Blogging 101 - Where else to look for ideas - Part 1

BLOGGING TIPS – Where Else to look for Ideas – Part 1


By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting CC January 2012

So last week we had a look at just how easy it is to turn everyday experiences into ideas for articles.  Today I am going to give you some more examples of where to look for inspiration.

Using Celebrities & their Causes
We all have our favorite celebrities and many individuals avidly follow what their favorite celebrities are doing and getting up to.  Celebrities also often use their status to highlight their pet projects – pretty much like Angelina Jolie uses her name to advance her projects and her position as a UN Ambassador or Al Gore who highlights Global Warming.

Using my friend Jacques the gardener again, his ideal celebrity to use to promote his business “Grow your own food” to highlight how we can all feed ourselves as well as grow our own little sustainable food businesses, would be someone like Annie Lennox or Cameron Diaz or Leonardo de Caprio, who are all very outspoken about our carbon footprints and issues around hunger and the starving poor – all of which can be addressed in some way by growing our own food.

Sure Jacques would have to do a little research on the exact or specific areas of their passions and commitments, but with his commitment to sustainable and organic food growing, there would be a wealth of information on the issues that they stand for, that he would be equally as passionate about.

I can see the article right now starting with words that go something along the lines of  “Like Annie Lennox who strongly believes that no child should go to bed hungry – neither do I!  Growing your own food  and  . . . .”

Keeping a Journal
Now I know that keeping a journal can be a real pain in the rear end – especially if it is something that you have not done all your life.

Oprah Winfrey often talks about the “gratitude” journal that she keeps and how she writes down at least 3 things every day that she is grateful for.  So what about keeping a journal, either as a full journal about your business day or if that is too much, then say 3 things a day that you learnt, discovered, noticed, experienced etc. about your business?

In the case of my friend Jacques the gardener, this could be a full journal on the gardens that he works in and what works and what doesn’t (and yes all gardens are very different depending on the type of soil or how much sun they get etc.) or the project that he is involved with  and how they are progressing or evolving or it could be on the things that he researched on that day and how they could change whatever it is that he needed to do the research for.

I am sure that you can see that that would open up a huge amount of possibilities and inspire a great number of things to write about.

Next time we have a look at a few more options for inspiration.  Until then don’t forget to have fun with your writing.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za