Where Do You Find Blogging Ideas?

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills 

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You’ve allotted time to write your blog. No one is around to bother you. Your fingers are posed above the keyboard. Seconds tick by to minutes. This must be posted today.
And you have no clue what to write.

This blog is for every writer who ever peered into the idea bucket and found it empty. Not a single drop of creativity. Where do you find that sweet stream of blog topics?

A blog is a reflection of the writer professionally, personally, and psychologically. We share knowledge, reveal our interests, and show our unique and sometimes quirky temperaments.

The more we are transparent and relational, the more readers want to follow us and eagerly await our next post.

The following helps will fill your bucket with ideas now and in the future.

Professional Blogs

We focus on our brand and reflect on our experiences in the publishing world. We teach the craft in snippets of useful information. Social media, marketing, and promotion tips instruct the reader. Every how-to article is an opportunity to help a reader successfully meet a challenge. Post a podcast or a video. Make the blog interesting.

Personal Blogs

Harness your hobbies. Where do you vacation? Special restaurants? What are your quirky traits? Writers have varied interests, and your readers are excited to find out what relaxes and gives you satisfaction. Take photos, lots of them. Videos of you in the midst of a favorite pastime or hobby creates a tone of friendship. If you’re cooking and burn the meal, laugh, snap a few pics, and offer a great takeaway. If you’re attempting a craft with the kids or grandkids, show the reader what’s going on. Do you have a pet? We writers are not mindless robots who spend our entire day in front of a computer screen. We’re real!

Psychological Blogs

These are serious and fun posts. We can share an insight, a lesson learned, or our humorous side. The key is to be uplifting. Walk a narrow path with this one. Not every pitfall of life is to be shared. I take notes in church with the understanding a phrase or a twist of the sermon has the potential to be a powerful blog—not to preach or condemn but to show a different side of me.

Is your bucket dripping with a bazillion ideas? Keep a file of blogging topics for those dry times. And don’t forget to keep adding to it!

How do you find blogging ideas?

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DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

Proactive Marketing and Promotion

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills


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A writer builds her marketing and promotion platform long before a single word is written on the manuscript. When an idea hits the writer’s heart and mind, how the content will draw readers begins. This doesn’t mean the writer looks to the latest trends to mine book topics, but it means she actively seeks opportunities to share her passion.

The technique doesn’t divert from creating a quality project. Fresh writing enhances the ability to propel the project into the right hands. Consider all that drives a book: specific readers, needs, dreams, strengths, challenges, and desires. 

How can the contents meet those criteria? Use your readers' personality to develop blog themes, contests, memes, events, hashtags, giveaways, podcasts, Pinterest board(s), promotion, posting tips, videos, speaking topics, and whatever other social media platforms that will fit into the   writer’s brand.  

• Agents and editors are attracted to writers who embrace a green light to marketing and promotion.

• When a writer has a grasp on how to approach readers with a targeted topic or genre, every thought has value.
• Each scene or section of a book has potential. Look to the subject matter for distinct possibilities to draw attention to the writing project.
• Traditional and Independent publishing efforts become enjoyable and simplified.
• At the completion of the book, the writer is able to compose and calendar blogs, contests, hashtags, tweetables, giveaways, and events.
• The writer can request guest blogs months in advance, ensuring the exact date of the book release corresponds with the blog post.
• Events can be scheduled, planned, and perfected months ahead of the designated time.
• A successful writer who has mastered marketing and promotion is eager to begin the next project

For example: Bonnie Bestseller is writing a novel about a heroine who works as a coffee barista in Telluride, Colorado. The story takes place in January when the town is filled with skiing enthusiasts. Business is booming, and the coffee shop centers as a conversation spot. Bonnie has sworn off dating and refuses any of the male flirting tactics.

In the midst of keeping customers happy, the coffee shop is sold to a single man who knows nothing about roasting coffee beans, making delicious drinks, or keeping patrons happy. He’s shy, extremely good looking, knows nothing about snow or skiing, doesn’t like coffee, and requires the heroine's help to make the coffee shop a continued success. The thought of working for her boss is detestable, but she has no choice.
End of first chapter.

The writer creates a file titled: Marketing and Promotion. She lists the ideas that pop into her head with the understanding some will be tossed and others will be valuable. For example:

Blog:

Skiing Tips the First Day on the Slopes
Coffee Addicts are Fun
Memes:
A photo of someone reading your book and drinking coffee - “Common Grounds is the best romance ever!”

Facebook:
 
In my new novel Common Grounds, my heroine is a barista who works for a man who hates coffee or tea. What is your favorite go-to beverage when it’s cold outside? 

Tweet:
Love coffee and #romance? Common Grounds @BonnieBestseller will thrill you (click to tweet)

Videos:
A humorous video on grinding coffee
Coffee art

Contest Giveaways:
Coffee
Gift card to Starbucks

Speaking Topics:
Research
Where I find story ideas

Click here to find a spreadsheet titled Proactive Marketing and Promotion to assist in the process of marketing and promotion during the writing phase. This spreadsheet can be downloaded and saved.

Are you ready to accept the challenge?

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DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association; International Thriller Writers, and the Faith, Hope, and Love chapter of Romance Writers of America. She is co-director of The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.