Choosing Your Topic
Choosing a worthy topic is essential to the success of the overall blog [1][2]. A topic expresses one essential idea within writing and unifies each successive post [3]. At first, a specific topic may seem to confine creativity, but focusing the topic actually provides endless creative possibilities. A focused topic encourages the audience to engage more actively and interact as a part of a blog community, ultimately enhancing the popularity of the blog. Creating a successful blog topic can take a significant amount of forethought and preparation and encompasses Brainstorming for Blogs, Focusing the Niche, Assessing the Idea and Finalizing the Topic.
Brainstorming for Blogs
Brainstorming transforms creativity into organizational thought. Individual brainstorming encourages writers to pour out their ideas in order to focus and reorganize them into a cohesive concept through personalization and Brainstorming Methods[4].
Personalization
Begin brainstorming by writing down personal interests, dislikes, and topics that appeal to you. With a little introspection you can analyze and learn about yourself, your disciplines or “something that helps define your personality” [5] and your passions. In addition to personal interest, you must have experience involving your topic ideas in order to establish credibility within your writing. Consider your personal experiences and how they have shaped who you are and your writing style, your opinions as well as your qualifications. Most importantly, use your personal character to your advantage when brainstorming in order to allow the audience to understand a little more about you. This transparency will not only make you relatable online, but will also help identify your specific Audience and blogging community.
Methods
With so many possible topics to consider, it may be beneficial to use Brainstorming Methods in order to produce an organized and manageable view of your ideas. These methods allow you to break down unmanageable and overwhelming ideas into their essential parts.
Mind Mapping
The Mind Mapping Method encourages you to “get out of the realm of words alone and see how different spatial representations might help you see the relationships among your ideas" [6]. This method begins with a central idea and builds outward, incorporating all possible related topic ideas.
Free Writing
Free Writing is another useful method, especially when facing the inevitable writer’s block, where writing starts and it does not stop. This method encourages continual thought through nonsensical ideas and pure imagination.
Thinking Outside the Box
Another great tool used in Brainstorming is Thinking Outside the Box, or a technique where you try to understand a concept from a different perspective and then relate it back to your initial idea. For example, imagine for a moment that you are writing about your own culture. Think of all the different possible meanings for culture, such as a bacterial culture or referring to a refined group of people, and try to relate those concepts back to your original topic. Often, this method gives you a different perspective than you may have originally identified.
Focusing the Niche
When a topic is narrowed and focused into a niche, the writer can express more expertise on the subject, connect with more readers and essentially attract like-minded people. In order to find your blog niche, focus on your blog’s purpose, differentiation and inspiration.
Purpose
Your blog’s purpose should focus the Writing Style of the blog subsequently helping to identify your Audience. The purpose of your blog could be to educate yourself, educate others, research a particular topic, or learn through communicative discussion and debate. Additionally, your blog may be directed at helping other people with similar problems, convince others to support a particular cause, or even promote a particular cause. Your purpose could also be to network with like-minded people, establish yourself within your profession or it may simply be for profit.
Differentiation
Another aspect to consider in narrowing your topic is how you will differentiate it from similar blogs using your personality, a different perspective or identifying a virginal idea. Use your personal experiences and character traits to tailor the topic in a way that allows you to express yourself. If you consider yourself a comedian, narrow your topic to express your comedic side. Or, if you are the analytical type, focus your topic so that others can sense that quality within your blog title. Using different perspectives can help narrow your topic greatly. This may include journalistic perspectives, such as Who? What? Where? When? Why? questions, or simply narrowing the topic using geographical references[7]. If there are specific areas of interest where you have noticed a blog deficit or have any that have not yet been explored, use this knowledge to narrow your topic and make your blog topic original.
Inspiration
Considering your inspirations for your blog topic can assist when further focusing the topic. These inspirations could include other blogs that discuss a similar topic, different articles and research resources related to your potential topic and most importantly your personal experiences.
Assessing the Idea
Once a blog topic idea is identified, assess the popularity and originality of the idea to be certain of its effectiveness.
Popularity
When assessing the popularity of the topic idea, search for blogs with similar ideas and investigate their popularity. Look up books or journal articles with similar topics in online stores, such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble and assess the comments and overall popularity of the books. Another great tool to research the popularity of the topic is to use the “For Dummies” test. Try to find a reference for your topic in the “For Dummies” book brand. If such a book exists, the topic is already popular and is a great place to begin your blog topic search.
Originality
Though the idea may be popular, ensuring the originality of the idea will be an important aspect of your topic choice that will ultimately mean success or failure. Your topic idea must be creative and unique enough to set itself apart from other blogs with similar themes. Finding an unexplored aspect of the topic idea will give you a fresh and energizing niche. In addition, presenting an intriguing or contradictory viewpoint can reinvent an overexposed topic idea.
Finalizing the Topic
Once you’ve ensured success in choosing an interesting blog topic through focus and assessment, the topic is ready for finalization, requiring a topic title and possibly a subtitle.
Creating the Title
The topic title or subtitle should be overt and easily readable. The viewer should quickly grasp the topic idea by simply reading the title. The narrative of the topic is also essential to the title’s observable intent. A first person narrative suggests sharing your personal views while a third person narrative suggests a more educational and professional approach. For example, adding the first person –ing to the beginning of the title “Discovering a Passion” gives the reader the impression that the writer will incorporate personal experiences and opinions into the blog, while the third person “Discover a Passion” suggests the blog’s intent is to educate through expertise. Lastly, the title and subtitle should have an angle- something memorable, catchy or fun.
Get Started
The hardest part of choosing your blog topic is the act of getting started. Topic ideas may not seem perfect until you begin brainstorming and expressing your ideas. Most importantly, use your instincts, interests and personality to organize and focus your topic idea.
Notes
References
- Carroll, Brian. "Writing for Digital Media." Routledge; New York, 2010.
- Loos, Eugene E. What is a topic? 2004. Web. April 5, 2013.
- Lucas, Gerald. "Choosing a blog topic." 2013. Web. March 29, 2013.
- Mind Tools Ltd. Brainstorming." 2013. Web. March 31, 2013.
- Rehner, Amy. "Choosing Your Blog Topic." March 2013. Web. March 29, 2013.
- The Writing Center. "Brainstorming." 2013. Web. March 31, 2013.