Blogging Tips

Testing Those Blog Ideas

blogging If you’re like most blog writers, you have more ideas for blogs than you can possible use. Especially when your blog is personal and subjective, you find that ideas for that latest entry are everywhere.

The problem isn’t coming up with those ideas. The problem is deciding which of these fragmentary ideas to develop into full blown blogs that will keep readers coming back to your site again and again. That said, here are some great ways that you can test and develop these notions or discard them and start looking at new ones.

Write About That You Know

Now that’s fairly common advice that you might have heard associated with fiction before, but it apply to blogging too. It’s important to remember that not all blog ideas are ones that are right for you. Here’s an example of what I mean.

I don’t really care for horses. Now that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t enjoy reading a well written blog written by someone who really cares about those animals, but I’d have a hard time writing even one convincing post on the subject. It’s really simple. I could research a blog on the topic and write about it, but at the least the readers who love horses would be able to see those animals really aren’t my cup of tea.

Remember that many of the ideas that you get for blogging posts will be like that as well. They may be momentarily interesting, but they won’t be of great importance to you. When you write about what you know or at least care about, you’ll come across as all the more convincing.

Don’t Get Too Personal

Now right away I can hear the uproar of people who are saying that’s what blogging is all about. That you need to get personal and share at least something yourself or there won’t be any connection with the reader. Partly, those people are right. While a large part of effective blogging is certainly self expression, there should be an emphasis on communication the longer you write.

This all means you need to ask yourself if the idea that you’ve had for a story is too personal—if it means something to you but would more than likely bore a stranger that you were sitting beside on a bus. Remember that there are personal experiences that are too close and too emotional. They are the things that we have been through that are too delicate and haven’t really been digested yet. These things might be little too exotic as well. Something that matters intensely to you but will not matter to most other people.

Still that doesn’t mean that good detail should not have a place in your blog. Part of the job of coming up with good ideas for your blogs and being able to execute them is in being able to discern between the merely personal to you and the vivid images that you can share that are experiences you readers will be able to relate to.

Written by Rob Starr from Rob Starr
Posted on November 8th, 2009 and filed under Blogging
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8 Responses to “Testing Those Blog Ideas”

Author comments are in a darker gray color for you to easily identify the posts author in the comments

leone says:

November 9, 2009 at 1:38 am

great advise… I love posting things about my life but I write about them as reviews for events and such. I hate blogs that end up seeming like diaries.
- rob starr says:
  
  November 9, 2009 at 8:07 pm
  
  Thanks. We’ve all got lots in common. Good writing finds those things.
Web Templates says:

November 9, 2009 at 4:25 am

“Something that matters intensely to you but will not matter to most other people.”

I really need to keep this advice in mind whenever I am blogging.. I tend to get carried away when writing about my personal stories and experiences.. haha.

Good post, Rob!
- rob starr says:
  
  November 9, 2009 at 8:06 pm
  
  Thanks. I write fiction too and you need to really use only the common elements there to make things work.
Travel India says:

November 10, 2009 at 2:44 am

“I think testing is good idea for all blogging.We can test & cheak all good blogs in testing technic”.
Dustin says:

November 10, 2009 at 3:07 pm

I really agree with the not getting too personal idea, it helps to convey your personality but you have to cater your writing to your readers personalities.
krissy knox says:

November 11, 2009 at 1:10 am

Rob
I think this “don’t get too personal” thing is way too over rated! As a matter of fact, I read a couple of weeks ago, in the blog of a six figure problogger (he made well over $100,000 so I trust his opinion), that we should get personal. Not just write in a personal voice, but actually write about personal things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he said we should spill all our guts, or write a diary entry, but we should make our posts personal. I was taken aback, bc it seems every third post as of late seems to be titled “Don’t Get Personal” in your posts. The first time I read that I thought it was way over rated, and I still do. I believe on problogger said it, and many repeated him after that. I have seen so many write without a voice that posts have been totally dry. I’d also like to say that somebody may be interested in something personal in your life, when you are using as an illustration to make a point. I have seen many good blog posts set up this way. I am wondering why you or some others would think automatically that the average person wouldn’t be interested in what goes on in my or someone else’s daily life — if I were using it to set up a post? And please don’t say I’d only be interested in your life if you were using it to set up an example in a post, if you were a rockstar, or a star or something. That’s not true. I’d be interested in your life, if you were using it as an example to set up a post, no matter who you were, celebrity or no! I see a little more of the lives and personalities coming out in the probloggers I read: Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, David Risley, etc. I’m certainly not saying they write diary articles (gosh no!), but I love how they are willing to share their lives with us! It makes reading the rest of their blogs, full of tips for improving our blogs, all the more memorable. Ok, I’ve said enough. And yes, my blog reads too much like a diary, LOL. That’s the way I was instructed to do it when I first started almost 6 years ago. I have done some niche blogs however, and will do more soon. Thanks for letting me leave this comment!

krissy knox
connect w me on twitter:
http://twitter.com/iamkrissy
Ben Lumley says:

November 11, 2009 at 3:23 pm

I think the trick is staying within your niche. Sometimes its good for your readers to read something from you that’s a bit off topic but to try to talk knowledgeably about a subject you have no idea what you going on about it a bad thing.

It also depends on your blog. If its a personal blog the random stuff is good but a focussed blog needs to be just that. Focussed.

One finally thing to bear in mind with testing ideas is that you can think its great, publish it and then look back in 3 months and think “what the hell was I thinking”. Testing your ideas is sometimes for the best