Writing blog posts can be a daunting task. When a "Newbie" sets out to enter the world of blogging, they are usually concerned about the technical side of things. They are worried about which platform to use. Do they start with Blogger or WordPress? Do they want to create a blog on their own domain or somewhere else? What plugins so they need? All if these questions tend to consume our thoughts as we set up our blog.
The funny thing is, once these decisions are made and the newly-hatched blogger has a blog ready for content, that's the time when the real problem rears its ugly head: what to write about?
This is the major thing that stymies new bloggers. Their blog is all set up and ready to go, and suddenly they're faced with having to put actual words on it! It will either hit them immediately, or after a few blog posts that seem to come easily, but sooner or later they say to themselves, "Wow! I'm going to have to do a lot of this! Where an I going to find things to blog about all the time?"
Well, never fear. It's not as difficult as most folks make it. Here are just a few things to consider ... and a few techniques you can try ... to keep the flow of good content coming easier.
1) If You're Marketing Online, Blog About What You're Learning
A large portion of folks blogging online are involved in some sort of marketing. They're using their blog as a way to meet people online and to build their mailing lists. If this sounds like you, it's probable that a lot of the things you want to blog about have to do with your marketing. It's also probable, since you're a "newbie" blogger, that you're fairly new to marketing online as well. If that is the case, then consider blogging about that!
Pass on to your readers what you're learning on a day to day basis. If you attend a webinar ... blog about it the next day. Tell your readers what it was about, who conducted it, and what you learned. Take what you learned from someone else yesterday, and simply teach it in your blog post today! Your readers will appreciate the help and they will begin to know, like and trust you, and to look to you as a good source of knowledge and learning.
2) Blog About Your Passion
Most of us have a hobby ... something we love to do in our spare time. Even if you're an online marketer, you're likely to have an outside interest that really gets you excited! Do you love to cook? Are you a collector of something? Do you lift weights or work out in some way? So you spend every spare moment fly fishing? How about hiking? Do you love to take off into the mountains with your dog on a good long hike? What about photography? Do you love taking scenic photographs on your hikes? Speaking of dogs, what about your pets? Most of us love our pets and some of us have real passions for them and everything about them.
All of these things listed here are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hobbies. From model railroading, to camping and rock climbing, all of these things are fertile ground for excellent blog post material.
What's your passion? Whatever it is, write about it on your blog. Share your love for your hobby with your readers. They will appreciate it immensely, and you will attract people to your site that have interests similar to yours! That's the key here! It's the reason we blog in the first place! We want to meet and form relationships with like-minded people. Sharing what you're passionate about with your readers is the best way to encourage that to happen.
3) Make Your Blog A "Combination" Blog
Many blogging "Newbies" ask the same question: "Can my blog be about more than one thing?"
The answer is: Yes! Of course it can! If you fit the model of an online marketer starting a blog to help build your list, for instance, it wouldn't be out of line to wager that you probably have a hobby or passion that is not Internet marketing. You can do yourself no greater favor than to combine the two into one blog.
How does a combination blog work? You simply blog about two subjects ... online marketing and your hobby ... and then use the "categories" function of WordPress or Blogger to divide them for simple reference. You might create a "Page" in your blog about your hobby, and tell folks if they want to learn more to reference the hobby category of posts.
Creating a "combination" blog has several advantages. It gives us more things to write about so we can write about what we are learning in marketing on one day, and follow it the next with something about our hobby. That's much easier than trying to stick to one subject all of the time. It also means we're really starting to "brand" ourselves. You'll become known as "that fishing guy", or "the lady with the big poodle". Blogging in the "combination" style gives people the chance to really get to know you, and this can lead to a better, more active mailing list as well as really good personal relationships with some of the folks you'll meet through your blogging activities.
4) Have Fun!
Always remember, if you're not having fun, then your readers won't enjoy themselves either. But, if you're actually enjoying writing about your subjects, and having fun doing it, that will come through like daylight through a cloud. If you enjoy what you're doing, your blog will attract people that are like-minded and anxious to visit your site daily to find out what you have to say today.
These are just a few of the strategies you can use to help with the perennial problem of the blogger: how to create new, interesting content almost daily. If you follow these guidelines, and then expand them on your own, you'll find it's really not such a problem at all. All of us have plenty to share and write about, and the whole process becomes simple if we just relax and enjoy it.
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