Ten Dry SpellBreaking Ideas
In This Chapter
^ Holding contests and taking photos ^ Finding inspiration in the mail and at your desk ^ Breaking routine with sound and location ^ Letting someone else do the talking ^ Programming your way to popularity ne of the nice things about blogs is that you can post whenever you ^^ want, from wherever you want. It's convenient, but it's no guarantee that you have something to post about. There are times in every blogger's career when ideas run dry, but you still have to produce fresh content. Other times, you feel like you've been cooking the same meal over and over, and you need a dash of spice to liven things up.
In this chapter, I share ten ideas that may help you when you've hit a dry spell and need some inspiration. Don't use them all up at once!
Don't forget that blog entries can be created and stored. On days when you feel incredibly creative, why not write a blog post or two that are evergreen — that is, can stay useful for some time — and stockpile some posts for the days when you are really casting about for content.
Holding a Contest
Everybody likes a winner, and everyone wants to be one! Put together a quick competition. You can call on your readers to be contestants, and make the community part of the judging as well. Every contest generates excitement and discussion, no matter how small the stakes.
Some topics that work well
^ Name This Product/Service.
^ Assign a topic, and have people post entries on your blog or on their own blog and link to yours.
^ Guessing games are always fun. For example, put a super-close-up photo of one of your products on the blog, and get readers to guess which product it is. Or show a tool used in the creation of your products, and ask readers to guess its use.
^ Have your readers submit creative ideas for using your products or photos of your products in use.
^ Ask readers for predictions on a sales number or news event.
For inspiration, take a look at the immensely popular community forum Fark (www.fark.com), a site that frequently runs amazingly creative Photoshop contests. The site has a lot of nonwork safe links, but look for a Photoshop logo and then click the Comments link to see people's entries.
Giving out prizes of value can be tricky — maybe you're on a limited budget, and maybe your legal department would have a fit if you tried to offer "wonderful prizes." But public acknowledgement in an active community can be a nice prize, or you can send a company-branded item to the winners (even if you didn't promise them a material prize).
Posting Reader Photos
Let your readers send in pictures of themselves with your product or service, or your logo, or of your company's local presence. Post pictures in an online gallery, and let the audience rate them. Blog about the best or most interesting ones. (This could also be a contest.)
Photos have proven to be very popular with blog readers, who also respond well to being included in the creation of blog content, so a photo gallery is almost always a win-win situation.
For an example, visit iPodlounge's iPods Around the World at gallery. ipodlounge.com. For a more elaborate example of a user-generated photo gallery, visit Lomography at www.lomography.com.
Continue reading here: Media Kitty
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