Blog content – what on earth do I write about? And how do I come up with new stuff every week?
I spent a few hours going through my LinkedIn connections to find some guest blogging opportunities and I was shocked to notice that:
- Some don’t even have a website
- Many just use their website as a ‘placeholder’ for information
- 99% don’t have blogs or even a blog tab
Overall, I would say that 99.9% of my connections have a website with NO content, NO blog and no way of me knowing more about the work they do. This also means that Google is not finding them.
Websites not found on Google
And even more shocking is that when I type the exact name of their business into Google, exactly as they have put it on LinkedIn, 9/10 times their website doesn’t even come up on page 1 or 2 (I didn’t go further) of Google. So, if someone knows the name of your business and types that into Google, they won’t find you if your website is not SEO’d (Search Engine Optimised) and if you don’t have regular content.
I wonder how these people are getting business.
Time is a barrier to blogging
I know the biggest barrier to blogging is time. But the value blogging can bring to your business, it is worth making the time. Think of blogging as the magnet that brings people to you. Imagine not having to go out and find customers – and they come to find you. If you blog consistently, and SEO (Search Engine Optimize) your blogs, your are more likely to be found on Google.
Generally, the next blogging barrier is: “What would I blog about?”
You are the specialist. You know a lot about something. Or even if you know a little about something, that is enough. And your knowledge and expertise can help people and make a difference to their lives.
Blog Content Ideas
My first suggestion for blog content ideas, is to go to Amazon. Type your area of expertise into the search box and browse some of the books in your niche. Amazon gives you the capacity to open the first few pages of these books, so have a look at the ‘table of contents’ for blog content ideas. You might get loads from one book.
Another idea is to go to Instagram. Do a search for a hashtag in your niche. Spend some time browsing these posts, looking at the comments people are making and questions they are asking or responding to. This too should give you some ideas.
For a year’s worth of blog ideas to inspire you, no matter what your niche, sign up (FREE) to ’52 Weeks of Blog Prompts’.
Email dawn@dawnadenton.com for more info
Thanks very much for advice and ideas about blogging, Dawn. I struggle sometimes to find a heading for a blog. The idea is to build readership for my novels. Have written about individual novels, but need to do more work in this direction.
Thank you Colin. The heading for your blog should be the keyword that someone would type into Google to find your blog post. Consider the word or phrase someone would type into Google for your piece to pop up. It’s very different to writing for a magazine or printed publication where you can be more creative / clever with your heading. Your blog heading needs to be what the piece is about without any fancy words or phrases – exactly what it ‘says on the tin’.