Getting It All Done Friday: Finding Inspiration in Blogging

In addition to my “Follow Friday” monthly posts, I will also be doing a “Getting It All Done Friday” post once a month which I will dedicate to helpful resources on internet.

This first post’s inspiration came to me due to several weeks of my missing the blogging antics of a certain Canadian blogger who had blogger’s block and just finally got her mojo back. (Blog stalking is fun isn’t it?) So at risk of my Canadian friend, Lana, thinking I am absolutely obsessed with her, let’s discuss finding inspiration when you are all blogged out.

We all get what I call “blogger’s block.” It is simply writer’s block for bloggers. So, what is a blogger to do when all that inspiration has dried out? The answer is “go to the internet!” I have found four helpful sites in my quest to not run out of blogging ideas so I do not lose any of my own blog stalkers. After all, what fun would I be talking to myself? (Thus, the reason I like comments. Just a note, when you comment, beware of my nonsensical rules.)

Without further ado, here are some bloggers who offer advice to help you to keep the writing ideas coming.

1) Blog Inspiration

Blog Inspiration was created with one sole purpose: “Helping bloggers find something to write about.” The author of this blog (who name I could not locate) was sitting in front of his or her computer a couple years ago while dealing with a case of “blogger’s block.” The idea juices just weren’t flowing and our blogger thought to himself: (or herself – I hope to identify our blogger friend through some investigation and will update this post when I do.) “Well, there are web sites for everything else I can think of. I’ll bet someone out there has a site full of blog ideas that I can browse through and borrow.” So our blogger hero did what any blogger would do in the same position; our hero enlisted the help of Google and came up with the most “lame” searches known to humanity. So our blogger hero then exclaimed: “We need a blog inspiration site!” Thus, Blog Inspiration was born.

If you visit the site, you will see that our blogger hero does not give advice on blogging. Instead, our hero shares with us specific blogging ideas and gives an opinion as to what could be written. Take a look at this March 22, 2009 post I have copied from the site:

What Was the First Book that Made you Laugh?
I read a lot when I was younger. In elementary school, I think I managed to read every science and science-fiction book in our library. But I also occasionally read fiction. One of my favorites as a kid was Judy Blume’s “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing “. I remember laughing uncontrollably at some of the things that happened in that book. Sadly, my step-children showed no interest in it when I bought a copy and gave it to them.

Anyway… how about you? What was the first book you ever read that made you laugh out loud? What was so funny about it? If you go back and read it today, do you still get a chuckle out of it?

Apparently, our blogger hero has been AWOL for several weeks now. Hopefully, our hero will be back soon for more adventures and ideas in the blogging. In the meantime, feel free to visit the previous blogging ideas posted at Blog Inspiration.

2) Lorelle on WordPress

Lorelle’s Goal: Helping you learn more about blogging and WordPress every day with help, tips, advice, and techniques for blogging and using WordPress and WordPress.com. The blogging help you need now.

Lorelle VanFossen is a public speaker, trainer, writer and consultant in web writing, web design and blogger and she is blogging expert on WordPress. (I pulled this information from her “Who is Lorelle” section). Lorelle also works as a professional photographer. On WordPress, Lorelle writes about “everything WordPress, blogging and social media, covering more than you may want to know about how all this blogging business and social stuff works.”

So for everything blogging, Lorelle on WordPress is the place to go. Just take a look at this excerpt from her most recent post titled: “Looking for Blogging Ideas?”

While it seems like installing and setting up your blog is the hardest part of the challenges associated with blogging, the reality is that coming up with new ideas is actually the hardest part of blogging. For a while, the ideas and words flow. You can barely keep up with them. But over time, energy and enthusiasm wanes and the ideas begin to dry up. So you go prowling the Internet to see what other people are saying and start linking to their good ideas. Still, the thrill wanes. What you need is a kick in the idea butt to get those brain functions jazzed and excited about various projects to blog about.

You will have to visit Lorelle on WordPress for the rest of this post.

3) How to Make My Blog

Are you a newbie to the blogging world or do you just need some tips to keep your blog interesting for your readers? How to Make My Blog was created by Marko Saric from London England who “writes articles on all things blogging.” Marko (yes, we are on a first name basis) helps bloggers with questions on setting up their blogs, themes, branding, blog promoting, search engine optimizing and marketing. He even has a video introduction in which he has not shaved nor had a hair cut in quite some time due to getting this entire wonderful blogging information site set up. (Ladies, the accent is to die for!)

My favorite post from Marko’s blog is titled: “13 blogging lessons learned from Stephen King’s On Writing”, which I have pulled the following selection from.

Stephen King’s book On Writing is a very good read. It is targeted towards writers and wanna-be writers, but it is a very inspiring book for anyone. As bloggers are writers, this book can teach you several lessons and can inspire you in your blogging. Here are the 13 lessons I have picked up from reading Stephen King’s On Writing.

To find out what those 13 lessons are, you will have to visit How to Make My Blog by Marko Saric.

4) I Help You, Blog

Four simple words by Philip Liu of New York City who is also the guy behind Citmove.com, a small website matching people looking for movers. Philip blogs all about entrepreneurship, web development and social networking. Take a look at his March 21, 2009 post titled: “101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle.” I have taken the first five of those ideas, but you will have to visit Philip’s page for more blogging inspiration.

1.Brainstorm by matching up your readers wants and needs using the Visitor Grid method of brainstorming.
2. Write a post by examining the pros and cons of an issue.
3. Write a tutorial.
4. Do an interview with key people in your niche.
5. Create a mock head-to-head competition like what Daniel did.

(Make sure you check out what Daniel did at his own blog. Daily Blog Tips is the place where he shares what he learned during his time developing blogs and websites.)

Here you go folks, some unsolicited/unwelcome/unwanted advice by Lana, the author of this blog, who loves to ramble all about being a working mother who is overworked, overwhelmed, underpaid and often underappreciated (at work only), who has fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, who loves her kids (and never stops) and the wide world of wrestling a.k.a. the WWE (Vince McMahon would be proud). Well, see ya next time folks.