What to blog about is a question that crops up quite often – most new business owners use wordpress (because it is free). But wordpress is a blogging engine and they don’t know WHAT to BLOG about.

I read a lot (and I mean a lot of blogs). For someone who has a first wordpress indexed post in 2005, I feel I can talk with some confidence about what to blog about.

Firstly, take a step back and think – before you even write.
What is the purpose of the blog. Is it engagement, is it to get signups to your newsletter or list, is it to show your expertise in a topic.

Once you have this – you can start to construct a plan. (Yes I know thinking and planning are boring but jumping right in is never a good thing).

Once you start writing a blogging plan, bear in mind, one thing the blogging gurus continually bang on about is your “authentic voice.” Writing in corporate speak isn’t for me – I had enough of it in a previous life. So you will find my writing peppered with questions, brackets and generally broken up.

(This has the added benefit of making it easy to skim read).

How does all this help you with what to blog about?
As an aside, many people seem to make the mistake of confusing blogging with selling. If a blog post is a veiled sales piece (or even an unveiled one) – it leaves the reader very little scope for doing anything meaningful.

For a sales blog post, all you will ever get comment wise is
1. Great blog post (Difficult to distinguish these from spam comments – reap what you sow and all that).
2. People complaining they have used your product or service and it was lousy.

Neither very good if you blog goal is engagement.

So, what’s the £63,000 answer
Take ideas from this list (assuming you have a business blog related to your expertise..)
Product reviews
Book reviews – You do read don’t you?
TV programs (No – the ones RELATED to your expertise)
Industry events, conferences and exhibitions you attend.
What YOU personally think about news or current affairs and how they affect your industry. (Maybe you want to be controversial, maybe you don’t?)
Things you did recently – No not what you had for lunch – more interesting stuff. Did you see something unusual or strange related to your industry.

See this blog post from a while back – which is really about nothing at all. Even more relevant given Sepp Blatter’s recent comments on racism.

What to blog about (not)

You should probably avoid one or all of the following

Revealing personal information about yourself or your family. (Unless you are a publicity seeking, no shame celebrity whose scruples know no bounds). It’s probably easy enough to find all this anyway.

Overtly selling (as discussed)

Knocking your competition (The laws of libel apply online just as they do anywhere else).

If it helps decided what to blog about

Buy a notepad and carry it with you. You can jot down thoughts where ever you are.

Oh and one more thing – If you can’t write – maybe you can speak. Record your blog posts as audio and get a virtual assistant to transcribe them for you.

Leave a comment if this helped you with what to blog about.