Posted on
October 12, 2010 by
Keith
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be very much aware of how the use of social media has gripped our nation over the past few years.
Although many people are conscious of its massive appeal and power, there are still plenty of folk who have yet to be convinced/converted. This article is for them.
I caught up with prolific Irish-based @RogerOverall to find out his thoughts (and his use of) social media. Take it away Roger… Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: roger overallsocial media
Category Blogging, Irish Interest, Social Media
Posted on
July 29, 2010 by
Keith

The biggest obstacle to writing a business blog seems to be writing the actual content itself. If your blog doesn’t have interesting content, readers will soon tire of it and traffic will drop.
Funnily enough, I had a little bit of writer’s block a few days ago and that is what inspired me to write this very blog post. It got me thinking of possible ways that I could come up with interesting content.
I already hear people asking, “but Keith, what do you know, you’re only starting out with this blog?!”
True. But a great piece of advice that I once read was that “being a successful blog author is more about planning good content as opposed to actually writing the good content.” It does make sense when you think about it.
So what techniques can you use to generate interesting content for you blog?
I’ve decided to keep this advice more general rather than wedding specific, although I do throw in the odd wedding example where relevant.
1. Flick through some bridal magazines
You’ll find it hard not to find an inspiring idea there. You may even come across some editorial that you have a different opinion to. Cool. Write about it!
2. Create a how-to post
These are great for generating ideas. An example from personal experience is that a wedding videographer may decide to write an informative blog post about choosing a wedding videographer.
3. Mind-map out all the main keywords and topics of your business or subject of interest
There has to be something there that you may not have touched upon before. Or, you may find a topic that is common sense to you, but could make a great starter article for a newcomer to your blog.
4. Check out other blogs on your particular sector or topic
I’m not saying to copy them. Definitely not. That would be wrong on so many levels and with Google’s duplicate content filtering, it could actually harm your ranking in the search engines. By regularly reading other blogs in your particular area of business, you’ll soon be generating your own unique ideas or non-original ideas with your own slant to them.
5. Rework an old article that you wrote before
Almost all of us have written about our subject before. These old articles are worth digging out to see if they can be re-worked and updated with current information. (I need to do this for some of my wedding videography articles).
6. Ask somebody to be a guest blogger
This is an easy one. You pass the buck and hand over the writer’s block to another blogger!
7. Look to your colleagues for a possible collaboration
This could involve co-writing a blog with somebody else i.e. a colleague or dare I say it, a friendly-competitor. Another idea is to interview some key people in the industry and to either use them as illustrative case studies or merely publish the transcript of the interviews. If they are key people, then your regular readers are likely to be interested.
And now it’s over to you!
So did I forget anything? Feel free to comment, agree or disagree or simply to add other ways to generate content.
Tags: business bloggenerating contentinspirationplanningwriter's block
Category Blogging, Social Media