This guest post is by Ryan Shell of Fashables.
If you’re a long-time blogger, you, at some point, have inevitably looked at a blank document on a computer screen and thought to yourself, “I have no idea what I’m going to write about.”
And if you’ve never been a blogger, it’s likely you haven’t even fathomed the idea of, you know, sharing your thoughts with all of “those” people on the internet, let alone knowing what to write about.
What to write about
This is a topic I’ve addressed with a number of individuals during the past few months, and imagine it will continue to come up time and time again.
When the “What do I write about?” question comes up, I quickly start brainstorming and, within minutes, can develop a number of topics for the individual to write about.
My method isn’t rocket science.
It’s also not some wildly colorful secret that you’ve not been told.
It is one thing though, and I’d like to share it with you.
Common sense
Everyone’s an “expert” about something. What we fail to do is realize that what is easy and common sense to Person X (you) may not be common sense to Person Y.
What happens is that people inventory the knowledge floating around in their brain and eventually—due to their expertise—think, “that’s nothing special” or “everyone already knows that.” And that’s a big mistake.
I recently built a website for someone and the following exchange happened via text message.
Her: “Is my site mobile phone friendly?”
Me: “Yes. Very.”
Her: “Cool! How did you do that?”
What immediately came to mind after seeing her question was, “It really isn’t that big a deal. I simply customized a mobile responsive WordPress theme.” When I look at that short thought through a different lens, I can quickly see two blog posts develop: one about the importance of creating a mobile friendly website, and another that discusses mobile responsive WordPress themes and how they easily make mobile friendly websites.
That simple exchange, followed by what came to mind for me, is a great example of how we constantly take knowledge and our life experiences for granted.
What’s simple for you very well may not be simple for someone else.
Ryan Shell is the Senior Manager, Online Communications for a global communications firm. He is also the founder of the fashion blogFashables and recently created a t-shirt line, The Home T, that helps raise money for multiple sclerosis research. He can also be found online at RyanShell.com.
