Comments on: SURPRISE! How to Create Compelling Content by Being Playful

By: jeux

jeux — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:34:30 +0000

Thank you Darren for writing this great series.

I really enjoy learning from you.

To me, compelling content will make me motivated to act upon that I have fear on.

By: SURVEYS FOR MONEY

SURVEYS FOR MONEY — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:28:58 +0000

I think about running out of content to write about all the time. That eventually I’ll start writing about topics irrelavent to my blog. The ideas you mentioned on about how to surprise your readers give me hope for the future. Thanks for the great post.

By: Goldstar fundraisers

Goldstar fundraisers — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 11:09:45 +0000

Was this a Freudian slip: “Grab a pen and paper or a market and a whiteboard ” ?

Grab a market indeed :)

By: Reza Winandar

Reza Winandar — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:53:17 +0000

Fresh content is easy, just post a topic about your hobbies.

By: fas

fas — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:51:12 +0000

Better still take a vacation, free up your mind and hit back with a fresher head to write.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:22:41 +0000

Let me think for a moment… I have a blog about psychic phenomena… I’m writing posts as believer… Maybe I should write few posts as pseudo-sceptic? Muhahaha (evil scientist laugh in the background) :D

By: Daniel Richard

Daniel Richard — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:43:28 +0000

Heya Darren! Was reading this post in my reader, saw the part on design and I went “true that”!

Could share that since I was busy with my day-job that I had from the beginning of 2009, my posts quality dropped by a tonne — and so did my daily views (averaging 30, 50 max).

It was only at the last week of July that I deconstructed and reconstructed a theme from a very popular blog and applied to mine that got a sudden jump (w/o any new post) to an average of 250 uniques, 500+ hits daily!

Design change works. Thanks for this post!

By: DemoGeek

DemoGeek — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:32:33 +0000

Darren – those are, once again, no doubt, very useful advice. But the irony to me is whenever I have the pen and paper with me the ideas never come :( But when I drive thru the city for example my mind would be filled with ideas that I won’t be able to write down.

Lately I’ve been using my iPhone’s Voice Recording capabilities record my thoughts. Would certainly love to have the flow with the pen, paper and my whiteboard.

By: Web Marketing Tips

Web Marketing Tips — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:05:36 +0000

Everyone is doing same and interesting thing is some time you also repeat same old stuff with new wrapper.

We all do unless and until new things hit to the market like twitter or similar kind of.

But however your way of style of always refreshing.

By: Kit

Kit — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:12:38 +0000

The tips are quite useful, but it looks like that the tips are only for bloggers who have been blogging for some time. I wonder if there would be any problems if starters blog in this way.

By: Trina

Trina — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:38:18 +0000

Awe, I don’t like homework – but I just might do it anyway. I appreciate the list. Thank you.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:54:00 +0000

Be controversial?

I think a lot of people consider my blog to be TOO controversial.

Perhaps it is good to be “just a little” controversial.

By: Web Search Engine Optimization

Web Search Engine Optimization — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:34:14 +0000

I can not agree more with this. Yes, sometimes we should add humor to for refreshment. Although, for instance, our blog is about health tips, we can post funny stories sometimes – find the stories related to our blog topic if possible….

And the mind mapping concept is very valuable, too.

By: David Stillwagon

David Stillwagon — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:04:58 +0000

I have used mind maps before and they are a great way to produce ideas.

By: DebugLife.com

DebugLife.com — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:14:42 +0000

@BloggerDaily Totally agree with you. I also find that mind mapping is a great way to think my way through a blog post that I am working on. It helps me structure my blog posts before I start writing them.

-Arif

By: krissy knox

krissy knox — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:31:36 +0000

This one is right up my alley, and I do do this often on my blogs. I love being creative, and hate when blogs are cookie cutter copies of one another, all having the same ideas, looking alike — with identical type of posts. However, I’ve been told that this is just “not allowed” on “serious blogs,” not if you want to “get ahead in proffessional blogging.” You’ll run the risk of “losing your rss readers” or something disasterous like that. This also is supposed to run true for twitter. In personal branding, I often get the message we are being told to “stand out in the crowd — brand ourself as unique,” and at the same time, “for God’s sake, please blend in! — or you’ll be branded as too different and not mainstream enough.” It’s strange and I’m kind of tired of the mixed messages. So I really like what you have to say today! Although I do realize there are boundaries and risks, and you must weigh everything out, including your niche, and your target audience…

This morning I did the exercise you mentioned (before even reading this post!) and came up with a post that will be an ongoing series. It was really thinking outside the box. At first I thought, can I really use this? And then thought, why not? It’s my blog, and we need to be more innovative and not have cookie cutter posts. It’s all about what our readers want anyway. So I’ll post it tonight.

Thanks for giving us lots of ideas and food for thought, Darren.

krissy knox :)
http://sometimesithink-krissy.blogspot.com
follow me on twitter:
http://twitter.com/iamkrissy

By: Unemployed Personal Loans

Unemployed Personal Loans — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:57:10 +0000

I always throw in a swing ball even if it is right in the middle of something serious. Readers like to see that your human after all.

By: Stock Market Club

Stock Market Club — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:52:54 +0000

I think adding a video from time to time to a text only blog is a great idea. But maybe you could do a post on how to post them and not effect how Google search results views you. Doesn’t posting videos hurt your rankings?

By: Dhir@Fast Money

Dhir@Fast Money — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:46:15 +0000

Hello Darren,

Fresh & unique content is always attract readers.
Also you have described mind mapping method is always best to create any type of content. I personaly think that when you write a content just write that calls reader’s emotions. That’s it.

Again thank you for your very informative post.

-Dhir

By: BloggerDaily

BloggerDaily — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:39:07 +0000

Mind mapping is absolutely important before creating a post. I already made it as one of my blogging habits.

Agree with the points. Looking forward to apply them. Thanks a lot!