 |
| Blog Machine (Photo credit: digitalrob70) |
Not Sure What to Blog About?
One of the more common reasons bloggers offer for not participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is, "I don't know what to write about." In fact that's a common complaint I hear about blogging period. Personally I find that to be a rather curious excuse when topics to blog about are all around us. Furthermore, if you have a theme in mind then the prompts for daily blogging can come even more easily if you let them flow.
With this post I begin a series which I'm calling Here's An Idea! I'll be offering some good suggestions that you might want to consider for the 2015 Challenge. If my ideas don't quite work for you then maybe my brainstorming might start sparking some other ideas in your own mind. Let's come up with some month long blogging themes!
People Love Lists
One thematic approach that I've seen used in past Challenges is a series of lists from A to Z. Lists can be favorites, worst, best, funniest, or most existential--or you name it. Possibilities are endless when picking the approach you can take with this idea.
Once you've decided on a general theme you can start the lists for each letter. If you start now you can keep adding to your list over the next several months leading up to next April. You can make the list as long or short as you like and expound upon it as much as you like.
Coming up with a list is fun and usually easy. When you get stumped you can always hit a search engine for other similar lists or ideas to inspire you. Starting early will give you plenty of opportunity to go back to add new items to your list.
An advantage to using lists on blog posts is that you can engage your audience more easily and stimulate their minds to interact with you. Everyone has their own opinions about what should be on a list. You can have fun creating yours and get the audience involved thinking about what would be on their own list. The list offers a great opportunity to ask questions that lead to comments and blog post sharing on social networking sites.
I used the list approach on my own blog Tossing It Out in 2013 when I offered examples of movies in various genres or with certain thematic ideas. For example, A for Auto Accidents in film, V for Venice in film, and Z for movies about Zoos. I had a great time coming up my lists and my readers seemed to be entertained as well.
Think for a few minutes about the list concept for April and I'll bet your mind will run rampant with great ideas. In fact you might want to start compiling your lists right now!
Focus on Favorites
Rather than a list you might want to focus on favorites. This can be anything, but it will work best when you are considering things about which you are passionate. Excellent fields of examination are favorite films, books, songs, places, or foods. Others have done these sorts of posts in past Challenges as well as in everyday blogging, but there's always room for your point of view.
And when you're dealing with favorites no one can say you're wrong. You can invite some debate if you like to get readers involved in discussion. Or you can ask your readers about their own favorites. Most people enjoy weighing in on a topic such as this if you've presented it the right way.
At my blog Tossing It Out I'm currently doing a series about preferences and why people like what they like. In this series I'm talking about some of my favorites or what might be considered "the best". What I'm doing in my current series could easily be expanded into a month long A to Z theme. Who knows? Maybe I will go with this as a theme! No reason why you couldn't do something similar as well.
Most of us like to tell others about discoveries that grab our attention and things that we like. This is a fun and easy topic that adapts itself so well to Blogging from A to Z. Take a minute and give this some thought: What are your favorite (fill in your own topic) and then start listing them. You'll probably start coming up with so many that you could fill Aprils for years to come.
Please take a look at my current series to see what you could do with something like this. While you're there don't forget to answer my questions and leave your answers in the comment section. The first post of the series is The Greatest Story Ever Written? and I'm still looking for opinions on this. I hope you'll weigh in with your own. Other posts in my series are about "Favorite Types of Music" and "Favorite Movie"(coming on Wednesday June 4th). You can find and follow this series at Tossing It Out.
Some brainstorming now might even help you with your everyday blogging if you are one of those who gets stumped for ideas at times. The ideas are out there and they're easy to find. Just start making a list!
Do you ever find yourself unsure what to write about on your blog? Do you enjoy reading through lists? What kinds of lists have you used on your own blog?
