General Discussions

**goheadtry** · 06-06-2007, 07:59 PM

Hi I am looking for some Ideas to write about on my blog.

To start I will put what I know
I know basic, and some advanced PHP
Photoshop, Dreamweaver and various other peaces of software I am kind of having a "Writers Block"

but I was wondering if somebody can give me some ideas.

Thanks
P.S. My blog is
http://www.technologyforever.com/blogtf/

**vangogh** · 06-07-2007, 12:34 AM

John the writer's block will come and go. It usually gets easier to post even when you're not wanting to at some point.

I don't have specific suggestions for topics, but a few things that have helped me is to look at other blogs and see what they're posting and 'borrow' the occasional idea. Making a list of potential topics can help and gives you something to come back to when you're having trouble coming up with an idea.

I've used forums including this one to come up with ideas. If people ask the same question a few times it's probably a topic that would work as a blog post.

I wrote a post Where Do Blogging Ideas Come From awhile back that might also help you find some new ideas.

In the end I think the idea is to become a blog magnet. Try to get to a point where you can recognize topics for your blog in the things you do everyday.

With the coding and photoshop you can always write down the things you do. In every image you create in Photoshop you probably used a technique that I might not know about. Collect a few images along the way to your final image and write down the steps you take to get there and you have a post for your blog.

Anytime you write a few lines of php code there will be someone who doesn't understand what you did or why you did it. Explain it to them and you have a blog post.

**Learning Newbie** · 06-07-2007, 01:25 PM

I'd skip the photoshop tutorials, that's pretty saturated and you're competing will millions of people already. It's sort of like blogging about the iPhone. I mean, if it's something you enjoy and you're good at then those are the reasons to write about something, but if it's to build traffic, I'd look elsewhere.

One rule of blogging is to be controversial, to a point. Don't just spout nonsense to stir up trouble, but if you can provoke people to think, they'll appreciate it and come back. And if you haven't noticed, America is pretty divided right now. What does technology have to do with politics? Everything. In politics, you're the issue. They try to distract us with nonsense about bird flus and make believe terror plots, but that's to distract people (on both sides of the fence) from the way public policy affects their own life, and how they could make that better. On that note, you can borrow some of the topics I blog about.

Did you know that with most new cell phones, you can turn the phone off, pull the battery out, and they can still use your phone to record you? Just touch a button and your phone listens to your off-line conversations and sends them off to the FBI/NSA. Supposedly this can last for several hours on residual charge alone, ie without the battery.
What do you think about Google refusing to turn over search data to the US government, but censoring their results for the Chinese government?
Most newcommers to the internet live in "the developing world" aka the 3rd world. They access the net by cell phone instead of computer. How does this affect the future of the network?
Did you know that many cars built since the early 1990s have a "black box" hidden in the engine, like airplanes? When two cars collide, they can tell whether either of them were speeding, if they hit the brakes, swerved, all kinds of things. Drunks don't like this, but if people knew about it, drunks might use taxis.
Toyota has a car that can sense when it's about to crash, and will hit the breaks even if you're asleep at the wheel. Pretty cool, huh?
Electronic voting.

You're welcome.

**Learning Newbie** · 06-07-2007, 07:21 PM

Global Warming.

Seriously, you started a thread on the subject, and look what kind of debate it provoked. People are pretty emotional on both sides. And I don't blame them, it's scarier than getting cancer, but we're too lazy and entitled to walk or take a bus. If you look at the response to your post, well, it seems like a good topic. But what does that have to do with technology?

Lots of firms want their people to leave their computers on (but locked) overnight. Some because it lets IT remote desktop in if they need to update something, others because it's cheaper to waste power than to wait for your machine to boot. On the scale of a few million people doing this, that's a lot of power. Think of all the servers and how much juice they use. All that electricity comes from burning coal for the most part, plus all kinds of other sources. Nuclear is the biggest one that doesn't contribute to global warming directly, but has its own problems. Anyway, green house gas emissions are the cost for running your iPod. Or your laptop. Not just your hummer.

You could write posts about how to use sleep mode on your computer and other tips like that, or you can offend polluters and spark a debate. Probably you'll get more respect if you do the first one, and still have a debate on your hands.

Also, everyone has a digicam and upgrades every few years, just like computers, and other digital toys. But these making chips is really hard on the environment. Maybe even just using that laptop for one extra year and saving some money in the process will make a small dent in global warming.

And why on earth don't more people work virtual? That screams tech all over the place.

**BreaktheSilence** · 06-07-2007, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

I don't have specific suggestions for topics, but a few things that have helped me is to look at other blogs and see what they're posting and 'borrow' the occasional idea.

Just be sure that it is blogs in the plural...

You know what they say about 'borrowing' ideas, if you borrow from one it's plagiarism, whereas if you borrow from two - it magically becomes research.

**ADAM Web Design** · 06-07-2007, 07:50 PM

Write about how IBM Sucks. You'll end up with about 100 different IBMers looking at your blog from their internal network.

Sadly, there's an element of truth to what I just said. If you write something controversial, people are attracted to it. Controversy creates curiosity.

**Learning Newbie** · 06-08-2007, 01:26 PM

Controversy doesn't always sell, I guess. There's got to be a balance, I think my last couple of blog posts have been too hot to handle. None of them have got any comments, I think people see the titles and decide to stay out of this one.

Now, they're well written and well illustrated, at least the most recent one is. Very controversial, but important subjects. Maybe I went a little too far over the top? Anyway, have a look at them to see what I did wrong, learn from my mistake, and then come back here and tell us what you did differently to make controversy work for you.