• Where will the ideas come from?
• When will I have time?
• What will I write about?

Ideas are all around you each and every day. If you write about common everyday things such as a question from a customer, an experience on a project, an observation from your desk or an email you receive, the ideas will turn into great articles. Your customers DO want to read about these things, because they often address questions they are afraid to ask, observations they have made as well, and insight into doing business with you. You are an expert in your specific industry, and your customers trust what you have to say!

There are several methods that work great for capturing your ideas that pop into your head at inopportune times, and turning your ideas into great articles.

1. Remember those small spiral-bound Mead Memo Pads? They are cheap and fit into your pocket, purse, or the cup holder of your car. Keep a memo pad with you at all times and scribble your ideas down to refer to later.  One blogger I know uses her memo pad religiously and NEVER forgets an article idea.
2. Another option is using sticky notes. Choose a specific color for your blog post ideas and keep a pad at work, home, and in the car. Jot down quick ideas and stick them where they won’t get lost. When you sit down to write, look for your color-coded sticky notes with ample ideas. If you need to, stick them to the computer, TV, your brief case, or where ever you know you’ll find them.
3. Feeling particularly full of ideas? Write them down in a brainstorm list. I have certain times when I get tons of ideas floating into my head, so I write them in a brainstorm list. For me, key times are during business meetings when important, interesting, and inspiring topics come up. Another time I get inspired with blog post ideas is when I am reading books or magazines. I’ve been known to rip a page from a magazine I’m reading to serve as a reminder of what I want to write about. I simply set it on my desk.
4. Keep a clearly labeled folder of ideas near your computer. Slot ideas in the folder. I get ideas from junk mail, advertisements, newspaper articles, magazines, and even things my kids have written, said, or drawn.  It’s great to flip through your file for article ideas when you are ready to write.
5. WordPress offers the option of draft blog posts. Feeling particularly inspired or have some time on your hands right now? Write a few blog posts and save them for later.

Anyone can write great articles for blog posts, and every business should consider adding a blog to your marketing mix. The information, relationships, and business growth that result from blogs are priceless.

What makes a post

As a rule of thumb, a long blog post is about 500 words.   So anything between 300 – 500 words is a nice blog post.  Anything longer can be too much.  Many people like bite sized chunks of information.  You may lose people if your posts are too long.  Keep you posts focused and above all INTERESTING.

How often to post

I recommend posting 2 – 3 times per week.  BUT – more importantly – just start.  Even if you can only post once a week, or once a month, get started!

How to find posting inspiration for your posts

Here is your mission, if you choose to accept it.  This exercise will take you about 15 minutes, so close your door and take time to really focus.

Things you will need: Paper, pen, clock or stop watch, calendar and a quiet location

Your mission:

For the prescribed amount of time, keep your pen moving constantly.  Don’t take time to think.  Don’t make judgments.  Just write for the entire time.  Keep at it until the time expires.  Your best ideas will come when you are pushing your brain to think. Many ideas may be gibberish, but you will create some amazing ideas in the process.  When the time is done, stop.  Take a break between each step.

1. For 5 minutes, write down all of the things you can educate your clients on.
2. Take 4 minutes to write down all of the new trends happening in your industry.
3. Take 3 minutes to write down all of the things that make your company unique.
4. Take 2 minutes to write down all of the things that you care about outside of work; things that make you more than just work.
5. Take 1 minute to celebrate the fact that you just spent more time planning your blog and guaranteeing your success than many of the people that failed to even take step one.  Treat yourself to the first indulgent item that enters your mind.  Celebrate.  I am serious.  We all need to take time to celebrate all of our accomplishments, and this is a major accomplishment.

There you go.  15 minutes of work.  You probably have a list of 100+ topics that you should blog about.  Go through all of your ideas and capture the ideas that are the easiest for you to write about.  No sense in making things too hard right now.  The important thing is to get started.  Starting 30 days from today, write each topic on your calendar when that post is going to be created.  Do that for the next three months.  We will take this list and work with it tomorrow.

Congratulations!

You are on track to beginning a blog that will help you connect with your clients, increase traffic to your website, build trust and credibility, and position you as an expert in your industry.  You ROCK!

NOTE:  This post was 575 words.  A little long, but I hope you enjoyed each word

Did you know:

• 77 million+ Americans visit blogs
• 346 million blog readers worldwide.

Why blogs were a big deal

• Blogs changed the way people saw the Web
• You can create, react, communicate
• For the first time ever, anyone can make content for a global audience

Blogs can help you achieve your business goals

1. Do you need to ‘humanize’ your company and brand?  Blogs tend to break through the corporate rhetoric and create a more personal voice. 
2. Do you need to build conversations with your customers?  Every business needs to know how they can better serve their customers.   Blogs help build that conversation to generate new product information, provide product/service feedback, counter negative publicity, and recruit brand advocates.
3. Do you have terrific employees whose talents need to be shared with your customers?  Blogs are a great way to share your employees talents to build passionate customers.
4. Do you want to increase your website traffic?  Each blog post is considered an individual page.  The more pages, the more chances you have of getting better results in the search engines.
5. How can you educate your customers and become the subject matter expert in the area?

Your blog will become the central hub for all of your social media initiatives

No matter what your business goals, a blog can be the central hub to all of your social media initiatives.  Blogs make it easy to integrate your other social media tools into one spot.  In fact, many social media tools can ‘automatically’ be updated in your blog.  Some of these tools include: YouTube videos, Flickr and other photo sharing sites, SlideShare PowerPoint files, Twitter posts, Delicious favorites, RSS feeds from other blogs, etc.

My Facebook page has a direct link to my blog  (http://www.stevegasser.com/facebook) and my Twitter page has a direct link into my blog (http://www.stevegasser.com/twitter.)

Why Blog

This is the one action item I have for you today.  Why blog?  What is the purpose of your blog?  What do you have to share?  How can you educate your clients?  Here are a few examples.

• Chiropractors can use a blog to educate their clients on proper back care.  Even if it is a simple blog post each season, that is a start in developing an educational blog that will help your clients.
• Companies that sell bottled water can use a blog for the same reasons.  They can start a program on the importance of clean water, how to go green and conserve water, or supply monthly tips on maintaining your water system.
• A real estate agent can help their clients understand mortgages, the local housing market, or how to get the best price for your home.
• An auto mechanic can become the expert in town by supplying car maintenance tips and answering basic questions about auto maintenance online.

What can you do to build conversations with your cliens?  Today this is all I ask:  Why should you blog? If you can not come up with a compelling reason to blog, please let me know.  I love a challenge, and I can help you.  Please leave a comment below or contact me directly.

What to Blog

What to blog is the lesson for tomorrow.  This is probably the biggest hurdle most people have to overcome- But I guarantee you will develop a blogging plan that will make you an ‘Online Rockstar” in the blogging world!