So creating regular blog content is one of the most difficult things to do if you’re not already used to doing it.  You’re caught up in the day to day management of your life and business and it can feel like time wasted to sit down and just write about things instead of being out there and doing.  However, and it’s a big ‘however’, it is one of the most vital tasks as far as your website success and your search engine rankings are concerned. 

Here’s some tips you might find helpful to get you started…

Make it a habit.  Decide how often you’re going to post (and that will vary by industry so you need to just take a look around and see what other folk who are successful in your line of work are doing).  Then make sure you allocate some time in your schedule to create the right amount of content for you.   Some people find it easier to give over a whole day to creating the content for a month (you can save posts as drafts and then publish them according to your schedule) or you might prefer to write fresh content on the day and publish it straight away – it depends on how time sensitive your content is and how you prefer to work.  It’s a good idea to plan your content for the month so you have some guides to work to in terms of content creation and publishing.

Here’s a link to a really simple print out content planner that you might find useful when you’re starting out.

Mix it Up.  The most successful blogs offer a mix of content – search engines love it and so will your readers.  Some readers will prefer video clips, some images, some love to read long text pieces and some like just to dip into short and snappy updates regarding products and news.  You want to try and hit all of these areas to give your blog variety but you definitely need to incorporate occasional longer text pieces.  They may not be read so often in their entirety but they do appeal to the search engines as cornerstone content.

Keywords.  This is a bit of a contentious issue but let’s dive in.  It used to be the thinking that you stuffed your articles full of as many keywords as you can manage but the algorithms got smart to this and it always made your writing odd to the reader anyway.   Search engines now are programmed to promote relevant and authorative content, and to ignore keyword stuff content.  So focus there.  Write about things that are relevant to your area of expertise and your business and you will always be writing relevant content that contains the keywords for which you wish to be found.  It’s better to work on generating really valuable content that your readers will enjoy and find useful and the rest will happen naturally.

Pick a Theme by Month or Day.  If you’re struggling to come up with content ideas then it can be really helpful to pick a theme for a month to help you focus or to use theme days.  These will vary according to industry but a bit of research should make some common ones clear to you. For example, you might choose to have a theme of “Motivation Mondays” and each post you write for a Monday will contain something aspirational or motivational.  Or you could decide to focus on a new product/service on a Tuesday and a customer case study on a Friday.  Having a structure can make it much easier to design your content.

Buddy Up with a Guest Bloggers.  If you have other people that you regularly work with, then you could offer them the chance to take a guest blog spot on either a one or regular basis.  Your readers get extra content, your guest blogger gets an extra forum to talk about their area of expertise and you get a day off generating content.

Share the Personal.  This doesn’t work in all industries but quite often, your readers will be interested to find out a little about the person behind the business, especially if you are in a customer facing area.  Obviously you shouldn’t turn your business blog into your diary but you can insert a little personal content here and there, such as your training journey, your personal preferences, snippets of behind the scenes action.  All give your readers a glimpse into your world and keep their interest so they revisit to find out more.

Pin it, Save it, Bookmark it. While you’re browsing around in general, make sure you have a mechanism to bookmark relevant content ideas so you can come back to them at a later date when you’re looking for inspiration.  Pinterest is an obvious one – you can make your board secret so no one else can see it.  The Evernote app, Google Docs , there’s lots of choice – just find the thing that works for you. You don’t want to be wasting your time trying to remember where you saw something, you just want to be able to go straight to it and start creating.

Broadcast your Work.  Once you’ve created all of this amazing content, you want to make sure that your clients and potential clients can see it so make sure you share it to your social media every time.  You might want to share just a snippet so you can entice people over to your blog to see the rest of your work or you might want to share the whole article and let people just enjoy it on the platform of their choice.

In summary…

1. Make it a Habit. Great blogging doesn’t just happen on its own. Give it some time in your schedule and force yourself until it’s an ingrained habit.
2. Mix it up. Create a variety of posts – long text based, video, images, slideshows, short product / news updates
3. Write Relevant Valuable Content. Instead of focusing on your keywords directly, just create content that your readers will find useful and interesting and your keywords will be organically included.
4. Pick a Theme. Choose a theme for the month, or the week and use theme days to help you order your content and make it easier to think of things to write.
5. Guest Bloggers. Get other people to generate content for you (as long as it’s directly relevant to your business and valuable to your readers).
6. Share Personal Stories. A little injection of personal information can help to introduce your clients to the face behind the business (as long as that’s industry appropriate)
7. Collect Content Like a Magpie. Make sure you have a mechanism to save content that you come across in a place you can revisit when you’re writing your content.
8. Broadcast your Content. Don’t forget to share your work across all your social media platforms to ensure the maximum audience.