Tired of sifting through your RSS feed subscriptions for a blog post inspiration? Looking for new ways to dish out content that’s unique on the Net? You can try these offline sources (feel free to list more in the comments!):
Newspapers – Not every article of the print newspaper appears in the online version. When you quote text from a print article and build a blog post around it, you can end up with original, and even linkbait, content. Of course, do some research first with the search engines. This ‘technique’ works well with:
1) National issues (an example: my old The Philippines’ ICT Ranking: Dismal post), which when marketed well (social voting, comments on your countrymen’s blogs, emails) can generate good attention and traffic – after all, national issues are always mixed with an iota of honor, pride, and patriotism; and
2) Niche topics buried deep in the paper’s subsections, with tech, health, and the arts as some examples. Niche newspaper sections = niche blogs. If I had a cactus blog, I’d be a very happy man right now, as the daily broadsheet I subscribe to has a cactus section (for some reason).
Magazines – Magazines are perfect for niche blog content as they almost always revolve around one field of interest only. Be it about mathematics or Dungeons & Dragons, a magazine article can talk about something that your blog’s readers might be interested in. A magazine article turned blog post can be seen in action right here in Performancing.
Books – We’re not talking about book reviews here. I believe this is best used with nonfiction books, though writing a political blog post about a chapter in Tolkien’s fantasy saga isn’t out of the question, too ;-) In nonfic books, what the author states as fact or as his viewpoint/opinion can get your blogging gears rolling, especially if you strongly disagree with it. Remember, it doesn’t matter if the book is old or new – a book is an eternal, tangible piece of the height of human discourse and creativity.
Events – Product launches, blog awards/meet-ups, expos, you name it, it can be blogged. These events often have press/media kits and souvenir programs, and they’ll be handy reference guides when you write a blog post. Of course, the info found in these kits/souvenirs might also be found online, and that’s why your personal experiences and self-taken photos count! One example is Ia’s post about the recent Adobe CS3 Launch in Manila.
Good article - I think we do
Good article - I think we do need reminding from time to time that offline sources can be just as important as those we find online, similarly I think we also forget that offline advertising can also be used to effectively promote online businesses.
- Martin Reed
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