Content Creation Ideas For Your Blog

Ideas on How to Blog

How Often You Post

Blogging takes consistent commitment. Whether you decide to blog once a month, once a week or more; a consistent posting of your content sets an expectation with your audience. If you post every Wednesday, your audience will come to look forward to reading your content mid-week. Consistent posting will also help search engines find your blog.

Blogging once a week or more can help you gain an audience. I post once a month, but when I started my blog, I posted once a week. If you want to gain an audience more rapidly, post twice a week to boost your exposure. Look at your schedule and decide which posting schedule works best for you.

If you have not started a blog, create between 8 – 10 blogs in a Word document. This will give you 4 – 5 weeks of blog content to post. Having content ready to go can relieve the stress of creating quality content and help you get started with being consistent.

Write Ideas Down Write (Right) Away

My ideas for blogging come from everyday life. When a thought comes to mind, I write it down quickly to remember the details. I use iPhone notes to keep track of ideas. I also use an old-fashioned pen and paper; however, it is too easy to lose a piece of paper. Using the recorder on my iPhone is another way to help corral blog ideas.

Free Write

What content to create is a conundrum we all face as authors. Pick a day and a time to write free from distractions.  Many times, you will face a blank page as crickets twerp in the background. Just start typing. Free write whatever comes to mind. Often times, I will end up writing 2 – 3 topics in one sitting. I flush out the most developed topic and save the other topics for another blog.

Ideas on How to Find Topics

Use a calendar of Events and Holidays as great idea starters for your blog.

Apples4theteacher.com/holidays has a list of events and holidays to choose from.  January 8th is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Write a blog about how you keep organized as an author. Post a picture of your organized desk.  You could also engage your readers by asking them to share their tips.

April 10th is National Library Day. Blog about your local library. Contact them and offer to do a book signing to promote National Library Day.

April 12th is D.E.A.R – Drop Everything And Read Day. Share an excerpt of your book in a blog post.

April 14th is International Day of Laughter Day. Share humorous excerpts from your book.

April 28 is Sense of Smell Day. Share excerpts from your book which describe a sense of smell. Offer tips on how to write a scene using the five senses. Engage your readers to submit a short story highlighting a sense of smell and award the winner a copy of your book.

Buddy Up

Find another blogger in your same genre and buddy up to brainstorm content ideas. Once written, you can promote each other’s blog on your social media platforms. This is a great way to build a friendship and also share each other’s audience.

Ask Your Audience

Asking your audience is a great way to not only engage with your readers but allows them into your process.  What content would they want to read?

Jessica Osborn-Houser of JJburry.com offered her readers an opportunity to chose which blog they wanted to read. The choices offered were:

1.       Using Sentence Variation
2.       Adding details with phrases
3.       How to write book reviews

Her readers voted to learn how to write books reviews by 63%. She posted her poll on Twitter, but you can use Facebook to post a poll as well. Once the voted blog is posted, you have an instant audience interested in reading it.

How do you decide what to write about on your blog? What topic received the most engagement on your blog? What content tips do you use to create content?

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.