Ever have times when you just can't come up with a topic for your blog or you screech to a sudden halt with writer's block? As an appraiser, I know I have several interruptions throughout the day that prevent me from finishing a post. But, I think I've found a way to help in these situations, at least for me.
Use the Draft option under Visibilitywhen posting to your blog. This is a great feature that I, and I'm sure others, have been under utilizing. This saves the blog post for your eyes only.
What I've done using this feature is start several posts that I couldn't finish for one reason or another, and I've created some posts that are just possible topics on which to blog. Now I can come back whenever to finish a post or start working on a new post about one of the possible topics. It's a great way to go if you get writer's block.
My favorite tool is a draft post I have called "blog ideas" -- you might call it "free writing" or something similar. Use this post for your blog ideas. Create a list of topics, start on some ideas, enter links to other posts that have inspired an idea, etc. Use this post as the nerve center for your blog. Come back to this post whenever you want to work on an idea. If you have an idea that is beginning to look like a "real" post, copy it and paste it as a new post. Use this "blog ideas" post as a generator for your blog...pick a topic from your topic list and start putting together some ideas for that topic.
In my "blog ideas" post, I built a list of topics in an outline format like below:
Topic list
This is great if you don't have time to create a post, but you just had a great idea you'd like to work on. Pop into your blog and add it to your "blog ideas" post. I like using the blog for this information because you can access it from any internet-connected computer.
This really helps with my productivity and blogging. I hope it helps you too. If you use other tools for this, please share.
;)
;)
