Late in 2009, the Ancestry Insider started a series of posts proposing a self-assessment model for genealogists, which culminated in the Genealogical Maturity Model.  While I don’t agree with all the descriptions, it can be a useful way to measure one’s skill set.  I’ve used the tool before, but did not keep a record of my results.  As part of my work of the US-REC Study Group, here’s an updated assessment. . .

Step 1. Self Evaluation

In each table below, read the descriptions for each level. Place a check mark in the row that best describes you.

Sources

As a genealogy hobbyist with a full-time job, my time is spent mostly using online records.  However, I do use a wide variety of record types and I’m not afraid to contact record custodians if the document I seek is not available online.  I personally think this section needs to be re-written to take out the bias against online records.  If I can access images of documents online, then it is a more efficient use of my limited time to do so, rather than writing or driving to a far-away repository to access the same records.

Citations

I agree with Michael Hait’s assertion that 4 and 5 should be reversed.  The ultimate goal should be to give complete and accurate source citations, whether one uses genealogy software or not.  I’m giving myself a 5.

Information

Evidence

RootsMagic  4 and 5  have a great little feature in the Citation Manager that allows one to assess the quality of the source for each citation, using the evidence classification described in the Genealogical Proof Standard.  Sources can be marked as original or derivative; information can be marked as primary or secondary; and evidence can be marked as direct, indirect, or negative; all three pieces also have a “Don’t Know” option.  Using this feature has been invaluable to me, because that is when I really began to apply that level of critical thinking to each bit of data I encounter in my research.

Conclusions

I’m giving myself a 3.5 on Conclusions, because I don’t feel like I’m quite “there” yet, when it comes to creating soundly reasoned conclusions.

Step 2. Tally

This next exercise is optional. It is a non-scientific method of determining your “genealogical maturity.” Write your level number in the table below for each category above. Add up all the numbers and write the total in the last row.

I actually averaged mine, because the original article included one additional section, so the “total” ranges are inflated without that section.

Overall Rating:  Proficient

Step 3. Improve

Review the categories and pick one to work on. See what you need to do to advance from your current level to the next level. Make that your goal. Don’t try and work on all categories at once. Baby steps. Don’t try to skip levels. Baby steps. Commit to yourself and focus your efforts on that one, little goal.

Once you’ve accomplished that goal, come back and pick another area for improvement.

Writing conclusions is the area that jumps out at me and it goes along with another skill that I’m working on – writing research summaries.  Bart Brenner over at Stardust ‘n’ Roots  noted in a similar post that “having the data [is] not enough.”  It’s easy to get caught up in finding new records, extracting data, and citing sources, but without the written conclusions, we don’t really move forward with the research.

Randy Seaver’s challenge this week is to:

Find a living male person in your database from your maternal grandfather’s patrilineal line who could take a Y-DNA test. Answer these questions:

1) What was your mother’s father’s name?

2) What is your mother’s father’s patrilineal line? That is, his father’s father’s father’s … back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?

3) Can you identify male sibling(s) of your mother’s father, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further.

4) Tell us about it in your own blog post, or in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook or Google Plus post.

I decided to take this back one more generation, because it’s more pertinent to my research needs.  So the questions I’ll answer are:

1) What was your maternal grandmother’s father’s name?

2) What is your maternal grandmother’s father’s patrilineal line? That is, his father’s father’s father’s … back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?

3) Can you identify male sibling(s) of your maternal grandmother’s father, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further.

Here is what I found:

Memaw and Pepaw Ward

1.  My grandmother’s father was Newton Coleman Ward.  That’s him on the right.  Newt was born 24 Oct 1890 in Newport, Georgia and died 1 Aug 1974 in Dalton, Georgia.  He and Rachel had only one son, Worth, who died as a young man, so any yDNA will have to come from a collateral line.

2.  Newt’s father was William Harvey Ward (1864-1933), born and died in Fannin County, Georgia.  His father was Harvey D. Ward, born about 1840 in North Carolina.  I can’t go back any further in this line.

3.  Fortunately, Newt had six brothers and five of them lived to adulthood and at least three had families.

3a.  Edward Clifford Ward, born April 1893, had three daughters and one son (I’m not posting the names of this generation as they may still be living).

3b.  William Dallas Ward, born 21 Jul 1897, was married, but I don’t know if he had any children, as I haven’t done much research on him.

3c.  Coles H. Ward, born about 1900, is another of my great-grandfather’s brothers that I haven’t researched.  I don’t know if he married and had children.

3d.  Charlie C. Ward, born about 1904, had three sons (one died in 1945) and a daughter.

3e.  Virgil Taft Ward, born about 1907, is another brother that I know little about.

So, there are at least 3 male descendants of my great-grandfather’s brothers, which is good, because their father was the only boy in his family (that I know of).

If you are a descendant of any of these Wards and have done DNA testing on this male line, please contact me.

One of our first topics in US Records Study Group was “Organizing and Evaluating Research Findings.”  When people talk about “being organized,” I think they are often referring to the physical “stuff”:  the documents, photos, and artifacts that they have accumulated.  Can any of this stuff be located at a moments notice?

I have a pretty good handle on my stuff, because I keep all my records in electronic format.  This is not to say that I don’t always have a backlog of things to be added to the computer, because I do, but everything that is in the computer is named and filed using a system, and tagged extensively, so that a quick computer search finds whatever I want.

The areas that plague me have less to do with finding the documents and more to do with the questions “what have I already done with this person/family/document and what do I need to do next?”  In other words, with keeping up with where I am in the research process.

In The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, Greenwood suggests that we write regular research reports to ourselves, just as if we were working with a client.  I have done this a few times, but not with any kind of regularity, and I can definitely see how it would be beneficial.  Every time I switch family lines, I have to completely refresh myself on my prior research and half the time I find myself wondering “why did I think that?”  I have citations for all the facts, but I don’t always have documentation for my conclusions.  I think that a research report that lays out the events and conclusions in chronological order, and that also includes all the abstracts, transcripts, and photocopies, would be very helpful in getting myself back up to speed and I want to get in the habit of writing them.

Greenwood also suggests that we write reminder notes at the end of a day’s work.   These notes will probably vary from day to day and project to project, but could include a to-do list, sources to check, next steps, what you did last, etc.  The general idea is to be able to “read your reminder and proceed from where you left off,” whether that is days, months, or even years later.  I usually have a file folder by the computer of things I’m working on and I always think I’m going to remember what to do next, and if I get to it in the next day or so, I usually do.  But sometimes I find myself picking up a file folder a long time later than I intended to and then I’m just lost.  I want to get in the habit of writing a quick sticky note and dropping it in the working file.

These are not New Year’s Resolutions and I hesitate to call them “goals,” even though I put that in the post title.  They are simply habits and additions to my process that will help me be more efficient and organized.

We’re talking about computers & technology in US-REC Study Group.  We have chapters to read in Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy and in The Source, but honestly, I learn more tech tips from my genea-friends than books could ever cover.  So, in the spirit of sharing, here are some of the tech tools I use and how I leverage them for genealogy, if that is not their primary purpose.

Online storage:    I have a free Dropbox account that I keep filled up with genealogy photos and docs – particularly those that I might want to access on my phone.  Then, of course, there is Tonia’s Roots, which could be considered another form of storage as it has a copy of my genealogy database and most photos and images.  I’m also moving more and more of my research notes and plans to Evernote, so that I can access them across various devices.

Backup:  I’m a little obsessive about backups, because I have lost stuff before and I have worked too hard rebuilding my files to let it happen again.  I use Mozy for automatic backs of my entire hard drive.  I also make a manual backup from time to time and store it at my office.  Oh, and I keep a copy of my RootsMagic file on a flash drive that is almost always with me.

Phone:  iPhone

Phone apps: Evernote and Dropbox (see Online storage above); Gedview, which is just a great tool; Scanner Pro (although honestly, I find myself using this more for work than genealogy); and Ancestry.  I also have Tonia’s Roots pinned to the screen, so I can access it with one tap.

eBook Reader:  Kindle.  In addition to traditional genealogy books, I also convert genealogy journals that I receive electronically to Kindle format, so that I can read them on the go.

Tablet computer: Not yet, but there is an iPad in my very near future.

Text editor/word processor:  I use Microsoft Word for traditional word-processing and Notepad++ if I’m doing anything code-related.

Spreadsheet:  I use Excel – a lot.  Spreadsheets are my go-to resource for anything that needs to be presented in tabular form and especially for information that would be more easily analyzed if it were sorted or filtered.

Downloadable forms:  CensusTools – I use a modified version the CensusMate spreadsheets and have used the Census Tracker.  Most other downloadable forms I have found are in pdf format, so I usually download forms for ideas and then create my own version in Word, Excel, or OneNote, depending on how I plan to use it.

Note taking:  Evernote and OneNote.  I’m looking forward to trying out Note Taker HD when I get the iPad, and I also want to try out Awesome Note for both phone and tablet (it syncs with Evernote).

Graphics/Image editing program:  Photoshop Elements, Picasa, Irfanview.

Screen capture:  Windows snipping tool.

Social bookmarking:  Diigo is currently my favorite social bookmarking site.  I love that I can highlight text when bookmarking.

PDF generator:  Bullzip

Genealogy database:  Rootsmagic is my main genealogy program, but I also use Legacy (affiliate link) from time to time.  And TNG.

Podcasts:  I love genealogy podcasts!  I commute a couple of days a week, so by listening to podcasts, I feel like I haven’t lost those four hours.  I listen to the Family Tree Magazine podcast, Genealogy Gems (both free and premium), Genealogy Guys, and have recently added Geneabloggers Radio.

Mailing lists/message boards/online groups:  I subscribe to the TNG user group, Rootsmagic user group and Transitional Genealogists mailing lists.  I have RSS feeds for the Rootsweb message boards for many of my surnames and ancestral locations.  And, of course, the US-REC study group on Facebook.

Online classes/webinars:  I have watched several Legacy and FamilySearch webinars and I’ve done some of the online classes available through NGS.  I want to watch some of the SCGS webinars, but haven’t worked them into my schedule yet (there is one coming up on February 4 that I really want to see).

Online publishing:  WordPress and TNG

This is not an exhaustive list, but I think it covers the main tech tools that I use on a regular basis.

Any suggestions on other things I should try out?

I’m a day late for this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun mission from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to:

1) Participate in the Ancestors GeneaMeme created by Jill Ball on the Geniaus blog.

2) Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note, or in a Google+ Stream item.

Thank you to Jill for the SNGF idea! Jill is collecting Ancestors MeGeneaMeme entries too.

The Rules:

The list should be annotated in the following manner:

• Things you have already done or found: bold face type
• Things you would like to do or find: italicize (color optional)
• Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item.

The Meme:

Which of these apply to you?

1. Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents – [Yes, here's a 5-generation pedigree chart.  The last column shows the great-greats.]

2. Can name over 50 direct ancestors [Yes, see this 6-generation Ahnentafel report.]

3. Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents [I'm missing Francis Taylor Kendrick, Lizzie (West) Kendrick, and Maud (Whitener) Butler. Anyone have these?]

4. Have an ancestor who was married more than three times.  [None so far]

5. Have an ancestor who was a bigamist [James B. Butler.  His third wife was denied a military pension, because he never bothered to divorce his second wife.]

6. Met all four of my grandparents. [Yes]

7. Met one or more of my great-grandparents [Yes, two of them:  Newt Ward and Rachel Johnson.]

8. Named a child after an ancestor

9. Bear an ancestor’s given name/s

10. Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland. [Yes, lots]

11. Have an ancestor from Asia

12. Have an ancestor from Continental Europe [Yes, lots]

13. Have an ancestor from Africa

14. Have an ancestor who was an agricultural laborer [You mean there are people who weren't farmers?]

15. Have an ancestor who had large land holdings [Quite a few, actually.  Captain Thomas Hemphill comes to mind.  He was the recipient of numerous land grants in North Carolina.]

16. Have an ancestor who was a holy man – minister, priest, rabbi [John D. Whitener was a Baptist minister (and an adulterer, but that's another story).]

17. Have an ancestor who was a midwife. [my great-grandmother was a midwife]

18. Have an ancestor who was an author [not to my knowledge]

19. Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones (ugh, yes.  I have Jones.  And Johnsons.)

20. Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng

21. Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X

22. Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z [no, I have a few Z names in collateral lines, but no ancestors]

23. Have an ancestor born on 25th December [four births, one death, and seven marriages - see here.  Most are from collateral lines, but my great-grandparents were married on Christmas Day.]

24. Have an ancestor born on New Year’s Day [five births, 2 deaths, and a marriage - all are collateral lines.]

25. Have blue blood in your family lines [supposedly have a line back to Charlemange - but then, who with European ancestors doesn't?]

26. Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth

27. Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth

28. Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century [a lot]

29. Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier [a few]

30. Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents. [yes, in fact, I have cancelled checks written by my great-grandfather]

31. Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [probably, but not that I know of]

32. Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university

33. Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offense. [Yes, David Sanford Butler was convicted of whitecapping and spent time in federal prison.  I need to post the newspaper accounts of the trial.]

34. Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime

35. Have shared an ancestor’s story online or in a magazine [just look around this blog.  : )]

36. Have published a family history online or in print [I think this website counts.]

37. Have visited an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries

38. Still have an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family

39. Have a family bible from the 19th Century [have Bible pages for births, marriages, deaths.  My mom has an actual Bible.]

40. Have a pre-19th century family bible [see above]

Welcome back to another week of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog!    This week’s task is to write a post that solves a problem that your readers (or potential readers) have.  This ought to be easy for us, because as researchers, solving problems is what we do.

6 Ways to Identify Problems to Solve

1. Solve your own problems – there is a good chance that others have the same problems as you.  So, instead of just solving your own problems and moving on, write up the solution as a blog post.
2. Look for questions in search referrals – if you are using any kind of stats package on your blog, then you should be able to see the terms that people type into search engines to arrive at your blog.  For example, a recent search term on my blog was “how to find marriage records in Murray County.”  Well, shoot, I use Murray County marriage records all the time; this would be an easy post for me to write.
3. Analyze internal searches – your stats package may give you information about what readers search for after they arrive on your blog (you know, when they click in your search box).  You could use popular searches OR look for those searches that produced no results – there’s an opportunity to solve a problem.
4. Ask readers for questions – I see lots of possibilities with this, both for “genealogy how-to” posts and for posts related to specific ancestors or places.  There are several ways you could ask for questions:  1) write a post asking for questions, 2) set up a contact form that acts as a questionnaire, or 3) run a survey or a poll.
5. Look for problems on other sites – this would be a good way to utilize those message boards and forums that we discussed several weeks ago.  Look for questions that are being asked and instead of (only) answering on the message board, write a blog post.
6. Get ideas from friends and family – this would be a great way to build on the relationships with those distant cousins you’ve met on the internet.   For example, I just got an email from a person who found her great-grandparents on my site and she wanted to know if I was related to them and how.  Of course, I emailed her back, but I could also write a post elaborating on what I know about these folks and what their connection is to me.

Involve Others in the Problem-Solving

Another problem-solving idea is to get someone else to solve the problem.  Maybe there someone who is more familiar with a particular family line than you are – what about asking him/her to do a guest post?   Or maybe there is a thorny research problem that you can’t solve – ask 5 other people what they would do and compile their answers into a post.

Action Item

• Write a problem-solving post and leave a link in the comments.

If you are just joining us, then “welcome.” You can read the kick-off post about 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog here.  Feel free to start with this week’s reading and action items – you are not behind!

Giveaway

This week’s prize is a Legacy Family Tree Webinar on CD called “Google for Genealogist” presented by Thomas MacEntee.  The description of this webinar from the Legacy site (affiliate link) says:

Most genealogists are only using 10% or less of the resources behind Google when it comes to genealogy research. Learn from professional genealogist, Thomas MacEntee, about the other 90% and how these Google components can be leveraged for better search results. Google is more than just a search engine – it is a wealth of information much of which goes unnoticed by the average genealogist. Besides search, Google allows you to access maps, books, journals, abstracts, patents and much more. These components may be what is needed to make advances in your genealogy research.

The contest ends at 11:59 pm on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. Winner will be drawn randomly.

Welcome back to another week of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog!    This week’s task is to find a blog buddy.  Let’s face it; blogging is often a solitary endeavor.  Bloggers who work together, often have more success.  Blogging buddies can be one-on-one relationships or small groups.

9 Reasons You Need a Blog Buddy

1. You can proofread and critique each other’s posts, before pressing “publish.”
2. You can share link love.
3. You can promote each other’s posts via social media channels.
4. You can help each other stay motivated.
5. You can trade guest posts.
6. You can brainstorm together and bounce post ideas off each other.
7. You can critique design and other non-text elements.
8. You can help build blog comments.
9. You can hold each other accountable.

Blogging Buddy Relationship Advice

• Make the relationship mutually beneficial.  All parties should be contribute and benefit.
• Make each other’s blog better.  We all have a goal of making our own blogs better.  Commit to the same goal for your buddy.

Action Item

• Find a buddy or a buddy group that you can hook up with.

If you are just joining us, then “welcome.” You can read the kick-off post about 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog here.  Feel free to start with this week’s reading and action items – you are not behind!

Giveaway

This week’s prize is a pH Testing pen.  If you’d like to enter for a chance to win this pen, leave a comment on this entry with your experience with blogging buddies.  Have you ever collaborated or worked with another blogger to mutually grow or improve your blogs?

The contest ends at 11:59 pm on Saturday, October 8, 2011. Winner will be drawn randomly.

Welcome back to another week of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog!  This week* our topic is updating a key page or post on your blog.

What pages are important on your blog?

Spend a few minutes identifying about 10 pages or posts on your blog that are the most important or most powerful in helping you achieve your goals as a genealogy blogger.  Some of these will be unique to your blog, but there are likely some commonalities for all of us.

Your Front Page

This one is pretty obvious.  Most traffic is going to come through your home page.  It’s probably the page you promote on social media profile sites or the page that others link to when they mention your blog.  It’s also a page that visitors are likely to click on if they land on one of your older posts.  We’re not talking about a complete design overhaul today; rather we are looking for smaller things that may need to be tweaked.

1. First impressions – what first impression does a new reader make when coming to your front page?  Do they know what your blog is about right away?  Do your header and tag line communicate your intent?  What element is the eye drawn to?
2. Sidebar – while your sidebar(s) may be visible from all pages, it is probably looked at more from your front page than any other.  Sidebars tend to become cluttered over time with buttons, links, awards, etc.  You may want to move some of these items to another area of the blog, with the objective of only having useful and important information in the sidebar.
3. Objectives and Calls to Action – what do you want people to do when they arrive on your blog for the first time?  Subscribe, click on an ad, be driven to your best content, connect with you via social media, leave a comment?  Everyone’s objective will be different.  Make sure yours is supported on your front page.

About Page

Your “About” page is one of the more important pages on your blog.  New readers, especially, tend to click on “About” pages to determine if this is a blog they want to read on a regular basis.

Contact Page

Does your blog provide an easy way for readers to contact you?  Just last week, I was contacted by a distant cousin who found my blog and he has pictures to share.  Make sure you don’t miss those opportunities.

High Traffic Posts

Most blogs that have been around for a while have some posts that consistently generate a higher number of page views than others.  This could be the result of search engine traffic, links from other sites, etc.  These pages are important because they serve as gateways to your blog.  You can make readers want to stick around by making sure these posts are up-to-date and by adding:

• Suggested “further reading” links to other posts on your blog.
• An invitation to subscribe at the beginning or end of the post.

Other Key Pages

Your blog may have other key pages, such as “Recommended Reading,” Subscribe,” “Surnames,” “Research Toolbox,” etc.  Any page that is specifically linked to from your navigation menu is a key page.  When was the last time you updated them?

Action Item

• Pick one or two important pages (or posts) that haven’t been updated recently and give them some attention.

If you are just joining us, then “welcome.” You can read the kick-off post about 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog here.  Feel free to start with this week’s reading and action items – you are not behind!

Giveaway

This week’s prize is a 6-month subscription to Archives.com.

If you’d like to enter for a chance to win this subscription, leave a comment on this entry with the page or pages that you plan to update.  The contest ends at 11:59 pm on Saturday, October 1, 2011. Winner will be drawn randomly.

* If you are following along in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog by Darren Rowse, then be aware that we are skipping #13 in the ebook..  The topic for that day is “Take a Trip to the Mall,” and I just can’t get excited about it.

Welcome back to another week of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog!  Can you believe that we are over a third of the way through?  Last week we spent some time brainstorming post ideas.  This week our topic is planning a posting schedule (aka editorial calendar) to keep up with all those ideas.

Benefits of an Editorial Calendar

Putting all your ideas into a schedule may seem too structured or a waste of time, but it really will help you build a better blog.

• Never again be stuck thinking, “What am I going to write about”
• Free up your mind to do the actual writing
• Help you organize your time
• Give consistency to your blog
• Allow you to identify trends and lulls in your content

Setting up an Editorial Calendar

Decide how often you want to publish.  Three times a week?  Every day?  Only on Mondays?  You need to know which slots to fill on your calendar.  I shoot for three or four posts a week; it doesn’t always work out that way, but the calendar helps me keep track.

Pick a tracking format that works for you.  I use a spreadsheet, because I’m a spreadsheet kind of girl.  I have columns for date published, day of week, category, topic (and any notes to myself related to the post), and date written (the last one helps me with my To-Do post wrap-ups – you may not need it).  I also color-code my calendar.  Yellow means the post is already published or scheduled.  Pink means the post must be published on this day if at all possible, but it hasn’t been published yet (all unwritten 31 Weeks posts are pink, for example).  White means it’s just an idea or draft at this point.

You could set up a similar system in a word-processing table.  Or you could use an actual calendar, like Google Calendar.  If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, there is even a nifty plug-in that lets you see your posting schedule in calendar format.  (Denise at Moultrie Creek Gazette has a great post on the plug-in here.)

Let me add that just because you put something on the calendar on a certain date, doesn’t mean you are locked into publishing on that date (or even writing it at all).  I move things around all the time, often because I wrote something on the fly, so I pushed a scheduled post back.

Other Ways to Use an Editorial Calendar

• You may want to set up a weekly or monthly series for your blog.  For example, I publish these “31 Weeks” posts on Sunday, my To-Do posts at the first of the month and To-Do wrap-up posts at the end of the month.  My spreadsheet makes it easy to slot those posts into the appropriate day/date.
• Do you participate in any of the geneablogger memes?  Slot those in.
• Schedule by post type – for example, you could write link posts on Monday, list posts on Wednesday, and review posts on Friday, etc.  These don’t have to be weekly, by the way; a monthly schedule works also.

Action Items

1. Think about how you can implement an editorial calendar in a way that works for you.
2. Take action on that plan and tell us what you are going to do in the comments.  If you already have a process that works for you, share it with us.

If you are just joining us, then “welcome.” You can read the kick-off post about 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog here.  Feel free to start with this week’s reading and action items – you are not behind!

Giveaway

This week’s prize is a Legacy Family Tree Webinar on CD called “More Blogging for Beginners” presented by DearMYRTLE.  The description of this webinar from the Legacy site (affiliate link) says:

Back by popular demand, DearMYRTLE continues her discussion about free software at Blogger.com to get your message out to the world. This session’s topics include adding gadgets such as links to other websites, add book suggestions from Amazon.com, removing the Blogger search bar and inserting a Google Search box to make it easier for your readers to find previous postings.

If you’d like to enter for a chance to win this webinar, leave a comment on this entry with your editorial calendar plans or process. You must be a US resident to win. The contest ends at 11:59 pm on Saturday, September 24, 2011. Winner will be drawn randomly.

Welcome back to another week of 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog!  I apologize for the late posting, but I’m really excited about this topic and hope you will be, too.

Have you ever run out of things to write about?

Coming up with ideas for fresh content is a challenge that faces most bloggers on a regular basis.  We’re going to do an exercise this week to help us identify a variety of post topics to “have in our back pockets” when we are stuck for ideas in the future.

We’re not going to try to come up with completely new and “out-of-the-blue” ideas; instead, we’ll use mind-mapping to tap into what we’ve written recently.  The advantage of this method is the ideas we come up with build on or relate to previous posts, creating a sense of continuity and momentum on the blog.

Mind-Mapping Setup

Grab something to write on – a piece of paper, notebook, whiteboard, tablet PC, etc.  You may want some different colored pens or pencils, too.  If you are a real geek, you might want to try some mind-mapping software or use a Word doc with shapes.

Start by drawing five circles across the middle of the page.  Write the titles of your last five posts in the circles (one post title per circle).

Extend Your Previous Posts

Now spend a few minutes on each post, brainstorming way that it could be extended.  Most posts could be continued in any number of directions.  Here are a few samples:

• Pick up a question or idea from the comments
• Explore the opposite point of view from the post
• If you do news posts or press releases, then write an opinion piece
• Take a theoretical post and write a “how-to” on the same subject
• Expand on ideas you may have glossed over in the first post

You get the idea; this is all about finding ways to take prior topics and brainstorming from there.

For each idea you come up, draw a line out from the appropriate circle and draw another shape or use a different color and write the new idea inside.

Standard brainstorming rules apply at this point.  Allow yourself to be creative.  Don’t judge yourself.  Any idea is okay at this point.

Here’s a sample, based on my recent post “99 Genealogy Things.”

Click to enlarge

If you do this for each of your last five posts, you’ll have quite a list of potential topics.

Extend Further and Also Cull the Chaff

You can take this idea as far as you have the time and inclination, building off additional posts or off the ideas you brainstormed in this session.  Once you are finished brainstorming, it’s time to cull the ideas that will not add to your blog.  Not everything you brainstorm will (or should) make it onto the blog.

Final Thoughts

• This is only one method of coming up with new post ideas.
• Even if you never have problems thinking of topics, try mind-mapping at least once and see where it takes you.
• Spend some time about once a month brainstorming topics.
• Use some kind of “ideas” document to keep track.  I use a spreadsheet, but a word-processing doc, text file, or piece of paper will also work.

Action Items

1. Come up with at least 10 future topics to write about.
2. Share a few of your ideas in the comments.

If you are just joining us, then “welcome.” You can read the kick-off post about 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog here.  Feel free to start with this week’s reading and action items – you are not behind!

Giveaway

I’m very excited about this week’s giveaway!  It’s a copy of Getting the Most Out of RootsMagic.  If you are a RootsMagic user, then you need this book.

To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment below with a few of the post ideas you generated this week.  One winner will be selected randomly. Since I was late posting this topic, the giveaway deadline has been extended as well.  Comments must be received by 11:59 Eastern time on Monday, September 19, 2011 in order to be eligible for the drawing.