Blog content is one of the best ways to keep both your visitors and the search engines coming back to your site.
The more you write, the more people are engaged, and the better your rankings are, which means more people visit your site. Done right, this creates a never-ending cycle of traffic coming through your virtual doors and buying whatever it is you are selling.
But writing isn’t easy for everyone and even people who love it find it hard to keep up with demanding content creation schedules. Everything from writer’s block to lack of subject matter will sabotage even the best-planned content calendar.
We know a thing or two about creating blog content consistently, so we’re going to let you in on five blog content tips that will help you turn writing blog posts from a chore into a breeze.
Tip 1: Feed the Furnace
Your content machine is like a giant steam ship: to keep it chugging along you need to constantly feed it.
*If you’re not familiar with turn of 20th century machinery and locomotion, just think back to the movie Titanic and all those guys in the bottom of ship shoveling stuff into fire.*
Keeping your Titanic afloat and moving forward with fresh content requires new ideas, and lots of them. You need to have a stockpile of brainstormed ideas that you can reference back to when it’s time to put fingers to keyboards.
But, let’s face it; thinking can be hard sometimes.
Luckily, getting these ideas is easier than you think and can be automated in many ways. Here’s some of our favorite sources:
- Google Alerts: Set up a Google alert for a keyword, topic, industry or whatever. Google will send you all of the blog posts, forum posts, news articles, press releases and just about everything else, so you can pick the best and write about them.
- Feedly: This platform pulls in news and articles on your topic of choice, making it easy for you to cherry pick.
- BuzzSumo: This handy site scans all of the most shared stories on social media and organizes them for you. Type in your subject and see what people are liking the most.
While gathering your ideas from these sites, make sure to have a system to organize and keep track of them. This could be as simple as a Google document, notes on your phone, or good old-fashioned pen and paper.
Have multiple ways of capturing information, but always input it into your central system ASAP. For example, I recently wrote a post called “Online Marketing Tips from the Matrix Trilogy.” The idea for that hit me while I was in the shower. And no, it’s not common for me to think about "The Matrix" while showering. Regardless, I dried a hand off, made a note on my iPhone and entered it into my “Awesome Ideas” spreadsheet.
Curating is OK
If thinking is hard, writing a whole post all by yourself is much harder! That is why it’s good for you to curate content from time to time.
If you’re not familiar, content curation is simply the process of finding great content somewhere else and sharing it on your site while incorporating your take.
You’re linking to the original content, so no one is getting ripped off. The content creator is getting visitors, so they are happy. You don’t have to write all that much, so your day is brighter. Most importantly, the reader is getting the extra value you added as well as being exposed to something they might have not otherwise have been.
Everyone wins!
Tip 3: Write When You are in the Mood
Writing when you want to is so much easier than writing when you have to. There’s nothing worse than a looming deadline and all functional thought has ceased to flow.
It’s enough to toss a laptop out of a window. Which is a threat I have made to my machine several times.
So, when you’re in the zone, keep going. Strike while the iron is hot and keep cranking out content.
You don’t even have to create a whole new piece of content. This is a great time to write things in bulk like headlines. Take your list of topics and just start cranking out headlines. Now, when you go to write the rest of the piece, one of the trickiest parts of the content is already done!
Tip 4: Get Others to Write for You
If you’re really looking for the easiest way out of writing, just get someone else to write for you.
Guest blogging has taken a hit with recent Google updates, but it’s still alive and well. As long as you’re not engaging in guest posting to hide that you’re basically buying or selling links through a 3rd party system, you won’t get in trouble with the search engines.
There are plenty of people out there who will write for your blog if you ask. Read our post on guest posting to learn more.
Of course, you could always just pay for content as well. There are plenty of places you can hire the services of a freelancer to write your content for you. Do the research, tell them what you want, pay some money and the content appears. If you’re interested in going down the paid content route, check out our post on SEO writing.
Short is the New Long
There are still many people who think that if you don’t have at least 500 words on a post Google will put you on the “do not like list” and you won’t be invited to the next birthday party.
While more content gives you the chance to rank for more keywords and does give you a better engagement rate with your visitors, it’s OK to write a shorter post. If you curate others content, your piece will be lucky to be 200 words.
That’s OK!
Writing Sucks (for Some People)
Personally, I don’t have an issue with writing; hence why I am writing this blog post. But many people hate it with a passion, as it just doesn’t fall into their wheelhouse of skills.
There’s nothing wrong with that. I would rather run full speed into a brick wall than deal with code. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.
Spend your time and energy doing what you’re best at and enjoy the most. Spend money or use hacks like the ones mentioned above to get the rest done.
What blog content creation tips do you have? Let us, and your fellow affiliates, know in the comments!