How to Generate Ideas For Your Business Blog Aug 25th
No matter what industry your business is in, you’ll need a business blog. There’s no way around this: even if you’re making a decent profit and have got sales coming in, without a blog, you’re losing potential sales that would only boost your bottom line. There are countless benefits of blogging:
- It increases your SEO, making it easier for potential customers to discover your business online
- It helps you become an authority figure in your industry
- It provides real value to your site visitors
- It offers visitors an easy way to share your content on social networks
There are three primary steps to take before blogging, and they’re relatively simple: 1) pick the right domain for your website and blog; 2) choose between different types of hosting; 3) pick a platform, like WordPress, and choose your theme. These three steps are the foundation of your blog.
Once you’ve gotten the basics out the way, now what? You may be conflicted on what to do with your blog, especially as more time passes and you run out of steam. Here are a few ideas on how to generate ideas for your business blog:
Use an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar is a tool that maps out your content for the next several months. Content mapping is one of the best ways to ensure that you don’t get roadblock and can say consistent with your blog. Your editorial calendar lists not only your upcoming topic and post dates, but any corresponding notes, such as who the writer is (if you’re using a freelancer), and any necessary resources that can help build out that particular post.
Peek Inside Amazon
Amazon has an amazing “Look Inside” feature for books that you should absolutely be using for content ideas. The “Look Inside” feature allows you to flip through the table of contents, first few pages, and index. With this feature, you can look inside books that are similar to your industry for topic ideas in the table of contents and index.
For example, let’s say you own a blog that focus on budget travel. In this case, you’d search for budget travel books and check out how published books are arranging chapters. Each chapter could easily be manipulated into a new blog post for your site.
Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Visiting blogs in your industry is a surefire way to generate a lengthy list of ideas. After all, they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, of course you aren’t going to copy someone’s else work. Looking at other blogs should serve as inspiration, rather a replication. Most topics have already been written about already, and even some of your original ideas can be found on other blogs, too. Maintain a list of blogs you like, and save titles and URLs of your favorite post in a separate document.
Hire A Freelancer
Freelancers are a great, cost-effective way to get great content on your blogs. Using freelancer sites like Scripted or UpWork, you can get high-quality work without having to lift a finger. Sort through dozens of profiles, shortlist candidates with great writing ability, and set up protected contracts.
If you hire a good, writer, your writer will even be able to come up with their own topics. Start off by arranging a phone call and describing your vision and brand. Send over some blogs that you’re inspired by, and ask them to come up with a list of blog ideas for the next few weeks. If you like what they’ve suggested, you can approve it and add it to your calendar.
Spin Ideas
There are multiple ways to take one blog idea spin it into several options. You can do this by changing the audience, platform, etc. For example, let’s look at the title, “How to Generate Ideas for Your Business Blog.” By altering the focus a bit, we can branch out. Here are a few examples:
“How to Generate Ideas for Your Travel Blog”
“5 Blog Ideas for Your Business Blog”
“10 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Blog”
“How to Create Winning Blog Post Ideas”
This allows you to be more versatile, and to repurpose your old content in new ways. This is especially useful if you’re short on time, or want to add more information to a post you’ve previously written about.
Take Advantage of Idea Tools
For those that need a little extra push, there are plenty of idea generator tools on the Web for you to take advantage of. These mostly consist of automated smart platforms that are able to take keywords and spew out article topic suggestions. While you may not use their titles exactly as they suggest them, these tools work because, at the very least, they help get your creative juices flowing. Based on their suggestions, you can create new article topics around them.
Aug 25th
No matter what industry your business is in, you’ll need a business blog. There’s no way around this: even if you’re making a decent profit and have got sales coming in, without a blog, you’re losing potential sales that would only boost your bottom line. There are countless benefits of blogging:
- It increases your SEO, making it easier for potential customers to discover your business online
- It helps you become an authority figure in your industry
- It provides real value to your site visitors
- It offers visitors an easy way to share your content on social networks
There are three primary steps to take before blogging, and they’re relatively simple: 1) pick the right domain for your website and blog; 2) choose between different types of hosting; 3) pick a platform, like WordPress, and choose your theme. These three steps are the foundation of your blog.
Once you’ve gotten the basics out the way, now what? You may be conflicted on what to do with your blog, especially as more time passes and you run out of steam. Here are a few ideas on how to generate ideas for your business blog:
Use an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar is a tool that maps out your content for the next several months. Content mapping is one of the best ways to ensure that you don’t get roadblock and can say consistent with your blog. Your editorial calendar lists not only your upcoming topic and post dates, but any corresponding notes, such as who the writer is (if you’re using a freelancer), and any necessary resources that can help build out that particular post.
Peek Inside Amazon
Amazon has an amazing “Look Inside” feature for books that you should absolutely be using for content ideas. The “Look Inside” feature allows you to flip through the table of contents, first few pages, and index. With this feature, you can look inside books that are similar to your industry for topic ideas in the table of contents and index.
For example, let’s say you own a blog that focus on budget travel. In this case, you’d search for budget travel books and check out how published books are arranging chapters. Each chapter could easily be manipulated into a new blog post for your site.
Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Visiting blogs in your industry is a surefire way to generate a lengthy list of ideas. After all, they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, of course you aren’t going to copy someone’s else work. Looking at other blogs should serve as inspiration, rather a replication. Most topics have already been written about already, and even some of your original ideas can be found on other blogs, too. Maintain a list of blogs you like, and save titles and URLs of your favorite post in a separate document.
Hire A Freelancer
Freelancers are a great, cost-effective way to get great content on your blogs. Using freelancer sites like Scripted or UpWork, you can get high-quality work without having to lift a finger. Sort through dozens of profiles, shortlist candidates with great writing ability, and set up protected contracts.
If you hire a good, writer, your writer will even be able to come up with their own topics. Start off by arranging a phone call and describing your vision and brand. Send over some blogs that you’re inspired by, and ask them to come up with a list of blog ideas for the next few weeks. If you like what they’ve suggested, you can approve it and add it to your calendar.
Spin Ideas
There are multiple ways to take one blog idea spin it into several options. You can do this by changing the audience, platform, etc. For example, let’s look at the title, “How to Generate Ideas for Your Business Blog.” By altering the focus a bit, we can branch out. Here are a few examples:
“How to Generate Ideas for Your Travel Blog”
“5 Blog Ideas for Your Business Blog”
“10 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Blog”
“How to Create Winning Blog Post Ideas”
This allows you to be more versatile, and to repurpose your old content in new ways. This is especially useful if you’re short on time, or want to add more information to a post you’ve previously written about.
Take Advantage of Idea Tools
For those that need a little extra push, there are plenty of idea generator tools on the Web for you to take advantage of. These mostly consist of automated smart platforms that are able to take keywords and spew out article topic suggestions. While you may not use their titles exactly as they suggest them, these tools work because, at the very least, they help get your creative juices flowing. Based on their suggestions, you can create new article topics around them.
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