Jun 13, 2008 | blog
I’ve fallen into the trap again. Allowing myself to loose focus on getting things done around here and writing for my blog. The last couple weeks of May and the first week of June allowed me to get a lot done around here and start laying groundwork for moving forward.
This week I blew it. I let work get in between myself and my goals. Sure, getting paying work is an important part in attaining those goals. However, it really smarts when a person let’s it completely absorb all your time. I did that this week, and have little to show for it but inspiration for the weekend.
No, I don’t have grand ideas to make up for lost time, instead I’m simply picking up my plans that I think I left in the front seat of the car under an empty soda can and a bag of stale chips. Oh, never mind about that 😉
Honestly, I find it funny how easy it is to repeat past mistakes and not realize you’re doing it until you can look back over time and see where you missed a step. There are many steps still ahead, so I’ll just keep walking down the path I’ve chosen. See you this weekend!
Rick
Jun 8, 2008 | happiness
Lazy days watching the river, listening to the wind, and writing.
Jun 1, 2008 | blog
One of the toughest things for bloggers starting out is staying on topic. The free-form aspect of blogging, of having a public soapbox of sorts is the desire to start talking about just about anything that comes to mind. Actually, I’ll contradict myself here for a minute and say that doing just that is good for bloggers, and should be done before you pick a blogging genre to dive into. Heck, you can find my first three blogging attempts here, here & here.
Once you find a topic or genre you are passionate about, it’s really important to remain true to that area of interest. There is a wide range of things to write about in your genre, so you shouldn’t need to try to combine two disparate topics. Trying to write about bicycling and fudge making for example just wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
It’s also hard to find topic ideas that consistently cover new areas or explore more detail on a regular basis. That is the more difficult part of blogging. Finding the topics that don’t seem to be repeating previous ones or feeling that you’re writing to too low an interest level. It’s easy to second guess yourself and simply not write because of it. That seems to be a common affliction too many bloggers, even one’s that have been blogging for awhile. 😉
A tip to combat that problem is to simply sit down for an hour, even 30 minutes, and brainstorm on things you want to talk about related to you topic. Do it once a month and reduce it to a reasonable number to accomplish in 30 days for your schedule and genre. One of the tools that I’ve recently been introduced to is mind mapping. There are many online and software-based tools to accomplish this, but it can easily be done with pen & paper to great affect for the needs of most bloggers. Starting with a central topic or theme, you can quickly map out interconnected ideas and develop an outline of topics very quickly. Highly recommended.
Since there are many different perspectives on this, I’m interested in yours, what would you add to this?
Photo credit: gaurang
Apr 26, 2008 | blog
I’ve been blogging for awhile now, but have been hesitant about publishing a number of posts here on my personal blog. Originally, I had included many more technology oriented posts, and blogging-related items. Lately, however, I’ve been more aligned with the “social media” and “personal branding” topics.
I’ve also had two other blogs that I have let slide in to near abandonment, for all the same reasons that almost all other early blogs are neglected. Too much work, too little time, and too many plans that weren’t thought out all the way.
I’m not announcing any new rejuvenation of these blogs, or of grand plans for them. The have, however, been on my mind again. Not in the original way of “if I can just get enough traffic…”, rather I’m now more interested in using them in different ways to express my ideas. To have different places to write different thoughts and concepts.
With the upcoming trip to SOBCon08, I’ve been again thinking of how best to utilize the platforms that are available to me. One blog was supposed to be focused on Snowmobiling (Snowmoblog), but is still a great place to talk about all sorts of things outdoors… and who says it has to be winter-oriented all year long? The other blog grew out of my passion for mobile technology (The Mobile Lifestyle), and would be a great place to talk no so much about gadgets as leveraging mobile technology to enrich life, actually “unwire” more often and so on.
So I’ve got some thought running around in my head. I’d like to be able to express things that don’t seem to fit on this blog. I’d like to do more with those sites than simply letting them sit there collecting virtual dust. Not sure what that’ll be, just kind of talking out loud about them.
Photo credit: rocket ship
Apr 25, 2008 | happiness
Starting the day with a determination to write something interesting.
