Your readers are great writing inspiration
Whether you publish a blog post three times per day, once every day, or even once per week, finding inspiration can prove troublesome. I’ve been able to keep a decent level of consistency up on my blog, posting on average every three days. I owe a lot to you, my readers.
When you ask questions via the blog comments, I’m always wondering if the answer deserves an individual post. More often than not I’ll answer your question within a paragraph or two, following on from your comment. Sometimes, however, it’s more appropriate to give the topic more attention, putting it out to a wider audience for different opinions.
When I read other blogs, and the post comments reach into the 20s or 30s, I’ll skim read to save time. It’s fair to say that most others would do the same (but correct me if you think I’m wrong), so next time you’re writing something in your blog comments that you think is of importance, ask yourself if it would be better to devote a fresh post to the topic.
Reader emails are another great source of blogging inspiration, and I’m very grateful for your inquisitive messages. If I haven’t yet had the opportunity to respond to a question you’ve emailed, please don’t think I’m ignoring you. In fact, I currently have a few draft posts I’m working on thanks to your contact. I’m receiving about 70 or 80 emails per day, and whilst that might be nothing compared to a certain expert copywriter or professional blogger, it means I can’t always give them the attention I’d like.
Do you have any particular questions that you’d like me to answer?
If there’s anything you’re curious about, no matter how trivial you think it might be, go ahead and ask. I’ll answer your questions in a following blog post. They could be personal or professional, or you might want my opinion on something (which reminds me, I have a couple of logos that were emailed I’ve been meaning to critique).
You’ll be helping me out by providing some ammunition for future topics, and at the very least you might get to know me a little better.
Other people talking about inspiration
- David at Pure Blogging recently published some nice sources of blogging inspiration.
- If you find motivation on the decline, Stephen at Daily Blog Tips has given some advice to reignite your passion for blogging.
- For the ultimate idea resource, check out Vivien’s 37 sources of inspiration group writing project.
Related posts
16 appreciated comments on “Your readers are great writing inspiration”
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I’ve only written a post once from a user comment, but it’s something that I need to practice more of. Its funny how you forget about these little things sometimes. I’ve been looking for inspiration and I don’t know why I’ve not went to my comments yet. Thanks for reminding me.
Thanks for the mention and link love, David.
Readers can definitely be inspiring with their questions, arguments. I actually remember when we had quite a discussion going on your blog regarding fluid designs, remember? it wasn’t too related to the actual post, but one response led to another and Johno moved the heat over to his blog redsil.com by starting a new post there. That’s how I’ve discovered John’s blog, btw :-)
You’re very welcome, Deron. It’s something I could do more of too, looking back through my comment archives.
Vivien, I remember that discussion well — it’s a great example of how one comment can lead to multiple posts. I’m glad I discovered John’s blog, and I’m enjoying his I Love Typography website too, which has seen amazing early success!
Yes that is one of my great source of inspiration. My blog tends to be as you know more focused on design education and how-tos, so I do get lots of emails from people asking advice or just general questions about industrial design and related stuff.
Quite a few times I have turn these into posts, and getting great responses. So yes reader driven posts are great.
OK then a quick question for you, how to I get the cute little faces on the side of the comments?
BTW: Still looking for that ping back for this post. I’m not holding my breath! :)
I have written a few posts based on readers ideas, whwther from something they have emailed me or a comment they have left. They seem to end up being popular posts too.
It can be hard getting inspiration for articles, I personally think that a blogger is better off doing one really good article as and when it comes along rather than putting up articles just for the sake of it.
Your tips are really good and most helpful, I will be using them as a new method of getting inspiration.
Brian, perhaps you’re referring to Vivien (inspirationbit), which is much more likely.
Check out #5 in my 5 essential WordPress plugins for the answer.
Tara, I reckon those posts that are spurred by reader comments end up being the most popular ones too. It’s about what people want to read, that’s easier said than done.
Simon, I agree. I’d much rather have quality over quantity. When I started blogging I felt the need to churn out a new post every day. That’s just silly.
David,
“I’d much rather have quality or quantity. When I started blogging I felt wrongly compelled to churn out a new post every day, without fail. That’s just silly though.”
I think you’re entirely right here, but when your blog is new, I think you have to work harder. By writing an article every day, I am giving my current subscribers a lot of content to read, and I’m hopefully likely to accumulate some more backlinks with the wide variety of articles.
That extra work is needed at the start to pump up your blog, and lose that “new” feeling. It’s not too hard to do when you’re new, because you have loads of ideas.
In the long run though, I agree entirely. I couldn’t keep this up forever, and will no doubt fall back to a less frequent schedule sooner or later. At these times, I also hope to use the same sources of inspiration you have mentioned here. (One other source is forums. It’s the same idea as reading comments and emails; you’re connecting with other people in your niche, and hearing what they’re asking. :) )
I think bloggers need to seek inspiration from everywhere. Just taking a simple question as you say can turn into a great post or just looking at a simple thing from a different angle than you usually do can suddenly open your eyes and others.
Hi Michael, that’s a point worthy of a new post. There are questions such as, if you anticipate a less-frequent posting schedule in the future, would you be better saving your ideas as drafts to promote consistency in the long run? If there’s the worry that your blog appears new, with little content, why not bulk it out before the launch?
There are a lot of good questions there, and very hard to know an answer to.
I wrote about 8 articles pre-launch. The awkward thing there is that your first few are going to be read by virtually no-one. Originally, I planned on writing some of my weaker posts there, but another blogger convinced me to do my best, because they would be the very beginnings of my blog. In the end, I went with his way, and I think it worked, though there are still one or two posts which I wish I’d saved until I had a bigger audience to actually read them. (But if I had, would I have ever gotten that audience?)
One point I can definitely agree on is that “some of my most popular posts were ones that took very little thought.” A couple of my posts have taken me by surprise with their popularity, while others that I thought would be my best just weren’t. Perhaps this has something to do with not entirely understanding my audience? (Something I think I’m improving at… slowly)
Knowing what I know now, my first posts were poor, though at the time I thought they’d be useful for visitors. That’s what I get for starting a blog with no knowledge of what they were. Still, I’m learning. You can always re-feature your first articles when your readership expands. I think it’s a good thing to do every now and again. Chris at Blog-Op does a great job of pulling his older, popular posts to the forefront.
If your popular posts are ones that take little thought, don’t think of it as not understanding your audience, think of it as understanding them more than you realise.
I wrote about this topic a few months ago:
http://www.jhsiess.com/2007/01/21/write-stuff-inspirationh/
Hi David, very good post. Reader questions and comments are an excellent source of inspiration. And thank you for the link love… always appreciated!
I blog every day and it´s difficult to get fresh ideas for a blog post.Therefore, i go to forums and visit other blogs to get ideas. Having good copywriting on your home business blog will keep you at the top of search engine results for your keywords and help close sales.
Tom, that’s another source of writing inspiration, I agree. I don’t take part in forums as much as I used to, but still find them useful.