiative to keep your profile updated. If they reply that they’d like to write you a note but are very busy right now, you can offer to do a draft of the note, which they can edit, put on their stationery, and sign. In this way, you are not becoming a burden on them and still getting your things done.
Update your resume as you go: In addition to asking for recommendations, you can also add to the items in your Resume by creating them. Let’s say, you are in the same job from last 2-3 years, but your responsibilities keep on changing. In this case, you want to make sure that you keep a note of all of your job responsibilities somewhere. I would recommend you to keep your resume located somewhere on the cloud using something like ‘Windows Live’ or ‘Google Docs’. In this way, when your job responsibilities changes or you take on more tasks, you can go ahead and update your resume right away.
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