An Easy Way to Create Blog Content

A lot of people who are considering creating a new blog are stopped in their tracks by the idea of creating new and original content. The notion of writing 4-5 new articles every week seems overwhelming (until you've done it).

Fortunately, like most new projects, what seems overwhelming at first, becomes a lot easier when you break it down into smaller steps.

Let's start with this idea of creating original content. It happens to all of us from time to time and sometimes we can pull it off very successfully. But more often than not, our best ideas are not 100% original, but are a synthesis of information we derive from other sources.

So let me let you in on a closely guarded secret amongst those of us who are experienced bloggers:

Only a small portion of most of our content consists entirely of new and original material.

Look at the diagram above and you will note that the second box talks about "gathered content." A lot of what most of us blog or tweet about is simply gathered from other blogs or sources.

Take YouTube for example. For most topics, you will NEVER run out of material even if all you do is find quality videos and embed them on your blog.

With permission, you can also re-print articles written by other blogs or websites. Just be sure to give that other blogger credit for their material.

Two additional sources for gathering content is Google Alerts and Digg.com. Again, you will never run out of material if you go back to these places each day to find quality content on your subject matter.

Interestingly, even though you are simply featuring content created by others, the mere fact that you have taken the time to gather this material and place it in one place (your blog), will help you position yourself as a trusted authority and resource on that topic. You will quickly become associated with the quality information you offer.

But simply scraping other people's information is not a lasting way to build a solid reputation, business or career. You still have to add your own insights in order to create value.

The next box above is about, "Gathered information PLUS commentary." Once you have embedded a great video or re-printed a great article on your blog, add your own thoughts to what the other author has said.

What points did you feel were most helpful?
What points did you disagree with and why?
What new applications can you think of for these ideas?
What other resources and links support or further these ideas?
Did some of these ideas help you come up with new insights of your own?

When you add your own commentary to the content of others, you are beginning to create your own original content.

Of course you want to invite comments from your own readers. What thoughts do they have?

As you receive comments, you should respond to them. Each person's thoughts will likely trigger new ideas of your own. So your responses the their comments will enhance the blog post and add even more value to your readers.

Finally, there is the synthesis process. Look at the gathered content, possibly additional gathered content you find from other sources, your commentary, comments from your readers and your own responses back, and see what you come up with.

The input from all these other people and resources are what will help you create your own original content, new blog posts and new ideas of your own.

Hopefully when you reach this stage, you will find yourself posting other people's content less and less. More often, you will quote from or cite these other articles, and build your own article entirely out of your own commentary.

You will also find yourself referencing and quoting from more than one article in your blog post and building new content from synthesizing the ideas found in these multiple sources, plus your own ideas and insights.

And that is really the lesson of the internet. Creativity is not simply sitting alone in a dark room thinking new and original thoughts. It is more often a result of finding good information and interacting with that information to come up with your own take on the subject.

Look back at some of the best books you've ever read on your field of study, or some of your favorite blogs. You will most likely find that their "original content" is not entirely original at all. More often it is the result of a process that begins with the ideas of others that have impacted these writers.

So, if you have been delaying your own blog because the task seems overwhelming, get started simply by gathering content and adding your own commentary. See how far that takes you.

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