Triggered Ideas

So a lot of my posts come as spin-offs from my other posts and others are triggered ideas from something I read.

So how do I get these triggered ideas?

It's really this simple:

1. Whenever you can visit blogs that have similar content to your blog.

2. Scan through their blog postings archive.

3. When a headline catches your eye as appealing click on it.

4. Now you're going to scan the text quickly for key words that trigger a thought of your own. It's important that you don't actually read the blog post because then you'll just start to assimilate that person's ideas and that can lead you down a treacherous road.... so instead just briefly scan the text for the words that trigger a thought of your own.

5. Okay so now you have a word that triggered your own thought and you're going to get a whole slew of ideas related to that triggered thought. So now you go directly to your blog and begin writing your post. Wait no rough draft? Nope! Blogging is supposed to be spontaneous! Get it all out! Then you can go back and "pretty it up" - proofreading and editing your post so it's clearer - as your thought may not always look as well on paper as it sounded in your mind - just rewrite it until it conveys the message you want it to.

That's it! Wait, what about blog etiquette? Don't I have to link back to the URL of the post that "triggered" my idea?

Here's my guideline for this situation - as long as you didn't read the post and use the ideas that person had in their post in your post then there's no need to link back (unless of course you just want to share it with your readers).

However, if you didn't listen to me and read their entire post and found yourself referring to some of the points they brought up then yes definitely hyperlink to them in your blog posting and you can even thank them for their contribution if you want!

So there you have it! A new way to generate many new ideas for your very own blog postings!

Not as cheeky as you thought,
CB Webmaster

P.S. You can also pay attention to cues in your environment. I was just looking at a hole in my sock and it gave me an idea for a whole blog post - read it here.

P.P.S. Don't forget to bookmark the blogs that give you triggered ideas - so you can always go back for more!