Blogging 101 – Where to look for Ideas

 Blogging 101 – Where to look for Ideas

By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd 

I know that I seem to be harping on about this, but every day I encounter people who seem quite keen to start a blog, but who have no idea what to write about.

It is sometimes extremely frustrating for me when this happens because as I talk to them and ascertain exactly what they do and what their passion is, it is abundantly clear that they have a huge amount of knowledge on their subject or speciality and that there is a copious amount of material that they could write about.  Even “everyday” things that occur could become a source of inspiration.

Whilst we were on holiday over one Christmas period, my friend Jacques and I were taking photos.  We took photos of everything that moved (and many things that didn’t) and I jokingly said to Jacques “we should start a blog on Things I Saw Today or Things I Did Today!”  The look that he gave me clearly stated that I had lost the plot – again!  I had a good laugh, you see Jacques is a gardener.  He works with many communities, showing them how to grow their own food and then how to turn the surplus into sustainable income and I realized that he was thinking how a photo of a clump of bobbing seaweed (being what we saw that day) could be turned into an article that would have any impact on the work that he does.

So I started to ask the questions (and happily I did know the answers because the tour guide had told us):

q. What does the bobbing seaweed tell us?

a. That there is no perlemoen (abalone) in the area because that is what they feed on – the poachers have harvested everything.

q. So would you harvest the seaweed?

a. Yes I would if I had, or wanted to start a perlemoen farm.

q. So what would the benefits be of starting a perlemoen farm?

a. Well it would replenish the stocks that have been depleted through poaching and it is a healthy organic source of food and if properly managed is extremely sustainable and  . . . . 

All of that because of a clump of seaweed bobbing in the ocean – a whole bunch of stuff to write about (not to mention a whole host of opportunities for someone)!

We all have these kinds of experiences during our day – things that we see encounters with people who we deal with and people who tell us their stories.  Each and every one of them has the propensity to become a blog article that highlights something in our businesses.  We just have to be open to the possibilities.

Personally, I think that the biggest challenge that most people think they have, when they want to write a blog, is the “how to write” it and not the “what to write”!  As always my advice here is – write it exactly the way you would if you were telling someone the story as if you were engaged in a discussion with someone and you were telling them what happened.

So now – who thinks that they don’t have anything to put into a blog?

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za