Where to Find Blog Post Ideas
I've been on a speaking tour this week discussing the value of business blogging to non-bloggers. One issue that seems to stump newbies is figuring out what's worth blogging about.
The first place I'd look for inspiration is your sent emails folder. Scanning through a few dozen emails will surely uncover some emails were you've offered advice to clients. Think about how you'd describe the advice you offered in a conversation with a friend.
That's the trick. Anonomize the advice and turn it into something you can share with the world. Turn it into something that will be valuable to other clients, prospects, or people who may happen upon your site through Google.
You just made the world a better place by sharing some information with the world and built credibility with prospects who can easily infer that you know what you're talking about.
What's important to remember here is that this isn't a case of self-promotion. Self-promotion doesn't work on blogs since nobody is interested in reading your pitch.
Set aside time to trickle out a new post on a regular timeline such as weekly or daily. Make it a habit and watch the traffic (and your online credibility) grow.
That's precisely what I tell my business blogging clients: Look at the subjects in your inbox. One of my clients has the perfect system already in place, their project feedback loop gives them realtime examples of projects going well and going sour. They can simply grab that information, anonimize it as you suggest, and then feed it back into the system with a rough solution and a call for other solutions (which is the real meat). They are beginning to get valuable response on this.
Another way to find blog topics is to set them up with a daily Google Alert feed on all their business interests, they can always find gold in that mine.
Tips we give our business blogging clients for coming up with blog content include those mentioned above plus: creating a poll or survey so you get your readers to interact. Then you can also write about the results. A good poll question is "what do you want to read about on the this blog?", in the context of the topic, of course. Also, tips related to your product or service, book and product reviews relevant to your audience, invite a guest blogger. The possibilities are endless.
1. Posted by: Software developer on March 11, 2008 10:53 AM:
I agree with you, the main idea of the blogs, I think, is not the opportunity to earn some money, but the opportunity to share your experience with the rest and find the appropriate solutions.