Mindmap to Blog Post

May 19th, 2008 | Blogging, How-To, tools

Starting up a new blog is tough. You hear me saying that, but then you look and see I’ve started more than one. But it’s still true. Oh yeah, you can drop out three or four posts in short order but what happens next? The idea well runs dry. That or you lose interest. It’s tough. Been there.

Chris Garrett, pro blogger and more, shared a great idea with some of us to get through those days. It’s a brainstorming idea focused on using a Mindmap. Now some of you have never heard of a mind map before. Here’s an example of a real one I’m working on.

This map, titled Flickr, demonstrates the basic idea of a mind map well. Flickr is the main theme. Off of that are nodes or branches. In this case different topics of interest about Flickr. Each of those branches has its own branches as well. These further break down a topic or area of interest.

In the example above Groups is a specific topic about Flickr. Under that there are several sub topics, such as recommended groups, what moderated means, and the privacy of sharing in a group. You’ll notice that I didn’t use full sentences in the map. The key is to provide enough information to be able to recall that topic without writing a novel.

How does a map like this differ from an outline? The most obvious difference is the level of detail. Mind maps are often no deeper than the above, or perhaps having one or two deeper branches. Also, the organization of the map is more fluid, and topics may overlap. You can see that privacy is mentioned under How To as well as Groups. Notice also that sets is under Privacy and How To.

Your map is done and your ready for the next step. This hopefully is much easier now, and that’s picking your blog post topic. Using the mind map above I can see several potential blog posts already. As a matter of fact, I can picture a series of Flickr How To articles in my future.

Seeing the ideas laid out might tempt you to write them all at once. Here’s where another great idea from Chris comes in handy, a blogging planner. More on that in a future post.

What tools are you using? Mind maps? Outlines? Random post generator? Waiting on your Twitter pals for inspiration? Share!

* JPG generated from actual mindmap at MindMeister.com