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When Kelly Diels and I put out the call for The League of Extraordinary Bloggers, Tara Gentile was one of the first to step up. Tara is a dynamo, running both Scoutie Girl, a blog focusing on hand crafted living and conscious spending, and taragentile.com where she helps little businesses think big.
Blogging Outside the Box: Approaching Your Blog with Creative Spirit
-by Tara Gentile
Creating and using a blog is a creative act. Whether your goal is cold hard cash, celebrity status, or touchy-feely community building, putting a blog out there into world is an act of creation.
Creativity means thinking outside-the-box, discovering innovative solutions for status quo problems. Blogs themselves were once an outside-the-box way to publish digital content. Now they’re adrift in a sea of sameness.
So… you’re a business blogger, a blogging blogger, a law blogger, a design blogger, a code blogger. What have you done lately to challenge the status quo in your own niche? How have you broken the mold to set yourself apart?
Breaking Out & Breaking Through
At my own blog, Scoutie Girl, I broke through just a few short months ago. Until that point, I was chugging along doing things the “right way” in my niche, gaining readers here, making some money there. But not growing my readership – and my sales – the way I truly wanted to. One day, I started doing things my own way:
- Since everyone else in my niche posted tons of pictures and very few words, I started posting 1000 word entries several times a week.
- While others posted 15 times a week, I decided to post 5.
- As others continued to struggle with direct ad sales, I created my own product.
- Since others looked to be the first to post a new collection, I chose to concentrate on the roots of our movement.
- White others wrote about stuff, I wrote about people, their stories, and my own life.
I succeeded. My blog is the talk of the town, my posts are regularly shared virally, and I can’t wait to have that next spark of inspiration to do it all over again.
Climbing Out of Your Own Blog Box
Ready to claw your way out of your blogging box? :
- Think about your niche. Think about what all those blogs have in common. What’s the tried & true rule of business? Consider it, mull it over, dissect it. And then do the opposite. Do something crazy. Just give it a try for a few weeks. Wait and see if people notice. See if people act.
- When people do act – by commenting, tweeting, connecting – engage them. Ask them questions about their comments & tweets. Get them to tell you more about what they reacted to. Find out what problems they have.
- Once you find out those problems, create innovative solutions. Oh sure, that’s easy to say but hard to do. I get that. Being creative isn’t easy. Maybe a solution is a series of in-depth posts. Maybe it’s a series of incredibly short posts geared towards conversation. Maybe it’s a new topic, a new direction, a new goal. And maybe, just maybe, it’s a product you can sell.
- Repeat.
When you’re done mining your own niche for creative, upside-down ideas for your blog, check out other niches. Each niche has quirky little techniques you can tweak to use on your blog. Incorporate different post ideas, different layouts, interactive plug-ins – each niche has it’s own box. Rummage through that box for a bit and you’ll find all sorts of new inspiration & innovative ideas.
Approaching your blog with an eye towards creativity and innovation can reinvigorate you as a writer and your readers as customers.
{image credit: create, love, laugh via flickr}
Tara Gentile blogs about
creative living at Scoutie
Girl and big thinking at taragentile.com.
When not listening to NPR or playing toddler games, she's running a boutique
web design & brainstorming business, helping small businesses think
big and get personal. Tara geeks over the indie craft movement,
WordPress, & conscious spending.
I agree that creative touch able to make our blog stand out from the blog crowd in our niche. However, I think that it is hard to give creative touch if you are not the creative person.
Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog´s last post ..3 Points How To Utilize phpMyAdmin for Blog
Hi Dana! I think your point is valid for sure. BUT I think there are two very concrete questions you can ask yourself to get your mind moving a little more creatively in terms of your blog.
1.) How can I do the opposite of what everyone is doing?
2.) What is the craziest idea I could implement on my blog?
You might not go “all the way” with either idea. But answering those questions could help you break out of the box you find yourself in. It’s all about questioning your assumptions and reframing your outlook! Good luck!
I read this post and said “yes!” out loud a few times. Although I follow blogs that post pretty pictures, I feel a deeper connection to bloggers who have something to say. The posts that make me think, ask questions, go “aha” or “no way!” are the ones I get most excited about.
Blogs should be about interacting with readers and starting smart discussions. That’s why I love Tara’s sites. She makes connections with her followers and focuses on important topics.
This is great! I’m in the process of figuring out how to focus my blog better and this really helps clarify some ideas I already had. :)
Elizabeth´s last post ..Build a Soccer Goal
Tara, it’s great to see what you’re doing in your niche. You are definitely the trendsetter, I don’t see how anyone could disagree!
Totally agree that notion of checking out other niches. It’s like each niche has an echo chamber, and you have to get out of that echo chamber to really be creative.
Dave Doolin´s last post ..Want to Write Better Here’s how…
Tara,
This is a great info, especially for someone like me who’s been blogging for 4 years – it’s easy for me to get stuck in a rut, doing the same old things, trying to keep up with the other mom entrepreneur bloggers out there.
Like Dave, I love your idea of checking out other niches. Just today, I was looking at Darren Rowse’s digitalPhotographySchool. He’s using social media to build a super interactive community and some of his methods are really different – I’m dreaming up some ways to use them on my blog.
Thanks for a great post – you always rock the house. :D
Heather
thanks heather! i think the mom-preneur niche can be just as insidious as the design blog niche! yikes!
right now, i’m not reading any design or craft blogs with regularity. i get so inspired from following others!
Yep, I think you’re right, Tara.
And sometimes I just feel like “What the hell else can I SAY?? I’ve said it ALL!”. LOL.
I just deleted all the blogs from my feed reader and I’m gradually finding new ones. It’s fun!
Heather
Heather, I feel that way sometimes too. But then I look a little closer, and the picture is a little more complicated.
Turns out, I have plenty to say, but some of the articles I want to write require *serious* commitment. They aren’t something I can just snap out in a few minutes.
Also, I’ve found that deleting all my feeds leaves me in a bind next time I want to go promote! Now I just mark them all read and ignore them when I’m not in the mood. Later, I’ll have them when I need them.
Dave Doolin´s last post ..I want to be an Olympic blogger Part I
Hi Tara, I have been thinking about what you have written for quite some time. I just get a little scared about not doing things he same way as everyone else and yet off line I pretty much stand alone with my approach to my niche.
I have realised more and more that I am trying to set up a life that I want to control and how I operate my work needs to be a priority.
Nicola@SimpleDivorce´s last post ..What is a Divorce Coaching Program
“And then do the opposite.”
Solid.
The great thing is that it works across many businesses. If you are shining shoes on the street corner or in the process of developing alternative energy sources.
No one ever got rich by doing the same thing as everyone else. No one ever became a leader by being a follower.
Clearly you have to be conscious of your existing readership, (clients) and understand the value you are bringing ‘as is’. You don’t wanna alienate them entirely. But, If you are careful, calculated, and clever, you can make the transition without stabbing your readers in the eye with a fork.
Engagement, feedback, followup. Yes, yes, yes. Requires additional effort? Clearly. But if coasting along in neutral was your thing, I suspect you wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Solid post Tara.
-J
Tara’s articles are always helpful, informative, creative, and right on the money! I need to re-think my blogging strategy and act on it asap!
Thanks Tara and thanks for letting your readers know about this blog. I certainly be back here to read more articles.
Lana´s last post ..Remains of the Day
Not only do I love this advice for blogging – but for business as well! When starting up my own handmade business 3 years ago I got really stressed because I wasn’t following the advice of so many folks and picking one tiny niche of handmade to focus on – my art just thrives on the different genres of making I do, and 3 years later I’m so happy with what I do and where I’m going. I realize that I blog a bit like this as well, but it takes the genius Tara to point out how awesome it can be…and challenge me to break outside my box even MORE!
Great post, thanks Tara!
Candy from Candied Fabrics´s last post ..Postcards from the Sierras- day 5
I agree with Candy…this is great advice for business in general as well as blogging. I’ve got to start brainstorming!
Fantastic post! I can feel your energy in every word…you must love what you’re doing. Thanks for the great advice, which I’ve just put in my box, no, rather on the “outside” of my box!