January Blogging Prompts

It’s a brand new year! I know things have been busy, and that’s okay. Now it’s time to dust off your blog and get back to it.

No matter what the theme of your blog, there’s always something to write about to educate and/or entertain your readers.

Here are writing prompt topics you can use to generate blog ideas in January.

The New Year – Saw that coming, didn’t you? Share your New Years’ Resolutions or offer reasonable resolution recommendations for your readers that are relevant to your subject matter or niche. You can always do both! For example, if you write about writing, come up with a list of writing resolutions that your readers can do along with you. Food bloggers, try this with new dishes. Adventure bloggers, challenge your readers to try similar (safe) experiences and compare notes. For many of these types of resolutions, take photos and encourage your readers to do the same. That way you’ll have pics (and proof) for future blog posts. A resolution a month = 12 interesting and engaging blog posts.

Food and Fun Holidays – I’m not quite sure when claimed and created holidays became so popular, but I don’t really care. They are awesome inspiration for blog posts.

January food holidays: National Soup Month, National Egg Month, and Bread Machine Baking Month (not quite sure about that one).  National Coffee Break Day is January 20. Given how much writers love coffee that alone could make for a variety of different types of posts. Here are some topics off the top of my head: How Do You Order Your Favorite Coffee, Favorite Coffee Break Activity, Best Coffeehouse Writing Spots.

January fun holidays: January is National Hobby Month, which offers a world of possibilities, especially if your blog is on a topic that some people consider a hobby. You can write about how to turn that hobby into a career or the importance of hobbies alongside work. Even better, tell your readers about a hobby you enjoy. Other notable days include International Skeptics Day on the 13th, Thesaurus Day on the 18th (what are your favorite synonyms?), and National Handwriting Day on the 23rd.  

Bonus: Fiction writers, make resolution for your characters. Whether or not you actually share them is up to you. But it’s a fun way to dig into your characters and their motivations.


Blogging, just like writing, should be fun. Come up with ideas that relate to your niche and experience, and you’ll get back to your blogging mode in no time.

***


Debra Eckerling is the author of Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages. She's a writer, editor and project manager/goal coach, as well as founder of Guided Goals and Write On Online, a live and online writers’ support group. She is an editor at Social Media Examiner. Debra is also a speaker/moderator on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting and social media.


8 comments:

Karen Cioffi said...

Deb, it is crazy how many holidays and special days there are now. These are great tips for blog ideas for January. Who knew!

Debra Eckerling said...

Thanks, Karen! I did events for Barnes & Noble years ago, and I always looked to fun days for event inspiration. Who knew it'd be practice for work in social media and blogging. :) It amazes me how often new events pop up...

Suzanne Lieurance said...

Hey, Deb,

Thanks for the reminder. I wrote holiday and seasonal articles like this years ago for article directories and my own blogs and they are still my biggest traffic generators! Happy New Year!

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

This is wonderful. I love the idea of using holiday e-books, papers, articles for promotion purposes. Bloggers and other media are always looking for holiday material!
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Multi Award-Winning Author of the HowToDoItFrugally series for writers including the second editions of the Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo and The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditorKind )The latter is e-book only.for the time being.

Debra Eckerling said...

Thanks, Suzanne! Happy New Year!

Debra Eckerling said...

Thanks, Carolyn! We writers never have to look too far for material, do we? Holidays (real and embellished) are a great starting point.

Debbie A Byrne said...

Interesting post. I may check into this further. Thanks!

Debra Eckerling said...

Great! Thanks for your comment!

10 Common Challenges Many New Novelists Face

by Suzanne Lieurance New novelists often encounter a range of challenges as they begin writing their book.  Here are 10 of the most common p...