It’s that time again – you’re stumped for awesome blog topics and you aren’t sure how to come up with any.
I know—I’m a writer over here. It’s as frustrating as the feeling that everything you touch turns into ice, right? Time to “let it go…” Sorry, I think I got carried away there.
In any case, you really CAN create some incredible topics that are sure to please every single one of your readers, and I’ve got some tips to help you. Let’s take a look at 17 different ways you can easily come up with some awesome blog topics for your business and readers!
How to Generate Engaging Blog Topics
Use the HubSpot Blog Topic Generator. You already know the area you want to write about, and you likely already have a few nouns and keywords at the ready. However, you might be stumped for creating great headlines and forming topics. HubSpot understands this, and we love them for it! In fact, they created an excellent topic generator where you can put different nouns into a search field and have them generate headlines and topic ideas to help inspire you. You might not use what they come up with, but it can help get those creative juices’ flowing. It is important to remember that this is a computer generating the ideas, so use discretion and decide if it is a decent topic or headline.
Pick Evergreen Topics for Your Blogs. You can also come up with awesome blog topics by utilizing evergreen topics. Evergreen means that the topic will last for a long time instead of writing on trendy topics that only last for as long as the trend does. You can come up with some great evergreen topics that pertain to your business by researching your audience, asking what they want to read about, and searching Google for some great ideas.For example, if you write a blog about foot health, then you will want to write on things like how to treat plantar fasciitis or diabetic foot care. This is a great example of a topic that will remain popular long after trends fade away because people will always need to learn new ways to take care of their feet. You will notice that using evergreen topics will not only get more social shares and views, but also give your content more mileage and allow you to reuse parts of it throughout the year.
Always Create Excellent Headlines. When creating great blog topics, you have to make sure you also come up with awesome headlines. Headlines are what will make people click on a link or avoid it all together. Craft something that gives the audience a question while also giving a small answer. Consider staying away from click bait sounding headlines and craft something that doesn’t come across too sales-like, but as something that offers the reader real value. You might even notice that by crafting a great, powerful headline, you can come up with a few more topics, too! This has happened to me more than a few times, and it is wonderful.
Use “Trigger” Words to Pique Interest. Along with crafting a great headline, you should make sure you use “trigger” words. This is what can convince someone to click on the link, instead of passing it by. A few trigger words are things such as “awesome,” “top secrets,” “top tips,” “great,” “amazing,” “perfect,” and so on. I am going to use foot care as the example yet again. If you are writing about how to treat a common foot condition, you don’t want the headline to sound bland and boring. Instead, you can write a headline that says, “The Top Awesome Ways to Keep Your Feet Wonderfully Healthy” or something similar.
Keep a File of Ideas for the Future. This might not seem like a way to come up with new blog topics, but there have been several times where I have thought of several topics, only to forget them. When you begin brainstorming, you will find that it is easy to come up with a plethora of topic ideas. This means you need to write and file each idea away in order to remember it in the future. You can use something like Evernote, Dropbox, or Google Docs to create a file for ideas and resources. This will help significantly in the future when you begin to hit the inevitable topic idea brick wall.
Take Inspiration from Other Blogs. While you don’t want to steal their information and exact headlines, gaining inspiration from others is a great way to come up with great blog topic ideas. You can take a look at what your competitors are blogging about, and follow industry leader blogs to get notifications about new posts. This will help you generate some great ideas for your own content and might even help with your social media posts! Again, only gain inspiration from others; never copy or steal what they are doing.
Create an Ideas Board When Brainstorming. Sometimes people have trouble brainstorming by staring at a computer. However, if you make an ideas board, you might find brainstorming easier, especially if you are brainstorming with multiple people. In fact, find one or two people to brainstorm with to come up with some great topics. While you might be stumped for ideas, others might be able to come up with some great ideas that you hadn’t thought of. Don’t go brainstorming alone! Take along a pal or two and use an ideas board to keep things organized and in view the whole time.
Ask Your Audience What They Want to Read About. You might not realize it, but your audience is one of the greatest resources you should be using for topic ideas. You can ask your readers what they want to see and even have them ask questions to be featured in a question and answer post. This will give you a resource filled with great topics to use for quite some time. In addition, you will be writing topics that are relevant to your client base, which is perfect!Use social media to ask people what they want to read and have them ask questions or state it in the comments. If you don’t have much interaction on social media right now, you can always send out surveys in emails and have a comment section on your website for people to ask questions or make suggestions.
Utilize Google Alerts for Great Resources and Ideas. Google has quite the amount of helpful tools for your blog and website, and one of these is called Google Alerts. You can set up an alert for a certain topic and have Google email you daily or weekly with new information. It will send you articles, which can be used as resources or inspiration, helping you generate on-the-spot topics, as well as relevant topics for your audience.
Look Over Your Blog to See What is Missing. Take some time to not only look for new topics and resources, but to look over your blog. You need to look for holes in your topics and see what areas you are overlooking. Take some time to write a list of everything you’ve already covered and how many times you covered them. This will show you which topics don’t need to be talked about as much, and which ones could be written about more. In addition, it will also be easier to see what you’re missing when you create this list. Try it out to see what you’re missing!
Do a “Highlight Reel” of Previous Blog Topics. A great way to generate a topic idea is to do a highlight reel of your previous, most popular, blog posts. This gives you the chance to show people your other posts that they might have missed while also giving you the opportunity to have a new topic for that day. You can do as many highlight reels as you’d like, but most people do one to two a year, with one being at the end of the year or beginning of a new one. This is a great chance to celebrate your successes, too!
Use Quora to Help Find Topic Ideas and Great Resources. Quora is a great content resource that helps you research your chosen keywords for your website and blog. This gives you the chance to find resources and inspiration for your posts. It is a free service and all you need to do is sign up and begin asking your questions. You can put in a broad topic idea to see what leads you get, but using your desired keywords is the best method to find a wide variety of topic inspiration and resources. Head on over and take a look to see how much Quora can help you with generating amazing blog topics.
Write a News Article for a New Topic. You can also come up with great blog topics by writing news content on current events. This content can be on news within your industry, or how various popular news stories can impact your customers. News content doesn’t have to be overwhelming and daunting, however! Just make sure you always state the facts first in your article, always research your topic, and make sure to use citations throughout your blog. This will help ensure people realize you know what you are talking about and that you are a trusted source for information. Again, remember you always need to research. If you find a news topic that is interesting, seek out at least five different, reliable resources that can help ensure you get the facts correct.
Repurpose Your Content to Create Fresh Content. Repurposing content is yet another incredible way to come up with more topics for your blog. Content repurposing is something that many content marketers suggest for content and copywriting because it helps to delve into a topic further in-depth. It also gives your client base more information on a specific topic. You can repurpose content by rewriting one blog and posting the new rewrites on different sites like LinkedIn. You can also do things like repurpose your content into a YouTube series, podcasts, infographics, and other formats that will work incredible for your blogs and readers.
Share and Read Infographics while Brainstorming. When you begin brainstorming, you might find that searching for infographics from within your field might help get your thoughts going. You can share interesting ones you’ve found with your brainstorming team, and you can have them share ones they’ve found. You can even create your own based off of past blog posts as that might help think of new, amazing topics as well.
Write On Something You Want to Know More About. We all have things we’d like to know more about, and writing about it for a blog topic creates a great chance to learn while also teaching your client base. This gives you the chance to delve into the different research out there and learn more about different topics that interest you for your business. If it interests you, it is a great sign that it will interest your clients as well. Think of a question you have about a certain topic and begin your research. You will be able to come up with more questions and answers that allow you to write your post and inform your audience while also receiving answers to your questions.
Research More in Your Field to Find Great Topics. The best way to come up with some great topics while also staying at the top of your field is to research things constantly within your field. There are constant changes in the majority of fields, which gives you the chance to stay up-to-date and keep your clients in the know, as well. Head to your favorite industry related websites, your competitors, or simply go to Google to utilize the search engine to research. Isn’t it great that you get to knock out two things at once?
Until Next Time
Generating blog topics isn’t as difficult as we always seem to think it will be. You can easily come up with several topics to last throughout the year just by following the above steps. Again, remember to keep a file of all of the topics you come up with to make sure you will remember them and have access to them all year long. Which suggestions are you going to try first? Let me know in the comments!
How difficult is it to blog like a pro? The rules are simple, right? You can just write about topics that you’re familiar with, update the blog regularly and interact with your audience if you get any comments. Unfortunately, being successful requires a bit more than adherence to these very general rules. Many bloggers and copywriters have had to learn this the hard way. We’re here to help you not do that.
Blogging pit falls come in all possible shapes and sizes but some could be more detrimental to brand establishment than others. We’ve compiled a list of some truly bizarre and funny blog writing errors. This is your opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others rather than experience the consequences of such shortcomings on your own.
1. Both Bad: Too Short, Too Long
How would you react to a blog post that is 150-word long? Yes, some bloggers do think that the length is sufficient to present an idea and back it up with some evidence.
How about the exact opposite – a blog post that exceeds 4,000 words? Who has time for that, right? Discovering the golden standard when it comes to blog post length involves staying away from the extremely short and the boringly long.
Some of the best ranking pieces online are 2,416-words long. Blog post length that falls below 200 words can seriously jeopardize the search engine ranking of the blog or the website. Just think about it – how much can you say in 200 words? These will add up to just a few paragraphs, which is totally insufficient to present an interesting idea, develop it and support it with evidence.
On the other hand, it’s important to refrain from getting carried away. Say what you need to say and stop. The audience doesn’t have time for all of your ideas and the concepts that you want to share with the world. It’s best to break it up in several different blog posts than to overdo a single one. This approach will also enable you to link the posts to each other, thus helping the audience explore more of your content and visit a bigger number of pages.
2. Not Breaking It Up: The Large Chunk of Text & Other Bad Styling
Imagine searching for a topic of interest and coming across a title that sounds promising. You follow the link and come to a page featuring a large, uninterrupted chunk of text. It goes on and on for the next 1,000 words. Even if the content is great, chances are that you’ll give up on the piece after struggling through the second lengthy sentence.
Poor formatting, large paragraphs and endless sentences interfere with readability and make it impossible for the audience to reach the end of the text. Many people will get bored with this kind of structure even when it comes on a printed page. Trying to go through the endless paragraph on a screen is going to be even more challenging.
Here’s a simple visual example that will shed some light on why formatting is so important for the readability of blog posts:
Formatting does make a difference with the second style being much easier on the eye and encouraging scanning through the text. Think about it the next time you feel the urge to write a lengthy paragraph that is full of convoluted, complex sentences.
Another example of bad styling is consistently bolded text. Bold and capitalized text can be used to put some emphasis on the most important parts of the text. When every second word comes in a bold font and the author uses capital letters to share an exciting idea, however, the reader feels as if the content is “screaming for attention. Need a visual example? Here’s one:
Words in bold and italic look different from the rest of the text, which is why the eye of the reader is immediately drawn to these parts of the content. Abuse in terms of text formatting, however, accomplishes the exact opposite – it confuses the reader and leads to the lack of focus.
Using subtitles and pull quotes is a much better idea in terms of creating structure. The same applies to bulleted and numbered lists. This example expands the idea of how bad a large chunk of text is. In essence, formatting is as important as having quality content. Even the most brilliant article will become virtually unreadable because of poor formatting.
While we are still discussing this point, it’s a good idea to mention the importance of font selection and text color. Fancy fonts may look great on an ad but they will do very little for the audience. Avoid gothic, handwritten and funky fonts because they’ll often make the text unreadable. The same applies to white text on black background. Try reading an entire article this way and you’ll know what we mean:
3. Doing Too Much Self-Promotion & Blogging Selfishly
It may seem bizarre that some people would still attempt to sell through every aspect of their online presence. Excessively promotional and spammy blog posts are still a major problem that newbies deal with. Unfortunately, this problem can lead to the devastating loss of visitors.
When looking for content, people want to read something informative, original or entertaining. Having a call to action at the end of the post or discretely mentioning a product or two is acceptable, as long as the text provides a lot of valuable information. According to Hubspot, excessive focus on promotion, especially if it comes with a misleading title, is a certain way of aggravating the audience and making sure that people are never going to come back to the blog.
Now what do I mean by blogging selfishly? I mean blogging only about the titles you care about without considering your audience. Just like writing a cliché blog posting is a really bad idea, trying to go for something exceptionally niche and industry-specific isn’t going to be good either. Remember that you’re writing for an audience – choose a topic that the audience would like to read about.
A “dear diary” blog is one such example. Most people have a life that’s somewhat similar to yours. This is why a large portion of the audience isn’t going to be interested in what you ate for breakfast and how you spent 45 minutes in a traffic jam on the way to work. If you have a cause or you’re tracing a life-changing journey, you definitely have something to share with the world. Choose something that is focused and that you’re passionate about. Your daily rant isn’t going to get your blog anywhere, unless you’re exceptionally funny and talented.
Focusing on a bizarre conspiracy that probably a dozen people are familiar with is another bad idea. Your collection of matchboxes is probably not the best thing to focus your blog on, either. Chances are that the number of people who will appreciate it and its diversity is somewhat limited.
Think of business topics that relate to your industry and will also appeal to your audience.
4. Not Socializing Your Blog Enough
I just talked about not being self-promoting. However, that means to not promote yourself on your blog. But you should most certainly promote your blog posts on social media. A lot of people don’t get to this point effectively.
Did you know you should be posting at least 14 times a day on Twitter? One way to get out those tweets is to socialize your blog. Your blog can be published on social media soon as you write it, and then again in a few days, and then yet again in a month’s time. This is how to correctly repurpose your written content. Try to write a new creative blurb every time you post your blog again on social media.
5. One of the Biggest Blog Writing Pit Falls: No Images and Multimedia
Text is a good thing but too much text and no visuals can seriously decrease audience engagement.
Images add a bit of spice to blog posts. In addition, you have so many possibilities to choose among – there are photographs, illustrations, diagrams, infographics and even cartoons. An image can be used to convey a bit of additional meaning and diversify the text. It’s also a great opportunity to draw the reader into the topic and make that person pay attention to your content.
Keep in mind that bad images and no images will help you achieve the same effect – discourage the reader from exploring your content. Look for quality and make sure that the pictures you choose are licensed for Creative Commons use.
6. Being The Anonymous Creator
While some people love getting all the credit for the content they produce, others prefer to share opinions and ideas in complete anonymity. Though Internet makes it easy to write and keep the author’s name hidden, this approach does very little for reputation establishment.
Even if the blog is personal, the reputation of the author can contribute to the popularity of the content and add to its credibility. A piece that’s signed by Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous is never going to be taken seriously. The rule is valid even for a truly informative, well-researched and clever piece.
Celebrity bloggers sign all of their posts, even the controversial ones. Anonymity does make authors braver than usual but it strips them of amazing opportunities for turning blogging into a serious endeavor.
7. Ridiculous Titles and Domain Names
Your blog’s URL and the title of each post will both be determining for the success of your blogging endeavors. Titles are the first pieces of text that visitors see and these will often determine whether people are going to explore your content or look for information elsewhere.
An URL similar to www.penisland.com (Pen Island, what were you thinking about) is certainly far from a good idea or it’s probably going to drive the wrong crowd to your blog. Think about it before buying anything and let a friend go through your picks. Sometimes, it’s going to be quite difficult to figure out why your idea is not the best in terms of making a statement that the audience is going to enjoy.
The very same rule applies to title writing for blog posts.
Always following a formula for title creation or making the title intentionally misleading are two major mistakes that you should avoid. Stay away from Cosmopolitan-style titles that list five ways to do something or the amazing secrets of something else. Unless you have an amazing secret to share, keep that phrase out of your title.
8. Excessive Reliance on the Spelling and Grammar Checker
Most text creation software programs have spelling and grammar checkers. Using those to do basic editing is a good idea but becoming excessively reliant on the software to do the job of an editor could lead to some serious blogging disasters.
This rule is valid for bloggers, as well as for other web-based media outlets. Through the years, we’ve witnessed some hilarious mistakes from some leading media. Words have been replaced by others that are mistake-free but either make the sentence illogical or add a completely different meaning.
Wondering about the worst spelling mistakes that even grammar checkers cannot find? Many bloggers seem to be having problems with accept and except, passed and past, then and than, as well as who’s and whose.
9. Disabling All Comments
Everybody gets annoyed by hate comments and spam every now and then. The anonymity that the online realm provides makes so many people brave and willing to write aggressive and overly negative posts. So many bloggers get so tired dealing with these kinds of comments that they disable the option altogether.
And while you definitely need to filter out the spam, you should never close the door on comments.
How can you make a blog better if you don’t get any feedback from the audience? In addition, the discussion can give you the inspiration to write a follow-up posting or to explore the topic from a different angle.
As a blogger, you’ll have to work hard on creating a safe environment that encourages the exchange of ideas and opinions. This aspect of blogging does require a lot of hard work, especially if you discuss controversial topics or issues that all people have an opinion about (politics, society, relationships). Still, people love to interact with authors and blogs provide the perfect opportunity. Disabling comments will quickly decrease engagement and potentially affect the manner in which the audience perceives your content.
In essence, you need to remain true to yourself, work on your language skills and figure out what the audience wants for your blogging efforts to be successful. Here are several additional tips that can help you make the most of the opportunity and avoid major blog writing errors:
Always choose topics that you’re passionate about – the audience will know if you’re faking it.
Format the content in the best possible way and make it easy to scan. Multimedia can help you make an even more convincing statement.
Spend enough time crafting the perfect headline and opening statement – these will draw the audience in.
Pay attention to feedback and use it as a source of inspiration.
Finally, remember to break the rules every now and then. Some of the best ideas are generated by people who are brave enough to experiment and do their own thing occasionally. If you get the audience’s approval, you’re probably going in the right direction.
Developing killer blog content is important. Why? Let’s just put the amazing benefits in a tiny nutshell, shall we? Quality blog content can promote new traffic from the search engines to your website, improve relationships with your direct audience and consumers, and show people that you know what you are talking about, by establishing you as an authority.
What is Blog Content?
That’s really great. But let’s check out the fundamentals first. What is a blog? If you google “what is a blog”, you will find over 4 billion results, and without actually following any links, you can learn the following:
A blog is a website on which a person or company regularly posts opinions, informational links, and other useful or promotional content.
Blog as a verb means to add new content or updates to a blog.
The word blog originated in the 1990s as a shortened version of the word weblog.
So if this term has been around since the 1990s, and continues to increase in prevalence, shouldn’t you have gotten on board with it already? The answer is yes. And if you haven’t, well, let’s put it nicely—you’re about to get run over by a Mac track in obliterated SERPs rankings if you don’t get moving on starting a blog. (Sorry, that may not have been all that “nice”.) But I’ve got good news. Luckily for you, due to the popularity and importance of blogging, there is a ton of information available to help you get started.
10 Great Tips for Developing Killer Blog Copy
Because there is so much information available, you may have trouble sifting through it all to find good advice for creating great blog content. To simplify your search, what follows is a list of 10 great tips for developing killer blog content, gathered from the masses of information out there.
What’s in a Name?
Shakespeare may be right when he says that a rose would smell as sweet by any other name, but would you be likely to stop and smell the roses if they were called garbage, or feet? The title of a blog post gives it a name, and is assuredly one of the most important things to think about when creating content. The title will draw the reader in and make them want to read more. You might think that a title is there as a place holder, or just as a convention, but according to Pamela Vaughan, it is a potential reader’s first impression of your content, and can make all the difference. A strong blog title is:
Concise, about 7-10 words in length
Informative, sums up the content
Catchy, makes a reader stop to look further
This may seem like a lot to ask from a simple sentence, but these are just title basics, which can make or break your blog post. Start out with a solid title, and the rest will follow.
Heading in the Right Direction
Blogs need structure in order to be more easily read and understood, and the best way to structure your content is with headings. There are different levels of blog headings, which are described in great detail by Joost de Valk on Yoast.com. Some important heading information found here is:
H1 is the most important heading, and there is usually only one
H2’s and h3’s are sub-headers which break the text into sections
Headings should contain valuable keywords
Headings help a reader effectively navigate a piece of writing
In the case of your blog, the H1 would be your title, the name of your post, and would be the largest text in the piece. Any further subheadings would be smaller, and serve to break the text up into manageable sections and make it easier to read. A piece looks much less intimidating if it is structured with headings, and readers are less likely to get lost in or impatient with large blocks of text.
Get the Picture?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that means using pictures can sometimes convey just as much information as an entire blog. In fact, people would often prefer looking at a picture to reading an article, so if you incorporate images into your blog, you are appealing to your readers. Some great information about images in blogs can be found at problogger. There are many different kinds of pictures you could use:
Infographics
Photographs
Diagrams
Illustrations
And more…
Images are more likely to catch a reader’s eye than a block of text, and can be used to emphasize a point. Content becomes more stimulating and attractive when there are images to provide variety and perspective. It is important to remember that while images are a great way to spice up a blog post, they need to be relevant to the material. A picture of a kitty cat can be very nice, and in fact many a cat picture has been shared and viewed on the internet, but it is unlikely that it will have an effective part to play in your blog content. Be sure you are using images properly, and not throwing them in haphazardly. Appropriately incorporated images can take blog content to a whole new level.
List of Demands
As a few tips have already discussed, breaking up your text is important to make the reader more comfortable and more likely to continue reading. Lists are an excellent way to diversify your text and present information in a clear and simple manner. There are many different ways lists can be used, and 3 main types of lists for content marketing blogs:
Brief Lists – these usually contain short, informative statements or words, often with bullet points.
Detailed Lists – these often communicate more complex information, and each list item is a complete thought or paragraph.
Hybrid Lists – these combine elements of both list types above, and are very versatile for blogs.
Lists can change the appearance of a blog post to something much more attractive, and can help a writer organize information very effectively. Sometimes, an entire blog post can be written in list format, and the results are great.
Take a Second Look
Revision is a very important part of the writing process, no matter what is being written. Sometimes it can be difficult to revise what you have already written, because it feels like you have a usable finished product as soon as you have completed a piece. It is always a good idea to take a second look at your work, to check for errors, or even parts that could use a little tweaking in order to read better.
Blogs follow this rule as well, and if you find it difficult to review your work and revise it yourself, it may be a good idea to have someone else look at it for you. An outside look could catch typos your eyes skimmed right past, or find a bit of awkward phrasing that could use some work. When you revise your blog posts, you are taking precautions to put up work that is accurate and dependable. Your information is much more likely to be taken seriously if it is free of mistakes.
Sound Strategy
Developing blog content can be tough, especially because some information has been covered by many other people, and you want to put a fresh perspective on it. Just diving right in to content creation can work short term, but in the end could end up failing you. Creating an effective content strategy can be challenging, and some of these challenges include:
Finding enough topics to cover
Establishing flow of good, reliable content
Creating and preserving a tone for your audience
Finding the right theme to work with
It is important to take a close look at what kind of website you have, what kind of information your audience will expect, and how many different topics you can effectively cover. A great idea for creating your content strategy is to start a calendar. You can list the dates you want to post on for an entire year, and start developing topic ideas well ahead of schedule. This will keep you organized and help you find topics to write about each week.
Link it Together
Credibility is a big deal in the blogging world, and readers want to be sure they are getting information that is correct and helpful. A great way to establish the credibility of your information is to include links in your blog posts. Links can do several things for your blog:
Help you avoid plagiarism by citing references
Promote your own website or other blog posts
Show that your information is well researched
Back up your information or opinions with credible, supporting sources
Anytime you reference information you found on another website, add a hyperlink. This will also make your blog content more interactive, and help your readers find more information they need. This is especially useful for newer bloggers, who are establishing credibility. Supporting your ideas with those of well-established writers and documented research are very effective writing methods.
Keep it Relevant
When writing blog content, it can be easy to branch a little too far off topic in your enthusiasm on the subject as a whole. It’s great to show your in-depth knowledge on the subject, but sticking to the topic at hand will help you and your readers. A good way to rein yourself in and stick to your topic is to create an outline before doing any actual writing. If you write up exactly what you want to cover, you will be in less danger of veering off course. By adding as much detail to your outline as possible, you will also be assured of having enough material to create an effective blog post.
If you aren’t an outline person, and don’t want to try to adapt, then it is important to review your content before you post it. If you find yourself getting a little off topic, that’s okay. Make some revisions, and use it to your advantage. Write down the information you were including that wasn’t working with this specific topic, and use it to come up with more topics for later blog posts. This will help you with your content development calendar, and allow you to use your well-written material that wasn’t quite fitting in. Nothing goes to waste!
Make Every Word Count
A fairly recent idea has come up about the length of blogs, which we took a look at with a blog on is longer better for content? The newer idea is that longer content is better than shorter content. It used to be widely accepted that blogs were meant to be short, because that’s what readers prefer. With new updates to search engine software, it has been found that longer blog posts are doing much better than previously.
That doesn’t mean that you should make your blog content long just to follow the trend. If you don’t have enough quality content to add that length, your blog will ramble fruitlessly and the length won’t help you. The most important thing to remember is Quality. This is what readers want when they go searching for blogs. The information needs to be useful, correct, and up to date. If the topic you are covering only needs 500 words, then that’s all you need to write. Stretching it out won’t help, and will lower the worth of your content. That being said, using an outline to find several useful directions you can take in your blog post can help you add valuable length which will optimize your content and give your readers a more satisfying product.
Keep up with the Competition
As stated before, there are many different blogs available now, because blogging has been around for decades. If you are looking to start developing blog content, or maybe to revamp your blog, a great place to start is checking out other blogs. Especially if you have competitors blogging in the same category as you, looking at what others are doing can help you find what will work for your site. This content is available for everyone to view, and you can bet that your competitors and fellow bloggers are doing the same thing.
There are certain standards that readers expect when it comes to blogs, and these standards evolve as technology does. Just as you would research information to help you write your posts, you should research other blogs for tips on what to do and what not to do. This can help you create more effective blog content that will keep readers coming back for more, and maybe even choosing your blog over others.
There are many different sources of information available about creating killer blog content, but these are some basics to help get you started. You can also take a look at SocialMediaExaminer’s excellent blog writing blog posts and Hubspot’s post on creating content that spreads naturally. It is still a great idea to keep researching content methods and techniques, to keep yourself current and in the know, but if you follow these keys, you will be well on your way to creating blog content of which you can be proud.
Stuck on blog ideas? It happens to the best of us. Constantly coming up with new content for your website or blog can be one of the most frustrating tasks. Have you ever thought about turning your latest company webinar into a solid, long-form blog? If not, it’s high time you did!
Blog Content: Creating Something from Almost Nothing
Remember the old saying, “creating something from nothing?” I remember hearing this saying a thousand times over in high school. My art teacher was the most notorious for saying it. She’d put a blank paper or canvas in front of the class and encourage us to stretch our creative muscle by creating something from the nothing in front of us.
It takes talent to create something from nothing, and most of us are up to the task when the challenge arises. However, when it comes to our business we often don’t have the time to magically create web or blog content from scratch. So why not create something from almost nothing?
Turning a Webinar into Killer Content
The Content Marketing Institute published an article discussing some of the flaws with webinars. They are often incredibly lengthy and unsuited for those in our audience who are constantly busy. The Institute went on to recommend using your webinars to create compelling, high quality blog posts suitable for a larger, more diverse audience. We thought their idea held merit, and did a little research of our own.
Webinars are a proven means of reaching out to your audience and sharing your experience. They grant you the opportunity to be more visible online, and they provide thought leadership. While these little content gems can offer clear and specific value, they can also help you when you’re running dry on blog content ideas.
A great way to repurpose content for a hearty blog post is to reuse your previously released webinars. You can even condense your webinars into video blog form, turning them into more easily digestible online content pieces. Not only will the transition take minimal time and effort since the bulk of the work is already complete, but it will also grant you access to an untapped pool of killer content ideas when you’re struggling for blog topics.
Hubspot published a formidable article about how to repurpose a webinar into awesome blog content. Here are the key points to keep in mind:
Create a short blog video. You can repurpose your webinar by condensing it into a 3 to 5 minute video reel to display on your blog. The script for the video reel can be displayed below the video in the blog. Since most webinars consume upwards to 60 minutes, these condensed bursts can attract a new audience.
Turn the script into a blog. A 60 minute webinar is created from a lengthy script. With a little editing and the addition of a few fresh facts, you can repurpose the script into a well-written, lengthy blog that is search engine optimized.
Use leftover Q&A. Often your webinars will have a decent amount of Q&A that you’ve cut out for time purposes. You can utilize this leftover content for blog post ideas and content.
Create New Blog Content with Interviews
Another way to fill your topic inventory is to use interviews to create new blogs. Forming a piece of content around an interview is one of the oldest and most compelling ways to improve your blog posts. Here’s why interviews pack a punch:
They create timeless content
They make an impact, regardless of the situation
They leave a strong, often emotional, impression
The trick to creating a compelling blog around an interview is conducting the interview well in the first place. This means you need to ask questions that open the door to gleaning large amounts of relevant information. If you’re working with an old interview, hopefully you kept good notes. You’ll need them to make the writing process as effortless as possible. If you’re interviewing in the future, here are some tips to follow to not only conduct a great interview, but also set yourself up for creating great blog content in the future:
Consider your audience. When crafting questions to ask the professional you’re interviewing, it’s vital to consider what kind of information will bring the most benefit to your target audience. Focus less on technical information and more on the value your audience has come to expect.
The mini case study. Ask the subject to talk about their life. Branch into personal terms, not just business. By doing so you will be able to extract how their quality of life and work has improved. Conveying this information to your audience will help them feel a strong emotional connection.
Ask for out-of-the-box resources. By asking your subject to provide a list of their “best kept secrets,” you’re likely to walk away with resources your audience will find highly unique and valuable.
Tap into inspiration. Ask the subject to share two or three things that have kept them going no matter the challenges before them. This single question can transform the interview, providing a goldmine of information the audience can easily connect to.
If you ask questions correctly and dig for in-depth answers, you’ll suddenly find yourself with a ton of information. You will be able to create a series of shorter blogs delving deep into each interview question, the response you received and how it applies to your audience. You’ll even find yourself able to create a solid, long-form blog covering the entire interview and drawing conclusions.
Video Blogs from Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts are growing more and more popular. Since Google’s search engine algorithms catalog posts to Google faster than anywhere else, it’s in your best interest to tap into this tool.
We recently came across an article that discussed how you can use Google Hangouts to create fresh blog content. Crafting video blog content is a great way to add to your content marketing efforts. Busy audience members will appreciate the occasional video blog because it’s something they can watch while on-the-go. If you haven’t made a video blog yet, here’s why you should:
Videos are often less intimidating than text
Google Hangouts makes it quick and easy to create, upload and share videos
Thanks to Google’s near instant crawling, video blogs can and will rank on search engines
Other Means of Crafting Great Blog Content
Another awesome means of crafting great blog content is to repurpose your podcasts. You can use the script to create a blog re-covering the topic. Introduce a fresh perspective or new information in the blog to keep it new. The effort involved in repurposing the podcast will be minimal, and you’ll quickly create an awesome blog.
If you’ve been blogging for any amount of time, you’ve no doubt had feedback in the form of comments on the blog posts themselves or through social media. You can often skim through comments and discover new blog ideas. For example, a follower may have asked a question or suggested that you cover the topic further by branching off in a specific direction. You can use these questions and suggestions to quickly create new content ideas.
You can also tap into customer reviews, testimonials and personal stories to brainstorm new blog content. The idea is to tap into the stories your customers and employees have shared and use these for blog content. Stories are a great way to inspire and motivate your audience. They create a deep-seated connection that shows you’re more than just a company, you’re an entity interested in providing the most beneficial experience for your customers and employees.
You can even repurpose your whitepapers and business presentations into hard-hitting blogs that address relevant topics of concern to your target audience. By condensing and covering such forms of content in blog form, you open up the window to link to and gain exposure for your whitepapers, business presentations and slideshows.
Two Heads Are Better Than One
If creating new blog content is an ongoing struggle that frustrates, you might consider the strategy of using two heads instead of one. In other words: consider hiring a professional copywriter. They can often suggest content ideas and topics that build upon the content they have already written for you. Hiring a professional can save you time and money, while lessening your workload and alleviating unwanted (and unneeded) stress.
Copywriting professionals are also experienced at repurposing content. If you’re looking to turn your webinars, interviews and podcasts into blogs or utilize Hangouts more efficiently, a seasoned professional can tackle the project effortlessly.
As you can see, topic ideas can come from all sorts of places. They are limited only by your imagination. If you’re still feeling a little iffy about how to produce great blog and content ideas, check out 20 Topic Ideas for a Steady Content Flow.
Blog writing is just part of the equation. Keeping your readers on your blog long enough to engage, come back and share is the most difficult side of the equation. Ideally, you should be able to keep readers on your blog so they are encouraged to explore more, leave comments, share your content, subscribe and ultimately buy from you (if you’re selling). To do all of that, you need to keep your readers engaged.
Powerful Blog Writing Techniques That Will Lock In Your Readers
Keeping readers engaged involves more than just blog writing about what they want to read; it’s about going the extra mile for your readers and going a little outside of the box. There are plenty of blogs in your niche category, so you need to stand out among the rest. By looking for ways to step outside of the norm you can have the hippest blog on the block.
Adhere to the Three Principles
Those bloggers with naturally engaging topics have it easy — such as the guy who travels around the world or the woman who tests out products to see if they’re worth the hype. But, even if your material is inheritably interesting, you could find yourself in a mundane trap that turns readers off. To write a successful blog and keep readers engaged, you need to adhere to the three principles of blog writing:
Create a style and tone that is appropriate for your material.
Post often and be predictable.
Invite reader interaction.
Defining Your Style and Tone
Your content ultimately drives the style and tone in your blog writing. If you’re a health insurance agency with a blog and you’re targeting elderly individuals, you shouldn’t use slang or youthful language — they won’t appreciate it. If you’re blogging for techies, you need technological speak in your blog. If you’re blogging about food, you need a fun, upbeat tone that speaks to your fellow foodies.
It doesn’t matter how flashy your website is, if you don’t have a solid style and tone, your blog is going to suffer. Always remember that a blog is more like a conversation. Sure, it can be informative, but approach that information like you’re sharing it with a friend — not a robot. If you can, read your blog entry out loud and ask yourself if it sounds conversational-like.
Try writing your blogs with a friend or family member in mind. This technique might help you approach the conversational tone a little easier.
Your audience should be your number one concern. You’ve addressed your audience while developing your content strategy (or at least you should have) so you know your target audience. Use your target audience to select your tone and style, because this is ultimately the person that will read your blog.
Post, Post, Post
Be a frequent, predictable poster — not a random poster. Not only will this help with search engine rankings, but it will entice readers to come back for more. Try to post three times per week or up to once a day if you can. When readers know there is more to come, they will keep coming back for more.
Play with Your Audience — Not literally
But, you need to engage your audience as if you’re physically in front of them hanging out. It doesn’t matter how boring the topic, there are ways to get your readers to interact with your blog posts, which ultimately encourages them to come back for more.
So how do you get your readers to play along?
Ask Questions – You’ve shared your experience and case in your blog, so why not shoot it out to the readers and ask for their opinions. For example, you’ve posted about whether or not you should work from home. Now direct the question to your readers asking for their thoughts, experiences, etc. This encourages comments (always great for search rankings) and engages the audience instantly.
Be Visual – Readers could use a break from text. So add a picture or video for them to enjoy along with your post.
Insert a Poll – Readers love polls. They’re anonymous, fun, and it encourages the readers to come back later to see the results.
Open Up a Debate – Pick a topic and put your opinion in there. Then direct it to the readers for debate. Debates can get heated though, so make sure you’re there to moderate.
Remember Don’t Be A Dull Dud
Your content strategy should lay out what you’re blogging about and when. Avoid writing about the same topics over and over. If you notice you’ve written on a similar topic a few times in a single month, it’s time to revisit your content strategy and change it up.
Use catching headlines. Readers love lists, such as “10 Tips for Writing a Killer Blog.” Make sure you have something compelling in your headline that makes a reader want to click and continue on.
Make your content scannable. Break it up with subheaders, use short paragraphs and keep your sentences tight. A wall of text can discourage readers from reading further — even if you added a few photographs to break it up.
Engaging your readers isn’t hard as long as you keep it conversational, fun and interesting. Take some time before you write your posts and never write just to rank a keyword. Have a friend or family member read a post before it goes live for an objective opinion. The more natural your writing is, the more engaged your readers will become.
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