Ugh...What Do I Write About?
This week I’ve talked with a few friends who have taken the 28 Day Challenge and a few are having trouble coming up with ideas for blog posts. If you update your blog with any consistency, topics for posts will inevitably cause you trouble from time to time. So you can imagine the challenge with 28 topics in 28 days.
Regardless if your blog is laser focused on a particular niche, or if you cast a wider net about life or random thoughts…it’s still tough to try and create new topics that haven’t been blogged about to death.
I don’t advise only writing for Keywords that you think will get you Google search results. I’m a believer in writing for content and not SEO.
Give Your Readers What They Want
What information have your readers really liked? Have there been particular topics that received a wave of comments or Retweets or backlinks? Find what information created a greater amount of engagement than others. If a set of information has become popular among your audience, why would you deny them more content they crave? Don’t make it harder than it has to be, write what your readers want to read.
Ask
If you’ve ever found yourself completely frozen with what to write about, take advantage of all of the real-time web tools. Ask your followers on Twitter, posts a few questions on Facebook and see if any great ideas come from that. The tools to receive instant feedback are plentiful, take advantage of them.
Add New Insights To Industry News
If you’ve been writing for a while, a good chunk of your readers look at you as a knowledge source for your niche. Provide information and opinions with news about your particular niche. Are there new products or tools that just came out? Is there a new study you can comment on? Just make sure you actually add either a new prospective or new ideas to the topic.
I recently wrote about Ford’s new “tweeting car”. Rather than just simply comment if i liked the idea or not, I added new insights and ideas I thought were worthwhile. Become opinionated and write your thoughts out loud. If you’re lucky, your readers will provide additional insight and in some cases make you reconsider or even change your mind on a particular topic.
What Are You Working On?
What better place to let folks know about projects you’re working on than your readers. If you’ve had a new opportunity, or exciting new client, or really excited about what you have going on…why not write about it. Don’t use it as a direct sale pitch, focus on challenges and insights. If you have people following your blog, they’re going to want to know about the person behind the writing too. Everyone can relate to struggles and success. Why not share a little about your own journey.
Write About How Hard Writing About Blog Posts Is
What better way to use a post than to write about posts. I’m using this extremely amazing tactic right now as I type.
Don’t over complicate writing a blog. It’s actually supposed to be fun and provide some enjoyment for you. Every post isn’t going to be a grand slam, although you should try and add new value with each post. If you ever find your brain frozen with topic ideas, or if you need to write 28 posts in 28 days…try a few of these ideas. I hope they help.
This is DAY 13 of my “28 Day Blogging Challenge“
Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE
Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media. He is an avid blogger and active across the net. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter
Pingback: uberVU - social comments