6 Hassle-Free Ways to Unearth More Sparkling Blog Content

Ever started a blog and deserted it after six weeks because you ran out of topics to write about? This is far from an unusual situation. In fact a recent study found that 64% of small businesses featured cited ‘a lack of content ideas’ as a major problem they faced on a weekly basis.

And for the visitor, there’s nothing as underwhelming as clicking onto a blog only to find there hasn’t been any postings for the past three months (unless it’s a competitor’s blog of course!)

Content marketing can be incredibly daunting and time-consuming and it is worth considering outsourcing your requirements to local marketing companies or freelance creatives.

Meantime, here are 6 hassle-free resources and ideas you can use to find relevant content topics for your website or blog:

1.Bottlenose

Want to know what’s trending in your industry across all the major networks in real time? Bottlenose is a free resource that will keep you in the loop, so you can write about the latest developments on your blog. And definitely check out the handy ‘Sonar’ tab as a way of finding sub-topics in your niche too.

2.Customer Questions

If you’re selling online I’ll bet you get lots of questions from customers your other customers could benefit from too. Keep a list of the best ones and answer them once a month on your blog.

3.TweetChats

Imagine a giant online chat room where people hold scheduled get togethers to discuss particular topics. In this case we’re talking Tweetchats on Twitter – why not drop by and join in the conversation?

4.Quora

If you’re searching for facts, opinions and humorous content on a particular subject, Quora is the place to hang out. You can even republish material from the site providing you include a link back to Quora.

5.Topsy

Another interesting platform which allows you to search by theme across the various social networks and you can also set up email or RRS alerts for topics which interest you.

6.Industry Blogs

Subscribing to blogs within your industry is a must, firstly for keeping up to date and getting different perspectives on what is occurring and secondly for giving you lots of ideas for topics for your own blog.

And don’t forget to set up Google Alerts for your company, main competitors, industry and product ranges, so you’ll know what people are saying about you online!

For help with generating relevant and engaging blog posts for your target audience, marketing companies have their finger on the pulse when it comes content creation.

How Your Blog Can Achieve Celebrity Status . . . Even If You’re Not Famous (yet)!

You can’t simply set up a blog in isolation and expect the search engines to pick you up. That’s like pitching a refreshments stall in the middle of the forest and not providing tourists with a map of where to find you!

Of course, given time, some people will stumble upon you . . . by chance . . .

However, we need our new, dynamic blog, which provides valuable content, to gain instant superstardom status. So here’s how we do it . . .

Blogs are – essentially – online magazines. And magazines make money through advertising products relevant to their readership. Once you’re established online, you can do the same. But no-one wants to visit a website plastered with ads – your potential audience is looking for quality content from somebody they can trust . So the first thing you need to do is create a rapport with your visitors.

Remember, most people are lazy. Therefore, most bloggers are lazy. If you are prepared to go that extra mile to deliver quality, timeless, original content, your readers will keep coming back to you for more of the same.

Here are some proven ways to attract attention to your blog:

Create a PDF which your readers can download for free. This can be a short report or White Paper teaching people how to do or create something (2-10 pages is ideal). There’s nothing more off-putting than coming across a website for the first time and having someone pitch their wares in your face! It’s a huge turn-off. Giving away valuable content is a sure way to instil trust in your readership. Be sure to capture the names and email addresses of your prospects before allowing them to download your material. Use a reliable autoresponder service for all your online marketing activities.

Create a series of informative articles which can be distributed to free article sites.

For a monthly subscription, there are websites which will distribute your articles for you.

Once written, you can combine articles to create an ecourse , or an information product you can sell online, or use to help build your list.

Post comments on other relevant websites/ blogs that link back to your blog. This is a simple, yet effective way of gaining recognition amongst your peers.

Seek out the true experts in your line of business – the renowned “gurus” in your field – and introduce yourself. Why not ask if you can interview them and post the interview on your blog? This is one of the quickest routes to your blog attaining celebrity status. It’s so simple to conduct a short interview via email – and in my experience – most people are thrilled to be asked for their opinions. And what’s the betting your expert will post a copy of the transcript on his/ her site as well? This is a terrific way of gaining free publicity for you and your site and something every serious business blogger should consider.

If you need help or advice a good starting point could be to look for internet marketing consultants

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