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For those of you just beginning with this blog, please go back and read through the Introduction. It’s important to understand what I’m trying to achieve here: allowing creativity to explode into content ideas and link popularity. I cover two pioneers in creativity, one a modern-day pioneer (Google) and the other a pioneer of many, many years (Walt Disney).
I also cover some guidelines when it comes to brainstorming and using the right side of your brain, such as no ideas are wrong or bad. Write down all ideas. You never know when you’ll be able to use those ideas if you add a twist to them or use them in the future.
The worst thing you can do is put up road blocks to ideas. You need idea partners who will help you brainstorm, or you can brainstorm with me here to exercise your creative side. The last thing you need is a negative idea partner who “puts down” all of your ideas. Your ideas will quickly dry up in that environment. I know–I’ve been there.
My goal is to help you learn how to tap into the right side of your brain on your own so you’ll be able to generate new content ideas for your Web site–content that your visitors will love and come back to again and again. They’ll bookmark your site, link to it, and tell their friends about it. You’ll be able to incorporate links to your products or services into the content to increase your sales, because after all, it’s all about the bottom line. Link popularity will come quite naturally.
Did I say anything about the search engines? No. Don’t create content for the search engines. They’re not your target audience. Create content for the audience that really matters: your BUYERS. What a novel thought.
Anyway, your assignment (YES, assignment–remember, I am an instructor!) is to buy a notebook or journal. Start thinking of ideas you’d like to incorporate on your Web site. Read through our brainstorming session on fishing. Could you use any of those ideas on your site by modifying them slightly? Do any of those ideas give you other ideas? Write them down.
Write down ANY ideas, as outlandish as they may sound. Do you want a celebrity to promote your Web site? Write it down. Do you want a major authority Web site to link to you? Write it down. Do you want to create an online service for viral marketing purposes? Do you want to advertise during the Super Bowl? Write it down.
Don’t be afraid to dream . . . to create. Don’t worry about money or anything else. You’re just writing down ideas as they come to you. If you allow the left side of your brain to sneak in, your creativity will shut down. Write down ALL ideas, no matter how outrageous they may sound.
In fact, the more outrageous . . . the better. You need to give yourself permission to come up with every idea you can think of.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about what to do with those ideas.
Robin
I used to use post it notes like crazy at work. Then one day I picked up a spiral with those manila divers in it. At first I just used the notebook for day to day offline work.
Then one day I had a great idea and I knew if I didn’t write it down I would forget. So I picked the last section of the notebook and wrote it down. Now I keep the spiral with me wherever I go and I am amazing the number of times I have been driving down the road when inspiration hits and I have to flip to the last section to write down the idea.
Now every spiral I buy has a dedicated website idea section.
Comment by Jeremy Luebke 10.25.06 @ 6:22 pmI bring around two books with me–my journal and a scrapbook. My scrapbook is the Idea Journal for me.
Although it isn’t geared towards website designing and content, its purpose is to catch any ideas that pop up. Most of it is creative writing–poetry, story ideas, character notes from a novel that I’m reading, etc. I find that it’s such a handy thing to have on you while out and about (although I wouldn’t try writing and driving like Jeremy!
).
I find that when you talk about creativity, it can apply to almost anything! What ideas do you have for website content? What ideas do you have for a novel? What ideas do you have for a product? What ideas do you have to market that product? All require some form of thought and structure.
What I find really creative is transposing one upon the other–taking one form of creativity and melding it with another to form something totally innovative. To clarify, take the example of music. You can take one genre of music and add another genre element to it. So you have pop-country (dixie chicks, shania twain, etc.), cultural music merged with dance/trance music, or you can have a punk cover of an old folk song.
I love the idea of this blog. And I think that the goal really is to make left-brain and right-brain meet and merge–creativity with a logic, being logically creative. I think that element is important for making successful website content. D
Comment by Reena C 10.25.06 @ 10:05 pmYes Jeremy, be careful not to “drive under the influence of writing”!!
However, driving is one of the places when my creative mind goes nuts. It also goes nuts during western movies. If my husband has the remote control, we often watch westerns, so I get out my blackberry and start jotting down ideas. I don’t know why westerns give me such wonderful ideas. Go figure.
Reena, if you and I were ever sitting at the same table, my partners would be rolling their eyes after the first two minutes. We think so much alike. When Martin (who works with me and I absolutely couldn’t do without) approved your post, I’m sure he thought, “Oh no! I’ll never see Robin again! She’s off in ‘right-brain land.”
Everything I do is a research project for me, and I can find a creative element in absolutely everything. We’re going to talk about those elements here. For example, you can’t imagine what you can learn by paying closer attention to commercials. It’s fascinating.
Buying something online becomes research to me, and I add a creative element to it. Driving in a taxi cab is a study of humanity and can be applied to how we do business online.
Taking one form of traditional advertising and seeing how you can translate it online fascinates me. In some cases, it works beautifully. In other cases, I haven’t figured out how it could work, but I haven’t given up.
There’s a favorite saying among writers that you probably know:
The only writers who don’t get published are those who give up too soon.
It can apply to any industry.
It sounds like you write novels–I’ve written three novels in the past. I’ve also written short stories. Tell me about your writing.
This blog has many purposes. You’re right about the merging of left brain and right brain. Dave Barry, our technical guru at our workshops, says he’s “back brain”!
The blog also points out that you can’t be all left brain and have a successful Web site. You have to add the creative element in order to add the depth of content for your visitors. With that content will automatically come link popularity, one off-page factor element that’s so important in search engine optimization.
Plus, I hope to convert some left brainers to begin thinking creatively.
We’re not all flower children on this side of the brain. Creativity is just plain fun!
Robin
Comment by robin 10.26.06 @ 10:30 amHi.
Comment by naisioxerloro 11.28.07 @ 10:34 amGood design, who make it?
I assume you are referring to the blog design. If so, it is called Borderline Chaos and it came from the WordPress template library and we modified it a bit.
http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/2-columns/126/borderline-chaos-13/
martin
Comment by martin 11.28.07 @ 1:54 pmLeave a comment
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