The interview with Lorelle (of Lorelle on WordPress) continues.
Thus far, we’ve covered staying motivated, errors bloggers make, and if good content is good enough.
Today Lorelle will be sharing her view on a problem new bloggers may not have (yet), but it’s a scenerio that can strike at anytime.
4) You’ve been blogging for many years, and have also written the book, Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging. How do you find fresh content without rehashing old subjects? Or, is rehashing old subjects a good way to give new birth to older posts?
Rehashing is such a harsh word. 
With time, everyone is redundant, and sometimes topics need to be revisited, so revisiting them in new ways puts a fresh light on things. For instance, I’ve written a lot about copyright protections and content theft. I still don’t get that people think stealing is bad, and plagiarism is really wrong in the offline world but think nothing of it in the virtual world. I don’t know “if it’s on the Internet, it’s free” mythology got started, but it’s got to stop, especially when it comes to content theft. After a while, you would think there isn’t much anyone can say new on the subject, then along comes someone like Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today who throws some new logs on the fire and once again I learn that there is even more that can be said on the subject. I encourage him and he encourages me, and we’ve built an amazing friendship in the process.
Here’s another perspective. Orson Scott Card created one of his most powerful characters, Andrew Wiggin in Ender’s Game. He went on to write numerous sequels to follow one of the world’s most popular and award winning books. Years later, he wrote Ender’s Shadow, telling the same story of Ender but from a different perspective, the point of view of one of the other characters, Bean. That started a new series of sequels. Just when you think that Card had broken all the rules as he described so well in Ender’s Game, he did it again and started a new series for the twentieth anniversary of the first book, part of the Enderverse (“Ender Stories”) series, again rehashing the original from totally new perspectives.
Orson Scott Card has influenced several generations and new audiences by writing about the same story, over and over. Imagine the market potential! How many ways can he come up with to tell the same story? Who knows. I learn so much from what Orson Scott Card writes and publishes, I think most of his books should be required reading, no matter what your business or writing genre.
Another expert at finding new ways of making old subjects interesting is Liz Strauss. Her new ebook, The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog — The Insider’s Guide to the Conversation That’s Changing How Business Works, is a life changing book on blogging and social networking for me and a lot of other bloggers and companies working on the web trying to get our heads around the quickly changing market. You asked if content was still king and I told you that a successful blog is about conversation – Liz writes all about how to write for the conversation in a way that is an eye-opener on the subject – even for those of us who call ourselves experts.
I love how people find new ways of saying the same old thing. I dig deeply through the web to find articles on blogging and WordPress which say the same thing, but in a new way. It’s like sitting in a room with friends debating an issue. It’s a chance to hear all the different opinions and see the reactions and feedback. I read through the posts, check out the comments, and it’s like I’m at a party. I love it.
The web has opened up the world to millions of points of view, so it’s easy to get locked into a march on your blog, but open yourself up to new perspectives and watch your own shift and change.
And attend conferences and meetups. That will get your juices flowing and your head spinning every time. Meeting bloggers in person is one of the greatest joys of my life as they fuel me!
Today’s Assignment:
Short of using Hunter’s “Automatic Blog Post Rehasher”, where does your inspiration come from?
Are you often at a loss for creative ideas, or is your list long?
When you see other bloggers write on the same subjects you do, are you intimidated, or do they inspire you to do a better job?
Photo Credit: Lorelle’s Logo