Blogging for Business: Breaking Writer's Block

So you've gone to the effort of setting up a blog to promote your business, and now you are staring at a blank screen, wondering what to write. You want to post two or three times a week, but what in the world will you write about?

Take a look outside your office: what are your customers and potential customers interested in reading about? What do competitors and the media have to say about your field? A little bit of research can uncover an endless supply of material that will pique the interest of both potential clients and search engines.

Pay Attention

A great way to start is to answer questions your customers ask you, especially if more than one customer has asked the same question.

Providing the answer to the question is great, but taking your readers through an investigation of the problem (followed by the answer) is even better. Offer tips and other helpful information as you go along; this will prove that you are an expert in your field, but that you also listen to your clients and do your best to address their concerns.

Get Inspired

If you read what other people have to say—in your field and elsewhere--you'll always have something to talk about. Keeping up with the news, reading blogs for stories that might relate to your business, and following industry news via Twitter and Facebook are great ways to find content to write about. Better yet, you can setup an RSS Reader that pulls all your favorite writers and publications into one page that you can quickly and easily scan for ideas.

Think Strategically

It's likely that many of the people who find your site do so through a search engine. They type a keyphrase into Google--say, “nh landscaping”-- and click on the result. While there are a lot of factors involved in getting to the top of the search results (thereby getting the most clicks from searchers), a very important component is the incorporation of good keyphrases in your blog posts. Additionally, having a great list of phrases will help you focus your writing, while providing ideas for articles.

A word of caution, though: don't stuff keyphrases into your posts – that will turn off both search engines and readers. Instead, use keyphrases naturally, incorporating them in the title and body of your posts where appropriate.

Most importantly, keep at it. It may seem difficult to put up a new post two or three times a week, but before long it will be a habit. Once you get in the rhythm of posting regularly, not only will it become easier to do so, you'll find throughout the day that you are thinking of new issues to explore in future blog posts, and proactively addressing your clients and potential clients interests and concerns.

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