Using blog links to help you think

There is nothing new about linking to interesting and informative posts on other blogs.



In fact, many blogs are built entirely on providing a series of such links. The bloggers who specialize in that well known posting technique tend to do it very well.



They create a mini-Carnival every time they post to their blogs.



I rarely link to more than two blogs in any one post.



My preference, is to provide you with a one or two representative posts, that illustrate well my blog topic for the day. By not overwhelming you with examples, I believe it better displays the blogging point that I am attempting to convey.



If I were to provide too many links, it might decrease the emphasis on the great blogs that I am using to show my points.



We wouldn't want that.



To help develop useful topics for discussion, I use variations of the same idea.



I have elected to use the blogging method of taking a blogging, marketing, or search engine optimzation topic (to name just a few) and writing a column about them. For additional background I provide a link to a blog that includes a strong on post on the subject, or using the blogging technique, that I am discussing.



Sometimes, I find a post, link to it first, and then elaborate on their thoughts. It's using the same idea for topic generation, only in reverse.



My ideas for creating new ideas are always the following:



* Make something larger by expanding on it.

* Reduce something down to its basics; in effect, making it smaller.

* Turn it upside down or reverse it and see it from another vantage point.

* Adapt it to a different than usual idea; in effect creating alternative uses.



If you apply that creative thinking to your daily search for blogging topics, you will never run out.



You will be able to use links, to other great blogs, even more effectively than before.



You will be able to unite your own thoughts and impressions, with those ideas expressed in the linked post.



It makes both your blog, and the linked blogs that much more interesting, and that much more valuable and beneficial to the readers.



Think links and expand on them.