The difference between a blogger and a diarist is that bloggers want other people to read what they write. The whole point of blogging is to get yourself, your knowledge, or your business out into the world.
It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging about science, entertainment, your business, or fiction, your ultimate goal is to capture eyeballs.
With the smothering rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, you may have heard rumors that blogging is dead. On the contrary, the fact is that blogging has never been more important.
- As much as 90% of organic search traffic to a business website can come through its blog.
- For B2B businesses, 52% say that blogs are the most important part of their content marketing success — beating out email, social media, and even in-person events.
- Blogging is the most cost-effective way to reach a niche audience.
- Blogs instill trust in with regular readers, which can lead to warmer leads.
- Blogging enhances your personal authority by giving you a long-form platform to share your thoughts vs. the shorter constraints of social media sharing (e.g., Instagram).
- Artists can build their audience platform by sharing how they work and what inspires them.
And if those stats don’t convince you, consider the outstanding successes of sites like PerezHilton, Huffington Post, and Engadget which all started out as blogs.
Gone are the days of click-bait headlines being the best way to draw visitors. Thanks to Google’s ever-evolving algorithm, content is king again.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to get your blog noticed by writing quality posts that can turn visitors into loyal readers or customers.
Here’s what we’ll show you:
- How to come up with a blog strategy
- How to brainstorm blog post ideas
- How to write and format attention-getting posts
- Tips for avoiding errors and breaking through writer’s block
How to Come Up With Blog Ideas
When you first start blogging, you probably had a ton of ideas. Eventually, however, there will come a time when you need to find new topics. Don’t get down on yourself if you run out of ideas. We’ve got your back. Here are some ideas you can use to get those creative juices flowing again.
Know Your Audience
The first step in coming up with blog post topic ideas is to consider your audience. Put yourself in the shoes of who you imagine to be your blog’s ideal reader. Think about what questions they might have related to your overall blog topic.
Take Regular Polls — If you’re struggling to determine what’s most important to your readers, a simple solution is to ask them on social media. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ have ways you can build a poll right into your post. Think of 3-4 topics you’re considering and ask people to vote on the one they like best.
Polls aren’t just a one-time thing, either. You can use ongoing regular polls, changing the topics, to keep on top of your audience’s changing priorities.
Study Your Own Blog — If you’ve already got readers, review their comments on your posts. You may discover what tangential topics they’re interested about or problems that they’d like to solve. You can also use your blog’s analytics to consider topics that might be relevant to your readers based on geography, language, their browsers, or the devices they use.
Miscellaneous Brainstorming Techniques
- Keep a note-taking system that goes wherever you go. It can be an app like Google Keep or you can use a little notebook.
- Seek inspiration in other art forms you enjoy. Music, museums, books, podcasts, video games, movies, sports, and even TED talks can inspire great ideas for posts.
- Taking a nap, going for a walk, or showering are time-tested ways that writers have used to prompt ideas. There’s even research that supports these techniques.
- Mind mapping is a visual way to make connections between topics you hadn’t thought of before.
- Books like Thinkertoys contain a treasure trove of brainstorming methods you can use.
Level Up Topic Ideas with Combinations
You can also combine several different brainstorming methods to generate truly original topic ideas. When viewed in combination with your favorite music, you might come up with a topic like How to Use Your Roomba as a Bluetooth Speaker.
Getting Started: How to Outline Your Post
One pitfall that many bloggers fall into is the desire to give away too much too soon. The solution is simple: plan ahead. Taking 10 minutes to write a quick outline can save you an hour’s worth of floundering around without one.
Identify Your Main Points
Good writing starts with an idea – whether it comes from keyword searches or from any the other topic identification strategies we mentioned in the previous section. Create a skeleton of your post using whichever outlining tool you like best. You can even use a cocktail napkin!
Here are some questions that will help you sketch an outline for your post:
- What are the three most important ideas you want to convey in your post?
- What’s the best order in which to present these points so they’ll have the most impact on the reader?
- If you have any research to back up your points, where should you mention it?
- Do you have quotes, testimonials, or experiences to support your conclusions?
- What do you want the reader to do after they read your post?
Dig Deeper
Now, go back over your list of main points and supporting evidence and start adding sub-bullets underneath them, concentrating questions that might come from the point of view of your intended audience.
Digging into your main points means chewing on them from a neutral stance. It can be useful to think about this portion of your outline as answering the journalistic technique of asking “5 W’s and an H” — who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Ask questions about each of your main points:
- Who agrees with this point? Who disagrees?
- What do these ideas mean to your audience? What can be confusing about them?
- Where are these points important? By geography? By industry? By audience?
- When did these ideas originate? When do they apply? Will they change in the future?
- Why should your audience care about these points?
- How can your readers act on this knowledge?
You don’t have to answer each question literally. Just use these questions — and any others that occur to you — as a way to delve deeper into your topic.
Remember, you’re still not “officially” writing the blog post yet. That means you’re free to make mistakes, reorder your outline, make chicken scratchings, or eliminate entire sections.
Add Yourself
What have you got to do with it? Everything, of course! It’s your blog and your voice so readers want to know why you’ve written this particular post about this particular topic. Here are some ways to personalize your post:
- Offer your opinion
- Offer insights based on your own experience
- Make connections between this topic and other less obvious topics
- Review a product or service
- Add humor or other personality elements
Add Additional Elements
Once all the ideas have been squeezed out of your topic, now it is time to write a master plan. Does this content warrant a single piece or multiple pieces? Is there the possibility of ongoing coverage? Are there other interesting ways to cover this topic? For example, you can make a video or a screencast to illustrate your points or add screenshots.