BlogInspiration

What would you like to know about your readers?

2008-11-19T13:00:00Z

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.

What product shouldn't be so popular?

2008-11-18T13:00:00Z

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"?

Are you missing a gene, too?

2008-11-17T13:00:00Z

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)?

What's wrong with that product?

2008-11-16T13:00:00Z

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?

Can you judge a book by its cover?

2008-11-15T13:00:00Z

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?

Do they have a point?

2008-11-14T13:00:00Z

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.

What posts are you particularly proud of?

2008-11-13T13:00:00Z

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?

What's your prediction for the coming year?

2008-11-12T13:00:00Z

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?

What phrase do you overuse?

2008-11-11T13:00:00Z

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.

What would you like to let go of?

2008-11-10T13:00:00Z

I find that I tend to carry around a lot of useless regrets. I regret that I didn't say more to my grandfather the last time I saw him alive. I regret that I didn't visit my mother more in the last couple of years before she died. I regret letting a bunch of punks pressure me into insulting a girl I really liked back in high school. I often wonder how things might have turned out if I'd actually done the thing I regret not doing, or not done the thing I did and regretted. I know it would be healthier to let all these regrets go, but that's easier said than done for me. How about you? Is there some regret, something that happened to you, something you did, didn't do, etc., that you wish you could just let go of? What is it? How has holding onto it affected your life?

How do you get "centered"?

2008-11-10T03:53:23Z

Life, it seems, is always full of stress and struggle. September 2008 was an especially bad month for me. My mother died of melanoma. Two weeks later, I found out I had papillary carcinoma in my thyroid. I'm still getting my life back in order after that. When life gets so complicated and full of stress, it's easy to get "off center" and lose yourself for a while. I find that meditating, relaxing, and even blogging help me to calm down, relax, recognize what's important to me, and get my life back to a healthy "center" from one or another extreme. When you're all stressed out, how do you get "centered" again?

How to write a software review

2008-11-09T14:00:00Z

As someone who works with computers and software on a daily basis, I think I'm qualified to write software reviews for products I've worked with a while. In fact, I've done that several times. Lately I've wanted to not just review a product, but to actually do a semi-professional job of it. I spent tonight reading and analyzing dozens of software reviews by professional writers, from respectable sources like CNet, PC World, and the like. I also went through a few amateur reviews in case I missed something valuable.

Software Review Structure

I used a mind mapping tool to help me organize my thoughts and observations. In the end, I decided that my software reviews from this point on will follow the basic structure outlined below:

A "50-foot view" or very short overview of the review results
Description of the software (its purpose, functionality)
The installation process
The user interface
What the software is like to use
How it compares with other products
How it compares with previous versions of itself
What its documentation and tech support is like
How it's licensed and if demo/trial versions exist
What its technical specs are
What the specs are of the system you used to review the software
A conclusion summarizing the good and bad of the software

All of these parts aren't necessary for every software review you do. For example, if you're looking at a program that has no competitors and you're not familiar with its earlier versions, you wouldn't bother to include a comparison to other products or to earlier versions. Your goal will be to include as many sections as you can authoritatively speak to.

Detailed Software Review Structure

For each of the points in the basic structure, I've developed a list of questions to ask yourself (and details you may want to include) to make sure you cover that particular point thoroughly. Again, not all of these will apply to every review you will do. Think of them as a guideline where you can include what you think is relevant and useful given the package you're looking at, and leave out the stuff that's not applicable, useful, or worth the time to research.

Below is the "fully expanded upon" list of points in the basic review structure:

A "50-foot view" or very short overview of the review results
- This should be just a very short list of bullet points, no complete sentences, and with the minimum number of words necessary to share the information. Think of it as "If I had 15 seconds to tell someone about this software, what would I say to them?"
- What are the product's strengths, highlights, or best features?
- What are the product's weaknesses, problems, or frustrating details?
- In 2-3 sentences, what would you tell someone who wants to buy this product or one like it?
- This can include a 5-star or x-out-of-10 rating if you want it to
Description of the software (its purpose, functionality)
- What does it do?
- What features does it include?
The installation process
- How long does it take to install?
- Were there any problems installing it and getting it working?
- Does it have any copy protection?
- If there is copy protection, is it convenient or frustrating to work with?
- Does it uninstall cleanly if you decide to remove it?
The user interface
- Is it intuitive to use, or did you need to consult the help or manual?
- Can keyboard shortcuts, menus, etc., be customized to suit your needs?
- Does the interface look modern or "dated"?
What the software is like to use
- How long does it take to launch the software and make it usable?
- What file formats does it read and/or write?
- Is there anything you found annoying about using it?
- Is there anything you found especially fun or cool about using it?
- Are there plug-ins, extensions, themes, or other "add-ons" you can get for it?
- Did you find any security concerns (e.g., passwords stored in visible text form)?
- Are there ample keyboard shortcuts?
- Did you run into any glitches?
- Does it integrate well with other products?
- Is it easy to get patches/updates and install them?
- Is any kind of automation built-in (scripts, macros, etc.)?
- How long does it typically take you to do whatever it is the software does?
How it compares with other products
- Do they have features this product doesn't?
- Does it have features they don't?
- Is the other product easier, harder, or about the same to use?
- Is it more or less expensive than the other product?
- How do the other products technical requirements (CPU, RAM, etc.) compare?
- What's the other product's "footprint" (RAM, CPU, hard disk usage) in comparison?
- Is it faster or slower than the competitor?
How it compares with previous versions of itself
- What features have been added in this version?
- Have any features been taken away?
- Are any existing features harder to use now?
- Are any existing features easier to use now?
- How do the technical specifications compare with the old version?
- How does the user interface compare?
- Is it faster or slower than previous versions?
What its documentation and tech support is like
- Is the manual thorough?
- Is the manual easy to understand?
- Is tech support available?
- How do you access tech support?
- Is there an online knowledgebase on the manufacturer's web site?
- Were tech support staff professional, courteous, and helpful?
- How much support comes with the product, if any?
- Does there seem to be a big user community? (Search for web forums, newsgroups, or mailing lists where people share information about the software.)
How it's licensed and if demo/trial versions exist
- Is it commercial, shareware, or freeware?
- What are the license terms?
- Is a trial or demo version available? If so, what's missing from the trial/demo? How long does the trial/demo last?
- What does it cost to license?
- Who sells licenses to the software, and who develops it?
- Are there multiple variants (e.g., Basic, Advanced, and Pro versions)? If so, consider a table showing which features are in which variant to help readers identify which one they need.
What its technical specs are
- CPU required, recommended
- RAM required, recommended
- Hard disk space required, recommended
- Peripherals required, recommended
- Operating system(s) supported and versions supported (e.g., Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X 10.3 through 10.4)
- Does it need a network connection?
- Does it need anything else not specifically listed above?

What the specs are of the system you used to review the software
- CPU, RAM, hard disk, optical drive, video card, OS, etc.
- How did the review system compare to the recommended specs
A conclusion summarizing the good and bad of the software
- This should be about a paragraph or two long and summarizes the highlights of all the above points. It should finish with a recommendation (or not) for the software relative to what you get for the money, how well it does what it's supposed to do, and so forth.

If you manage to follow this basic structure, you'll write a review that's thorough, detailed, and useful. Your readers should find pretty much whatever they're looking for in that review.

The above structure probably would not work well for video games or hardware. It's oriented more toward application software and utilities. I'm planning to develop a separate structure for game reviews which I'll share at a later time.

What's your favorite blog?

2008-11-09T03:51:00Z

There are lots of blogs out there on the web. Some of them are pretty lame, while others are pretty amazing. What's your favorite blog? What about that blog keeps you coming back, day after day, to read it? Have you learned anything interesting from it? Do you recommend it to others? What do you wish the blogger did differently?

Writing Resources for Bloggers

2008-11-09T01:52:05Z

No matter how strong our command of language might be, there are times when we're searching for the right way to say something, questioning our use of a word or phrase, or finding ourselves in need of advice. Below are some resources I've used in the past:

Becoming an Idea Magnet
As the author puts it 'Ideas really are everywhere. The art is in training your mind to see the ideas and pull them in before your thoughts pass by them to make your mind into an idea magnet of sorts.'

Blogging Basics
This article from Technorati provides a sort of FAQ to the whole blogging concept for new and practicing bloggers alike.

EFF's Guide to Safe Blogging
This article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation provides some suggestions for keeping your blogging safe, avoiding getting fired for blogging, etc.

Finding and Writing Fresh Blog Content
This article from Performancing.com talks about how to find and write fresh content for your blog.

How to Write a Better Weblog
Writing suggestions to make for successful blogging.

Top 7 tips to write an effective business blog
This article provides the top 7 tips for writing an effective business blog from the folks at BlogWrite for CEOs.

What to write about (from Performancing.com)
This article talks about finding ideas to blog about.

Brainstorming for Bloggers - The Grid Method

2008-11-07T13:00:00Z

You probably don't write your blog just for the sake of writing. You're hoping that readers will come to your blog, read what you have to say, and appreciate it. One way to come up with ideas to blog about is to put yourself in the reader's shoes.

Most blog posts do one of the following (if not more than one):

Share information about a subject
Share a viewpoint
Challenge an assumption
Provide entertainment
Empower readers to do something
Compare and contrast two things
Speculate about something that might happen

If you're looking for ideas for articles to post on your blog, the "grid method" may help you. Start by making a grid on a piece of paper, or in a spreadsheet, or using whatever medium you're comfortable with. Down the left side of the grid, write the individual items in the bulleted list above. Across the top of the grid from left to right, write in the subject areas of your blog, or subject areas you might like to write about. Let's say that on your blog, you tend to talk about your pet cat, your computer, and food:

	Cats	Computers	Food
Share information
Share a viewpoint
Challenge an assumption
Entertain
Empower readers to do something

To complete the exercise, you just need to fill in the blocks with something that combines a topic from your blog with one of the common post types. The result might be something like this:

	Cats	Computers	Food
Share information	Things every new cat owner should know	How to select a good motherboard	How to make a delicious, tender pot roast
Share a viewpoint	Why cats make better pets than dogs	Why I prefer AMD CPUs to Intel CPUs	A review of "Good Eats" on the Food Network
Challenge an assumption	Some cats actually like water and getting wet	Generic memory is just as good as name-brand memory	More expensive cuts of steak aren't necessarily better
Entertain	How I drive my cats nuts with a laser pointer	101 things to do with useless old floppy disks	The humiliating night I sent back my gazpacho soup because it was cold
Empower readers to do something	How to teach your cat to use a toilet instead of a litter box	How to choose the right components and build a powerful PC for less	A step-by-step guide to making the perfect pumpkin pie

Just about that quickly, you've managed to come up with ideas for 15 blog posts. If you cover more topics on your blog or come up with more categories for blog posts than I did, you'll have a lot more ideas on your grid.