4 Ways to Store your Blog Ideas

Ideas for blog posts can come anytime and anywhere- from when you’re driving home from work, to while you’re in the shower, to waking you in the middle of the night. The first thing to do? Write it down. Here are some methods to store your ideas, so you never forget a great one!

In a notebook

This is great for quickly scribbling down ideas that hit you at a busy time. Because I fancy myself a fiction writer, and I suffer from notebook addiction, I’ve been doing this for a long time, writing story ideas down in various blank books I leave around the house. Since I started professional blogging, I’ve been writing blog post ideas down as well. I have a particular fondness for Moleskine and Rhodia notebooks, but anything will do, really. Always keep a pen or two nearby.

In a PDA or mobile phone

When I’m out, I find having to fish out a pen and notebook too unwieldy- and that’s when noting ideas down in my (ancient Treo 680) PDA is perfect. Most mobile phones have “Notes” sections, but in a pinch I’ve been known to write a text message containing my idea, and saving it in Drafts or Saved Messages.

In your PC

Your options when it comes to software are many. If you use a PDA as above, you might want to use something that syncs automatically- or consider one of these applications:

• Stickies is built-in to OSX on the Mac, and it doesn’t get much simpler than this. Its quick, its free, easy to use, and customizable. There are also lots of Windows versions, from free to paid, available for download (e.g. Notezilla or Neat Note.
• For something a little more powerful, look for “virtual notebook”-esque applications, such as Mori for the Mac or Delphinus Notes for Windows.

Online

If you already use an online solution for documents (such as Google Docs or Zoho), this might be the best bet for you. Not only can you share your ideas with collaborators, you’ll be able to access them from anywhere with an internet connection.

The truth is, I use all of the above- notebooks, my PDA, my mobile phone, Stickies… and then collect them all in Google Docs.

How do you store your blog ideas?

How To Conduct A Great Interview

The other day, someone got in touch with me and told me I should do a post on how to conduct a good interview. The reason? This person has just been interviewed and the questions they received were so bad, they told the interviewer to redo them and try again. The questions were better the second time around but still lackluster.

I’ve already performed my fair share of interviews both by audio and text. I’ve found that written interviews are much easier to produce than audio. I believe it’s because you don’t need to be on top of your game in front of a live audience. I conduct my shows live and off the cuff which means I better have some sort of clue as to what I’m talking about or I’ll look like an idiot.

This leads me to the short and sweet point that RESEARCH is your number one key to victory for producing a quality interview. The best interviews I have ever conducted have been with people or on topics which I know quite a bit about. There are a couple of reasons on why research is so valuable to an interview. For starters, it builds confidence. Secondly, it helps to generate natural conversation. Interviews sound so much better when they don’t appear to be manufactured or based on a script. Being well researched enables you to ask questions that are somewhat related to the topic at hand without sticking to one talking point. Last but not least, the more research you do, the more interesting and informing your questions SHOULD be. All of the easy to answer questions which are just a Google search away should never be asked during an interview.

In fact, there are quite a few questions you need to stay away from when conducting an interview. Here are just a few.

• How much money do you make?
• Personal questions.
• Questions which require no thought.
• If the interviewee does not want to answer a specific question, let it go. Don’t continue to harp on them until they answer.

These are general rules and observations I’ve made with all of the interviews I have conducted. Now of course, these don’t apply across the board as some people exist to play hardball with others, asking the tough and not easy to answer questions. That’s ok if the topic/person leans towards that type of interview.

So in the end, the best thing you can do when it comes to interviewing or being interviewed is research. Knowledge is power and if you have the knowledge, everything else becomes gravy!

Could You Use 200 Dollars?

In these tough economic times, I’m sure winning $200.00 is not such a bad thing. WPWebhost which is a webhosting company specializing in hosting WordPress powered sites is holding a contest of sorts. They will be giving away five different awards for specific site design categories. The categories are, modern and elegant, clean and minimalist, retro and vintage, grunge, and hand-drawing style.

Your website must be WordPress powered with an original design or a completely original modification of a free or premium theme design. And here’s how to join:

1. Write a blog post (or announcement) about joining the Best WordPress Design Award (and mention which category you are joining) in your website.
3. Submit your URL in the comment form here. (trackback works too)

Deadline is on 22nd March 2009.

Prizes include a badge to place on your site, $200.00 to be shipped right to your paypal account and a life-time hosting sponsorship. Sounds like a good deal if you ask me. Considering many of the Performancing audience has WordPress powered sites of their own, I figured I’d pass this contest along.

Blog Marketing Idea: Hire a Rockstar Blogger (Or At Least Get One to Guest Post for You)

I came across a 2007 interview on TIME about the film Lions for Lambs. The movie starred Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, who were all part of the interview. The interviewer noted that 2007 was perhaps a year of franchise films, which were mostly not star-driven, and asked if this marked the first non-star era of Hollywood. I found Tom’s quick response quite profound and interesting, and particularly relevant to the business that I’m in today.

I don’t agree with that, because it’s the stars who are promoting those pictures, that get people interested to see those pictures. You’re neglecting the value of that talent.

I would agree that the value of actors and actresses is not just in the on-screen presence, but is also evident in their marketing pull. Sure, you can find a lot of actors out there who are more of actors rather than stars. These guys could probably provide even more depth of experience and passion in acting than many of the superstars we know. But to the mind of a moviegoer, star value still matters, or at least it helps win a potential viewer’s initial impression of a movie.

Perhaps it’s the same with blogs.

If a rockstar blogger were to announce that he’s launching a new blog, then his reputation would be one big factor in helping tip the scales toward some success in terms of traffic and readership (and even money, if that is the goal). Or if a rockstar blogger were to guest post on a relatively unknown blog, then he might be able to pull up readership there, both for the duration of guest-posting and in the longer run.

I would even go further to say this also applies in other aspects of blogging. How about design? Rockstar designers do have their own following, and people would not miss the chance to download the latest, greatest, themes from their favorite designers, even if it involved paying money for subscription or purchase. How about blog software and plugins? Rockstar developers do have their own following, and people would gladly download new software releases, as if these little pieces of code were sent from heaven.

I’m not much for the rockstar mentaliy. A bit conservative, I usually go for a more modest approach, talking to people, building relationships, and trying to find value in the ordinary.

This probably makes me a movie director who only films for oneself. Or an indie producer who doesn’t care what the world says–or the box office for that matter–just as long as he or she cuts that masterpiece fit only for the eyes of a worthy few. But hey, maybe one day I’ll get to win that coveted golden statuette.

Mr. Cruise, if you’re reading this, how’d you like to guest post on Performancing?

9 Ideas For Your Dormant Domains

Just a few days ago, I conducted a poll to see how many domains you owned that were just laying dormant. That is, domains you purchased but simply were not doing anything with. So far, the results point to most people having between 1-5 dormant domains just laying around. I have a few domains myself that I don’t want to pay for anymore but instead of letting them go gracefully, here are a few ideas for putting those domains to good use.

• Use As A Prize – Hold a contest and use your domains as prizes. Domain transfers are usually a painless process

• Flip Them – Domain Flipping is the process of buying a domain or website, fixing it up and selling it for a profit. So if you have a somewhat good domain name, slap on a CMS, add some relevant content for a niche and then try to sell the site.

• Auction It Off – Domain registrars such as GoDaddy have an entire auctioning system for auctioning off domains. Let the domain go to the bidder with the highest amount.

• Outright Sell It – If you know a friend who could use a domain name or if its relevant to their niche, offer to sell it to them for a discount price. This is how I obtained a domain which so far, I’ve put to good use.

• Redirect Them – Instead of having the domains publish a parking page from the registrar, configure the domain to redirect to another domain of your choosing.

• Park And Monetize – Create your own HTML parking page with your own advertising on it such as AdSense and monetize the domain.

• Aggregator – You can use plugins such as FeedWordPress which will update your blog through RSS Feeds essentially creating an autoblog or an aggregator. However, this method requires caution as you certainly don’t want to be looked upon as a splogger.

• Just Keep The Domain And Do Nothing – If you can afford to keep paying the registration fee, you can always keep the domain in safekeeping until an idea hits you in the face

• Lifestreaming – Almost the same as creating an autoblog but this time, the content that you aggregate onto the site is yours. You can aggregate your Twitter account, Facebook, or anything that has an RSS feed into this site to create a one stop shop of your activity on the web.

Domain Auctioning/Selling Services:

Moniker
Sedo
GoDaddy Auction House
Bido
SitePoint Marketplace
Webhosting Talk Advertising Forum

Conclusion:

The ideas and list of resources doesn’t have to end here. Add your thoughts and ideas to the comments below. I’m particularly interested in hearing about your experience in selling domains through any one of the services I mentioned above.

Three Reasons Good Ideas are Like Kidney Stones

I’d been going through what was possibly among the most difficult days of my life, or so I thought, as I cringed in pain on my bed the other night. My kidney stones have recurred. And kidney stones are something you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. The pain doesn’t go away. Actually it eventually does, but I can’t guarantee it won’t be without bloodshed. Seriously.

And so after a visit to the doctor, a few pills prescribed, and much liquid intake, I’m optimistic this will all come to pass (pun intended) soon. Otherwise, I might have to face surgery, which is something most people would dread.

Note that when the doc says to take it before bedtime, make sure you do, unless you want to be a groggy slobbering mess all day, like I probably am right now. And then the fun of it all is that I’ve started to think of great ideas as like kidney stones. Let me outline the reasons.

First, like any ideas, good or bad, great ideas can just come out on their own. Your conscious mind might not know it, but your creative genius could have been creating masterpieces right under your nose. It could be a great business idea. Or it could be a really useful web app. Or that link-worthy blog post. Or yet another reinvention of the wheel. It has happened. Most of my most active blog posts (traffic, discussions and links) were those written on a whim–on topics that I didn’t really think were very serious.

Stones can pass out on their own, too. They probably have free will of their own. So can ideas.

Some great ideas, though, could use a little nudge before you can fully harness them. Sometimes you need inspiration. But most of the time, you need to put up with some perspiration. You have to really look deep to see what great things you can come up with if you put your mind to it. Maybe you’re creating a new plugin or some new software, but you keep facing roadblocks in development. Maybe you’re writing a feature article, and you get writer’s block. Perhaps you just need a little nudge toward the right direction and you’ll be on your way fine.

Some stones are probably stuck somewhere inside your body, but are still small enough to pass. But with some medication, lots of water and a bit of faith, these will run their course and leave your system when the time is right.

However, some ideas aren’t as easy to come around. Maybe you do have great things in mind. But some of these might require vast amount of resources to execute. Perhaps you need VC funding. Maybe you need to buy tons of equipment and hardware to execute it. You might even need to hire a handful of people to help you with conceptualizing, developing, designing, marketing, and whatnot, just so your project would get on its way, and your ideas would reach fruition.

Sometimes kidney stones are just too big to pass naturally. You need more than a nudge. You need to have them crushed into millions of little pieces. Laser usually works. So do shock-waves. But the worst case scenario is that the doctor would have to slice you up, open up your kidneys from the outside, and then pull out the offending build-up of calcium, struvite or whatever it is that makes up those darn stones.

At the height of blogger’s block, I often feel like I want someone to crack open my skull and extract ideas directly from my brain so I can start writing about these.

This is probably a crazy analogy. I think my meds are getting to my head.

History And Purpose Of ALT And TITLE Attributes

Addicott Web has a great article which provides a bit of history and explanation into the ALT and TITLE HTML attributes. You might think these two attributes provide the same function but they are used for two different purposes.

The ALT attribute is an important element to the accessibility community. It began as a way for people who are blind and use screen readers (or people who use text-only web browsers) to know when there was an image on the page they were reading.

The TITLE attribute can be used with almost all HTML elements on your website. While the ALT attribute emerged from the accessibility world, the TITLE attribute emerged from the usability standpoint.

From a usability standpoint myself, I enjoy articles which have TITLES applied to images if they don’t already have captions so I can get a description as to what the image entails. As for ALT tags, WordPress makes it very easy to add these and I typically use one to three descriptive words. On the topic of SEO, I have at times received an influx of traffic because of the way I have described an image through the ALT tags.

Have you noticed a decent amount of search traffic coming to your blog by way of Google Image search?

Do You Keep an Idea Notebook?

One of the things I learned in my short stint in my high school paper (way back) was to keep a small notebook in my pocket for jotting down notes and ideas for writing. The fact that I was also dabbling in creative writing that time helped–I also found this useful in jotting down things that my imagination and daydreaming could come up with. My notebook(s) really proved useful in helping me remember those numerous things that keep going on in my head, whether newsy items to report on, or creative ideas I want to develop.

But I often lose my tickler notebooks. And even a small notebook plus a pen doesn’t always feel comfortable in one’s pockets. Lost notebooks meant lost ideas. And not bringing a notebook meant lost ideas anyway, as I couldn’t find a more convenient way to keep track of them.

And considering I come up with the most interesting of ideas while in the shower, I found it difficult to scribble notes with wet hands.

That ended my habit of keeping an idea notebook handy.

These days, though I’m using a better way to store ideas–at least for me. I note down ideas on my mobile phone.

My Mobile Phone

When I started this, phones were a bit archaic by today’s standards, and my ideas were kept as short notes saved as draft SMS messages. I gradually progressed to smartphones, and now I use my phones’ Notes application to store my ideas. What I like about this are the following:

• I can sync my notes between computer and phone,
• I usually carry my phone almost anywhere I go, anyway, so no need for a separate tool, and
• I’ve become quite adept at typing on my phone’s keypad, so I can easily key in idea notes even while on the move.

So whenever a blog-worthy idea pops into mind, or whenever I read, hear or see something worth reporting, I pull out my trusty phone, press the shortcut key assigned to my Notes app, and type away. I even keep my phone under my pillow when I sleep. It serves a dual purpose–as my alarm clock, and as my notepad, when I suddenly wake up in the dead of the night with a brilliant idea, or with a strange dream.

Other options?

I know some people would prefer paper and pen, since you could jot down more than text this way. Some others would prefer posting on a wiki or some online application. Some would prefer Post-It notes. But the important thing here is that you have a reliable and secure place to keep those ideas. The best methods would be those that are easily accessible, and easily backed-up in case bad things happen.

As secondary note-taking tools, I do use various other apps like Tada List and Evernote, for longer and more complicated notes, and Dropbox for sharing my notes (and other files) across different computers.

A lot of my blog posts here on Performancing and elsewhere are products of my brainstorming with myself through my idea notebook. Perhaps it’s the same case with others.

Do you keep an idea notebook? If so, in what medium? And how has it been helpful to you?

Cute Headlines Don’t Work

Steven Hodson of WinExtra.com learned a valuable lesson today that is worthy of sharing and that is, cute headlines don’t work. I know I’ve had my days where I come up with what I believe to be an awesome headline only to find out that it turned into a failure. I think the headlines which don’t work the most often are the ones that are inside jokes that only the post author knows. With that in mind, I think it’s time to revisit an excellent guide that was published by Brian Clark of CopyBlogger.com that focuses entirely on headlines. The guide is as follows:

1. Why You Should Always Write Your Headline First
2. The Cheater’s Guide to Writing Great Headlines
3. Do Key Words in Post Titles Really Matter?
4. How to Write a Killer “How To” Post That Gets Attention
5. 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work
6. Why Some People Almost Always Write Great Post Titles
7. 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work
8. 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work
9. Warning: Use These 5 Surefire Headline Templates at Your Own Risk

Writing excellent headlines is a science to say the least but after reading Brian’s guide, it should be much easier.

Do Your Own Thing

How many articles have you read this year on blogging which tell you not to be another spoke in the wheel? I know I’ve read a few and each time I do, I question whether they understand one of the greatest benefits blogging has to offer and that is, the ability to be heard.

Now it’s true, being unique in the world of blogging seems like an impossible task nowadays, but here is the thing. I believe that the large majority of people who blog are unique. Maybe not unique enough to have their own massive following, but unique enough to add to the overall conversation by means of their opinions or thoughts. For example, a major news story might break out and every blogger that has an interest in that niche will end up writing about it thus, making the sphere of blogging look like a giant echo chamber. However, upon closer inspection, I’ve noticed that just about everyone has a different take on the story and ends up adding their own two cents. This is the beauty of blogging.

Being unique is not hard. Just write what is on your mind. Don’t pretend to be someone your not, simply be yourself. There might be 1,000 blogs that cover the same subject as you and it might seem like an impossible task to rise above the noise but only ‘you’ can write exactly like ‘you’.

By the way, if you’re looking for a good inspiration piece, read this article published on Write to Done called, Trying To Learn To Be A Better Blogging Is A Waste Of Time.