What to blog about?

[scott7saunders]

Hi Guys,

I am a complete newbie to the world of blogging and its something that has always appealed to me, the art of being able to turn an idea or a comment no matter how big or small into a well written & interesting piece of text that captivates the masses and grows from there....

its nice isnt it ? well the problem is that I sit down at my laptop, load up Windows live writer 2011 and click on the "new post" button only to then stare blankly at the screen and realise that I don't have a clue what to write about...how bad is that?

There are a few things that are definitely needed as far as my creative juices are concerned. Firstly, where do I get an idea from or what to I write about ? the randomness of that question is massive however it does genuinely feel like my mind empties as soon as the start a project is there..

Secondly, the use of the phrase "I" is something that needs cutting down, even now as this short entry is written the use of "I" is monitors and in some cases, re-written to remove it from my sentences. This method of self censoring can turn what may have been a great piece of text, into something that ends up getting my so frustrated that its eventually deleted and I storm away in a huff.

So now help is needed and the blog forums seems the place to find it, can anyone offer me some advise on how I start, what to do about my obvious OCD or way to reduce the use of "I"?

People - please help me?

Cheers

Scott

[ChickenFreak]

I once read advice that you have to blog for sixty days before you know what to blog about. I consider it good advice.

So I say, just write. Don't worry _yet_ about whether it's all that interesting to the reader--for now, you just want to get comfortable with writing something that may be read by others. You could, as one example, write about your difficulty in finding something to write about. You could write about why you started your blog, or about your thoughts about blogging. You could write about the last book you read or movie you saw. You could grumble about that great restaurant that closed, or praise the great one that just opened. Write about anything.

Looking at my own blog, I see that my first posts were about:

- Fried chicken. I opinionated about it, lamented that you can no longer get decent fried chicken in restaurants, and offered my recipe.
- Perfume. (I'd been reading other people's perfume blogs for months, so the format of a perfume post was easy.)
- Specific garden plants.
- Perfume, perfume, and more perfume.

and it went on from there. I've posted about gardening, books, movies, food, rants and grumbles, fashion, and so on. I ended up making my primary blog a perfume blog, and my miscellaneous other rambling moved to another blog.

To give you some structure, how about an "...of the day" or "...of the week" post? I started a "scent of the day" almost immediately, so that gave me a built in subject.

But I'd say that the main thing is to just start and don't worry about whether you're brilliant at the beginning. Get in the blogging habit, learn what you enjoy writing about, pick up a few readers (which may take longer than you expect; don't get discouraged) and see how things develop from there.

Edited to add: When my mind is a complete and utter blank, I sometimes go to Wikimedia Commons, which is where I get the pictures for my posts, and just click on "random picture" until something inspires a thought.

Edited again: Oh. I missed the "how do I reduce the 'I's?" question. This is another thing that I'd advise not worrying about at first. A blog is _supposed_ to be an individual's voice; you don't want to make it formal and distant. And while you also don't want to make it too utterly self-focused, I think that you're better off focusing on developing a regular blogging habit than worrying too much about specific style issues.

[scott7saunders]

I actually took your advise here and create a blog site about nothing in particular, its just a place where my thoughts, feeling and general ramblings can be thrown down for all the world to see....providing anyone is bothered..:-)

The site will also be used as a testing bed to try out new styles, content and other good stuff so that I can try and find the format that best fits my style..

Lets just jump right in :-)

[ChickenFreak]

Yay! To me, that's the most authentic kind of blog. Which is not to say that blogs with specific topics are a bad thing, but I think that a blog is most importantly about self-expression.

[nullifygirls]

yes, I agree with you and I think blog is a micro website and provide big benefits.

[loriblogs51]

I'm having the same problem waiting and waiting for my insiders sponsors to give me some work since my blog is all about the video reviews and written reviews I do for products and books I like I have to wait for work to do . I belong to 23 different insiders groups including Vogue and clinique but they are all silent and have no promos going so I'm having bloggers block lol

[barbrine]

Well, first, you need a topic or a niche for your blog. Then, write news, reviews or summaries about your topic, enough?

[AgentHomes]

Have a place where you can record ideas that you want to blog about. It could be as low tech as a note book you care around or as high tech as some Iphone app.

When you get a good idea just jot it down and if you ever get bloggers block refer to your notes and you should have a topic in no time.

[macman]

Focus on a unique concept and then build upon it by adding relevant content.