Hamlet Batista commented on my last post that a problem with blogging is that many people look to the same sources for inspiration and information to blog about. Even in the most saturated markets there are a wide array of unique data sources. Here are some of my favorites:
- your own experiences – how you save time, your favorite work tips, things that slow you down, interactions with others, how your perspective has changed over time, etc.
- encourage readers to ask you questions – use a button like this one, and run open threads where you answer questions
- find common questions in forums that are typically poorly answered – why doesn’t Google show all my backlinks and why hasn’t my PageRank changed? etc.
- common misconceptions in your marketplace which are spread as fact – new websites can’t rank, etc
- interview other experts, create interactive contests, offer awards, etc. – these touches the ego of others and uses their reach to help market your site
- bring back old classics that are not talked about too much in the current marketplace and compare them to the current market. You can’t go wrong bringing up Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, Bush’s As We May Think, Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons
- show how your topical language has shifted – compare news from the 1950s to today, there are many stories from the 1980s and earlier which are easily accessible via Google News, but have not been pushed heavily on the web graph
- compare information from different formats – blogs, magazines, books, dvds, conferences, stuff in Google Scholar, etc.
- content behind firewalls – bring these ideas into the active parts of the web
- find ideas that were popular and spread on other networks, seamlessly aggregate the best parts in a new way which allows the structure to add significant value
- parallel markets – read information from other markets and relate it to your current market
