One of the hardest parts of writing a blog post is finding an exciting topic to use. Depending on your market, this can be especially tough, as you constantly find yourself struggling to keep your readers engaged. It’s like running on a treadmill without the option to stop or turn it off—eventually you’ll tire out. There’s nothing more dreadful than reading a tired, stale blog that is filled with dull, put-you-to-sleep content.
As an owner of a business or Ecommerce blog, you have the difficult job of finding relevant and engaging topics to use for your content. The good thing is that finding dynamite topics is far from hard—it’s actually quite simple.
Method 1: Know Your Readers
Knowing what your readers want to read is huge, and this can provide a fountainhead of powerful information that you can use. Let’s say that you’re a florist that provides wedding floral arrangements for your customers. If you know that the majority of your customers are twenty-somethings that are getting married for the first time, you must use this information as leverage. Here’s a checklist of valuable intel that you need:
- What they usually want from your business
- The buying history of your average customer
- The age, gender, and interests of your average customer
- Their budget, income, how much they’re willing to pay, etc.
So, let’s go back to the wedding florist example. You don’t want a generic blog post about flowers, as that will bore them. Unless your readers are super-enthusiasts when it comes to all things floral, they will not want to sit through a humdrum blog post. Expect your readers to have other things to do. But if you write a blog post that appeals to their interests, like:
5 Ways to Liven Up Your Wedding Reception Using Floral Arrangements
How to Use Flowers to Decorate Your Wedding on the Cheap
How to Impress Your Wedding Guests With Exotic Floral Arrangements
If you’re a wedding florist, those topics are great, as they use the interests of your readers and customers as a springboard for your blog topics. Relevance goes a long way to attract your readers to your posts.
Now, you may be wondering how to extract valuable intel about your customers. Here’s how:
What are the common questions that your customers ask you? Use those commonly asked questions as blog topics.
OR
Use a survey that finds out what you need to know.
Both of these methods work terrifically, because your customers are directly divulging important info. Knowing the average reader profile will enable the blog posts to practically write themselves.
Method 2: Read Popular Blogs in Your Industry
Whenever you find yourself stuck on what topic to write about, find the top blogs in your industry or market and see what they’re writing about. You’ll be surprised at how useful this is, as there is always a great topic or new perspective that you’ll discover. It should go without saying: Don’t Plagiarize. But you can adopt a specific idea or topic so that you have the inspiration you need to write a fresh blog post. Use these popular blogs and craft your own unique commentary.
Method 3: Look at Blog Comments
There are pieces of gold within every active blog community. This gold can be found in the comments section. Whether it’s on your blog or another popular blog in the industry, the questions/discussions/arguments that you’ll find in the comments will provide a never-ending cascade of interesting, relevant topics that will captivate the attention of your readers.
The excuse of “I don’t know what to write about” should be a relic of the past with these tips. These 3 tips are built on this principle:
Know who you’re writing for and you’ll never run out of things to write about.
Understand that and you’ll never be stuck on what to write about again.
Very insightful article. I agree that looking at reading the comments on their articles is something that many bloggers either forget or are too lazy to do. Community interaction is such an important part of acquiring new readers and keeping your current readers. Although it would be best to engage in the comments as well, it is an excellent idea to draw inspiration from what your readers practically tell you they’re interested in.
What I find the hardest is knowing my readers. Sure, I can see the amount of traffic my website receives but how do I pinpoint the exact topics I should write about? While we do talk about a florist site with on topic posts I imagine that at least a part of the incoming traffic is not directly interested in my topics but landed through tangential search results. I’m interested in how to handle said visitors.
Probably my answer can be found in the second point you make and I should take a peek at similar websites and see how they engage they audience?
Thank you very much for sharing these methods, they were very detailed and informative. Great post!
I loved this article, you did a great job writing it, and I learned a lot from it! I have a difficult time finding out who my readers are because I don’t have social networking pages set up, but I’m sure that finding out who your readers really are is as simple as creating a Facebook page and seeing who “likes” it. Knowing who your readers are will also ensure that you are in fact writing for the correct people, and not just throwing your words out into cyber space. I liked how the article touched on all aspects of this without losing me.
I agree completely with each method, especially the first.
You need to know who your market is. You must make sure that you’re writing the right content for the people who actually read your blog. Don’t post something in your blog that people would feel is irrelevant to what they see your blog as. Post something you would feel they would enjoy.
I hope I helped!
This article was very helpful, as I am planning to put up a blog for my small business at some point! I am having trouble coming up with ideas for topics to write about, but this gives me a place to start.
Thank you!
I think this was a well executed article. Any business seeking to make an impact utilizing the new techniques associated with SEO or Social Media marketing need to realize the importance or knowing their audience. Readers find it more authentic when a company is able to offer information that exceeds the cookie cutter content that seems to be floating around the web.
I have been curious about having several topics of my interests as blog posts. I have a new florist web site with a blog page, and so far have just used it to showcase recent weddings, events etc. I would like to write about other aspects of my business that are less related to selling. What about discussing my interest in gardening here? We do grow some of our own flowers, but my site so far is all floral design. Also, we have a very popular shop dog, what about a post about her? Does this become too off topic? I would love to see others ideas about this!
Based on the information you have provided I would have a few questions before including the gardening information.
1. Is your site/ blog based simply on the floral niche?
2. Are you considering opening an additional blog to gain a reputation separately or do you want them within the same network?
3. Have you considered doing a site that encompasses different topics like Mashable?
4. Do you have writers or bloggers to create comprehensive and consistent content for this site to influence a trust with your audience?
I think it’s great to expand your blog but I think it’s also a great idea to explore having a network of blogs on different topics, using tabs temporarily, then merging them at a later date. You can establish yourself as a brand by doing so. If one blog/site topic influences more visitors than the other you are able to capitalize on the niche specific advertising and ability to offer guest positing for new or viable established businesses as one company.
You can later create a massive site merging all the blogs into one.
Hey Florist 2.0, I’ve been getting some pretty helpful tips from your articles. Are there any new ones coming up?
I agree about the importance of knowing your readers. This is one of the things that most blog owners forget. They are so focused on developing content that they forget to imagine who will read that content and how they will like it. I think studying the audience should be the very first step.
This article is very helpful and insightful. Definitely helped me as a new blogger to stay focused and keep moving forward. Great tips that I will be putting to good use. Thank you.
Very helpful tips shared here!
It is always important to keep your readers in mind when writing a blog post.
You must also keep them in mind when you are thinking about how you are going to write it eg. Funny, serious, etc.
You also have to be able to tell your readers just what your post is about in a short, catchy title that will capture their attention and cause them to read your post.
Excellent insight. It is always a good idea for the blog owner to interact with its audience! No one likes an unresponsive blog owner, and the most successful blogs I’ve seen has replies here and there from the admin or person running the blog! The target audience is also an important factor! The blog owner should create content to appeal to their average audience member! If not, then the blog owner should post a diverse variety of content so everyone can find something they like!
I so agree with this! It doesn’t matter what niche your creating content for, your audience requires an unquestionable level of access to you that allows them to feel as though their concerns are being directly answered. Be it forum, blog or site, members love when the owner takes the time to mention their name and answer their questions directly.
I know site owners don’t have time to address everyone directly but it’s great to hire someone with a clear understanding of your vision, the mantra of your company and what you stand for to maintain your online presence. There is always a boost in reputation when the audience feels as though they are getting the info they seek and more from any given blog/site/forum/brand.
I agree that if you have a blog, you must be prepared to respond to questions and comments left by your readers. Some, of course, will be inane, but most will likely be seeking answers.
Amen! There are quite a few readers whom are just completely insane without a realization that you are trying to provide comprehensive information a particular niche. I think if have a clear understanding of what you want to offer, realistic statistic expectations and someone whom has a clear knowledge of your company that is able to designate the time towards answering the questions, you should be fine. I think it’s about spreading yourself thin.