Now that you’re all set up and ready to rock, it’s time to decide what you’re going to blog about.
Blogs need a focus. What’s yours going to be? Let’s take a look at some common blog themes:
- Photoblogs are almost entirely comprised of images and usually focus on a single theme — architecture, nature, etc.
- News or gossip blogs often make use of photos or videos found online, combined with amusing or newsworthy written content.
- Food blogs typically include recipes and step-by-step photos on how to cook food, with or without commentary
- Petblogs involve photos, videos and written content on the theme of pets
- Videoblogs or “vlogs” are typically video diaries, short films or videos curated from around the web
- Personal blogs can take many themes, but should focus on one element of your life — your family, your job, your beliefs, etc.
- The sky is the limit – be the proud pioneer of a new type of blog!
It might help to check out the most popular blogs on WordPress.com. See how focused they all are? That wasn’t accidental.
“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”Need more help? Try these exercises.
~John Muir
Brainstorm, Baby
First up, take your piece of paper or napkin and set a watch, phone or egg-timer for a sixty second countdown. Draw a stick figure in the center. That’s you. Say hi if you like. Now prepare to start the countdown and scribble down anything (really, anything) that comes to mind when you think of reasons why you’d like to have a blog. It could be “reach out,” “get rich” or just “avoid talking to Aunt Joan for four hours a week.” Ready? Go!
How did it go? Chances are you’ve unearthed a few broad ideas about what you might like to do with your blog. So now we’re going to drill down a little.
Next up, on a fresh page, napkin, tablet-device or whatever you’re using for this, draw a new mini-me in the center. Reset the timer to 60 seconds, and prepare to jot down the things that you’re passionate about.
Consider your obsessions, the things that get you out of bed in the morning, the things that keep you awake at night, and the websites, TV shows, magazines, or blogs you find yourself gravitating to time and time again. Start the timer and off you go!
Now you’re on fire. Hopefully it was hard for you to stop after the sixty seconds was up. That’s a good thing.
Now, time for a bit of Frankenstein action. On a third page draw another mini-me, and if you like give it a squared-off Boris Karloff head and bolts. This is optional.
This time you get 120 seconds. Treasure them, because this will be much harder.
The aim of the game is to take the words from your first page or napkin (you can cross them off as you transfer them if you like), and move them over to the new page or napkin. Then you’ll take the words from your second napkin and place them strategically around the first set. So you might have “family news bulletin” as a reason to blog, and “photography,” “eating out” and “travel” surrounding that word. Ditto for all of the remaining words, until they’re all gone. If all of that sounds confusing, here’s an example, fusing the results from the two pages above:
Make sense? OK, your 120 seconds starts…now!
Done?
Excellent. You now have the blueprint for several blogs. All you need to do now is apply some critical thinking to decide which one you’d most like to work on. It’s quite possible that you’ll be able to combine several of these together, but don’t feel pressured to do so – you can have as many blogs as you’d like to.
If you’re struggling to choose a blog topic, ask yourself a few questions about the information you have in front of you:
- Out of all of these loose descriptions of a blog, which one feels most like I could keep updating it for a week, a month or a year?
- Which group of words feels closest to my original reason for checking out WordPress.com in the first place?
- Do I already have a reputation among friends, family or colleagues for one of these broad areas? Do people often praise my knowledge, passion or skill in (insert topic)?
- What would my first three posts be about? Am I passionate enough about it to want to start writing right now?
A travel or food blog might lend itself to being a photoblog, a videoblog or series of well-written articles.
A blog about stamp collecting or vintage postcards will almost certainly have a strong visual element, with galleries and photos of your content. Whereas a blog about 19th Century novels will more than likely be a little more text-heavy.
Ask yourself what matches the content, what might appeal to your audience, and what you’d feel most comfortable working with. This will shape some of your future decisions, such as the design of the blog. Don’t worry if you aren’t sure at this stage, there’ll be plenty of time to figure it all out as you go along.
