DazzlinDonna » Content

How Many Angles Can You Come Up With For One Topic?

Donna — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:59:02 +0000

Remember that old word game where you write down as many smaller words as possible from one larger word? Whoever comes up with the most words from the one larger word wins the round. Take that same concept, twist it around a bit, and you’ve got a great content strategy. Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you have a site about cupcakes. We’ll pretend you are writing blog content about many types of cupcakes, how to serve them, where to serve them, etc. etc. Eventually you start to think that you’ve written everything there is to write about cupcakes. Here’s where the game comes into play. Pick any one aspect of cupcakes. Let’s take banana cupcakes as our topic. How many subtopics and sub-subtopics can you come up with that has any relationship to banana cupcakes? Let’s play with some ideas now, ok?

Cupcakes shaped like bananas
Banana split cupcakes
Cupcakes topped with banana flavored candies
Cupcakes to celebrate National Banana Day
Which cupcakes would Bananarama sing about if they sang about cupcakes?
A home-made video of Bananas in Pyjamas having a cupcake party

Hopefully by now you see my point. Just when you think there’s nothing more to say about your topic, stretch your imagination, make a game out of it, and score points by coming up with some new angles to write about.

Now it’s your turn. How many angles can you come up with for the topic of banana cupcakes? Get creative!

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Content, ideas
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Using Superstition As A Hook

Donna — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:50:43 +0000

Since today is Friday the 13th, it seemed like the perfect time to talk about interacting with your readers at a really deep level – so deep in fact that it’s almost spooky. I’m talking about superstitions here. We humans are a superstitious lot, and I’d be willing to bet that even the sanest, most practical amongst us still have some superstitions lurking deep within them. (Just don’t expect them to ever admit to it!)

So here’s what I’m suggesting. Make use of the various superstitions and related “holidays” to serve interesting content to your users. You don’t want to make fun of your users beliefs or cause them to feel judged for having those beliefs, but you do want to present your content in an interesting or humorous way. Do your best to tie the superstition into the topic of your site, and give your readers something fun that helps them to visualize your site, topic, or product in a new and interesting light.

Writing fun, creative content can be difficult to do, so take advantage of those times each year when the day itself helps generate ideas for you. By combining holidays with superstitions, you have the chance to create compelling content that engage and entertain your readers. When you can hook into a reader’s deepest emotions like that, you stand a very good chance of being remembered, and creating that memory could mean the difference between having a drive-by reader, and a long-term user.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Content, Friday the 13th, hooks, superstitions
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How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Eight

Donna — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:57:02 +0000

You’ve made it through the first seven steps of the series, “How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas”, and now you finally have all of that setup stuff out of the way. You are ready to begin adding content to your site, in the form of blog posts. A blog post is simply an entry, a piece of content. Your goal is to post an entry at least several times a week, but my preference is once a day if at all possible. Each post will be dedicated to one narrow, concise topic. Let’s say your blog is all about flying kites. A post one day may focus on a broad overview of the different kinds of kites that are available. Another post may give fine details about one particular kite design. Yet another post may be a discussion of the ideal weather conditions for kite flying. And so on and so on…

Although WordPress installs one sample post, you can ignore it for now, and just delete it later. Right now, let’s create our very first real post. Log in to your blog admin (www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin). Click on Write.

As you can see, you have a form in which to begin entering your blog post. Type in a title in the Title field. The title is of utmost importance. Make the title interesting and descriptive. If your post is about perfect weather conditions for kite flying, a good title might be “The Best Weather for Flying a Kite”.

Now enter the actual content of your post in the Post field. You’ll notice that it is similar to writing in Microsoft Word, in that there are a series of buttons that allow you to Bold, Italicize, Center, etc. above the field. Use them as you would in a word processor. You’ll notice a chain button and a broken chain button. The chain button allows you to set up a link to another web page, and the broken chain button will undo the link. So to make some text link to a web page, just highlight the text, click the chain link button, type in the web page URL in the field that pops up, and you’ve got a linked bit of text.

If you want to include a picture in your post, click on the Browse button next to the File field, and choose a picture from your computer to upload. Type in a title (description is not necessary) and click on Upload. Then choose to insert it into your post.

You’ll also want to categorize your posts, so pick from a category to the right, or add a new one. When you are happy with the final result, just click the Publish button. You’ve just blogged!

This is where all the magic begins. What you blog about, and how informative and/or entertaining you are, is all up to you. People often use the phrase “find your voice” when referring to what you, as a blogger, will convey to the readers of your blog. You have to find your own style. Perhaps you are witty or outrageously funny. Perhaps you are an ace at technical writing. Maybe you can describe things or processes so that anyone, even a novice, can understand. Whatever your style is, use it. Your readers will come to know you via your blogging voice. They will appreciate you for who you are.

It does help to read a few great blogs to get a feel for the different kinds of blogging voices and styles that are out there. Don’t copy someone else’s style, but be aware of what people like and what people don’t like. It will be obvious, trust me.

Now go on, start blogging!

“But wait”, you say, “show me the money”! You’re right, I’ve taken you a long way, and yet I still haven’t shown you how you are actually going to make a living from this. Don’t worry, that’s coming next. I haven’t forgotten about the money. For now, just sit back and create some awesome content on your new site by blogging, and then move on to the next part of the series.

The entire series of How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas:

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, Content, make a living in your pajamas, Microsoft, word processor, www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.