Nearly there, refining my topic and developing a tagline

So I have been further working on defining my topic and thinking about my goals as I haven’t really been that impressed with what I have come up with so far.

My ultimate goal is to help make the life of a teacher easier, saving them time by providing quality resources, ideas and tips that will help them with their teaching.  I would like to help teachers build a richer learning environment, thus making a better classroom.  Personally, I would like the blog to challenge and inspire me.  I want to research and talk about educational issues, and connect with other educators from around the world.

My point of differentiation will be to provide practical, time saving tips and resources for teachers.  This could be related to lesson planning, classroom organisation, behaviour management and how to implement different teaching strategies.  I also have many connections with experienced/expert teachers who would also love to share their time saving tips and resources.

So with this in mind I have further thought about a name for my blog and a tagline.  What I have come up with so far is:

• Teacher Saving - Saving teachers time (although Stephen seems to think this sounds too much like a bank!)
• The Thinking Teacher – Thinking about a better classroom
• The Thinking Teacher – Work smarter
• The Thinking Teacher – Work smarter, not harder
• The Thinking Teacher – Saving teachers time

(According to my little sis I shouldn't use 'the'.  So I have checked and Thinking Teacher is availalbe as a .net and .com.au.  So that would also work).

What’s your preference?

Help Me Define My Topic For My New Blog

The first thing I need to do is work out what I want my topic to be.  Let's have a look at what I have so far.

1. What are my goals for my new blog?  The first step in defining my topic is thinking about my goals - why do I want to start this blog?  

• I would like something fun and enjoyable to work on
• I want to find other people with a similar interest to connect with
• I want to be able to really immerse myself in a new challenge
• It would be nice to be a leader in the field and produce something meaningful
• It needs to have minimal establishment costs
• Help me become a better writer
• Reach a wide audience
• Produce enough income to have as my primary job.

2. List possible topics that I have a) experience in, b) an interest in and c) think I could be good at writing about.  So here is the hard part, write down all possible topic ideas.

• Homemade items: I definitely have an interest in this and I think I could be good at this, but I don't have too much experience.

• Critiquing and discussing TV programs. I watch a lot of TV and really enjoy it and I could definitely write about this.  But maybe it would become a bit mundane after a while?

• How to be organised.  I am very experienced in being organised, and I could definitely write about this.  I'm also always interested in finding out about tips and tricks to lead a more organised life.  Although not sure how to monetise this?

• Education. I could share programs, lesson plans, other resources and write about the latest innovations.  I'm experienced in primary education, am definitely interested and I know I can write about this.

• Children's books.  I could have a go at writing these and sharing the process and finished products on the blog.  I'm interested in this and I think I could do it, but I have no experience in actually writing a children's book.  Although I could link this in with an education blog and write books to accompany teaching lesson plans and programs??

• Something to do with novels, maybe similar to the TV idea?

3. Review the list against my original goals and criteria.  Eliminate those that don't match. Make a short list and narrow it down to the top 3.

I don't think I could really immerse myself and be a leader in the field with a blog about TV programs or homemade items.  Even with novels, I'm not really sure how to fully define this topic and it's definitely been done a lot before.

So that leaves being organised and education.  What do you think?

I'm definitely leaning towards education as I feel I have a lot I could share with teachers, parents or anyone who has an interest in education.  I could then tie in the children's books idea at some stage as well.  I know that there is ample information out there on education so I wonder if I could really succeed at this.  However, I know when I searched for programs and lesson plan ideas as a teacher, there was a lot out there but they were not of a very high quality.

I'm not sure how many people would be interested in tips and tricks for leading a more organised life.  I may need to do a bit more research on this to see what's already out there.

I also really need to consider if I can make money from these topic choices as this is one of my goals.  The education blog I think would be much easier than the organised blog.  For the education blog I could sell lesson plans, programs, eBooks, digital resources for the smart boards and maybe some sort of consulting.  

For the organised blog I could do some affiliate advertising (this is earning a commission for selling other people's products) maybe an eBook on tips and tricks.

What do you think are the pros and cons of these topic choices?