10 Writing Tips Of Famous Authors You Can Use Now For Blogging

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With nearly a hundred literary masterpieces between them, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, and C.S. Lewis could be considered experts on the writing process. Fortunately for those who chose to take up the career in their wake, these famous authors left behind valuable tips and tricks to make the process easier. 

While the blog’s conception was decades after their time, their knowledge is still applicable to the trade. Check out these 10 writing tips of the famous authors. See how relevant they are to your blog today.

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10 Writing Tips All Bloggers Must Adhere To

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Look, there are a lot of people out there that are going to tell you how to write. Some will give your ideas on topics, some will give your ideas on how to create title, and some will just tell you to use proper grammar. While all those things are important, I grant you, what are most important in blog writing are two things: passion and consistency. Unlike any other type of writing, with blog writing you get an audience based not only on WHAT you write but on HOW OFTEN you write it. No one will follow a blog that is only updated every few months. With that in mind, here are some writing tips for you:

Write often – You have to keep up with blog readers. They demand a certain level of post updates. It is just a fact of blogging. You cannot abandon your blog and expect it to survive. You cannot take a hiatus and expect to come back to the same number of readers. You have to write often enough to keep up with your readers. On some blogs that means once or twice a week, but for some blogs they require daily or even more frequent updates.

Write regularly – You can’t just toss up four or five posts on one day and call it a week. It will not work. You must, must, MUST write on a consistent basis. That may mean that you post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or every Tuesday and Thursday, or every day but Sunday. Whatever your method is, if it works then stick with it. If it does not work than change it up. But whatever you do keep it regular.

Write short – No one wants to read a novel on your blog. If you like to write long meandering posts and people seem to like them than great. Just break them up for me, will you? A bunch of shorter posts is better than one long post that is all over the place. You can even separate it is not part one, part two and so one so that people can easily follow along. This is a great method for making the most out of your how to posts as well, as they have to keep reading to find the next direction.

Write clearly – All the writing and posting in the world is not going to cut it if your writing is junk. You have to be clear. Some things that can mess you up are jargon that readers might be unfamiliar with, undefined acronyms, and just a lack of good writing skills. If you are not a native speaker please, please, please have someone who is look over your work before you post it. There are some things that are just hard to translate. I know you have a lot to share, but be careful that you do not scare away readers with your lack of clarity.

Keep it simple – Along with being clear you have to be simple. Unless you have an audience that consists only of highly intelligent and talented people familiar with what you are writing about, then I will agree that you can take it up a notch. But otherwise make sure that your posts are accessible to the average reader. Remember that a lot of people can’t read very well and do not have a large vocabulary, so if you insist on using big words try to use them in a way that others can pick up on their meaning for the context of the word.

Spelling and Grammar – Okay, now this is something that should not be an issue anymore. I assume you are typing your blog posts, right? Sure you are! Now, you see that little button at the top of the page that says spell check? CLICK IT every time before you post. Thank you. You have just cleared up most of your spelling errors. Read your post aloud before posting also to make sure it flows right and that you did not mix up any words. Things like horse and hoarse, hole and whole, and right and write tend to get skipped over in spell check. I am not a huge grammar Nazi. Just make it sound good, okay? And try not to use too many commas.

Font – Please do not be one of those bloggers who makes their font so curly and cute that I can’t read it. A plain font is fine, believe me. Also, watch your font colors. A bright color is eye catching, but it is also painful to read after a while. Do not make the font color similar to the background color either. If you have a black background do not use a charcoal font color! If you have a white background do not use a cream colored font! It is simple- take a look at your blog and make sure you can read it easily and without eye strain.

Break it up - No one wants to read a huge paragraph, or worse yet a run on sentence that goes the entire page. Break up your post into smaller paragraphs and insert images here and there to break up a lot of text. There should not be too much text because you are keeping it short, right?

Make lists – A great way to break up your bog posts and make people actually want to read them is to make lists. The 10 Best ____, the 5 Scariest ____, 15 Cool and Free ____, and the 25 Weirdest _____ are all things that readers will stop and take a look at. Why? Because they do not have to read! Readers are essentially lazy people that would rather scan a list than read a page. Use that to your advantage and make list posts when you can.

Use pictures – Did you ever hear the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, now you have. It is true. A picture can bring in more readers than almost anything else. If you can get an image that is funny, cute, or weird then you will get readers. Now, do not mess this up. Do not just stick random pictures in your blog post. They have to match the content to be effective. But if you can use a great image you have a greater chance of your post being picked up on social media, especially ones like Pinterest.

These are just a few tips I can share with you about blogging. I know when I first started out everything seemed twice as hard blogging as it did writing anything else. After all, there are no hard and fast rules.

However as you go along you will pick up what works and what does not work in your blogging niche. If you spend some time looking at successful blogs in your niche then you can pick up the things that help make them successful. Do not forget to become a part of the blogging community and interact with other bloggers. They can offer you valuable tips and information that you may not be able to find out quickly on your own.

Also remember that tagging and categorizing your posts is important. That is often one of the only ways a new reader will find your blog. Your titles are also something you need to spend time on to make the most of your writing efforts.

See! I have so much more I could tell you that I do not want to stop, but I am afraid some things you will just have to pick up on your own.

Good luck and remember to have fun and be passionate about your writing!

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How To Effectively Write For A Specific Audience

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The primary goal of most blogs is to develop a loyal readership, and the best way to do that is to identify a specific audience that you want to reach and write specifically for them. You'll find that by better connecting with their needs and interests your blog is able to grow faster and your visitors are more engaged.

But how do you decide who to target? And what can you do to get them interested?

Who are your writing for ?

You want to be specific about what your blog will discuss. You don't want it to be too broad since you won't be speaking directly to anyone's needs, but you also don't want it to be so narrow that the number of people you can reach is too small.

For instance, there are hundreds of mom blogs out there and millions of potential moms to reach, so if you wanted to start your own mom blog, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd. You could share experiences as a work-at-home mom or an African-American mom to hone in on a more specific group of moms.

Learn more about this group

Let's say you've decided to write a blog for work-at-home moms. You now want to learn as much as you can about the people who might be reading your blog.

• Do they live in rural, suburban, or urban locations?
• What types of work do they do?
• What is their average salary?
• Are they married or unmarried?
• What is their race or ethnicity?
• How many kids do they have? What ages?

By getting this demographic information, you can better tailor your writing. For instance, you might learn that many work-at-home moms have part-time jobs, not full-time, so the tips you offer on how to manage your average work day might be better based on 20 work hours rather than 40.

Interact with the audience elsewhere

It's likely that you're not the only website or blog catering to this specific audience, so head over to the other places on the Internet where these people are visiting. Join conversations on forums. Stay up-to-date on relevant news and blogs. Read and respond to comments. This will help you get a better sense of the style of communication you can best use to communicate with this audience, as well as their current concerns and trends.

Look to your site statistics

Another strategy is to find out who is already visiting your site. You can use services like Google Analytics and Quantcast to get a detailed picture. Alternately, you can use this information to see if you actually are reaching your target audience. If you're trying to reach work-at-home moms but find that much of your audience is male, you may want to shift your content to focus on work-at-home parents to take advantage of that.

Ask your readers

Of course, there's always the direct approach! Find out what your audience likes and dislikes. You can do so by simply posting a blog entry and asking for people to leave their thoughts in the comments. Or you can run a more formal survey with a service like SurveyMonkey. And don't rule out social media as a method of testing the waters. Twitter and Facebook are great ways to get instant feedback.

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The Key Factors To Guest Posting For Authors And Publishers

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For the last year or so Guest Posts have made up the majority of content on Create the abalogger .A guest post is a post submitted by a blogger, webmaster or content writer representing one of the aforementioned.We have covered the subject of guest posts previously, we even have guest posts about guest posting ehh...But a short description is the guest author gets valuable links to their sites in the author section and the publisher gets quality content from a new voice.

But while the majority of content on Create the Blogger is now written by guest authors I don't just accept and publish every post submitted.Even though I have published 103 guest posts so far in 2012 you will be surprised to learn I actually reject about 85% of posts submitted.

So what are the key factors that make the difference between posts been accepted and rejected.

What Publishers Want

So why are posts accepted or rejected and what can you are either an author looking to get your guest posts published on blogs accepted or as a publisher learn ?

First up you must remember most publishers like myself will have to review a number of posts daily so you need to grab our attention quickly.Within seconds I can tell how much effort has been put into writing a post.

• Has the post been formatted with sub titles and headings.
• Has the author included relevant images.
• Have they used lists.
• Is the content broken into paragraphs.
• Has the author linked to reliable sources.

These are just small things but when I review a post these are the factors that make a first impression and you know what they say about first impressions.

Now I have to admit when I first review a post I do not take the time to read it word for word.It's a known fact that when we are online we scan content rather than taking the time to read.This is why sub titles and headings are so important.If after quickly scanning a post I feel it does not fit that's it I send the reject Email.If after a quick scan I think the post has some potential I will take the time to read it in full and make my decision.

What Publishers Don't Want

So lets look at some of the reasons posts are rejected after the first scan.

Content is off topic - This is one of the most regular reasons, I have had posts on everything from Insurance and Credit to Firearms and Fitness submitted.

Content Looks Spun - This really is the scourge of guest posting.Spun content is basically an author writes a post then either manually or with the aid of software make minor changes.This way they can have what is in essence the same post published on a number of sites.

Author links in the body - On Create the Blogger and on most blogs the author will be allowed to add a set number of links in the bio section.I do not allow 'Self Serving' links in the body of the article.

Just a rubbish post - Finally we do get a lot of posts that lets be honest are just rubbish.

Learning From Posts That Made The Cut

Finally some posts are great but we have already covered the subject.As the number of posts increase the number of topics we have covered increases.So take the time to check if a site you are submitting content to has already published content on the subject of your post.

So that's the main reasons posts are rejected lets look at what gets accepted.Using examples from Guest posts I have published these are 

Short, Sweet And To The Point - In January 2011 I had only published a few guest posts when Edward Stern sent in "Anatomy Of An Engaging Blog Post".This post covered what I think are really the basics of blog posts writing.I get similar posts submitted every week now but of course it's now been covered.If you have a simple post with the basics try submitting it to a new less established blog as established blogs will surely have covered it previously.

Heart Stopping Post Titles - We do judge books by their cover and posts titles are the covers of blog posts.When Maria Rainier send in a post about post titles she made sure to show the proof is in the pudding.Yes "6 Tips To Heart-Stopping Post Titles" is a little over the top but it will grab your attention.Alyse Ainsworth also used an eye grabbing title in the post "4 Things You Need To Do (if you don't want your blog to suck)".

Clever Writing - I was very impressed when Heather Smith sent in the post "The Four P’s To Blogging Success".As above the post is Short, sweet and to the point and also has a good title but it was obvious Heather put some thought into the writing.Check out how she focused on 'P' words through out the post, this looks clever and adds some humour.

Events and Seasonal - And last week just in time for Halloween Rachel O’Riordans post "Things That Go Bump On Your Blog - What Bloggers Can Learn From Horror Films" was a popular read.

So these are just a few thoughts on how I review the ever growing guest posts submissions on Create the Blogger.

Drop Your Comments Below.

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6 Tips To Heart-Stopping Post Titles

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Don’t judge a book by its cover is such a trite adage.  While there’s merit to it, most people—especially in the blogosphere—don’t heed it.  An ugly blog with scrunched up images and missing links aren’t going to get awards.  Similarly, readers who come across boring blog post titles will say, “Meh,” and go back to Facebook.  Like it or not, your post title is your book cover, and unless it’s made of gold, your post will go unread, unappreciated, unloved.Make sure your posts get the love they deserve by giving it an appropriate title.

6 Tips To Heart-Stopping Post Titles

1. Be friends with your thesaurus.  Instead of writing “5 Great Ways to Blahblahblah,” look up words that convey more urgency, thrill, and drama.  For example, instead of great, useawesome, striking, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, etc.

2. Note that some words are just inherently more eye-catching than others.  Many comedians agree that some words (or even some letters) are funnier than others.  For example, Dave Barry in his book Dave Barry Talks Back takes one phrase (“Richard Nixon wearing a necktie”) and then makes it funnier: “Richard Nixon wearing a neck weasel.”  In another example, the word brouhaha is funnier than uproar.  Canoodle is funnier than hug. Smithereens is funnier than pieces. You get the point.

3. Keep it short and simple, unless long, complex, and tongue-in-cheek is the angle you’re going for; this does have its place, but that place is probably not your particular blog post title.  Needlessly complicated titles indicate similarly complicated blog posts and are a sign to readers: this post was written by a) an amateur blogger or b) a self-indulgent blogger.

4. Take risks.  Dare to tell readers that this single post will change their blogging habits forever.  Dare to tell them that the following 5 points are the only things they need to know about solar energy.

5. Use lists, numbers, and bullet points in your post, and use numbers in your post title.  Instead of “Ways to Make Your Blog Not Suck, “ readers will instinctively gravitate to something more substantial: “7 Ways to Make Your Blog Not Suck.”  Moreover, numbers are promising: they promise a certain number of things, and readers love certainty.  
Besides, most readers like to open a blog post, read the key points, and go on about their day.  Few people in the blogosphere are interested in a novel at that particular point in time.  Lists of some sort break up long, boring text and draw in the eye.  Even if readers don’t read the rest of the blog, they’ll at least read the list.

6. Keep it honest.  Don’t promise something to the reader in the title and fail to deliver it in the post.  Are the tips really that awesome, or have you merely regurgitated what another, more hard-working blogger wrote two months ago?  Are there really 7 ways to make your blog not suck, or are there more 

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The 7 Deadly Sins Of Guest Posting

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If you are looking to promote your blog one of the most prominent methods currently being employed by many blog owners is to write guest articles on other sites. There are several benefits of guest writing including…

- Reaching out to the blog owner’s audience

- Driving relevant traffic to your site

- Increasing awareness of your brand

- Building links from related sites

However to be successful at this you need to deploy the correct methods both in terms of how and who you approach, as well as deciding which type of content you want to produce. Do this process incorrectly and you will fail to enjoy the maximum benefit from your guest posting activities. Below we have compiled the top 7 things you need to avoid when guest posting…

1. Approaching the wrong sites

You will find that there is an increasing number of sites that are open to guest bloggers. The reason for this is that a high quality guest blog will benefit not only the guest blogger but also the blog owner through increased traffic to their site, a greater number of social media citations and an increase in the volume of backlinks. With so many blogs to choose from it can be tempting to take a ‘scattergun’ approach and fire out hundreds of guest post requests to see how many you can get accepted. This is without question entirely the wrong approach to take. Instead, you should be looking to approach quality sites within your industry or niche. This may be slower and you may get fewer acceptances; however the ones you do get will count much more than having lots of low quality guest posts pointing at your site.

2. Sending a template email

Anyone who runs a popular blog that accepts guest posts will no doubt have been a recipient of this kind of outreach email at some point..

---

Dear Webmaster,

I noticed you accept guest blogs and I would like to ask if you would allow me to write one for you. I can provide a quality and informative article of at least 500 words that I am sure will be of interest to your readers. All I request is that you allow me to place one backlink to my site from within the article itself.

Looking forward to your response on the matter,

Yours faithfully,

A Site Owner,

www.awebsite.com

---

Notice how it says “Dear Webmaster” because the person who sent the email cannot be bothered to find out the name of the person who owns the site. Not only is this impersonal, it also demonstrates they have not had a proper look through the website itself to see if it would be a good match. Remember that popular blog owners receive dozens of requests to guest post so you need to catch their attention and make your email standout from the crowd. Sending out hundreds of bulk, templated outreach emails will result in a much lower response rate, so make sure you invest time and effort into each one you send.

3. Dictating the format of the article

One thing blog owners do not appreciate is when the person sending the outreach email specifies in advance the proposed format of their guest article, specifically with regard to the linking policy. Therefore you must avoid making any such demands, particularly, with regard to which links appear in the article. This again can be a source of frustration as the majority of blog owners publish guidelines that cover their own sites linking policy and trying to openly flout these rules only proves once again that you did not take the time to research their site properly.

4. Not giving a good reason why should be allowed to post

A good guest blog post should add value to a website, and importantly provide something that has not already been covered by the blog owner. Thus when approaching a site owner you need to give them a good reason why they should let you be their next guest blogger. Why does your guest blog title suit their site, why will the article be of interest to their readers? Remember the owner of a quality blog will not be short of people offering to write for them which means webmasters will only ever want to publish content that enhances their site. A good tip is to always check through existing posts to ensure what you are proposing has not been covered already. If it has, ensure your proposed title has enough differentiation that it will add value to the site. For example you could take one topic that has already covered and then provide a counter argument or critique.

5. Not proving your worth and writing ability

In your guest post email you may want to state that you are a competent writer that can produce high quality content. However the site owner has no means of verifying this, unless they happen to have read one of your existing posts (unlikely). In which case you should, where you feel it is appropriate, offer previous examples of guest posts that you have written. If you have written for another notable blog within a particular niche this may help reassure the blog owner that you can provide them with a worthwhile piece of content. Remember guest blog posting benefits both parties and sites that accept guest posts will want more content if it is of a high standard.

6. Stating the obvious

The vast majority of blog owners are fully aware of the benefits that high quality, unique content can bring to their site. For this reason it is not necessary and in fact wholly inappropriate to start lecturing them about the benefits your guest blog will bring to them. Do not on any occasion mention the fact that your guest article will help them to ‘improve their search engine rankings’, ‘deliver more traffic’ or ‘gain them more backlinks’. If you are to mention any benefits, explain how your guest blog idea will benefit their readers specifically.

7. Being overly formal in your approach

Most blogs are operated by an individual or a group of individuals, rather than by a business or corporation. Therefore it is not necessary to approach them in a formal manner such as “Dear Owner of abc.com”. Most blogs have an ‘about’ section where you can find out information about the site owner, including of course their name. As you are attempting to strike up a relationship with that blogger you should create an outreach email that is polite and courteous rather than one that is formal in tone. Avoid being overly verbose in your approach or writing reams and reams about why they should let you blog on your site. The correct approach is to be concise, informal and friendly without of course being too casual, for example using slang or bad language.

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Dollar’s In The Details : Creating Quality Content

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The infrastructure of the search engine optimization (SEO) industry is one that is natural predisposed to constant change. This stems from the fact that people are always finding new ways to exploit technology, which is always being updated to battle these exploitations, which continues in an eternal cycle of innovation and technological advances.

This is by no means a negative thing; it just means that working in SEO is not an easy job. There is a continuous string of changes happening and challenges to face. This means that SEO personnel need to stay on their feet and be prepared to meet any unexpected changes that arise.

The all-powerful answer to every question in the SEO field is “create quality content.” Whether it comes to on-site SEO or off-site methods such as link building, we are constantly being assured that if we provide relevant, quality content, we will be safe from being penalized in the search engine results.

The Challenge

What is not made clear is what defines quality content, and even more important, how to write it. 

Writing, like SEO, is difficult because there is no guaranteed formula for success. You can have impeccable grammar, an interesting voice, and passion about what you’re talking about, but unless you put those together in exactly the right combination in exactly the right forum, you can end up wasting a lot of time getting no results.

The challenge is that this combination is different for every piece. You can’t analyze for certain what makes one piece successful and what makes another one fail. There doesn’t always seem to be a clear answer.

What you can do is produce the best content you are capable of and pray for some good luck. Here are some writing tips that will get you in the right direction.

Outline What You Want to Say

Now, there are different levels of organization, and I am not saying that you need to have a detailed outline of everything you write. However, it is generally a good idea to write down the main point that you want to get across. Then jot down your supporting thoughts or specific points or phrases you want to use. This simple activity will help get you through what I call the “second paragraph slump”, where you’ve written the introduction, but have no clue where you’re going from there.

It is also good to note information such as your target audience, the tone you’re going for, your overall message, and anything else you feel is important to the piece. You may think you can remember the important points, but writers experience blocks and brain farts all the time. By getting it all in one place immediately, you’re more likely to remain focused and not end up with an article of which you don’t see any point.

Don’t Worry about Word Count

When it comes to writing, many of us have held on to the school-implanted idea of word counts. We think that our writing needs to be a certain limit, so we set a goal. The problem is that then we either stop as soon as we meet it, or we struggle to meet that goal, writing useless nonsense just to reach our self-imposed word count.

It’s okay to have idea of how long a piece will be, but in general, it’s best to just write out everything you want to say. This will force you to go back through and edit with a careful eye, which is the next step.

Give Specific Details

So you’re generating content because you want people to be able to find you online. Well guess what? So is everyone else. The internet is full of information. At least half of it is never read. After all, if you’re looking for general information that anyone could write, you’re probably going to go to a site you already know to find it.

Your writing has to offer something that no one else does. Whether this is a specific way of presenting a scenario or a humorous tone, you have to find an interesting way of getting information across. The important thing is that you give people a reason to come back. If they like one thing you write, they’re more likely to return.

In creative writing, you’re told to use odd descriptions and phrases that stand out. Clichés have their place, but you don’t want to build your portfolio on those alone. Unfortunately, most articles on the internet are an amalgamation of clichés and tropes. Set yourself apart by going against current thinking and presenting new ways to look at things.

Edit

Even though we are eliminating the English-class tradition of the word count, we are keeping the idea of a rough draft. You should definitely go over anything you write before submitting it for publication. You’ll probably cut a lot of words, add a few things, and reorganize a bit. This process is what will make your piece strong; it forces you to think through every decision carefully.

If you like to be done with a piece immediately, go ahead and take a break before doing your editing. Go for a walk or work on something else. You can even wait a day or two If you have time. The important thing is to be able to look at your piece with fresh eyes.

It is also good to have actual fresh eyes peruse your work. After all, you know what you’re trying to say; you need to make sure it is clear to other readers. If you want, you can have someone edit the piece after you finish it, then edit yourself while you go over their revisions and suggestions.

The most important part of creating stand-out content is to care about it. If your tone conveys that you are passionate about an issue, people will be more interested, and search engines will be able to see that. Start conversation; be a hub of discussion in your niche. This will bring people back and help you produce even more relevant content. There is no written-in-stone formula, but there are also no short-cuts. The best way to generate quality is to put blood, sweat, and tears into it. Just be sure that there’s some heart in there too so that you don’t scare people away.

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An Easy Way To Find Blog Post Ideas In Your Niche

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Many bloggers stick with a single method of coming up with blog post ideas – simply writing about whatever is on their mind that day. Although some bloggers may find it easy to come up with an endless stream of interesting, relevant topics this way, almost every bloggers has faced the experience of sitting down at their keyboard and simply drawing a blank.

Rather than simply sitting at your computer trying to conjure up new blog post ideas, an easy way to find relevant topics in your niche is to actively seek out questions, issues, and news that are already being discussed. By finding topics that are already in the discourse, you can not only identify new blog post ideas, but you’ll identify blog post ideas that are relevant and interesting to your readers.

There are many ways you can go about actively seeking blog post ideas, but here are some simple ideas to get you started:

RSS Subscriptions To Authority Blogs

Perhaps the most straightforward way to generate new blog post ideas is to keep tabs on the high authority bloggers in your niche or industry. If you’re not already doing so, you should be using an RSS reader like Google Reader to keep tabs on the major blogs in your industry. Doing so will not only allow you to keep tabs on the latest news and opinions in your niche, but it also gives you opportunities to generate interesting blog post ideas. Here are two ways you can use these authority blogs to come up with ideas to write about:

Find Interesting Discussions In The Comments

On popular blogs you’ll often find a plethora of discussion in the blog post comments. While discussions on the internet have a tendency to devolve into pointless bickering, on moderated high-authority blogs you’ll often find interesting, high level discussion amongst the noise. As someone who blogs in the same industry, you’ll undoubtedly identify topics from these discussions where you have something passionate to contribute.

Rather than simply posting a response in the comments, you can use these discussions to fuel your next blog post. If your post is interesting, relevant, and makes some good points, you can make a short comment and link to your post on the subject.

Provide Commentary On Controversial Posts

Another great way to get a blog post topic is to write a blog post in response to the blogger’s post. However, for this method to work successfully however, it’s important that you have something valuable to say on the matter. While expressing your opinion in the comment of a blog post is one thing, it’s another thing entirely to write a counter-point piece expressing another viewpoint, deconstructing an original post, and backing up your viewpoint with sources.

Simply weighing in with your own 2 cents on a bland issue or agreeing with the blog post doesn’t generate interesting content. This strategy works best for topics that are controversial and where you have a strong opinion.

Quora

Quora is similar to Yahoo answers in that it’s a question and answer site, but it’s different in the sense that there are many more experts responding to questions, rather than just laypeople. By simply searching for questions in our niche, we can come up with topics and issues that we could write a blog post around. Explore different phrases and keywords in your niche to find new topic ideas. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another great platform for generating blog post ideas – especially if you’re blogging as a professional or as a business owner. As the world’s largest business social networking platform, LinkedIn gives you access to discourse in your industry from which you can draw inspiration. Simply go to the search bar in the top right hand corner, click on the tab and select ‘Answers’. 

Once you’re here, you can type in a keyword relevant to your industry and hit search. This will bring up a list of questions/answers related to your keyword that are being actively discussed by people in your industry.

Ask For Reader Questions

Perhaps the easiest way to seek out relevant blog post ideas is to simply ask your existing readers for questions. Simply put out a blog post asking your readers to send you any questions that are on their mind, whether it’s by email, comments, or social media. Even if you only have a handful of readers, this is a great way to create content that’s directly relevant and useful to your readers. Furthermore, by actually taking the time to answer a reader’s question and build a blog post around it, you’ll generate tremendous loyalty in your existing readers. 

Hopefully you have some ideas now for how you can go out and actively find great blog post ideas. Blogging is about more than simply sitting at your keyboard and writing whatever comes to mind. Not only is this a great way to run into writer’s block, but it’s important to remember that blogging is about engaging with a larger community and with your readers . By writing blog posts drawn from exploring this larger community, you ensure that you’re creating blog posts that are relevant and useful to your readers.

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