I had the unfortunate experience of running out of ideas to blog about just a few weeks back, and never want to relive that day. If you are a blogger, and you don’t already have a list of ideas jotted down somewhere… you need to start today. Whether this is a notepad, some scrambled post-it notes or even a text file on your computer, having an idea list is the best move you’ll ever make!

So why is keeping ideas such an important and good idea?

1. Never run out of ideas or things to say
2. Spark more creativity in your posts
3. Eliminate hastily written articles
4. Cut back on missed revenue and traffic
5. Play to your crowd/niche interests

1. Never run out of ideas or things to say
This is the most obvious problem that is solved when you keep a list of ideas on hand. I can’t tell you how many days I sat down at my laptop for hours before coming up with something to write about. The bottom line is that the human mind is limited, and while you might start out strong… there is going to be a point when you run out of ideas.

If you are keeping a notepad, you have the “go-to” safety net of ideas when your mind shuts down. And unless you are a robot, this is probably going to happen. Why not prevent this before it occurs?

2. Spark more creativity in your posts
I’ve found that if I have a list of ideas, I am writing better posts that I have put more thought into. By nature of writing down all of your ideas as they come to you, you are going to be able to cut the crap out and focus more easily on what you really want to say. Your idea list is effectively the waste/recycling plant where your ideas come in, get reworked, and come out new and improved. People don’t want to read sloppy content, so get your gears turning by having the idea before you start writing your posts in the first place!

3. Eliminate hastily written articles
There’s nothing worse than spending an hour or two writing an article, before you turn around and realize its disgusting. If you don’t want to read your post, who the heck else will? I am a strong believer that organizing ideas is a good way to cut out bad articles or ideas that stink.

When I read over my list of ideas, I am thinking about what will fly, and what wont. Basically, you are going to eliminate the bad ideas because of natural selection, survival of the fittest. Notepads make your blog more efficient and better formed.

4. Cut back on missed revenue and traffic
You know what I’m talking about. The days you say “forget it” and neglect blogging altogether because you can’t make up your mind on what to post. This is wasting your potential… and you are missing out on important subscribers, traffic and revenue from your page impressions.

Once I started to keep a notepad at my desk where I can write down ideas randomly as they come to me, I noticed that I was blogging more, and people were starting to really dig what I had to say. Try it out, and you’ll save your blog from a possible subscriber-exodus if you leave them hanging too long.

5. Play to your crowd/niche interests
A couple of the ideas I have written down on my notepad don’t relate strongly enough to what I am blogging about. Guess what happens to those posts? That’s right. But I think it is an important step in the process to have these irrelevant ideas so that you can really get down to what you want to say easier. Idea lists help bloggers to play to their crowds, whoever that might be, and make the world a better place.

Now you know that I have this notepad at my desk, and I constantly refer back to it in order to formulate interesting posts. Sure, every now and then there is some news that needs to be covered not on my idea list… but running out of ideas is a natural occurrence that can be avoided by planning ahead!

-The Net Fool

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