How To Write A Blog

In my last post we discussed some of the types of content strategy you could use on your blogs.  Today we will expand on those marketing strategies and explore more ideas so you can learn how to write a blog.

Writing a Blog

So, how do you narrow down the list of topics to write about?  This is acually pretty easy.

 

• Focus on your own businesses needs and wants.  If you need it or want it, chances are pretty darn good that someone else in your industry will too.  Choose something your business needs, research it and write a post about it.  Easy content!
• Forums/Social Media/Blogs.  What are other people in your industry talking about?  What questions to they have?  Pin point an active discussion and write a blog post about the discussion from yours, theirs or a professionals point of view.
• Infomercials and ads.  What's being advertised?  Might think about a pros and cons review of the product or give list of similar products and their highlights so the reader can compare notes easily.
• Think solutions.  What are the constants in your industry?  Main problems?  Write a blog post offering solutions to some of the issues common to your industry.

Some more great places to come up with these ideas are search engines.  I mean specific search engines.  I like to call them idea factories.  You know that search bar where you type in your keyword in Google and it gives you a drop down menu which changes as you type?  Idea Factory!  As you type that list changes to give you specific keywords that people are searching for using the term that you typed in and you know what?  Google isn't the only one who uses this technology.  A big grin here is ok Peeps!  Where are the places that people go on the internet when they are searching for something specific?

 

• Google (of course!)
• Amazon
• Clickbank Trends
• Facebook News Feed
• Yahoo Answers
• YouTube

Yes, these places actually tell you what people are looking for given a specific search term!  Can anybody say MOTHERLODE?

One thing you must remember in your marketing efforts is that it's not about what you want to sell - it's the solution they want to buy!  So, just for practice use what you've learned above and come up with oh say, ten potential blog titles.  Just the titles for now, we're not trying to write the article.  It's an exercise to show you how easy it is to come up with you content marketing ideas.  After you come up with your titles you need to validate them or find out how much interest there is in them.

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Tools To Validate Your Ideas

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Is your idea a good one?  The easiest and most popular way to find out if your idea has any merit is to plug your keyword term into:

 

• Google Keyword Planner Tool - I love this tool in that it gives you a total number of searches per month for your search term.
• Amazon Bestseller ranking - These rankings are based on sales, not reviews or ratings.
• Clickbank Trends -  can use CBtrends.com to view the performance history of any product listed in the ClickBank Marketplace.
• SmallSEOTools - A free keyword tool so you can determine what keywords are working and what are not.

After you find out if your idea is a good one using these tools, it's now time to go forth and write!

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Need a Content Strategy For Your Blog?

Ever sit at your computer and stare at that blank screen and wonder what you're going to write about?  I have to confess I just did that very thing.  As any marketer knows, content is truly king.  So, where do you find content when you need a content strategy for your blog?  Well for me today it was the blank computer screen I was staring at and wondering what I was going to write about.  I started thinking about all the things that you learn in a day, tweets or posts you've read, or a webinar you might have attended.   Did you read a self improvement book or have an interesting discussion with a friend about your work?  Any and all of these things are absolutely loaded with wonderful things you can use as topics and a content marketing strategy for your blog. Sometimes I've just been sitting outside drinking a nice glass of wine, staring at the stars, having random thoughts about nothing specific and hit on some great topics that I thought might interest my readers.  Another good way of finding content is to ask!  Ask your customers, ask your readers what do you want to read about?  Post a poll on your blog, tweet and post questions on Twitter and Facebook asking your readers for their input on what they need answers to.  After all, that's what you're blog is about.  It's there to provide value to those readers.  You can write any number of things but if no one is reading because your not writing about what they need, your visitors will go bye bye and not come back. [headline style="1" align="left" headline_tag="h2"] Types of Content Strategy : [/headline] Have you wondered how many types of blog posts there actually are?  Well here's a list and I'm sure this can get those creative juices flowing.  Some basic types are:

1. List Post:  create a list of things that your market can use.  It may be books, software, resources could be anything!
2. How-To Post:  describe how to do something related to your niche.  For instance in the internet marketing world how to do SEO or write killer ads, or market like a pro are always great subjects.
3. Case-Study Post:  outline and examine the details of a project, webinar or process.
4. Problem/Solution Post:  Define a problem in your area of expertise and provide a solution.
5. SAQ Post:  This is the "should ask" question type of blog post where these are questions your customer should ask but don't.
6. Research Post:  Do some research in a topic familiar to the niche you work in
7. Best of Post: Create a new blog post highlighting the best blog posts you've done over a period of time.
8. Product Tips Post:  This is a very powerful and useful type of post.  It can be promotional as well with you creating content that helps your customers be more successful.
9. Reaction Post:  It's just like it sounds.  Write a post reacting to content by someone else.
10. Review Post:  Yes, this is a popular tool and I personally think quite abused but it's effectiveness cannot be underrated.   Write a review about a product that you are familiar with that may be of use to your readers.

So, these are just a few examples of the many types of content strategy that you can use and there are many more.  So many in fact that I am already considering a follow-up post to list additional sources.  So happy writing! Make Money Blogging - Ray Higdon