We get this question all the time from small business owners and lifestyle entrepreneurs diving into the blogging world, and the answer is, “Anything related to your business, products, services, industry, which would also be informative and entertaining (and not sales-y) for your Ideal Audience.”

And that answer, while accurate, just isn’t helpful.

Because (as we’re finally realizing) when our clients and prospects ask what to blog about, the question is also a stand-in for a host of other concerns:

• What’s the point?…
• How will this get me more business?…
• I’m not a writer…
• There’s fear involved in “putting myself out there” in this way…
• I don’t know where to start…
• I’m overwhelmed by the idea, the technology, the fitting-it-in around the rest of everything else I have to do as Chief Cook and Bottle Washer in my business…

You get the idea.

Assuming for now that you will be jumping in to the blogging world, here’s the easiest formula I can come up with for a successful blog post, which I laid out for one of our clients in a Progress Report last year:

To sum up, blogging can be as simple as:

1. Reading an industry news story
2. Formulating your opinion on it
3. Typing up your opinion and supporting it with your unique set of knowledge

Could each of [your exceutive team members] do that in 15-30 minutes or so, once (or twice) a month? If so, your blog will be a roaring success.

As an example, ClosetPlace, a storage and organization systems company out of Wolfeboro, NH, is going through blogging training with our buddies at Acorn Creative as I write this. Their new website is going live this week, and they’ve opened a new showroom as well - big year for them!

I met with ClosetPlace’s Bill Huntley yesterday, and we got to talking about how new closet systems affect the resale value of homes. I checked out Remodeling magazine’s 2007 Cost vs. Value annual report, and was surprised to see that they didn’t include anything storage or organization-related.

That lack of inclusion is blog-worthy. In fact, if it had been included, it would also be blog-worthy, but for the specific situation, let’s put it this way:

Imagine you’re Bill Huntley, and you’re at a cocktail party. Someone comes up to you and says, “I heard Remodeling magazine didn’t include storage systems in their Cost vs. Value report. What do you think about that?”

“I think that’s short-sighted,” you say.

“Why?”

“Well, some custom closet installs run about $12K, which is in line with some of the lower-cost projects they’re tracking. Storage and organization is a multi-billion-dollar industry, so it’s worthy of Remodeling’s attention. And a closet system is just as much of an upscale addition as a kitchen remodel, in terms of making the home more attractive to potential buyers. In a tough housing market, that could make the difference between selling and sitting on another year of mortgage and escrow payments.”

That exchange is, literally, what Bill could post on his new blog about that report. He has his own inimitable personality and style of talking and writing, so it would end up reading differently, but in terms of creating the outline of a blog post, that’s exactly all he has to do.

Of course, he could add one more thing. He could then write a question and a call to action for his readers: “Was the sale of your house affected by a closet system? Or was a closet system one of your deciding factors in choosing to buy one house over another? Leave a comment and let us know!”

And I’m about to do the same thing, for our own purposes. So, does that example give you an idea of what to blog about, and how? Leave a comment and let us know!

Posted in Blog Bits, Inciter Articles |

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under Blog Bits, Inciter Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.