Human Rights: An Endless Source of Inspiration

Have you ever read The Universal Declaration of Human Rights? If you haven’t, it’s never too late for it.

Those 30 articles are an endless source of inspiration for any content producer, no matter the niche/industry/speciality. Here are some examples:

  1. Do you write about books or movies? You can create a new section on your site/blog, containing special reviews where you’ll not only analyse the pieces’ artistic merits, but also their compliance (or lack thereof) to human rights.
  2. Article 23 is perfect for sites on business, entrepreneurship, jobs and careers. Article 24 must be taken into consideration as well. Article 4 applies to more extreme cases, but I’ve managed to use it at Human Rights – Article 4.
  3. To create fictional pieces, look at Article 20’s 2nd item. What if your characters were forced to belong to an association? What’s this association about and why don’t they want to be part of it? Who forced them into joining it? This could generate novels, short films/videos, comics…
  4. If you moderate a forum about education, Article 26 can be a great object of debate, especially because of its 3rd item. In many countries, parents choices are limited by laws that restrict homeschooling, use of religious symbols etc. How do your forum’s members feel about it?

It took me only a few minutes to come up with the ideas above, and the list could go on and on. Now it’s your turn: read The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and let it stimulate your creativity. Of course, results will be even better if your creations help raise awareness on human rights.

By the way, this post is meant to show that I do support human rights. I’m blogging about this topic today because it’s Human Rights Day. But make no mistake: everyday is a good day to support this cause.

A note to Twitter users: please add the hashtag #HRD to your tweets on Human Rights Day. Thank you!

World AIDS Day – Content Producers Must Take Action

Did you know December 1st is World AIDS Day? Well, now you certainly do. ;)

Today I won’t try to offer you original content creation ideas. Instead, I’ll simply ask you to participate of the collective efforts to spread the word on AIDS related topics.

Please, don’t let this date pass unnoticed. You don’t have to do anything complex nor sophisticated—unless you can and want, of course. However, in case you don’t have much time and/or ideas, don’t let these little issues discourage you. All you have to do is produce a simple piece of content showing that you support AIDS related causes, such as:

  • The fight against AIDS discrimination
  • AIDS prevention (differences between effective and non-effective methods)
  • Raising awareness on AIDS transmission/symptoms/treatment
  • The AIDS crisis in Africa
  • AIDS charities
  • AIDS orphans

You can use any type of content, including but not limited to:

  • Blog posts
  • Site articles
  • Visual arts (drawing, painting, digital art, photography, photo manipulation…)
  • Short videos
  • Podcasts
  • Webcomics
  • Microblogging (at Twitter you should use the tag #WAD08)

Looking for AIDS related resources?

  • Bloggers Unite could be your starting point (mainly for U.S. residents).
  • As always, Wikipedia is your friend. You’d better read the AIDS Wikipedia page written in your country’s language, so you can increase you chances of finding information and links that are truly relevant to your nation.
  • For a more global approach, go to World AIDS Campaign, which is available in several languages.

Thank you for taking action on World AIDS Day. :)

Random Post:
Describe Your Mission Statement

This is a last-minute call: Iain Hamp from the Outstanding Club is organising a Group Writing Contest about personal mission statements. The deadline is April 30th, 2008. There are going to be prizes for the two winners. *hint, hint*

I won’t submit an entry to this group writing project because this is too personal for my taste. The idea is wonderful, but I don’t like writing about myself (not when personal matters are involved anyway). Still, I strongly recommend that you try to participate if you have the time. The topic is very, very inspiring. Read Iain’s own mission statement to see an example of a well-structured piece inspired by the contest’s topic.

I will write more on this subject in the future, suggesting several ways to turn mission statements into sources of inspiration for your content. Subscribe to Abaminds to make sure that you won’t miss that article.

Group Writing Project: Your Best Personal Excellence Tip

Last yeat I took part in a group writing project about lists, which was organised at Litemind by fellow Brazilian blogger Luciano Passuello. I can honestly say that taking part at that project only brought me good things. This is why I’m happy to tell you Luciano had another great idea: a group writing project on best personal excellence tips.

You do not have to own a blog or site to participate. All you have to do is subscribe to Litemind’s newsletter. After you do it, you’ll receive instructions on how to submit your tip. Hurry up, because the deadline for all entries is November 27th, 2008 (-12 GMT).

Almost forgot to mention it: there will be $800 in prizes for the best tips. Hopefully, this little detail will give you additional motivation to take part in this group writing project. ;)

What Are Your Goals? You Can Use Them To Create Content

Before you think that I’m telling you to set content creation goals and stick to them, let me say that this isn’t what I’m writing about. I’m not going to give you any goal setting tips. There are many writers out there discussing this topic and you probably know some of them already. Do you try to follow their advice? Do you like setting goals (even if you fail to accomplish them afterwards)? If you do, then this article may give you some ideas. And if you don’t, it’s never too late to start; perhaps this post will make you want to try it.

So, let’s assume that you have some (or several) goals.They may be personal, professional, artistic… it doesn’t matter much. Nor does it matter if you’re on your way to reach them or not. What I propose is that you think about your goals and see them as sources of inspiration to create new content for your blog or site.

Suggestions on how to take inspiration from your goals

1. Many people find it difficult to pick a niche to write about. Even when they are told to think about topics they’re familiar with and/or they particularly care for, they still have a hard time deciding what to choose. If that’s your case, think about your goals.

>> Have you decided to lose weight? I guess you spend quite some time researching diets, exercises, medical advice and the such. Couldn’t you turn your knowledge and personal experience into content? Yes, you probably could. For instance: if you can draw, why don’t you create a comic strip on a character who wants to lose weight? What if said character was an overweight superhero (as opposed to the typically muscle-bound ones)?

2. If you have ever reached a goal, first of all, congratulations! Now, use it to help your site’s visitors. Break your success story down into several small steps and teach your readers how to get there.

>> This is what thousands of books and blogs are about. The authors achieved some important things in life and then decided to tell their readers how to do the same. This content creation model can be replicated ad infinitum because it relies on an individual’s authority. If she has first-hand experience in an area, she deserves the audience’s respect.

3. This one works better for people who produce fresh content on a continuous basis. Pick an ongoing goal of yours — one that you know your audience would be interested in — and create several pieces of content to help your visitors follow your progress.

>> Say you’re a teacher who blogs about education and you decided to try a different pedagogic method in your classes. In case you still haven’t, tell your readers about your plans and what you want to achieve, i. e., which improvements you expect from your students and how you’re going to evaluate them (only by their grades? Or by other means?). This can be the beginning of an article series. You may publish new posts whenever you have some news about your experiments or you may set an update schedule (Bi-monthly updates? Revisions every six weeks? Quarterly summaries?). Alternatively, you can create a separated page on your blog and keep all things related to your goal there.

4. What if you fail to reach a goal? Well, you can always turn your failure into something more productive. Don’t be afraid to share your less positive experiences with your visitors. They will relate to your feelings; what no one can relate to is a perfect being.

>> Have you ever created a video that you expected to become a YouTube hit, only to find out later that no one cared for it? Now it may be time to poke some fun at yourself: make a humorous video that teaches how to be ignored by viewers. Show how pretentious you were — don’t be ashamed — , describe that big plan that looked too good to go wrong and display the poor view count that made you get back to your senses. You may either end it all with a (mock?) moral lesson or just announce that you haven’t dropped your YouTube domination plans.

The publication of this post will help me achieve part of a goal that I discussed in my previous post: recycling my own promises to create new content. ;) If you want to see me reach the full goal, subscribe to Abaminds and read the next articles.

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