I love blogging, I really do. It’s an opportunity to connect with readers, gain an international audience around my cause, and most importantly- to share my wisdom.
There is only one problem; it’s not every day I have an epiphany-level insight to write up in the form of a blog post. And sometimes, there just isn’t all that much time to research and write up a post that would leave Mark Twain jealous.
This is my personal checklist for coming up with great blog post ideas at the drop of a hat.
Controversy
Nothing stirs up responses like a good controversy. Blog about something that people are heated up about and they will respond. They will comment. And if they like what you have to say they will share it on social media. As a professional blogger, it’s important not to go as far as to actually insult anyone, but you can make waves and stir up the controversy. It is even okay to take an unpopular stance on an issue, but if you do take the unpopular position make sure that if you do take the unpopular stance to explain yourself thoroughly.
Story with a Moral
Tell about a mistake that you once made and then explain what you learned from it. In this way you first engage the reader with a story, and everybody loves stories. Then you teach them something cool. But since you admit to your own transgression of the mistake your post won’t come off sounding preachy. These make particularly awesome posts.
Lists Blog Posts
Of course, there are plenty of bloggers that tend to overdo this one, but a good clear list can be a pleasure to read once in a while. List articles are best for subjects that don’t require a whole lot of depth in order to be understandable. For instance, if you want to explain some ways of making money online, that would make a good list.
Introduce Your Readers to Other Blogs
You surely have some blogs that you read regularly. Perhaps your readers would like to know about them. This idea may seem like a quick way to lose readers, but your readers have access to all of cyberspace anyway, introducing them to good things will just make them appreciate you more. This also serves another great purpose, you can get in touch with the bloggers that you have publicized and make them aware of it. They will appreciate it, possibly enough to help you out in the future too.
Talk Instead
Sometimes the written word just doesn’t work as beautifully as the spoken word. Say what you want to say on a simple YouTube video, and write up a short intro as your blog post along with the imbedded video. When readers see your shining face they will feel a more personal connection with you.
Another great aspect of the YouTube video is the backlink you can get from it. When you load up a video to YouTube make sure that you write your url in the summary of the video.
Make sure to include the entire address of your site including the “http,” that way the backlink will work. Even the simplest of YouTube videos are often able to attain a PR of 2 or 3, so a good video can rev up your search engine rankings too.
Oh and one particular blog post type that I try to avoid, no matter how rushed I am is the “Take a Picture of My Greasy Lunch and Blog About It” Yuck.
Happy Blogging!
Image Credits: Explore Abhishek
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