The need to come up with a steady flow of quality content for your blog can be daunting and downright exasperating. Even the best bloggers experience writer's block occasionally. Since you're already wearing 10 hats to start and run your business, the last thing you need is to waste time thinking of how you'll push out content on your blog. How fortunate is it that I've developed a list of 30 big ideas that will make your blog pop?
1.How To Posts
This category is a huge one, and the specifics will depend on the industry you're in. But here are a few specifics:
2.How to get more out of your product
3.How to use your product
4.How to solve your customer's problem
5.Industry News
This could keep you in content indefinitely, if you work in an industry that has a lot happening. Set Google Alerts for industry keywords so you're on top of breaking news.
6.New technology
7.Big players making a splash
8.Awards or events
9.Regulations and laws passed
10.Company Info
While not every post should be company or product-centric, it's always good to throw in some of these to stay connected with your audience.
11.Awards won or honors bestowed
12.New hires
13.Press releases
14.New products or new product features
15.Interview of a staff member
16.Promotions
17.Product Details
Again, don't go overboard with posts about your products. Keep them beneficial to readers, and focus less on the features you think make your products great.
18.Comparison to similar products
19.Special features
20.New colors or options released
21.Reviews of your products from third parties
22.Your Insight
Your readers like to connect with you as a person, so writing content in your voice and with your opinion always does the job.
23.Your predictions for the coming year
24.Behind-the-scenes glimpse at the operations of your company
25.Your take on industry trends
26.Other
Read your competitors' blogs to see what your audience cares about. While you don't want to copy those posts verbatim, they can give you ideas for posts with a different angle on the same topic. Subscribe to RSS feeds and email newsletters, and always be on the lookout for more blog ideas.
27.Answer frequently asked questions
28.Case studies of your customers
29.Research: conduct surveys and share results
30.Top 10 lists
Never Run Out of Blog Topics Again
While this list should help you come up with at least a dozen great topics for your business blog, you want to ensure that you get a strategy in place to keep the content flowing. Create a word document, spreadsheet or carry a notebook to record ideas as you think of them. Set aside time and a place for writing when your head and thoughts are clear. Pull out your list of topics and you may even find that you can knock off two or three at a time. Technology makes it easy to schedule blog posts -- so you can set it and forget it, leaving no excuses for not having a steady stream of quality content for your readers to relish.
This article was originally published under the title 30 Blog Ideas That Will Jumpstart Your Content Strategy at www.succeedasyourownboss.com
Melinda F. Emerson, SmallBizLady is America's #1 small business expert. She is an author, speaker and small business coach whose areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She writes a weekly column for the New York Times, publishes a resource blog, www.succeedasyourownboss.com which is syndicated through The Huffington Post. She also hosts a weekly talk show on Twitter called #SmallBizChat for small business owners. As a brand, she reaches 1.5 million entrepreneurs a week on the internet. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. Forbes Magazine named Melinda Emerson one of the #1 Woman for Entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Melinda has been featured on MSNBC, Fox News, NBC Nightly News and in Fortune, The Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise. She is the bestselling author of "Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works," and the ebook How to Become a Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online.