Most of the time, ideas for blog posts ill come naturally to me however i do have to force ideas every now and then. Here are 10 places where i get inspiration / ideas / news from…
1. Digg.com
photo credit: Laughing Squid
Digg.com – It’s a bit like an organised twitter feed which will tell you what’s hot right now. It’s lost a lot of its charm over the past couple of years but i still find myself visiting it when my mind goes blank and i need some ammunition for new posts.
2. Delicious.com
photo credit: Obstschale
delicious.com – I always find something new and interesting on delicious and find myself using it more and more. Whether it’s design resources or top 10 lists, there’s always something to inspire.
3. Facebook.com
facebook.com – Only as useful as your friends list. I have a pretty active friends list which means my latest news is bombarded with crap most of the time (farmville, mafia wars updates etc..) , but it’s still a great place to find new stuff.
4. Twitter.com
photo credit: adria.richards
twitter.com – Again only really useful if you follow ‘good’ people. I follow loads of designers, freelancers, companies etc… so they’re always tweeting about latest tech news, new sites, creative tips etc…
5. Boards.ie
boards.ie – You know that pixmania price blunder? Found it on boards. I find the odd gem or two there although twitter has sort of diluted it’s value for me in terms of sourcing breaking irish news.
6. Tech Blogs
Because i blog quite a bit on technology, i read plenty of big tech blogs. Top 3 on my list would be;
7. Analytics / Stats
It’s important to keep an eye on stats and you’ll see me blog about stats regularly. In fact i’d say i check stats (of some sort) daily. It helps you monitor progress and everybody loves to see interesting stats, even if they say they don’t. Google Analytics is what i use to keep tabs on all my sites.
8. Bookmarks
I use google bookmarks & a chrome plugin to make it easy to bookmark sites. Quite often i’ll forget about things i’ve bookmarked, so it’s always a nice surprise to revisit bookmarks and come across something useful.
9. Blog Comments
I read every single comment on this blog, even if i don’t respond to them all. More often than not any feedback provided is ‘right’ and i end up using it. You can’t keep everyone happy but this current theme was designed based on feedback and based on my own opinion.
10. Life Experience
photo credit: My.Aegean.gr student initiative
Probably the easiest thing to blog about. You have to be careful not to reveal too much, especially when you’re writing negatively about something or someone. I’ll always try to keep things non personal or generic whenever i’m criticizing something. The last thing you should be doing is bad mouthing individuals in public… it’s the lowest sort of criticism. But negative experiences are usually what you’ll find yourself writing about most, mainly because they’ll tend to write themselves and you just have to act as an editor before you hit that ‘publish’ button.
I’d stick money on it the first thought that entered your head when you read this post was not to praise me or this post, it was to nit pick over a spelling mistake or something i’ve said that you disagree with or the image at the top… and that’s normal. When you leave a comment the first thing i’ll do is disagree with it, then gradually look at it from your point of view and mix that with my own, then leave a response 🙂