Social media is a force, a huge force and the wave is only just beginning. From Facebook, to Twitter there are millions of people across the world speaking to each other in a way that couldn’t have been contemplated 10 years ago.

The world is a social place, and the world has just reduced in size due to video, internet, mobile phones, and social media.

I am an excited proponent of social media and I have only scratched the surface of what is possible at the moment.

Here are 10 ways I think social media is changing the world.

10 Ways Social Media Is Changing The World

Our Resume

Gone are the days when a boring old resume will suffice when you are looking to stand out from the crowd of thousands of other boring old resumes.  Our resume is our social media persona, our tweets, our online conversations, our forum messages, and our videos.

Social media was made for people looking to be creative about finding work.

Imagine the scenario where there are two people, Bob and Gill,  in the running for the job of Social Media Manager. Bob has all the right qualifications and all the right experience.  Gill has the right qualifications but has little work experience.  However, Gill is all over the internet talking about her passion which is social media, she is teaching other people how to use social media via videos, podcasts and tweets and her Facebook profile.  Bob doesn’t really use Twitter all that much and has a MySpace profile and not a Facebook one, he likes to keep his private life private, which is okay.  Who do you think is going to get the job?

Our social media profiles will soon be the first thing that employers look at when we are going for a job, I know I would be, despite the legal implications of this.

So when you are online creating your profile remember that whatever you say and do online there is a permanent record of it, so make what you’re saying useful.

The news

The news is no longer going to be managed by big news companies it is going to be spread by the people who are on the scene with FlipCams and who are tweeting about it as it happens.  Look at the recent Haiti disaster, as soon as the disaster struck there were thousands of messages sent via Facebook to friends and relatives all over the world.  Haitians were tweeting about it and giving regular updates about buildings, people and the full scale of what was actually happening.

The news is no longer controlled and regulated, and everyone is a potential news breaker, we  don’t have to rely on  the big news channel to haul their vans and camera crew  over to the scene when we have local people who are more than willing to report on the news as it happens.

This is real freedom of information.

Social movements

With the advent of social networks more and more people are getting involved in politics.  It’s now much easier to contact our local representatives, our MPs (UK), and people who have authority.  The people we are contacting have no real place to hide, and social media has forced the hand of politicians, big companies, media personalities, and made them aware that if they are doing anything unscrupulous there is nowhere to hide anymore.  They can’t buy off a newspaper, they can’t call in favors from friends.  There is always someone willing to tweet it, put a photo on Facebook, blog it, video it, and put it out to thousands of eyeballs within a matter of minutes.

Look at the recent spell of bloggers and tweeters who are creating movements to help the people in Haiti by setting up donation ‘stations’ whereby someone can donate money to help the people in Haiti.  This was organized within a matter of hours of the tragedy.

As Chris Guillebeau says we can plan ‘World Domination’ and it can be done through social media.

Starting a business

Never has it been so easy to start making money as it has online with a blog, a few affiliate products to promote and a whole tranch of social networking accounts.  What’s more, if we are really honest, genuine and passionate about the product we will make even more money.  We become ‘Trust Agents’ (Chris Brogan & Julian Smith), and the more trustworthy we are seen the more money we can make or the more people we can help.

Gary Vaynerchuk is one such person known as a ‘Trust Agent’, his story of taking his dad’s $4million dollar company, ‘Wine Library’ and taking it  to $10million dollars using social media and setting up ‘Wine Library TV’ is inspirational.  If you’ve ever seen Gary’s videos you’ll know him as passionate, knowledgeable,  funny and most of all honest.

We can all start our own business online and if we can earn $100 a month online we can grow it to earn $1000 and then grow it more to earn $10,000.

Customer Service

Big companies are starting to realize the importance of social media for customer service and customer perception.  Whenever you write about a company they have the potential to respond to your query, your complaints and general questions within a matter of minutes.  Companies can set up Google alerts, tweet alerts, LinkedIn alerts whenever someone mentions their company name or chief exec.

An example I had myself was when I wrote a complaint, on my blog,  about the length of time the communications giant BT were taking to fix my broadband issues.  Within a matter of hours I noticed that my site had been linked to from their Intranet (internal website) and accessed over 50 times.  I then received a phone call from someone within BT to apologies and to advise she would personally deal with all my BT problems and gave me a direct number (if you’ve ever tried calling them you’ll know how frustrating it can be).

Another great example of this is from a company called Nakedwines who received a complaint from a customer on their facebook page.  The company responded immediately by calling the customer.  The customer was still not happy and stayed online to complain further.  NakedWines rep responded online by stating they would refund all the money the customer has ever spent with them and make sure their order was received.  The disgruntled customer was finally forced to apologize once they had seen that they had done everything they could for him and close down his account.  This was great PR as it was online, honest and everyone could see what the company had done for the customer.  Had they not responded, and the conversation was one sided it could have gone horribly wrong for the company.

How we meet people

Imagine for a moment you are quite an introverted person, don’t like going out much, and have very few friends, through choice, but love being online, blogging and tweeting.  Using social media sites are a fantastic way to meet like minded people.  There’s only one drawback, a lot of your friends online stay hundreds or thousands of miles away.  With Skype, video and social media in general you can now keep in touch easily and still remain your introverted self as you have the choice to be visible or not.  Strangely enough social media will make media stars of the introverted.

Job hunting

We no longer have to go down to the job centre and look at little 5 x 4″ cards to search for the jobs we want, Twitter has it all, well not quite all yet but it’s coming.  You can search for your ideal job on Twitter using hashtags or specific @ tags.  Using the @ symbol is another way to look for jobs on twitter with accounts created specifically for this such as @microjobs @freelance_jobs @s1jobs_des_gla and there are lots more.  If you want more information about job searching on Twitter here is a link Job Searching on Twitter

Of course twitter is not the only platform.  As we grow more connected sites like LinkedIn And Plaxo are becoming the place to meet your potential new employer or employee.  It’s all about the conversation.  Imagine you are a prospective employer looking for a great freelance writer.  You friend someone you think might fit the bill, you look at the groups they have joined, you look at their conversations and you even talk to them yourself, very informal stuff.  Only you are getting to know the person before they even know you want to hire them so they will be in their natural environment and not on their best behavior as they don’t know you are looking at them as a potential employee.

The music we listen to

The music industry has already been fundamentally changed with the internet and people downloading, legally and illegally, music from the net.  However Social media be the savior for so many bands out there who were hoping for a record label contract: record labels are no longer required.  You no longer have to court the big labels to make your mark on the world, the big labels have to court you once they see how talented you are.

People like Justin Bieber are being discovered all the time through channels like Youtube and Facebook and anybody can become part of the world of  ‘America’s got talent’ or the -X-Factor’.

If you have talent, a video camera, a recording device you can make it big and you will get discovered or make it big on your own, but you still have to have the talent.

How we watch TV

The cable TV companies no longer have the control that they used to over what we watched.  More and more people are discovering TV and films online.  Most TV stations now have some form of media player showing their content online.  I am in the UK and the BBC has a fantastic one called BBC iPlayer.  Just the other night I missed a program I wanted to watch and wanted to watch it as I was twittering away, or catching up with my email.  The program, for anyone interested is called The Virtual Revolution and is a must watch for anyone interested in how the internet has changed the world, one of the guest travelers is Sir Tim Berners Lee.

We are no longer controlled, we have choices now and gone are the days when there are TV schedules, we now make our own schedules.  We can also make our own TV channels with the likes of UStream.tv anybody can have their own channel if they have the incline, the quality content, the knowledge and the guts to go live.  One such person is Chris Pirillo, right now as I type, his site has 307 viewers and all we can see are his computer screens, he has it on 24/7 and every time he sits down to work people tune in, it’s amazing he has had over 14 million views to his channel.

Advertising

Advertisers go where the eyes go and social media is changing the way big companies advertise.  No longer do you need a budget of millions to compete with the big companies who advertise on TV, you just need lots of ‘friends’ , lots of people who trust you, lots of authenticity and you can create your own product launch and make it big.

Gary Veynerchuk recently relayed a story where he advertised free shipping codes for his wine on Radio, on a billboard, and a direct mailing campaign for a cost of $7,500, here is how it went:

Billboard – 170 orders

Radio – 240 orders

Direct mail – 300+

What Gary then done is twittered his free shipping code over the space of 48 hours and received over 1,700 orders and all this was free.

Conclusion

We can’t afford to ignore social media as a force to be reckoned with, it is already here in our faces. If you want to start to take advantage of the wave don’t think it’s too late, it’s only the beginning and it’s exciting to watch.

Use Social Media To Boost Your BRANDING

Want to use social media to change your business, Personal Branding is the way to do it. Check out Personal Branding Theme which leverages all the best tools of social media to make your website one you can be proud of.

A basic fact of doing business in this modern technological age is that you must have a web site. Whether you are a corporate leader, looking to promote your own personal brand, or just plan a family reunion establishing your online presence is important, both personally and professionally. In order to have a web site that projects your own personal identity you must start with selecting the right web host; but with so many options available today, where do you begin and how do you know if you are selecting the best web host for your needs? In this guide to selecting the right web host for your web site we will look at ways to select the best host and a review of some of the top choices available to you in order to help you find the best hosting solution.

To begin the process your first step is to take a look at what your web hosting needs actually are. Do you need to help customers find your business? Are you wanting to establish a community with interactive features for your members or site visitors? Or do you need a great way to showcase your portfolio that lets you sell your talents to potential clients or buyers? Finding a web host that offers a ton of great features is not going to be very helpful to you if you do not know what you actually need or how you can incorporate those features in your web hosting needs. To get you started thinking about what you need and how you can incorporate some of the more popular web hosting features into your online identity, here is a quick over view of the more common features offered by a number of web hosting providers.

Site Builder:  This is one of the important areas that you need to deal with at the very beginning; how will you design your web site? If you already have web design software that you want to use to create your new masterpiece or will be hiring a designer to take care of that aspect of your web site for you then using a host that offers easy FTP access or an easy editor to give your design team room to create will be very important.  You can also find a professionally designed template that you can purchase then customize and upload to your web host.

But what if you are not a web design guru and you do not have a budget large enough to afford the luxury of hiring a design pro? This is where selecting a hosting provider that offers an easy site builder will be very important. Most site builders are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) drag and drop editors which mean that all you have to do is choose from a selection of predesigned templates and plug in the information and options that you want to add to your page.

Who Is It For: This is perfect for those who do not have a lot of time to put into designing the look and feel of their web site or for those who do not have the design software or know how to create their own web sites.

Blog: Blogs are being used today for everything from personal journaling to full blown magazines but are they an essential component for your web site needs? Blogs can help you to easily update information on your site and communicate with your web site visitors or customers. There are many blog hosts available and most hosting packages include easy to install blogging platforms such as WordPress that allows you to easily customize your blog’s look by choosing for a variety of themes or uploading your own. 
Who Is It For?: A blog is great for web site owners who want to offer regularly updated information or online newsletters for their customers or members on a daily or weekly basis and for those who will be offering more detailed information that they want to use to draw more visitors to their websites. A blog can easily be used to supplement your current needs; for example, a bridal shop could use a blog to display how to articles and feature on selecting the right dress, etc.

Community Features: If you want to engage your site visitors and have them returning to your web site frequently, adding community features can be a great way to go. Community features can range from a simple discussions forum to a full scale content management system that allows users to post articles and comment on content. Adding polls or a guest book is also another simple way to get your customers or visitors engaged with your site.

Who Is It For?: If you want to keep your customers on your site, get a lot of feedback from them, or encourage users to help grow your content then community features will be important to you. You will need to decide what level of visitor interaction will suit your needs in order to determine which community features you need. Those who only want to get basic feedback on a particular issue or two may make due with a simple poll where as web masters who are looking to create a full, robust community will need to find hosting that offers a forum and content management features that allow you to assign users the ability to add content to your site.

Email: If you want to communicate under your own brand, such as Your Name@YourDomain.com then finding a host that provides email services will be important. This is an area where you may want to think long term as well. If you want to offer email services to your site members with your domain then you will need to locate a host that provides larger email services that can be accessed by others. If ; however, you only want email for yourself or other key members of your company or organization then basic email services should work fine for you.

Also, you should consider how you want to access your email. Do you prefer web based email that can be accessed from anywhere or do you want the flexibility of using POP email services that allow you to use an email reading program such as IncrediMail or Microsoft’s Outlook? Knowing which options you prefer will help you to choose the best web hosting solution.

Top Recommendations:
To help you in your search, here is a quick review of some of my favorite options for web hosting.

Site 5 Hosting: This is one of my top picks for hosting with tons of options, great features, and an easy to use control panel that allows you to host single or multiple sites from one easy account. Site 5 has unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth plus they offer tons of preinstalled scripts including blogging platforms such as WordPress, forums, and CMS (Content Management Systems) including phpNuke, Joomla, and others. They have an easy to use site builder for chooser from a series of predesigned templates or you can easily use the ftp option to upload your site designed with software elsewhere. With free unlimited email and easy to manage domain tools, Site 5 is top rate choice that you can also feel good about because Site 5 is a green host and they plant a tree for every new account. With a 30 day free trial and money back guarantee you can not go wrong with this hosting option which is great for all levels of expertise, even those new to web hosting. They also offer Moodle for those needing to add educational elements to their sites or communities.
Who is it Best for? New users and professonals alike, Site 5 is great for anyone looking for a great all in one solution that is easy to use, especially those looking for professional WordPress hosting or need the great educational tools offered by Moodle.
Costs: Rages from $4.95 per month to $13.95 per month depending on package and term with no set up fee.
Cons: You do not get as much control over the design elements offered online; however, you are free to use any design software that you want and upload using ftp.

Homestead: If you do not have a lot of technical ability and you just want easy to use web hosting without a large learning curve, then Homestead is a great choice. You can choose from hundreds of predesigned templates or have complete control with true drag and drop features that allow you to put any element anywhere on your page without predesigned restrictions. You can also easily add a customized web form or predefined guest book to your site with just a click.
Cons: No community features available such as blogs or forums, and no member management to allow visitors or customers to log into your site.
Who is It Best for? Individuals or Businesses who want basic hosting features without a complicated user panel or want complete real time control over the look and feel of their site.
Costs: Packages range from $4.99 a month for a simple 5 page site to $49.99 a month for an unlimited number of sites and pages.

Pro-Stores: If you just need an e-commerce solution instead of a full blown web site then Pro-stores may be a good option for you. You can choose from professional templates, edit customizeable options including html, and even run coupon offers or generate logos for your online store. If you want to establish a full featured, professional online store front, then this is the perfect solution.
Who is it Best for? Retail businesses looking to put their entire product line online in an easy to use, professional store format.
Costs: They offer two packages, $29.95 for up to 5,000 products or $59.95 per month for up to 100,000 products; both with a 0.5% transaction fee.
Cons: Designed for large retail businesses, if you only have one or two items to sell this may not be the best option and a standard web site with PayPal integration may work better for your needs.

In addition to my top picks, you may also want to check out a couple of these other great options:  

• 1&1 Hosting
• Lunar Pages
• Host Gator
• Fat Cow Hosting
• Start Logic

Ed Note: All links above are affiliate links. Clicking on them for your purchase helps support Niki and her great writing.

Recently, I wrote a rather lengthy post on my personal/business blog, BrandingDavid.com, where I talked about my thoughts on the current state of the WordPress project. The post got a bit of attention on both sides of the fence regarding what I wrote, and was linked to by a few people. It was exciting and interesting and I hope to see more people voicing their opinions, and remaining calm to the reactions, whatever they may be.

Here’s a snippet from my post:

Matt Mullenweg is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. His ability to manage his brand image is almost supernatural. Fighting against any ideal he comes up for the WordPress community seems to be like fighting mother nature herself. Matt has made himself the word of God when it comes to WordPress, and millions of people follow that blindly.

When WordCamps started, I wondered how long it would take before the Church of WordPress was created. Matt traveled the world like a holy crusader, talking to his flock about the good that was WordPress. He was their Messiah, and saved them from the horrible web publishing systems of the past.

He isn’t infallible though and has made mistakes. The issue today is that most of the major mistakes he has made either happened before mass adoption of WordPress (Pre-2.0) or have been relatively unknown as they’ve happened behind closed doors, or outcries have only existed on smaller blogs.

The most amazing part about the post, and the thing I most enjoy about blogging is the discussion, both on-site and off-site, that occurs surrounding something I’ve written. So far there have been over two dozen comments surrounding the post, and my follow-up comments. And one of the biggest conversational centers surrounding some of the ideas and thoughts in the post came up on WPTavern, a WordPress related site and forum managed by the host of the WordPress Weekly Podcast, Jeff Chandler with threads like the following:

wp + microsoft = wp hypocrisy
Interesting comment from Matt on paid stuff
Replacing Matt With What?
GPL and Ethics

Some of these have very little, if anything to do with my post, but fit both the idea and theme nicely, and showcase how a thought can spread through a segment of a major community.

If you want conversation to happen surrounding your posts and ideas, first you need to have an opinion, and then you just need to stand up and write, speak, or record what you want to say, and let other people decide how right or wrong you are.

There are times when blogging can be tough and it feels like we have just run out of ideas for our blog posts or as a freelancer we sometimes think there’s nothing else to write about.  Where does the muse go when we are feeling like this, and how can we get it back?

The muse doesn’t go anywhere, we just have to find the spark that will ignite the muse back into action and keep us writing.  There is no need to ever run out of ideas for articles or blog posts, you could write 100 posts per day and still never run out of ideas.  However, if you ever feel like your head has been emptied and you have no more ideas left, just take a look at some of these tips and you will be sure to connect with your muse again.

100 Ways to Find Ideas for Your Blog Posts

1. Read Within Your Niche

Pretty obvious one that, but one you might have forgotten.  Get Google Reader and subscribe to blogs and websites within your niche.  Scan the headlines every day and this will generate your own ideas.  Some great ideas have come from sites like zenhabits.net dumblittleman.com lifehack.org or 4hourworkweek.com

2. Your Local Newsagent

Scan the magazines in your local newsagent, not just in your niche but in similar niches.  Often ideas will come from reading an article from outside your niche.

3. Ask Your Readers

If you have a popular blog why not ask the readers what they want to read about on your blog. Darren Rowse of Problogger.net does this a lot and it’s a great way to get social feedback before your article is written.

4. Look For Questions

Great articles come from great questions.  Search the net for questions in your niche.  Sites such as wikianswers.com answers.yahoo.com and ask.com are a great way to look for article ideas, but don’t get stuck on the sites you could be there for hours.  You can literally find hundreds of questions on forums in your niche, or use your readers for their questions and find out what they want to know.

5. Imagine Having Written A Great Article

This might sound a little strange.  I sometimes imagine I have written a fantastic article and it’s gone viral, I try and hone in, in my minds eye, and see what the article was and what everyone is talking about.  You’ll be surprised what comes up.

6. Visit Forums

This is a great way to find out what people are talking about and what’s hot.  It’s also good for finding out what people need to know.  If they need to know it you need to write it.  Great forums in the personal development niche are stevepavlina.com zenhabits.net and shamoublog.com and one of my favorites at the moment is a blogging forum over at www.problogger.com

7. Visit Article Directories

Another great tool.  Visiting sites such as ezinearticle.com finding articles in your niche and getting ideas.  Sometimes the article will already be written you just have to expand upon it.

8. Use Your Search Time

Whenever you search something on the internet you can be pretty sure that someone else has searched for the same thing as you.  Use this search data to write an article. A look at what others have written, or the potential related searches on some Google searches can be a goldmine for spinning out new ideas.

9. Use Keyword Searches

If you use tools such as wordtracker.com you can find out what people are searching for.  The free version is great for those on a budget.  Type a word in your niche e.g. “dogs”, wordtracker will list the top 100 searches in that niche, this is a great way for generating ideas and it gives you an idea of how hot your proposed topic is.

10. Read The News

Reading the news is a great way to generate ideas for your articles.  Having a topical person in your headline will do your search engine rankings a power of good e.g. right now the www.google.com/trends/hottrends is Jesse Eisenberg so having a headline like ‘How To Succeed Like Jesse Eisenberg’ would help your search engine rankings and bring in traffic.

11. Look At Your Stats

If you have a stats package such as www.mybloglog.com or awastats.com or google.com/analytics on your site/blog you will see what readers are clicking on the most, or what they are searching for the most.  Use this information to expand on previous articles.

12. Revamp Your Old Posts

Remember when you first started your blog, you were full of enthusiasm and you just wrote to get stuff out there, and weren’t too bothered about the quality.  Well revamping your old posts gives you ready made posts which just need a tidy up or expanded upon.

13. Revamp Old Posts From Other Blogs

A lot of bloggers don’t go back to their old posts, which is a shame.  However, if there is a blog that has a lot of traffic and subscribers, chances are their old blog posts will not have been revamped, you therefore have a plethora of ideas just waiting for you.  Never plagiarize, just take the idea and make it your own.

14. Interview Someone

Readers love to listen to interviews.  Why not use a site like BlogTalkRadio.com to host your own interviews with celebrities from your niche.

15. Use Amazon As Your Source

Amazon.com is a great way to research what kind of books people are reading, and what is popular just now.

16. Visit Ted.com

Ted.com is an amazing site for keeping up to date with the latest trends in Technology, Entertainment and Design.

17. Free Association Thinking

Get a piece of paper, have your subject heading in the middle e.g. ‘Ideas for Article’ and then let your unconscious mind take over and think of every possible article heading you can think of without stopping to think about it, just write like a demon.  There will come a point after a few minutes when you just cannot thinking of any more.  Stop for a few moments, let it go and another idea will come to you which will spark of the train again.  keep doing this until nothing else comes out.

18.  Use PLR Articles

PLR stands for Private Label Rights which means you buy a set of articles in your niche for a few dollars and then change that article to suit you writing style.  A good place to start is master-resale-rights.com or theplrstore.com

19. Listening To Music

If you are a lyrics listener, when listening to music, a lot of good lyrics can inspire good ideas for your articles.

20. Free Thinking

Take your mind for a wander and let it go where it wants to go, you’ll be surprised where free thinking can take you and the ideas it can throw up.  Simply take a piece of paper and a pen and write down whatever comes to mind whenever you are thinking about new articles.

21. Visit A Quote Site

Quote sites are excellent for writers as there are quotes in every field of interest.  Some good quote sites are: ThinkExist.com and BrainyQuote.com

22. Ask Friends And Family

You’ll be surprised what your friends and family come up with if you ask the question ‘If I was to write an article what question would you love to have answered?’, yes you’ll get some funny answers but you’ll also get some gems.

23. Letting Go

Sometimes writers try too hard to come up with ideas, and nothing will come to mind.  I don’t believe in writers block however I do believe in mind blockages.  When we let go of an outcome to something we will often find the answers we are seeking.  For example when we are trying desperately to remember someone’s name or the name of a film and we give up, almost immediately the answer comes to us.  Letting go of finding ideas can often bring up ideas.

24. Meditation

This might sound a strange one, but mediating can help clear the mind of unwanted distractions.  The less distractions you have the more you will be able to concentrate on your work when required. Meditation is a mental shower  for both mind and body.  There is no special technique for meditation.  You can sit with your eyes closed and concentrate on your breathing, that’s how simple it can be.

25. Use Google Wonder Wheel

The Google Wonder Wheel is an amazing tool which can spin ideas out of nothing.  Simply go to to www.googlewonderwheel.com/, type in a phrase of your subject and google wheel will come up with similar phrases of your subject.

26. Check Out The Trending Hash Tags And Topics On Twitter

Twitter is one of the true phenomenon’s of the decade and there are thousands of uses for it.  Gaining ideas by looking at the trending hashtags on the homepage is a great way to look for blog post ideas.  You can also use another site such as HashTags.org for a more detailed look at hashtags.

27. Do Something You Wouldn’t Normally Do

A lot of us are stuck in a comfort zone that we haven’t even thought about expanding.  Bloggers need to expand their comfort zone in order to keep the muse fresh and find something interesting to write about.

28. Read A Book

Another great way to get hundreds of ideas is to read books inside and outside your niche.  My niche is self help and I read a lot of books on the subject.  A lot of the time I get fantastic ideas from little snippets of information the author provides in the book.  It might not necessarily be on the topic of the book, it’s just a phrase that sometimes triggers off an article idea.  reading is also a great way to hone your writing skills, the more you read the more you learn.

29. Play A Game

Playing games, any type of game, can often throw up unusual, but interesting, blog post ideas.  e.g. Jenny Fenig wrote a post on her blog at ZenJenny about how her video games obsession taught her about life

30. Talk To Children

“Out of the mouths of babes” is so relevant when it comes to bloggers who are looking for inspiration.  Children speak the truth without fear and it’s great looking at the world from a child’s perspective again, it throws up some strange and wonderful ideas. Speak to your own children, nephews and nieces, god children etc.

31. Go For A Walk Or Exercise

Any type of exercise is good for the brain and a good way to keep your brain active in order to keep it working for you when you need the inspiration the most.  Bloggers have to exercise to you know, sitting on your two lumps will not inspire you to think of new article ideas.  When we exercise, in any way, we are pumping more oxygenated blood through the brain which keeps it working to it’s optimal performance.

32. Build Something

If you have started a project which invloves you building something, why not write about it and give your blog readers progress reports.  e.g. if you are building an extension on to your house, blog about it and give preogress reports once per week, readers might love this.

33. Go To School

Going back to school is a great way for coming up with ideas for blog posts.  You are not only getting an education but you are meeting with others who can potentially provide you with hundreds of blog posts.  Remember everything you see and hear is a potential blog post, so school is a perfect place to get ideas.

34. Join A Mastermind Group

Many bloggers are joining mastermind groups for lots of different reasons.  It’s a great way to come up with ideas for your blog posts and to improve your blog  in general.  You will get to see the types of posts that work for others in your niche, you will also be able to network and use the collective group effect to bring in more traffic for your posts.

35. Visit Some Educational Sites

The Internet is filled with fantastic sites willing to teach you anything and everything.  You can get some great ideas from sites like lynda.com and totaltraining.com

36. Reflect On Your Own Life

Our lives are filled with meaning, and an event which has importance to you might be of interest to other readers.  You will see it in posts life: What my children taught me, How a Robin Redbreast taught me the meaning of life, you get the picture.

37. Use Mind Mapping

Mind Mapping is an excellent way to generate ideas for blog posts.  If you haven’t heard of mind mapping you can check out a great post at problogger.com

38. Always Keep A Notebook Close By

Any writer worth their salt, and let’s face it, you are a writer and you  will need a decent notebook to carry around with them.  You’ll get used to carrying a notebook around with you if you are serious about blogging and writing.  I carry a small notebook in my pocket and transfer my ideas into a moleskin notebook later on.  Try and collate all your ideas in one place so you are not searching for that piece of paper with the brilliant idea you had earlier on in the day.

39. Seminars

If you attend seminars of any kind, writing about it can be a few weeks worth of content for your blog.  You can also write a review of the seminar.

40. Get Off Your Backside

You might find lots of great ideas on the internet for articles however it’s good to get off your backside once in a while and take a walk about your local town.  There always something interesting to spark an idea for an article.

41. Your Life Is A Series Of Articles

You already have some great articles within you, simply because you have life experience.  Are you a parent? some great articles there; Are you a woman? some brilliant article material there; Are you a writer? you get the picture here. Readers don’t want to hear your life story but they want to hear your experiences.

42. Seasonal Writing

There are lots of different holidays that readers celebrate throughout the year.  Use this to your advantage and write an article based around the holiday coming up e.g. I wrote an article 3 years ago called 10 Tips to Stay Sane This Christmas, it was my first year of blogging and the article is not great but sure enough around the end of November that post regularly pulls in thousands of visitors.

43. Do Case Studies

Look at areas in your blogging where you can help people and pick areas you get a lot of questions on, then develop a case study to share with you other readers.  Show them how you helped solve a problem in a particular area with a client or a reader.  You could even make it viral by packaging it up as an ebook and audio and allow others to share it and contact others in your niche.

44.  Do A Regular Feature

Regular features on your blog are a good way to get readers to come to your blog every week.  For example Yaro Starak of entrepreneurs-journey.com has a series of interviews he does via telephone, and more recently via video on Skype This is one of the reasons I keep going back to his blog, to listen to and to watch his interviews.

45. List The Influential Bloggers In Your Niche

Doing a ‘Top 50′ post on the influential bloggers in your niche will not only be another blog post idea for you however it will get you noticed by 50 bloggers in your niche.  Bloggers love to check their stats and find out where their traffic is coming from, if they see a link from you they will come over and briefly check out your site and may even leave a comment on your blog post.

46. Make A Gallery

You can start you own gallery of images pertaining to your niche using images from Flickr under the creative commons license.  Not only will your gallery grow in size it will attract readers.  Stumbleupon readers love gallery images as they are quick and easy to stumble and comment on.  This way you get lots of traffic.

47. Digg Your Way Into A Post

Digg.com is a great place to look for inspiration for blog posts.  You can even try your hand at getting on the front page of Digg, which is very difficult nowadays.  The good thing about Digg is that it lets you know what type of posts readers are making popular.

48. Start A Weekly Roundup

If you use Google reader, as mentioned before, you could subscribe to all the top blogs in your niche and every few days pick out some great posts.  At the end of the week have a weekly roundup of great blog posts in your niche.  This will get you noticed by other bloggers and you will always have at least one post idea for the week.

49. Write A Controversial Post

This has been done many times in the past.  Basically you can write a not so good review of a top bloggers site and tell your readers why you are not impressed.  It’s an idea for a blog post but I wouldn’t write too many reviews like this.  You can also write something that goes against the grain and give your opinions as to why you think a particular way.  It is your blog so find your own voice and don’t be afraid to do something different.

50.  Write About What Improvement Could Be Made

Depending on your niche you could write posts about what improvement could be made in your area.  There are lots of things that can be improved in any niche, why not use the faults as blog post ideas.

51. Give Progress Reports To You Readers.

I remember when Caroline Middlebrook was first starting her blog she caught everyone’s attention by showing all her readers her stats for the month.  She also got attention as she quit her job to blog full time with very little experience.  She still shows readers her monthly stats and I believe her last earnings were $3000 for the month.

52. Write A Top 10 List

This is always a great idea for a blog post, however be careful that you don’t write too many of these. I would say concentrate on quality and use a list as filler content for your blog.

53. Help Your Readers

You would be surprised at just how much knowledge you have inside you within your niche.You can always teach what you have learned so far. Do this by posting articles for newbies.

54. Review A Book

There are thousands of books within any niche. Pick some of your favorites and review them. This way you can also make money by selling as an affiliate.

55. Pay Attention To Your Emails

A lot of readers write to bloggers with lots of different questions. When you start to get a few subscribers you will get the same. Start thinking about every email you get from readers and how you can help them and possibly use their questions and advice in your blog posts.  When you become really popular you might not be able to handle all the emails but they are a goldmine of ideas and it’s something you should be using.

56. Browse Your Bookmarks

We save lots of different sites to our bookmarks and sites like Delicious.Go through your old bookmarks for inspiration to write new posts.

57. Write About Myths In Your Niche

Every niche has a lot of myths within in it, why not use these as posts. You could look at a few myths and debunk them. this makes you look more like an expert in your field and you have yet another post on your blog.

58. Get Some Guest Bloggers In

Why do all the work yourself. Look for other bloggers in your niche and write to them asking if they would like to write for your blog, giving them exposure. Better yet doa post exchange, you write for their blog and they write for yours. This is a great way to get you noticed by readers who might not have known you otherwise.

59. Highlight Female Bloggers In Your Niche

I hate to say it but it’s still a man’s world and we men think we dominate the online world.  There are some fantastic female bloggers out there and highlighting them can be a traffic puller in itself.

60. Visit A Blog Carnival

When you are starting out as a blogger these are essential to get your name know, however, they can be a great way to get some ideas for your own blog.  Check out the biggest at blogcarnival.com

61. Announce A Challenge

Many bloggers like to challenge themselves and blog about it to get some extra encouragement from their readers.  So you can announce a challenge and get readers to join in, then a few weeks or months later you could report the results of your challenge. Leo Babuata has a monthly challenge on his forums and some personal challenges he announces.

62. Use Content From Around The Net

You don’t have to be thinking up brand new posts every day of the week.  Leverage the power of the internet by linking to other sites.  Using videos from youtube is a great idea for your blog, it get’s readers talking and you have minimal work to do.

63. Make Your Own Video

Readers like to see the bloggers they are reading so making a video is another post idea and it let’s you interact with readers in a new way

64. Take A Break

When I first sat down to write this post I thought 1 full day would be enough to finish it.  However it has taken two weeks to complete this with the help of the editor David Peralty Some posts are meant as back burners and can take a while to write, so don’t try and write a ‘pillar post’ in one sitting, take regular breaks and even leave it for a few weeks and ideas will come to you at unexpected times.

65. Niche Events

Most niches will have events which highlights speakers and new information within that niche.  Going along to events such as BlogWorldExpo an be a great way to network and to get ideas for your blog.

66. Use Your Dreams

It’s amazing how many dreams have helped shape the world as we know it today.  Use you dreamtime to look for article ideas.  I practice something called Lucid Dreaming and I have found a good few articles from talking to my dream characters.

67. Check Out Affiliate Sites

Affiliate sites like Clickbank,  paydotcom have thousands of products that vendors are selling.  Check out the top rated ones to see what affiliates are promoting and what’s selling like crazy.

68. Check Out The Dummies Guide

Dummies.com has over 1400 titles in its stable and they are some of the biggest selling books on the market.  Check out their titles and see what you could use.

69.  Check Out eBay.com

Ebay.com have some great tools to let you know the hottest selling items and what the most searched for items.  This can give you some great ideas for articles and if they are a hot topic chances are you could get a lot of organic traffic if you write your article the correct way.

70. Editorial Calendars

Magazines have calendars giving freelancers a rough idea of what topic they want written about and their deadline.  This can be a goldmine for bloggers.  You can ask the magazine for a media kit or an advertisers pack which should give you all the info.

71. Old Is Coming Back Into Fashion

Looking at old written material from the past is fast becoming mainstream again.  I am thinking of books like ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and ‘As a man Thinketh’ These books are old classics in the field of personal development but they have been dping the rounds on the internet for the last few years.  Look at old books like this that have been made into eBook and use them in your posts.

72. Watch Oprah

One of the biggest influencers of our world has got to be the media and one of the biggest celebrities in the media is Oprah Winfrey.  Watching shows like Oprah and Dr Phil is a great way to get ideas for your posts, you can be sure that a book recommended by Oprah will be a bestseller within a few weeks, take advantage of what she speaks about and write about it.

73. What Are Your Fears?

I have seen some great posts where bloggers write about their fears and how they overcame them. A notable ones : Kate Freiling overcoming fear of public speaking

74. Have You Taken A Course

If you have taken a course recently, wither online or at college or university why not write about your experience. This could be on ongoing series if it becomes popular.

75. Look At Statistics

Looking at statistics the government and other official bodies produce can inspire some great articles for your blog. Look up your countries Office of Statistics, here are some to get you going (In no particular order):

UK Office of National Statistics

USA Fed Stats

Ireland Central Statistics

Canada Statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics

76. Fill In The Blanks

Here are some great headlines  from Chris Garret which he has given me permission to use for LifeSnips readers:

1. 10 Money/Time Saving Tips for ______

2. The Secret of Getting the Best Price for Your _______

3. How to Find the Best _____ Deals on the Web

4. Top Gadgets for _____

5. Are _____ Worth the Money?

6. Everything You Need to Know About Getting Cheaper _____

7. Top 10 Tips For Hassle Free ______

8. Best ____ For Under [Price]

9. Unusual but Achievable ____

10. 5 Ways to Boost Your ____ Without Spending More _____

Chris Garret has written an excellent free report which you can download 102 Headline Writing Formulas

77. The TV Guide To ___________

You can write an article from the perspective of popular TV shows, even better, upcoming shows that you think will be popular. I recently wrote a piece entitled ‘What was Your FlashForward’ as I knew the show was going to be huge and people were already starting to talk about it. So you could write a piece like ‘The Nip/Tuck Guide To Plastic Surgery’ , ‘The Numbers Guide to Using Your Brain’, ‘The Gossip Girl Guide To Fashion’

78. What Are The Celebrities Talking About

If the celebrities are talking about it then it will be a hot topic soon. Anybody remember the viral video by Sarah Silverman the one about Matt Damon, well that was all over the net and celebrities were twittering about it and the follow up by Jimmy Kimmel was brilliant. Pay attention to what the celebrities are talking about on twitter and you might just get a scoop.

79. Sign Up For Your A Newsletter

Look for top bloggers in your niche and sign up for their newsletter.  They are not the top bloggers in your niche without reason so find out what they are writing about, it will give you some great ideas as well as teaching you something at the same time.

80. Look Into The Future

Depending on your niche you can predict what might happen in the future.  For example if you run a blog about share dealing you can predict what might happen in the markets in 3 months time.

81. Use Fables

This is a great way to freshen up your blog posts as well as give you, potentially, hundreds of post ideas.  Look at old fables and relate them to your niche.  A good example of this is two Bloggers Nik Karlil and Jonathan Wells in their fable related story, the Tortoise and the Hare,  and related it to  Self development.

82. The Best Of

If you are truly stuck, and there’s no reason you should be, but if you are you can make a top 10 list of your best posts.  You could also make a practice to do this every six months, which will help with deep linking and is good for Google juice.

83. Definitive Resource List

Every niche could benefit from a top resource list.  You could write a post giving a huge resource list.  You might think this is pointing people in the direction of your competitors however, you become someone who helps others and a place for readers to come to get great information.  Check out this post from Freelance Switch The Monster List Of Freelancing Websites You could also make the list into an ebook and let readers download it for free and have your links in the ebook.

84.Respond To Criticism

If a reporter has criticized your niche why not use your blog to respond to that.

85. The Best Of Your Competition

As before in number 82 you can make a ‘best of’ post, but this time make it ‘the best of’ and write the top 10 or 20 posts from a top blogger in your niche.  This way you get your name known to the top blogger and you have another post for you blog without too much work.  Don’t do this too often as you will look like you don’t have too many quality posts to write yourself, however, everynow and agin is okay.

86. Look At The Advice Columns

Most niche magazines have a feature in them where readers write in with their problems and the editor answers them.  reading these features can produce lots of article ideas.

87. Keep Up To Date With Microtrends

Check out sites like Springwise.com and Trendhunter.com to keep up to date with the latest trends in your niche.

88. People Watch

There is nothing better than grabbing a coffee and a giant cookie at Borders and just sitting back and watching the world go by. Let your imagination run wild and see what ideas come up for articles.

89. Write About Something Outside Your Niche

The phrase ‘write about what you know’ is not always best. Sometimes you want to write about what you would like to know. Pick a subject you’d like to know about and treat it like an homework assignment, and you have to research and write an essay on something you don’t know a lot about.

90. Brainstorm Your Way To New Articles

Getting together with a group of people and brainstorming with some mind maps can throw up some interesting post ideas. To find out more about brainstorming read this article from USnews and to get some free mind mapping tools from Bubble.us and Mindmesiter.com

91. Compile A List Of Definitions

Every niche has it’s own jargon that is used. Why not compile a list of words and phrases in your niche and give their definition.

92. Use Press Releases For Inspiration

Sites like PRWeb.com are great for finding ideas for your blog posts. If you visit the site you will find a search box. Type in a search term and you can view the press releases for your search term.

93. Recommend A Product

Recommend a product in your niche and make some money along the way. This should not be done too often as you will come across as a money grabber. Only recommend products you really liked and give an unbiased opinion on it.

94. Write A How To… Post

Readers want to know how things work, why not be that person to show them. The beauty of this type of post is that you can go outside your niche to an area that a lot of your readers will know about, for example the lifehacker post Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks

95. Take A Look At Greeting Cards

A trip down to your local Hallmark can often inspire ideas for articles. You’d be surprised what people celebrate and commiserate.

96. Open Up The Encyclopedia

Start reading your encyclopedia with a writers hat on and you will find some gems in there. You can also use the online encyclopedia such as Enclyclopedia.com which collates all the online encyclopedias.

97. Set Up A Google Alert

Google alerts is a fantastic way to get ideas delivered directly to your inbox. Go to Google.com/Alerts and type in your keywords and Google will deliver anybody writing about that topic to your email.

98. Stop Thinking About What To Write About

As strange as this may sound, we sometimes try too hard to look for something and can block out the idea making process. Take time away from writing and enjoy another activity. when you do this you will find your creative juices flowing in the background and you will come back to writing refreshed and have a plethora of topics to write about.

99. Write About Upcoming Changes

If you have been blogging for some time chances are you will have gone through many changes and have had many facelifts. Write a few posts about it; how to do it, where to get the tools from, what the results of the changes have been etc.

100. Write A List Of 100

It might seem like a mammoth task to do this, and it is, however if you write a list of 100 article ideas in one sitting or spread over a few days it means you have 100 articles ready to be written and they posts will take you through to next year depending on your blogging schedule.

Do you have any ideas to add to this list?

What about you, do you have any ideas to add to this list? if so why not leave a comment and add your ideas or just leave a comment to say what your favorite tips were.

As a writer, blogger, and lover of the internet I have learned that Google does more for my life than just behaving like a good search engine for celebrity queries and random trivia. It contains productivity tools vital to my time management goals which simplify my life and they could do the same for you. This article will highlight some of the Google sites that I use and how they can be valuable to you too…

SEARCH ENGINE:

Obviously, Google’s popular purpose is to act as a search engine. Whether I am looking for an attraction’s website for the travel posts I write for the UpTake Attractions Blog or am in need of a restaurant’s menu to keep my healthy goals in check, Google is where I turn. But everyone knows this already. What you may not know are some helpful search tips to narrow down your results and speed up productivity. I’ve covered this before on my personal blog and you can step away and read about them here. Just don’t forget to come back, because I’m just getting started on Google’s features.

MAPS:

As Google has with many other online needs, they’ve revolutionized maps with Google Maps, giving people the ability to find places, directions to them, and even views of what the street will look like. One of the best features of Google Maps, and probably one of the most underutilized are the My Maps, which lets Google account holders create their own maps that they can share with friends, family and the world. Place markers, draw out directions, and even circle areas of interest. With easy buttons to share your maps, Google Maps is definitely worth having a Google account for.

ALERTS:

As a blogger with a brand name, I would like to keep track of where it is mentioned online, on blogs and in the news. I also like to find out where people are hiring writers. I’m interested when my region has new events happening. And keeping track of a favorite artist is helpful too. All of these things are possible with the ridiculously easy Google Alerts feature. Just type in the key words, website or terms you want to follow using the tips linked to above and you will receive an alert via e-mail or feed when they occur. You set the words to search for, the environment to be searched and the delivery frequency terms you prefer. Then you let all the information come to you. This is easy as pie and means you can be proactive and in the know.

ANALYTICS:

Stats are really popular in sports. They are also really popular in blogging. I want to know everything I can about who visits my blog, where they found me, what they were searching for, what they spent time on and what they left in the dust. What system are they using to view my pages and where are they located? Do they come back often or are they just doing a drive by? Which topics speak to my readers the most and which ones sit all alone, unvisited?

Google Analytics can tell me all of this information in a variety of ways. I can see basic overviews or delve deeper and deeper. I can compare current data to points in the past and see how far I’ve come and what it was specifically that led me there. If I were so inclined I could even set goals and track their progress, print reports and share them with interested parties. As it stands now I just obsess over them on a regular basis and find them useful in analyzing generic trends. And I also use Analytics on other sites where I work to determine whether or not I’ve reached bonus levels. It helps to gauge how you’re doing and what you can focus on to improve. In my mind that is a great tool to save time and build for the future.

BLOGGER:

Speaking of blogging, Blogger is what I use to host my personal blog. As a newbie blogger I wanted something easy, flexible visually and secure. I wanted to know that all of the time and effort I put forth would result in a site that would be around for a long time. I felt safe enough that Google wasn’t going anywhere soon and therefore their blog hosting system wouldn’t all of a sudden rip the rug out from under me as can sadly be the case with self-hosting sites all over. There is a support system for getting answers to tech questions and the cost is free. Blogger suits my needs for an uncomplicated blog looking for enough options to evolve. And it comes with a built-in community of other bloggers eager to introduce themselves.

FEEDBURNER:

Speaking of the blogging community and visitors, Feedburner allows me to provide an easy option for readers to follow my posts automatically. This is imperative to building a base and spreading the love. I can set up a widget right on my site for people to subscribe via feed or e-mail to each new post I throw up there. Ease of following is the name of the game. Feedburner provides analysis as well, albeit on a smaller scale. I can see exactly what people are using to follow my feeds, know which posts are just getting viewed versus being interacted with, and get a tally of how many people are actually following along on a daily basis. There’s a nice widget for that data as well so I can display it on my blog and let others know that they’ve stumbled upon a place others are interested in.

READER:

Not only do I want to encourage others to follow my blog, I want to keep track of them as well. Google Reader allows me to put all of my blog and website subscriptions in one place. I can create folders to categorize all of these feeds to keep them organized and save me time. Folders can be established to separate the work feeds from the personal ones. They can display the style of the site’s feeds, such as Politics, Sports, Photos, Books, etc. They can break feeds up by region so that if I am ever looking to reach out to people in a certain location, my Reader folders will point me to the right places. The folders can be whatever I want them to be. Subscribe to a feed, tag it with the appropriate folder names and let the sorting begin. Then when I check in with my Reader, things are laid out for me in a more searchable environment allowing me to get in, see what I want, and move on.

PICASA:

I love photos. I love to take them, name them, organize them, display them, share them. Picasa is a bit overwhelming to me in how it searches my laptop high and low for any and all images, sorting them willy nilly when I hadn’t even asked. But I like their editing program and their movie making capabilities. I enjoy creating albums to dump a photo stream right into widgets on my blog. And I can share or block any albums that I want with friends, family or as an easy way to collectively display images for a project. My photos are imperative to my blog and my travel posts. I like having them available in the same place with everything else and that I can control the level of privacy.

CALENDAR:

This is a new discovery to me. I have always been an advocate for plotting out posts, tasks and events at the start of each month. It keeps me organized, on track, and less stressed. A few hours each month planning ahead means that each day, with a quick glance, I know what’s on the docket with a quick glance and then I just take it from there. Otherwise I waste time figuring out what needs to be done and brainstorming ideas each day. However, my methods were very primative. I was a pen and paper kind of gal until I discovered the Google Calendar. This little gem allows me to incorporate color coded events from a variety of segments into one place. I enter my personal blog posts and assign them to my Personal Blog Calendar. Then I assign my travel posts to my Attractions Blog Calendar. Next, I assign my LifeSnips posts to that Calendar. Finally, I throw in any real life events that impact the timing of all of this.

Google Calendar fills in all the major holidays and then, in one beautiful color coded view, I can see how all of these parts come together smoothly as a guide ready to be implemented. This structure gives me peace of mind and keeps me on track during very short windows of time.

GMAIL:

Juggling work and personal tasks can be helped immensely by using separate e-mail addresses. I set up a personal e-mail address long ago on a different system that happens to use my current blog’s brand name. But trying to sort through the work and personal messages coming in wastes my time when I’m trying to focus on one or the other. So I have set up a separate business related account through Gmail.

I’m a big fan of folders to organize and store, and Gmail has a nice Labels system to easily set them up for filtering messages. And having the e-mail system on the same spot as all of the other above features that I toggle back and forth with is just common sense.

To incorporate any of these features or others that I haven’t even explored here, simply visit Google, create a free account and visit your Settings to get Google working for you. All of these features are without cost but something that I consider to be invaluable. They save me time and provide tools to make me money. Google rocks!