Write About The Lessons Your Learned From 2007

BLOGAPALOOZA! What I Learned From 2007 is a group writing project hosted by Robert Hruzek. He’s kindly invited me to take part in it (I will, Robert. I would even if you hadn’t invited me. :-P ) and I quickly realised that his idea deserved a mention here. After all, this is a very inspiring topic.

The way you’ll have to approach it is even more inspiring: instead of posting an overall analysis of what you learned last year, you will pick a single post from each month you’d been blogging in 2007 and describe them. Do it until January 13th, 2008 and you’ll get some link love from Robert. ;) UPDATE: Let Robert host your responses at his blog and you’ll get even more link love. Just make sure to read all the instructions first. ;)

In the near future I will post here my own ideas on how to create content based on lessons you’ve learned. Make sure that you won’t miss those tips: click here to subscribe to Abaminds feed.

4 Ways To Find Inspiration in Compassion

Isabella has tagged me to write about compassion. This is the theme of a group writing project organised by Urban Monk, The Middle Way and Zen-Inspired Self Development.

Interestingly, this reminds me of a previous post where I mentioned the results of a personality test. Compassion would be my strongest conviction, according to the report I got after answering all questions. I find it curious that I’m incidentally writing about this topic again.

Were this a personal, self-improvement or spiritual blog, I’d write a long article about compassion. Perhaps I’d already have written it by now, because this time of the year favours such topics. But due to Abaminds’ nature, I’m afraid that article would look too off-topic here.

This doesn’t mean that compassion-related subjects cannot be discussed in other niches. See, for instance, Tad’s post urging bloggers to treat their visitors like human beings, not numbers. Or Chris Garret’s recent article about respect (or lack thereof) in the blogosphere. And let’s not forget Isabella’s (successful) attempt to stablish connections between social media and compassion.

That being said, let me suggest some exercises that will help you use compassion as a source of content ideas:

1. Just like I did above, try to find relations between compassion and content produced in your niche. Use your own site’s content as an example if applicable. Then write about your discoveries and/or link to the sources.

2. Look up the word “compassion” on various dictionaries. Analyse the differences among the several descriptions. Do they seem to truly convey the word’s meaning? Or do they lack sensitivity? Would you be able to write a better definition for the term? These questions may be of special interest to those who play in niches like education, linguistics, philosophy and self-improvement.

3. If you can draw or paint, how would you portrait compassion? Try to illustrate it in such a way that most people looking at the finished image can quickly realise what it is about. Then show the image to as many people as possible, ask them what it conveys, take notes on their answers and report the result. How successful have you been in depicting compassion?

4. Save the suggestions above and only follow them some months from now. Or try them during the holiday season and repeat everything some months later. Do the time of the year influence your level of interest in compassion and/or the results you get when trying to create content about it?

Bonus tip: if you write a blog post about compassion before January 5th, 2008, don’t forget to submit it to Spread the Love NOW! Group Writing Project.

Merry Christmas! :)

How To Get Ideas From 66 Lists – part 3

Let’s put the following lists to good use:

Best 101 Lists by Pearl – If you don’t manage to draw inspiration from any of those lists, then I don’t know from where else you could. Writing ideas, design ideas, money ideas, parenting ideas… it’s all there.

No Cost Business Tools: 37 Free Applications That Make Your Life Easier, Free of Charge by Sucker – You may review each of the sites. Better yet, you could write “cross-reviews,” analysing two or more tools that can work together. It’s very easy, for instance, to see the relation between Flauntr and Flickr.

10 Tips on How to Watch a Horror Movie When You are a Scaredy Cat by Migraine Chick – This is a very original list, and it can easily be adapted to other types of films. And also TV shows, songs, books etc. If you dislike romantic stuff, why don’t you create a list of measures needed to protect viewers (or listeners, or readers) from sugar overload?

Escape the Rut by Catherine Kunst – The several questions asked in items #1 and #4 could get you writing in a few minutes. Think about them; try to answer them. A symbolic video could be an even better response. See also #3; do the exercise. There are infinite ways to fill those blanks.

50 Ways to Start a Conversation by Dee – All of the ways listed are great creativity sparkers. All you have to do is decide in which media type you will deliver your responses: written, illustrated, audio, video… Talking about videos, if you like shooting them but have never tried fiction, these conversation starters might give you ideas for your first experiments. Take two characters, make one of them start the dialogue, imagine the other character’s answer and off you go. Is it too simple? Maybe, but if you’re not used to produce fiction, a basic start will help you get used to it. Besides, simple ideas can evolve into great stories. After all, it’s entirely up to you to decide which direction the characters’ conversation will take.

35 Guaranteed Ways To Increase Your RSS Subscribers by Fred – You might debate the effectiveness of some of these methods. Tell your readers which ones you have tried and what results you got. Or try all of them, track the results for three or four months and then publish a complete study.

15 Tips to Prevent Repetitive Strain Injury and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome by CSS – Do your own research on the subject and create an illustrated (by photos or drawings) guide. Or just analyse the post and learn how to take inspiration from personal problems to create good, helpful content for your sites.

List Of Why Blogs Are A Female Gender by Domtan – The obvious idea here would be a response telling why blogs are a male gender. Alternatively, you could take some of the list’s items and discuss them separately on your blog posts or on forum threads. See, for instance, “Your first experience with blogging is not something to brag about,” “Your blog embarrasses you in public” and “You wake up thinking about blogging.”

26 ways to change the world by Chris – This post could easily result in an inspirational video series or an illustrated essay. You cold also write posts about each individual list item. Or think about other ways to change the world. It’s a good topic for community discussion.

40 ways to make your mind your playground by Fier – The whole article is meant to get your creative juices flowing, so this time I’ll refrain from giving you any suggestions. Just read everything and take full advantage of the new ideas that will pop up in your mind.

21 Punching Tips On Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization by Etienne Teo – Study the articles listed. Can you spot any mistakes on them? Do they present out-of-date information? Write your own social media related article containing current and reliable advice. You may try to use the techniques taught on those posts to promote your site and then report the results. If you play in different niches, repeat the process and see if results vary or are similar. Then release another report.

ten things i didn’t know until last week by Blaiq – Its concept is very, very interesting and can be applied to most blogs. You might also create a new section on your website to provide your visitors with news and curious facts on your niche. If you don’t feel too motivated to update your pages, trying to discover new stuff on a regular basis may help you go ahead.

10 Ways To Improve Your Personality by Z Hereford – Replace the word “personality” by “blog,” “site,” “marketing skills” or anything that involves relationships and communication. Then see how this list’s tips can be related to your chosen topic. Write your own article about it, or start a forum thread.

To Do To Make Tomorrow Better by Bob – Item #1 could originate a funny podcast if recorded. Do #3 for an extended period — say, four or six weeks — and write about it as you go on, or save your impressions for a post-experiment article. Try #9 even if you don’t have great artistic abilities and share the resulting images with your audience.

100 Sites I Seek Inspiration From by Iain Hamp – Another huge resource list that works as an idea galore, thus making my suggestions unnecessary. I just recommend that you visit all of the sites mentioned in it, no matter how time consuming this task is.

8 Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople by Daniel Sitter – Its lessons could be adapted to generate a list of habits of successful *insert desired profession here*. Can you think of a job where such habits wouldn’t make a difference? Then write about it by all means.

18 Tips to Become a Productive Blogger by Monika Mundell – An artist could easily create a comic strip about a blogger that tries to follow those tips but gets desperate because there’s always something getting into her/his way.

100 Resources To Improve Your Career, Relationships And Money by Lawrence Cheok – Lots of food for thought can be found in the articles listed on this post. See it as an informal self-improvement course, and write about the whole experience later. It could even result in a book. Alternatively, you could start a forum thread to discuss some of the topics covered on those articles, such as #1 and #69.

7 Powerful Tips to Overcome Failure by Donald Latumahina – You certainly have experienced failure several times in your life, since this happens to all of us. Do you agree with the methods listed in this post? Would they work for you? Is there anything you’d like to add to the list? This is an excellent topic to write about, and it can be related to most niches. If humour is your thing, those tips are something you may want to twist and mock.

7 Tricks You Need to Fight Procrastination by Samir Bharadwaj – Look at this post’s structure and you’ll realise that its high-quality content wasn’t the only reason why it won the group writing project. The short list that makes for an introduction and summary, the smart use of headlines and subheadlines, key sentences highlighted in bold, images that truly help the author convey his message… Everything is there for you to analyse, learn and apply to your future articles. You could — actually should — also try to follow the author’s advice while working on your projects, and then report how well (or not) you did. If it was a brand new project, have you managed to do everything as recommended from the beginning through the end? If it was an ongoing project, have the anti-procrastination techniques helped you improve your performance?

And this is the end… of this series, not of this concept. As I said in the first instalment, I’ll be posting more links to inspiring articles on a regular basis. To make sure that you won’t miss anything, click here to subscribe to Abaminds RSS feed. ;)

NOTE: I had originally released this article two days ago, but something (don’t ask me what) has gone wrong after I pressed the “publish” button. Most paragraphs were lost and wouldn’t show up on the blog. Therefore I had to delete the post and rewrite almost everything. For this I apologise to all readers, subscribers and pingbacked bloggers.

Write About Your Blogging Goals For 2008

You could use this post’s title as an idea for one of your next articles, or for a forum thread. I know, I know, it’s too obvious. But this topic will always be fun to read.

This year you may even win a prize and get some additional traffic by writing about it. I’m serious! Submit your post to Daily Blog Tips’ Group Writing Project: 2008 Blogging Goals until December 23th, 2007. You will get a free link from the final list of participants. And you may even be offered a free Wordpress theme. :)

I’ll get back to the write-about-goals topic in a future post. If you want to make sure you won’t miss it, don’t forget to subscribe to Abaminds’ feed. ;)

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