Here’s a little experiment for your blog… Imagine that you’re no longer you, but one of your friends. Then, describe yourself as you think that person sees you.  Then, without sharing what you’ve written, ask some of your friends to describe you to someone else.  How does the image you have of yourself match up with their image of you?

Create a survey or poll of the readers of your blog. Ask them some questions you’d like answers to, such as “What kind of article would you like to see more of on my site?” or “How often do you read my blog?” Use either the built-in capabilities of your blog software to administer the poll or make use of a free survey or poll site, such as one of the following:

Free Surveys Online
Free Online Surveys
Feedback Server
Survey PopUps
SurveyMonkey

If the thought of learning one of those bothers you, just share an email address and do the survey by email, compiling your results by hand.

Run your survey/poll for a week or a month, then report on what you learned.

Pick a product or service that seems popular, such as the Apple iPhone.  Do a bit of research on that “popular” item and tell your readers why you think it shouldn’t enjoy the popularity it does.  Is it poorly made? Does it not work well? Is it too expensive, too heavy, too ugly, or lacking in some critical feature?  What about the product should make it “unpopular”?

If you look at the other male members of my family, then at me, you’d probably conclude that I somehow missed some gene that they all got.  My dad and his brothers are all sports fans, hunters, and fishermen.  I, on the other hand, could care less about sports, don’t hunt, and rarely fish because I don’t like to eat fish.  One could argue that I’m missing a gene that’s otherwise common in my family.  How about you?  Are you the “black sheep”?  Is it someone else in your family?  Without being mean, what’s different about that person, or you?  Do you think it’s genetic, or was it brought about by something external (like a bad experience as a child)?

Pick an advertisement that resonates with you. Maybe it’s one that annoys you.  Maybe you like the ad, but hate the product.  Maybe both the ad and the product are stupid.  Whatever inspires you about that ad is fine.  Now, create an image using a tool like PhotoShop, the GIMP, or just pen on paper, and parody the product or advertisement. Share the parody in your blog.  Are others agreeing with you?

Go to your neighborhood library or book store.  Select a book that you would like to read and take it home (make sure you check it out or pay for it first!).  Before you read anything inside the book, describe what you think about the book.  If it’s a reference book, what do you hope to learn from it. If it’s a work of fiction, how do you think the story might go? Will you enjoy reading it? Will you be inclined to read more by that offer? What drew you to this particular book?

Then, actually read the book and describe the book again.  Did you judge the book well, based on its cover?  Were you misled by the cover? If so, how?  What did you learn from the exercise?

Take a famous quotation, or for that matter any quotation, and tell your readers why the person being quoted either does or doesn’t have a point.  Just to make it easy, here are some links to popular quotation sites on the web:

The Quotations Page
Quoteland
BrainyQuote
Wisdom Quotes
The Quote Garden

If you don’t like those quotes, find a quote on a news site like CNN in a news story and refute what the person is saying, or provide evidence backing them up if you happen to agree.

On my blog, back before the release of The DaVinci Code movie, Google was doing a contest involving a number of puzzles.  Each day, a new puzzle came out, and you tried to solve it.  I decided to post the answers on my blog, and was amazed at all the traffic I got from it. I was getting tens of thousands of hits a day as people came by to check it out.  I remember being very proud of those articles and solutions.  (I even won one of the minor prizes.)  How about you? Are there some posts on your blog that you’re particularly proud of, or that seem to bring a lot of traffic to your site?  What are they? What makes you proud of them?

One of the blogs I write covers a technology topic.  Each January, I like to publish a list of my predictions for the coming year.  For example, what technologies or devices might come out, what ones aren’t going to make it, how a recently-introduced product will or won’t do well, or what might happen with a famous court case in the industry.  The nice thing about this blog topic is that you get to revisit in a year for an easy second article.  If your predictions tend to be on target, you may develop a following.  So, in your fields of interest or expertise, what predictions can you make for the coming year?

I have some verbal habits that annoy me about myself.  One of the ones that annoys me most is that I have a habit of calling my step-children “man”, as in “Hey man, how are you doing?” or “Thanks, man.”  They’ve even poked fun at me for it, and at their mom for adopting the habit from me (I think).  I wish I could drop the word out of my regular vocabulary, but it always seems to creep back in.  How about you?  Is there some word or phrase you use that you wish you could stop using so much? What is it? Where did you pick it up? Do people comment on it? Did you ever get picked on for it?  Blog about it.