Rubber Duck Blogging: How to Decide What to Blog About

A question I frequently hear at blogging class is, "What do/should I blog about?"  I usually tell blog students to write about whatever they're working on professionally - what's currently keeping them busy in their business. (Well, there's a bit more to it than that, but that's basically it.)  A recent blog post by Denise Wakeman offers another metaphor: How to Build A Better Blog: Writing Blog Content.

Here at SOBCon08, Chris Garrett spoke about creating content for your blog and blogging efficiency. He mentioned something called Rubber Ducking which I had never heard of.

It goes like this:

You say out loud, to a rubber duck, "I want to write about ________ and this is important because _______."

While I can't say I've ever explained myself to a rubber duck, it does provide a valuable exercise.  If you can explain why a blog topic is important to a rubber duck (or other inanimate object, or an imaginary friend, or whomever...), then you solidify in your own mind why you are writing about it, and its value to your audience.  This mindset will help guide your writing and the points you make in your post.

This actually brings to mind some advice a former English teacher gave me about writing book reports - pretend you're telling a friend about the book.  How would you describe what happened in the book to your friend? 

Explaining something to a friend encourages a casual tone, which can help words flow.  A casual tone is also desirable in blog posts.  Explaining something to a friend outside your niche can also help you determine what verbiage is 'jargon' (known usually only in your industry), and what concepts may need a little explanation.  For example, someone outside the scrapbooking industry - or Mr. Ducky - would have no idea what CHA is, or the role it plays in our industry.  The same may be true of many scrapbooking consumers, who don't have a professional role in the industry.  So explaining that CHA stands for Craft & Hobby Association, which hosts two large trade shows each year - shows that act as the launching points for new products and are hotbeds of industry trends - would be helpful for readers who aren't involved in the business side of crafts.

The more you explain, the more of an expert you appear to be.  And Mr. Ducky might be suitably impressed, and tell all of his ducky friends to waddle right over to do business with you.