How I write blog posts: alphabetically

I use a pretty simple process to write blog posts.
It works for me.  Find your way.

I'd like to share with you the overall method that I use to write blog posts.

I have a technique and a standard.  First, I have to think of the ideas.  For me, that part is really easy but it has taken practice for me to think of what I think will be interesting.  Of course, these ideas can happen at any time so I use Remember the Milk on my smartphone to keep a list of blog post ideas as they come up: when I think of a new idea, I simply record it in my RTM "blog post ideas" list.

When I have the time and interest to write posts, I open up my RTM list and take the one from the top (they're listed in alphabetical order).  I take the top post idea and if I think that it still sounds interesting, I head into my blog application (Blogger) and start writing a post on that topic.

If, during the writing process, I find that the topic is boring or difficult to make a point from, I delete or archive it and move onto the next one.  If, on the other hand, I can make good points from the topic in what I feel to be a semi-compelling way, then I go ahead and keep writing the post.

After I've written the overall post, I go back through the post and read what I've written to make sure that it's interesting and compelling.  Oftentimes, upon re-reading the post, I will completely change the purpose of it to better align with what I'm thinking.  In this way the process is very agile.

After I've written the text that I'm happy with, I go find an image using Google Images and embed it.  I give the image a caption (this is a fairly new practice for me but I enjoy it) that I think is interesting.  I add Labels (tags) to my blog post so that it is more search engine optimized and readjust the title if necessary.  Then I publish it.

I might announce it but sometimes I do not.  For me, blogging is more of a personal and private thing but I like the idea that people might read what I'm writing.

Frankly, I'm still afraid to share my writing with too broad of an audience but I do share it sometimes with all of my FaceBook friends, which is obviously very public.  Most of the feedback that I've had on my blog has been positive but I still don't have that many followers to really know what people think.  I could really use more feedback!  I'd really like to have a much bigger audience, but at the same time it makes it a lot easier and a lot less stressful for me when I think that fewer people are watching.

I hope that you, too, can find a way to write blog posts of your own.  I find it to be a very fun and helpful, introspective process.  Also, I get to learn every single time that I write a post.  With every word.