Running out of ideas.
There comes a time in every blogger’s life where it seems as if the well has run dry. There’s no ideas, there’s nothing exciting to report, and one more photo post will drive them over the edge. Recently, this hasn’t been the case with me, but I have had it happen. As a new real estate blogger it happened a lot. Who am I and what do I have to contribute to a world overcrowded with real estate blogs (and some darn good ones at that)? On top of the numbers of blogs out there (just wait until more agents begin blogging), there is the “I’m new, who’s going to listen to me?” factor.
It took me awhile to get over those feelings, but I did eventually. The secret? Stop fearing and start blogging. I just sort of dove in head first and let the rest sort itself out. I learned what I liked along the way and found my “voice,” but it took posts that I look back at now and wish I hadn’t written (which reminds me, I should take those concepts and write them again, now that I have more confidence as a blogger).
There are ideas everywhere.
I had this reinforced by Kristin Moran the other day while we were talking about a particular experience that had her a bit riled up. We were laughing about the situation and she mentioned that when she goes home with news – good or bad, her husband often says, “You should blog about that.” When I heard her say it, I passed over it as just part of our conversation. The other day, I had a bit of a situation with Flickr that had my panties in a bunch. I was complaining about it to Kristin when she reminded me of her husband and his reminder to her – “You should blog about that.”
And so I did. I wrote about it over on ActiveRain and the response has been incredible. I didn’t write for much more than to blow some steam and express my frustration, but I wrote it none the less. Sometimes the most obvious things that we don’t write about are the things that people want to hear. Writing it was my way of getting it off my chest, but it turns out there were other people out there that wanted to talk about it too.
Isn’t that what blogging is all about? Finding a connection, relating one thing or person to another, opening up a conversation? And once we’ve done that, we can get down to the rest of what it is we do as agents. But the first step is opening up the lines. When you’re stuck, in doubt, or just want another post – look around you. What happened today? What questions were you asked? Where were you? Who taught you something new? Ask questions and you’ll have an answer – “You should blog about that.”
photo courtesy of nicasaurusrex
