Mind Mapping Exercise for High Speed Blogging

I find many bloggers complaining about writer’s block, they are just not able to write their articles (They get stuck). They face problems when they are searching for blog post ideas. Whenever they think of an idea, they reject it because either the idea is not good enough for their readers or they don’t have enough expertise to write about it.

In my opinion, the reason they end up in the same situation again and again is because their approach is just not right!

They approach writing articles by thinking of an idea and they just start writing about it. By the time they reach the middle of the article, they are totally out of points. They don’t know what to do next and they get frustrated in the end. This situation is not very healthy for bloggers. Bloggers usually quit blogging for the sole reason that they frequently face writer’s block.

This situation had to occur because they didn’t invest enough time in thinking or brainstorming on the concept.

Bloggers should approach each article by performing a mind mapping exercise. It would be a structured approach towards blogging and it would certainly cure writer’s block.

Mind Mapping Exercise

Mind Mapping is a really interesting exercise, because it needs only one resource – your Brain. Brain has a fast processing speed and therefore ideas come in fractions of seconds.

In Mind Mapping you have to create a mental map of related keywords and ideas. This map will thus act as a reference when you are writing articles for your blog.

1. In mind mapping you need to think of certain keywords, which will act as a basis for your article ideas (for eg. article writing, copywriting, blogging tips). If you are a niche blogger, then you can think of keywords related to your niche. These keywords may be very general in nature or they can be highly specific.
2. After selecting keywords, you have to brainstorm about ideas revolving around the keyword (for eg. Blog Marketing for beginners for the keyword Blog Marketing). These ideas can be very specific and if, in your opinion, the idea has many aspects to it and it would become a really long article, then you can always try to break the idea into smaller chunks, which means more articles from the same concept! (eg. You can break blog marketing for beginners into guest blogging and social media marketing).
3. Think of an appropriate title for your article. The title is usually a starting point or the foundation for the article. Once you have an idea you can easily visualize the article. I spend most of my time in deciding the title of my article, and everything that follows, it  becomes really easy.
4. Once you have a title in mind, you can think of certain points you would like to include in your articles. These points can be thought of a summary of the article. These points will be elaborated while you are writing the article.
5. Though, this is a mind mapping exercise, it would be advisable that you write each and everything on a piece of paper ( or as Alex does – by using a Blackboard) because mind has a limited capacity and it would overflow in no time. You may forget certain key points which might be required when you are writing the article.

Why Mind Mapping

Why should bloggers perform the mind mapping exercise, when they are able to manage writing their articles without any problems?

Why follow such a long procedure just to search for blog post ideas?

I think bloggers should still give mind mapping a try, because it has certain benefits which outweigh the use of normal writing approach:

• Easier to start: Instead of writing straight away where you have to think a lot, mind mapping is a lot easier and can become even easier with practice. Consistency is the key to super fast mind mapping.
• Less Time Taken: With mind mapping, you already have the title and the important points in your hand, which will be covered in detail in the article. By this method, you are definitely cutting on the excessive time spent on repetitive brainstorming of points while you are in the middle of an article.
• Plenty of Ideas: If you even spend a day on mind mapping, you can get ideas for a whole month.

What is your take on mind mapping?

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