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How to Improve Your Blog When You Don’t Have Computer Access

Posted By Darren Rowse 8th of November 2008 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

Is your computer out of action? Use the time to improve your blog with these six activities as suggested by Ali from Alpha Student.

Even the most ardent bloggers will occasionally find themselves without computer access. If you’re just lacking an internet connection, you can at least write posts – but what can you do when all you’ve got is a notebook and a pen?

Whether you want to make use of your commute or lunch hour, whether you’d like to squirrel yourself into a corner at boring family events, or whether you’d just like to get a bit done towards your blog whilst standing in line at the post office, here are six computer-free activities that will help your blogging.

1. Generate Ideas

Have you been blogging for a while? If so, do you have times when you feel like there’s nothing new left to write about in your niche? That means you need to do some quality idea-generation. This method is incredibly easy – and it works:

  1. Write the numbers 1 – 50 down the side of your piece of paper (you may need several sheets).
  2. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
  3. Write an idea next to each number – before the time runs out!

Don’t worry if you have some ideas which are a bit similar, or some which don’t seem to be full posts. You might find that one idea will form a series – or that another can be a sub-point in a longer piece.

Once you’ve got your stock of ideas ready, you can…

2. Plan Next Month

Wouldn’t it be great to have a month of posts planned out in advance? If you normally write on whatever’s in your head and hit “publish” straight away, you may realise you’ve spent two weeks covering pretty much the same topic each day – and your readers are getting bored.

Sit down with a notebook, and work out how many posts you want to publish in the next month (e.g. about 13-14 total if you’re aiming for three a week). Now figure out a title or topic for each of those posts, using your list of ideas. You’ll want to consider:

The great thing about planning ahead is that you’ll start getting ideas churning away for some of those different posts. That means it’s time to…

3. Brainstorm A Post

Write the title of your post in the middle of a blank piece of paper, and start a spider diagram:

brainstorm.jpg

image by -nathan

This is a very simple and effective way to help yourself think laterally about the topic of your post. Jot down the main points that come to mind which you want to address around the central circle, then start thinking which points you could link together. If any points spawn new ideas, add those on. (Warning: depending on how in-depth you want your post to be, you might need a large piece of paper!)

When you’re back at your computer, you’ll find that writing posts becomes almost effortless when you’ve already set the foundations by figuring out a solid structure for your post. You may want to add a few extras to your piece, though, so how about using some computer-free time to …

4. Take Photographs

I tend to get my images from sxc.hu and Flickr, using the excuse that I’m a rotten photographer – but with great blogs like Digital Photography School out there, I know I’ve only myself to blame for not taking the time to learn!

So why not try snapping some of your own images for your blog? You might even want to get someone to take a few shots of you for your “About” page. (Readers love to see what you look like!) If you’ve got cute kids – or cute pets – you could include them too.

If you feel your head-shot would frighten readers away, then how about going back to that list of posts and figuring out what images you might need? For example, if you’ve got a post titled “My two cents on the state of the blogosphere”, you could take a snapshot of … two cents. Think laterally too; how about someone stirring a pan as a metaphor in a post about the process of letting ideas simmer into life? Outdoor shots – flowers, trees, landscapes – can make great all-purpose images.

If you’re bored of photography by now, why not …

5. Read A Good Book

Have you ever noticed that most bloggers cite examples and give quotes from other bloggers? It’s rare to see a book quoted in a post – yet, in any field, there’s a huge amount of in-depth, thoughtful and well-researched content in books. If you’ve fallen into the habit of getting all of your news, views and facts from blogs alone, try picking up a book or journal in your field. Every time I do this, I find a new idea to blog about.

Not all niches have a host of magazines on the shelves: if you’re blogging about something obscure or very new, you might not be able to find any related publications. Reading is still valuable: you’ll find inspiration in unlikely places. Titles and headlines – from mainstream magazines, not just niches ones – just might spark off a train of thought that leads to your next brilliant article.

By this point, you might be getting tired of all the idea-generating, planning, brainstorming, photo-taking and reading. If so, it’s time for the last non-computer blogger-friendly activity…

6. Have A Break

However passionate you are about your blog, there’ll be times when you get stale, jaded or just plain worn out. Everyone needs to kick back and relax: and yes, you do have time. Of course you want your blog to make it to the Technorati Top 100 – but you need to be ready for the long haul in order to make it there.

Blogger burn-out is no fun. Don’t run yourself, and your blog, into the ground. If you find yourself with an enforced computer-free day, for whatever reason, use it as a great excuse to unplug. Go to a movie, head to the park, prowl the mall, or whatever it is you enjoy. By taking some time out, you’ll return to your blogging refreshed and enthused. You’ll be looking forward to hitting that keyboard again!

If you’ve got a great tip for blogging without a computer, why not add it in the comments?

Ali is a postgraduate student and professional writer. She runs Alpha Student (grab the RSS feed), a blog which aims to help students get the most of their time at university.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Robert L. Gisel :: “I do one-up which is to designate posts and title them and write a pargraph or two to come back to later when I need to write a post. I haven’t decided if it clutters my “Edit posts” too much.”

    It does mine.. :))

    And it used to be the only worry that *ever* crossed my Mind was whether or not the software provider’s server would ever go down, a situation that has pretty much gone down to nil these days..

    Then along came politics, and…………. :sigh:

    My notes stay at the house these days.. *OFF* anyone else’s server and thus away from their control.. *OFF* the (latest) computer that is ten years+ old and no doubt has slated itself to be the next one in line to eventually crash for the umpteenth and finally last time..

    :grrrr-rin:

    Cyber hugs from North Georgia..

  2. Some very cool and insightful ideas with interesting posts.

    They say it’s also a good idea to keep an pen and paper by your bedside as you tend to come up with good ideas when lying in bed.

    The idea is to write them down there and then…apparently.

  3. Cindy Sue Causey – Good point. Come to think of it my blogs are the only thing I have on the computer that is not backed up. I have hard copies in a binder of all my posts. But is there anyway to back up the blogs?

  4. this is really good stuff. thanks for the ideas, ali.

  5. I usually tend to go to a lot of conferences. A lot of the time I get bored and tend to brainstorm. I find that I get between 10-20 ideas just by brainstorming! It is great way to get ideas!

  6. Hi, Robert..

    I’m embarrassed.. I realized it takes a computer to do that.. *SORRY, DARREN..!* :))

    To Robert, again.. Saw you’re using Blogger.. Easiest way I did for backing up those up was go through my archives, click on each month then save pages as “Web page, complete” in my Firefox.. This saved the entire page of verbiage (posts, tags) plus images..

    Unfortunately does *not* save the comments which to me are the most valuable.. DownloadThemAll for Firefox works there by letting you pick and choose the comment URLs to download, also..

    WordPress.com lets users save “posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags”.. You find the option by going to “Manage” then clicking “Export” under a given blog’s Dashboard..

    On seeing your question, remembered we could backup in WordPress.. Just didn’t realize it encompassed that much data in a download.. *Totally cool*.. Having images hosted on an outside service helps take care of that those won’t be downloaded in the resulting XML backup file..

    My apologies again to Darren that this accidentally gravitated back towards a “when you do have computer access” comment.. Guess they would call that a “hazard of the job”, such as it were.. :)

  7. Hi Cindy, You’re right, we strayed, but thanks for the tip.

    OFF the computer I still have everything printed off and like to edit out the typos from the hard copy. Seem to see them better.

    But also I have all the posts of the one blog in a 3-ring binder and can review what I’ve written, Flipping through the pages I take stock and come up with new ideas for later posting. Beside I think looks cooler in hard copy,

  8. Thanks for sharing your ideas! I especially like the point you’ve made about reading books. I personally get a lot of ideas from books, but I don’t generally quote them that often. I also really enjoy the thought of planning out the next month. A lot of people blog without editorial calenders.

    Aside from just planning your posts, if you have a lot of free time you can also write rough drafts of posts. That way when you go to compose something, you already have a good idea of what you want to say, and you can make adjustments, add resources, etc.

  9. As long as you are updated with do’s and don’ts in content writing, it is not that much problem to improve ones blog not online.

  10. Great points. Taking time off to free your mind helps tremendously. Just sitting in a public place, relaxing or people watching can give you many ideas. Just observing everyday behavior can really generate ideas.

  11. I just relocated and no internet for three weeks. Luckily I ended up with a lot of pictures and materials to write about. I wish I would have had the list before I left though. lol

  12. More gems from Darren Rowse1

  13. Wow, a great tip shared here. Thanks, Darren. At least, you’ve given me an idea about how to create a great post for my blog. :)

  14. Great post. Guys, i start to blog without internet at home as i used internet connection in office (now) or school (last time).

    It is good time for you to generate idea without any distraction where u have no internet connection to sticky site like Facebook or Myspace

  15. Capturing pictures for blog purpose is a great idea. Also new pictures give new Idea for a blog post. so grab a pen and a paper to write a good description for your new photos.

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