Author: bmcgoldrick299

This is How They Repay You

Dog ownership can be so rewarding.  They are loyal, lovable, fun and cuddly.

Yet there are times when there is a disconnect.  You think you do everything right and still something goes a little wrong.

This was one such night.  Cheyenne had her walks, had her food, had her loves and yet systematically took each piece of junk mail (one piece at a time) laying on the coffee table and shred into little bits.

Granted, I sat there and watched her do it, so perhaps I have parenting skill issues.  However, in my defense, I really thought she would respect me enough to stop.  Or at least get bored with it.

Oh well . . . live and learn.  Cheyenne still gets, her walks, her food and her love.  But she does not get access to mail anymore.

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Creativity Consternation

As you may have noticed from my recent blog dry spell (I mean really, wasn’t there anything of consequence happening the last 2 months), ideas for interesting blog topics can be hard to come by, while reasons for not writing abound:

I won’t write today because:

  1. I’ll write tomorrow . . .
  2. I have already spent too much time on the computer . . .
  3. Date night . . .
  4. Nothing relevant to say

So recently, while I was doing some research for my boss in order to develop a “blog writing” SOP, I began to wonder where people go to get ideas for the things they write about.  I mean really, do the millions of bloggers have anything to say that hasn’t been said before?  The answer is no; however, this doesn’t seem to matter and who wants to let that stand in your way!

Now, personally, I think that the ideas that come to you organically (like when you are washing your hair in the shower or clipping your toenails) are the best.  However, when you want to increase site traffic you should post daily, the enormity of finding a topic to write about everyday can become the proverbial millstone around your neck.  Enter – the “Blog Topic Generator”.

Yes, you heard me correctly.  When you are stumped for a story, confounded for some content, or puzzled for a post . . . you can turn to a “blog topic generator” website.   I found this great article 8 Blog Topic Generators for Blog Post Idea Inspiration on the best blog topic generators and I decided to try out a few of them out.

1.HubSpot – You put in 3 nouns regarding what you would like to write about and hit the “GIVE ME BLOG TOPICS” button and out pops a week’s worth of blog titles and you take it from there. Since we are heading to Yosemite next week, I decided to use that:

hubspot california blogs1hubspot california blogs

2.Portents Content Idea Generator – This was is even easier.  Just type one word and out pops a title.  Along with quirky commentary.

portents yosemite 1

3. And for those of you who need an idea fast . . . on The Blog Post Ideas Generator you don’t even have to put in subjects or key words.  All you have to do is click the button and you get the start of a blog title.  Go ahead – do it as many times as you want.  They even have a downloadable app – pretty cool.

So, in the future, I will not let my imagination ineptitude get me down. While I’m not sure you will see a blog next week entitled “Six Things Spock Would Say About Yosemite”, you can be sure that I will be using these super simple blog topic generators to get the creative ideas flowing.