Meet Content: the King of the Internet.
Full name: Unique Content
Distinctive Features: Too Many To Count
Habitat: Blogs
Welcome to the blogosphere, dear website owner! It’s a fascinating place and it can be seriously intimidating if you‘re new to it. But cheer up, fascinating trumps intimidating with just four simple pointers that you'll need to follow.
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to be a born writer or have an English degree to write great blog content. All it takes is knowing what you want to write about and learning how to write about it. Here is how to do it.
1. Be specific.
Perhaps you’re selling cups that turn water into wine, or beer, or soda. Or maybe you’re a carpenter. Or a child psychologist. Whatever your area of expertise, you, simply put, know a lot about it. If you know a lot about something, then you can talk about it. Or write about it. Or do you just prefer to do it? That’s fine. Here’s how you can get inspired to write about it: your knowledge is worth sharing. Let’s take the carpentry example. You’re great with wood, you know all the advantages of, say, pine versus oak or vice versa.
Write about it, say why pine is better than oak for a certain type of project. Then do another blog about the items for which pine is the best. Or mahogany. Or any other type of wood. You must also know some funny stories about carpenters (well, maybe). No? Just stick to the facts and your experience then. There are so many types of wood out there, and you know about them all! Share this knowledge, people will appreciate it.
2. Be honest.
Most of us can generally feel when someone is just trying to sell them something, and trying too hard. The best way to avoid this trap is to keep blogs simple and honest, with a personal perspective. Here’s what this means. Instead of writing “Elm is by far the best wood for coffee tables”, say “In my experience, elm is a great choice for coffee tables. I remember once how a client insisted on having a coffee table made from oak. She put her foot down and then she wasn’t happy with the result.” Something like that. Tell stories. We all like stories, especially ones from which we can learn something new and that is exactly what you are doing. Practice, before you start the blog, write a diary for a week or two. That’s no joke – writing is a skill like any other and it needs to be developed and maintained.
3. Don't stress about keywords.
Yes, you heard that right. Don't stress about keywords and SEO, digital marketing is much more than that. In a word, it’s about great content. Your knowledge, your personal voice (every one of us has their own voice and style of writing, not just professional authors), and your sense of humor are the ingredients that combined yield the delicious information meal that is dubbed “great content”. You see? It’s not all that elusive and only possible for pro writers. Anyone can do it with the right motivation and what better motivation than the simple fact that blogs drive traffic and traffic drives revenues?
4. Be regular.
Being regular is essential not just for your bowels but for your blog as well. OK, so that’s not the most tasteful comparison but tastefulness has nothing to do with facts. The fact here is that if you want to build an audience that flocks to your website (and buys your product or services), you need to post in the blog section at least a couple of times every week. Sound scary? It shouldn’t. All it takes is a little planning. For, like, a month ahead.
Sit down (or get up and take a walk) and jot down blog ideas. Then choose a couple of days to publish those blogs, say, every Monday and Thursday. Or you could aim higher and go for every other day. The more, the better. Finally, start writing. Imagine, after a while you might find that writing is actually a great way to spend your time.