What to Blog About? Tips and Tricks!

We all started a blog for something, right? Maybe you created yours as a fun space to write anything you want. Maybe some of you are like me, who created a blog with notion that this could be your profession.

These past few weeks have been hard for me because I can’t decide what do I want to blog about. I started this blog hoping to share my “lifestyle” experience as an ex magazine writer and become a blogger in that section. But as time goes by, I realized how hard it is to create a lifestyle blog. My concern is not the content itself, I got some ideas (will share with you guys in a minute), but because those “ideas” are so business-y like, I find it hard to push myself to write them down.

Some of the ideas are:

• Write about my local lifestyle scenes (the restaurants I have visited, the hotels, etc)
• Write about tips and how-to tricks. According to the Internet gurus they are traffic-worthy!
• Write about my funny lifestyle experiences
• Create listicle. People love them!
• Share something educational
• Write your opinion on certain topics
• Random stuff
• Short stories

Those ideas sound great, right? But why do I feel unmotivated? Let me evaluate and who knows maybe you share the same :

• Lifestyle writing is a great way to boost my blog into prominence, but now I realised I feel different. I love writing lifestyle but only when I get paid for. If not, why bother?
• Tips and ‘how to’ are great topics. However, after weeks of talent searching I came to the conclusion that I can’t cook, I can’t craft and I don’t have any tips to share. Don’t worry I am not moping, I will get there.
• Funny lifestyle experience is fun! I have tons of random scenes when things go weird or hilarious and I would write about them in the future.
• Oh boy, listicle. Okay so a few weeks ago I almost published a listicle with title: “5 ways to break the ice with strangers”. I am glad I discard the post because when I reach the third points, I got stuck (listicles are hard!)
• Share something educational. I love to learn something new everyday. But, am I the right person to do it?
• Opinion. Yes, this topic is BIG on the blog-o-sphere, but I rarely read them because I find it such a waste of time. I am a very opinionated person but I am also self-aware of the negative damage it can bring. I am not against opinion blog post, but for now it’s not on my list.
• Random stuff. Now this sounds like something chill and worth writing about because life is made up of series of random thoughts and experience, so why not share it?
• Short story is very intriguing for those who wanted to explore their creativity, but remember it’s hard and it takes tons of time.

In the end of my blog-searching experience, I realised I was being too hard on myself. I expected to deliver quality blog posts as if I am still working in a magazine, but I am not. I should have known what kind of blogger I wanted to be, but I am still not sold on the idea of writing about one single topic/theme. Many Internet gurus said to not treat your blog as your personal journal if you wanted to make money. They are right, if you want to be a serious blogger you have to pick one topic and stick with it. The term personal is almost avoided by professional blogger. Of course fashion bloggers write about HIS/HER fashion. Food blogger write about the food THEY made and so on and on. But what about the others?

I belong to the other category. The type of blogger who have stories to tell. His/her own stories/views/thoughts. Personal blog doesn’t mean you are writing a journal, and that’s when it hit me – everyone has a story to tell. You might think your story is boring or not interesting enough, but you might be wrong. Since I started blogging I have come across several blogs which I always check regularly. Some of these blogs ranges from lifestyle to movies to travel, but the rest of them are ordinary blogs. They are another person’s life story.

One of the suggestions I got from my blog topic research is to write what you love. Don’t waste your time imitating others because you will lose interest and fail to continue. The Internet gurus asked “What kind of blogs do you like to read? Write about them”. I know I love to read stories, real people’s stories. The satisfaction I got from reading a post about new restaurant is little to nothing compare to when I read about TMG, for example? Sometimes I creep myself out thinking why am I interested in their lives. But isn’t that the point? Stories are meant to connect humans and lucky for us we all have one to tell 🙂

Nothing means something