This is post 3 on a mini series on combatting Blog Apathy
• Redesign – I always find a fresh coat of paint can really lift a room, a haircut can improve a mood and a blog redesign can get the creative juices flowing again. Tweak it, adapt it or completely redesign it – either way you might just inject a little more energy into something that’s grown tired and find that you’ve got more energy for your blogging.
• Write Posts Ahead of Time – this won’t help you now if you’re in apathy mode – but if you’re not and currently have some energy consider writing a few extra posts that are non time specific to keep for a rainy/apathetic day. When you’re inspired write more so that when you’re not you don’t have to.
• Keep an Idea Journal – this is similar to the previous point but just involves keeping a list of possible post ideas you could write on at a later uninspired point in time. It might include just titles of posts or even a few points that you could write about. I’m constantly jotting down ideas for posts or series and even new blogs all day everyday. Take your journal with you everywhere you go so that if inspiration strikes you can capture it.
do you use any technology for your Idea Journal? Or is it just a paper?
I have had several ideas but lost the most while driving my car…
I would like to find a way to collect my ideas with a reminder/popup feature. Do you know a software or webservice for that?
regards,
Markus
Yes, my blog is quite new and unestablished, and therefore has little or no actual readership. People pop in, read… maybe click an ad or two, but there’s very little interaction. This, I think, is probably when apathy could be strongest. Resist, and keep on posting! The readers will come. It is the classic struggle of man against himself. You must win! Uhh… the you that is trying to write a decent blog, not the other you. LOL
One of my blogs has just started to take off a bit, and it’s really cool when people start to leave comments now and then. But it takes awhile to get there sometimes and you simply have to perservere.
Hey, Darren… just a thought… could one of the 31 days to a better blog be about getting started and what sorts of things newbies are likely to run into and need to do? Or… heck, that’s probably a whole other month! LOL. A lot of the things I’ve learned here at your site have been helpful, but I am finding that in the early stages of my blog, many are not really practical yet. It would be interesting to see sort of a generic road map to getting a new blog off the ground.
I use a combination of paper and backpackit.
I e-mail myself what I want to remember or write it on paper..depends on where I am. :)
@Darren: I will take a look on backpackit.
@David: I put myself in the spam mailer list after doing this over some times.
BTW: I’m living in Germany and we have now 03:54am. And I wrote 7 posts in the last 24h to my soccer blog… Just a remark ;)
Many of us have a general notion that everything we write should be completely original. Hitting that wall where you realize you’ve made all your major points can be a real “uh-oh” moment. What will you write about, now? I never feel apathetic about my blog, but I get fatigued from keeping it current.
The blog solution is: restate your major points, only better this time, and link back to ones you did before. This reinforces your message, increases your page views, and allow you to show your readers when you’re spot-on or when you make mistakes. You get to reinforce your authority when confirming you’re correct, and you get to show people you’re trustworthy and honest when you correct yourself because you want your readership to have the straight facts.
The idea journal is indeed a good thing. I’ve done that for my blogs, not necessarily out of apathy, but because I tend to forget an idea if I don’t note it down immediately. Writing it down on paper or sending myself an e-mail are only a few means among many—or starting draft posts directly, if I have the time.
Michael M: that’s a very good tip. Thanks
[…] let me know about it so I can link up. Read the rest of this series of post at: Part II Part III Part IV Part V
[…]
Yeah. The idea journal works. I keep everything in voodoo pad which seems to work. If you’re not on a mac just use a wiki.
Very strange I posted on an earlier apathy article about my blog having a redesign and the effects that had on myself. Increasing my motivation and bringing back my creative flows.
I also have to back your point about keeping a journal I have in the past used a pen and paper to keep title ideas which in turn create the article but now I tend to save them as drafts in wordpress and add a couple of sentences explaining what I shall address.