photo courtesy of Kristina B on Flickr
Dear Blinking Cursor, Oh, how I love you and hate you at the same time. I know I need to write blog posts regularly, but wow, the blinking cursor syndrome drives me down sometimes!
Today, I hope to share an easy and simple exercise to help you overcome blinking cursor! I have attended many teleseminars, webinars and in-person training classes about blogging and internet marketing. There is no doubt that a blog is necessary to your online presence. Why, you ask? Because it’s the hub of everything you do online. Yes, you have a website, you send email newsletters, you participate on social networks, but you need a centralized place that you own where you share your expertise, announce sales and launches, and where all your content can be found. That place is your blog.
For me, the biggest single issue in updating my blog is “finding the time”. I think many business owners would agree. Between managing digital media projects for clients and handling the day-to-day tasks, marketing for my business is the first thing to fall off the priority list.
This summer I attended a Social Media Strategy and Management Training course offered by Tina Forsyth and Lena West. Prior to that, I attended a Blogging Master Class with Denise Wakeman. What was consistent at both trainings was the insistence that one needs to make the time to create content, and using an Editorial or Content Calendar is the best way to organize the content.
Another practical exercise that was presented at the “Tina and Lena” training, was a “Popcorn” exercise. It works like this. Sit down for ONLY 10 minutes with the following list of questions.
1. What 3 questions do people ask you the MOST about what you do?
2. What are the TOP 3 misconceptions that people have about what you do?
3. What are the 3 things that people DON’T know about what you do?
4. If you were on Good Morning America, what is the ONE thing you would say about what you do?
It’s like a bag of popcorn in the microwave. One piece pops up, then another, then another. Except in this exercise we are talking about ideas for blog posts. Write down as many answers to each of the questions without over-analyzing what you’ve written. And, it’s okay if the answers are similar to other answers. The bottom line is that you’ve begun a list of topics to write about – the first step in over-coming Blinking Cursor syndrome!
After creating your topics list, you can then plug in each topic into your editorial calendar – or if you’re like me directly into a time block on your calendar. Voila! You’ve just created several posts worth of blog ideas!
I love sharing easy and simple methods for being productive with marketing and I’ve found it in these suggestions from Tina, Lena and Denise!
How do you make time to blog? Do you use a similar exercise to ‘Popcorn’? I’d love to hear your feedback! Please comment below…
About Carla Wilson
