7 Ways of Avoid the Blogging Black Hole

One of the main complaints about all this New Media is also what makes it so interesting: there's just too much information out there! If you've started reading blogs, you've probably felt your time slipping away as you click and zoom down information wormholes, until you're hopelessly lost.

How do I deal with all this info? Here are some methods:

1. Give your initial blog discovering activities a definite ending date. Alice went Through the Looking Glass, but she did go back home. You need to also. Give yourself a week or so, and set a date on which you'll actually do something with all the bookmarks you've compiled - like sort them out or get rid of them.

2. Manage your new bookmarks into categories. This has worked wonders for me - and my folder categories are few and extremely simple:

Blogs 1 - blogs I really like and I read every day - limited to 10.
Blogs 2 - blogs I visit when I've got the time.
Blogs 3 - Blogs I visit once or twice each week.

3. Use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. This browser has revolutionized the way I spend my time online.

4. Pursue in-blog links with the firm and clear understanding that You Will Read Them Later. Once that link comes up on your computer, immediately bookmark it, then go back and finish reading the original article. Firefox comes in handy here, with its ability to open new links with "tabs."

5. Use RSS, which delivers updated blog content to you, without making you go to each blog you're interested in. I don't use it, but that's because I like going to blogs. It's like visiting people in their homes. Or going to restaurants. But that's just me. RSS might be great for you.

6. Vow to use the information you're saving in a bookmark, even if it's only categorizing it for later use. I do this by looking at all the bookmarks I've saved once a week, downloading to text that info I can really use.

7. If you can only use two of the above methods, use
#2: Categorize Your Bookmarks
and
#4: Read Links Later.
They're the ones that work best for me!

What If I Run Out of Ideas - Or Don't Have Any To Start With?

I bet your biggest stumbling block to starting a blog is your Fear Of Content. Maybe you're excited about beginning your own online repository for your brilliant ideas, but can't take that crucial next step. Or you're exhausted from battling a severe brain fog.

The Fear can take a number of forms:

1. Fear of not defining your "niche" area;
2. Fear of your words sounding dumb;
3. Fear of your ideas getting criticized;
4. Fear of coming up with something every day - and how you'll feel when you hit a roadblock.

You'll probably hate me for this, but I don't have this problem. Strike that - I do have this problem, and all these fears. I've been writing scripts long enough (and have had critics rip them apart) that I've developed the proverbial "thick skin." Writing may not be as simple as a-b-c, but I can pretty easily vanquish many of my anxieties. And if I'm having trouble on a particular day, I know where to go for help and inspiration.

In addressing the #4 fear above, some established bloggers have come up with all kinds of ideas to help you generate ideas. Here's where you can go for more help:

I Help You Blog compiled 101 great posting ideas that will make your blog sizzle.

ProBlogger tells us How to Generate High Quantities of Content for Your Blog
and gives us weapons for Battling Bloggers Block.

And Lifehack ties it all together for the blogging beginner and promises riches in line with our wildest dreams in Beginner’s Guide: Start a blog, get 100,000 page views and make over $100 your first month.

Chances are you've got something in your past or hidden in your secret reserves which, if tapped into, will turn you into a content-generating monster. I know that my experience sitting down in the evening, night after night, pounding out play scenes and screenplay pages - and having them read, responded to, produced, and critiqued, has given me an ability to constantly generate article ideas. I write all of them down - even if they're just a sentence or a headline - and go back later to flesh them out. Sometimes they work, other times they refused to take on any mass. But having a big list of possible ideas does great things for my self-confidence. And having people like what they read - that does even more!

A Vital and Awesome Reason to Blog

Did you know that the blog is the new resume? I've had this feeling all along - and now others are putting it into "print." So you don't have to take my word for it. check out what these bloggers have to say:

Traces of Inspiration
Bokardo

It's amazing where we've come in twenty years. I've gone from having resumes produced at a print shop (when paper selection and type style ruled the design choices), to including links to this blog in cover letters.

You know, writing for a blog is about 10,000 times more fun than creating a resume!

(and I'll include a link to my series "Screenwriter Secrets of Effective Storytelling" at my other blog "krooz," to boost that blog's resume factor.)

Independence from The Matrix

Chris Brogan's come up with two blog posts that are at the foundation of the Moonlight Initiative idea:

Declaring Your Independence
is a call to action for all of us to take more control of how we live our lives.

The Matrix Lives Your Life
tells me what I've suspected all along about my tv-watching habits.

Boomers Meet The New Media

In my meetings with friends (of middle and late "boomer" age) over the past few weeks, I've presented the ideas contained in this blog with two objectives in mind: I want to discover what communications issues people deal with in their daily job/passion investigation endeavors. And I'm practicing my consulting abilities as I assist them in understanding how New Media (especially blogging) can help them with their goals.

It's been fascinating, listening to their stories and desires. From these conversations, I've developed a list of my friends' concerns when faced with constantly developing "social media" applications:

I don't have time to get familiar with this, but I know I need to.
I'm not sure I could sustain a blog over a long period of time.
Isn't this just One More Thing barging into our lives?
What's the return on investment?
I don't know how to implement it for myself, although I understand the concept and it seems great.
Isn't this just for the younger crowd?
It feels like just more work.

My chief difficulty in helping out is getting past all this confusion, while letting everyone know that they're not the only ones confused. My biggest message? Try it out, and if it doesn't work for you, you can quit - without losing money since you haven't invested any in the first place... just time.

Hugh MacLeod over at Gaping Void has some very interesting things to say about how "social media" is evolving. He sees these applications becoming "faster, cheaper, easier." What I'm finding is many people are really waiting until "easier" comes along. Which is quite understandable when you factor in our schedules these days.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention... Seth Godin thinks you should blog, "even if you only have one post in you."