Are you struggling with trying to uncover great blog post ideas?
Coming up with popular blog post ideas can be somewhat frustrating and the whole writing process can be very daunting.
But the fact is, having a blog for your business is one of the best vehicles for starting, growing and nurturing your customer relationships which in turn grows your business.
So you really need to give some time and attention to the type of posts you write and how you write them.
Hey, How Can I Help?
Effective blogging, or content marketing, isn’t about, “Hey, listen to me!” But rather, “Hey, how can I help you?”.
Your blogging strategy, like your marketing strategy, should be focused around attracting new prospects and turning your existing customers into repeat customers.
Yes, by all means, be educational, entertaining, and informative with your blog posts, but above all else provide your audience with real value.
Figure out what your prospects and customers really want and deliver it to them through your blog posts.
You can come up with great blog post ideas and produce worthwhile content if you follow a few key pre-blog writing strategies and use the 8 blogging categories below.
Grab A Coach
A pre-writing blog strategy you might want to consider is to find a blogging coach.
A coach can be a great resource and tool for helping you get started with your blog and for helping you uncover great blog post ideas.
Do a bit of poking around and find a blogger or a business that is having success with blogging and follow them.
Let them be your guide and coach for the first little bit of your blogging journey.
And find one that’s outside of your market!
That’s so important.
The problem with following someone in your own market is that you’ll be constantly comparing yourself to them.
It’s really difficult to see what they’re doing right, blog-wise if you’re distracted on things that they’re doing in their business that doesn’t have any bearing on your success.
So no, you’re probably not going to meet the blogger (your “coach”) that you decide to follow or chat with them on the phone, but you don’t need to.
All you need to do is pay attention to what they’re doing – watch, read, listen and learn.
- Watch how they write – how they format their posts, what kind of headlines they’re using, how they incorporate photos, quotes, how they space their text, how they speak to their audience, etc.
- Read between the lines – what are they offering their readers, what’s their hook, in what ways are they building relationships with their audience, does it look like their posts following a pattern?
- Listen to what others are saying about them – why are they perceived in the way that they are, what’s the one thing that they are really good at or known for and how do they show this to their audience?
- Learn from them – be a sponge, success always leaves clues. Follow their clues.
For example, one of my clients who’s a fashion designer was having a difficult time finding her own writing style and voice for her blog.
She was writing every post as if she was turning in a high school essay.
To break this habit, which she found extremely frustrating, I had her follow an excellent food blog that was doing a lot of great things with their content marketing.
I pointed out to her some of the exact tips as above, and by paying attention to what her blogging “coaches” were doing she was able to make some positive and effective changes to her own blog.
The quality of her blog posts improved, and her writing style and voice become more authentic.
She finally started to write as if she was speaking to a friend not trying to get an A on a homework assignment.
Another helpful pre-blog writing strategy that you can adopt is to create a time management system for yourself. A good time management system will assist you in being more effective and efficient when writing.
Schedule Time To Write
A good rule of thumb is to schedule your writing time.
If you don’t schedule it, it most likely won’t happen.
In an upcoming post, Time Management Secrets of Billionaires, I’ll show you the exact process that I use for scheduling my time.
It’s called the 6 Steps Time Management System that I adopted from Chet Holmes, the author of The Ultimate Sales Machine.
I use it every day in my business and it keeps me focused and on track.
Be Consistent
Consistency is key if you want to develop your writing and produce great content.
Yes, produce great content. How’s that possible?
Well, you’re not going be an amazing blog post writer right out of the gate.
However, with some time and consistency, you’ll start to understand which post ideas gets you the most attention from your market, and the quality of your content will improve.
My time management system 6 Steps without a doubt helps me with my consistency.
Chunk It Out
One of the things that I love about my 6 Steps Time Management System is called chunking or time chunking.
If you’re used to writing for large blocks of time, say 2 to 4 hours at a time, try breaking that time down into smaller chunks. And stretch these chunks over a period of 3-5 days.
You’ll be surprised how much more writing you’ll get done during these sessions as compared with trying to get it all done in one sitting.
As you can see from the top half of my chart below, I’ve broken up my writing time over the course of the entire week.
I taught this time management system to my friend, who happens to be an educator and author, and this is how she slotted in her writing time.
She chunked out writing time for herself every day for only 30 min. And she made it a standing date for herself every day that was non-negotiable.
I thought that was a brilliant idea. It made the whole idea of writing seem more doable.
She was having success doing it this way, so I modeled a portion of my chart after hers.
Breaking any large task down into smaller chunks makes that task seem and feel more manageable.
And, if you perceive a task to be more manageable or more realistic then you’re more likely to start and complete that task in a shorter amount of time.
Try it, it really works.
Let Yourself Be Inspired
So how does one get inspired, especially when it comes to coming up with blog posts ideas?
Good question.
Inspiration occupies a different space than effort and action. You really can’t make yourself get inspired to do much of anything.
But, you can ALLOW yourself to become inspired in almost anything. And to get to that place you have to get ready for it. How does one get ready for inspiration?
By having a good time management system.
Schedule what’s important.
Be consistent with your schedule.
And chunk out your most important tasks and activities.
This all helps you create space – inner space.
You’ll no longer feel a time shortage, succumb to procrastination, or feel overwhelmed.
You’ll experience more confidence, feel more in control and organized.
As a result, you’ll have more clarity and mental freedom.
Creating space, allows or makes room for inspiration. If you’ve never experienced this in your work life, give it a try.
It really works and it’s fantastic.
Great Blog Post Ideas
Make sure you adopt some effective time management strategies for creating posts, then use the following 8 blog categories for your blog on a rotational basis.
Your prospects and customers will be more likely to engage your brand if you’re being…
USEFUL
HUMAN
GENEROUS
PROMOTIONAL
CONTROVERSIAL
ENTERTAINING
TIMELY
ENGAGING
All 8 of these categories can be found on the PDF infographic, The Ultimate List Of Blog Post Ideas, which was created by my partners at Digital Marketer.
This is definitely a PDF that you’ll want to keep at your fingertips.
I really love it!
Digital Marketer has broken down each category into specific blog post ideas. And there are a lot of fabulous suggestions under each category.
You’ll also notice that this infographic interactive. To see the examples in a certain list, just click on the squares with the arrow.
If you’re serious about growing your online business then get your blog up and running sooner than later.
Try following some simple strategies in order to help you uncover and write great blog posts.
- Print out the PDF infographic, The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas.
- Follow one or more blogs, outside of your market, and see how they’re serving their market.
- Dedicate a certain amount of days to writing.
- Chunk out smaller portions of time for those writing days. Perhaps 30 minutes over 4 to 5 days.
- Give Yourself the time and freedom to allow for “post” inspiration.
- Be consistent with your writing. Follow your schedule!
P.S. Don’t forget to download your copy of The Ultimate List Of Blog Post Ideas here.