The Hardest Part About Blogging: Coming Up With Something Interesting to Say

by Tom Johnson on Dec 19, 2007
categories: blogging • technical-writing

I'm going to be presenting on blogging within the next several months, and without a doubt, the hardest part about blogging is not the technical aspect. The hardest part is writing interesting posts.

Here's a technique I find works well. Start with the premise that every day, some new thought will strike you as being intriguing. When that moment occurs, write a descriptive word on your hand.

Later that evening, type a couple of paragraphs explaining your thought. Usually as you write, more thoughts come.

Now that you've trained your brain to be aware of these subtle moments of insight during the day, you'll experience them more frequently. The trick is to keep posting often. Remember, blogs are basically thought journals. Let the journal sit too long, and you start thinking that you have to have a monumental epiphany to start writing.

Other Blogging News

While I'm on the topic of blogging, today I read a great quote by Guy Kawasaki. He says,

A blog is written by someone with nothing to say, writing for someone with nothing to do.

I'm sure he's saying this tongue-in-cheek, because in a previous interview with Brian Oberkirch, he said he wanted to spend his time with only three things: his family, hockey, and his blog. Plus he has an extremely popular blog.

Blogs are also moving up in importance for Google, who will be including blogs in its Universal Search results. Read the story here.