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View Full Version : Quick Tip on Getting Content for your Blog.



Harold Mansfield
08-09-2009, 08:34 PM
After the initial excitement of having your first blog up and running wears off and you start realizing that you need to come up with something to write about frequently, a lot of people struggle for ideas.

If it is a company blog, unless you have products and services launching every week, there is only so much you can say...after about 2 or 3 weeks, you may be all out.

If you are blogging for dollars ( and this is where this really works), then you have centered in on a niche. After a while, you will find yourself searching other blogs and websites for ideas, and re-writing all ready available information. This will do you no good and you will never stand out amongst your competition, and it will take the steam out of all that exuberance you had when starting a blog was the greatest idea in the world, and you thought the whole world would love you.

So it's real simple. Once you have your blog designed the way you want it, and get some posts under your belt...what ever your niche is...Hit (contact) every company in that niche, or affiliated with that niche and ask to be put on their press list of upcoming services, products and promotions.

In every field there are tons of companies that want press for their stuff, and although the web is vast...it's not like the days of magazines when you knew what publications to submit to. People want their stuff on more sites than the top 5 that they know about, and if you let them know you exist, and they like what you are doing, and the way you do it, you will start to see your email box filling up with blog posts and article ideas everyday.

Act like you want to do a good job for them. In the beginning, let them know that you posted up their information and send them a link back to the post. Make it look good...go above and beyond to make it look nice..use your plug ins like Related Articles ( to draw attention to other articles about them), Post columns to give your posts some structure...anything that you can use fairly easily that will enable you to design a post, not just copy, paste, publish. Think of each post as a presentation. Since you are getting information fed to you, that's less time thinking about what to write, and more time making it look nice.


And don't forget to use Video. If there is a promotional video for what ever you are writing about that is of good quality (don't ever use crappy videos with bad sound), use it every time. You'd be surprised how many product videos are put out by a company that no one ever sees.

Always use the highest quality images, and highest quality video. This is very important. If they don't send it ( and most people don't) take 2 minutes to search the main video sites to see if a current one is available. (make your videos the same size on every post..it's not a rule or anything, it just looks better when things are congruent and helps instill familiarity to your readers)

If the only video available is crappy..DONT USE IT! EVER !

Once companies start seeing you promote their competitors, they won't want to be left out, and after while, you'll have a nice little industry contact list going....you can ask for images to use, samples to review, and even run promotions and giveaways in conjunction with the companies.

Could this work on company blogs ? Of course.
If you are a plumber, why not be on the list of every maker of fixtures, tubs, toilets, jacuzzi's and everything else (you probably already are) and write about them. With a few images and some specs, it keeps your blog populated, and gives people something to desire when they call you. Odds are, if they saw it on HG, they will probably search for it online..that would keep you busy for a month. I'd even make my own "As seen on HG TV" stamp or banner.

Web Designers could write about finished products, the challenges faced and how you met the needs of the client, and maybe even add a testimonial.

The point is. There are no rules . You can do anything you want if it will inform, or entertain readers in a way that will keep them coming back to your blog as a respected source of information, solve a problem, provide information, or sell them on a product that you can supply for them.....not just some guy re-writing old information.

Design well..what ever is appropriate for your niche.....a Rap Music blog shouldn't look the same as an antiques blog....... spell check, show professionalism and stay consistent.

Those of you blogging for dollars this won't work right away, you have to get some posts under your belt and build up some traffic the old fashioned way.

When you start making those contacts, make up an email signature that makes you look serious with your real name, website link, contact information and use a return email address that matches....not some free Yahoo, or Gmail address.

How will they remember you and take you seriously if you have one address for the website, and a different one (free one) as your contact ? If your website is "big pimpin.com" your email address better be "you[at]bigpimpin.com", not "bigpimpin[at]yahoo.com". Look like a professional. You are talking to people that understand matching email addresses in business, not my grandmother who won't remember it no matter what it is. Do you think Donald Trump uses "Dtrump[at]gmail" for business, or "Trump[at]Trumpindustries.com" ?

If you are blogging for your own business, make sure that your authors box contains your contact information, maybe even hours of operation and phone number. A picture is also a nice touch...and make sure it is visible either top right sidebar, or before (on top of) or after each individual post. Don't make them go to the "About" page to find out about you. Sign your posts, or your blog proudly.

As it builds, you would be surprised how many people will start asking to be featured instead of you having to ask them..and as you continue building your traffic and networking you will start to be seen as a source in the industry, which is what every blogger wants....then you can start selling more stuff :)

Edited:
I forgot to add ( this is more blogging 101)...use the subject in your headline. You would think that this is a no brainer, but it's not.
the best way to get SE traffic is to match what people are searching for. Unless you already have 10,000 U's a day, using slang, cute quips, and jargon worked well in the newspaper days of old. Cute and catchy headlines was the marketing that sold papers.

This is the internet. It runs on math. You want your "X's" and "O's" to match requests for information. If you are writing about a "Chevy Big Block 350 Engine", your headline needs to have "Chevy Big Block 350 Engine" in it, or at least "Chevy Big Block", and not something cute like "Paradise by the dashboard lights"..why ? because no one who is searching for information on a "Chevy Big Block 350" is ever going to search for "Paradise by the dashboard lights" and the only people that will see that are the hand full of readers that happen to come back.


People like submitting to blogs and websites that understand how to draw traffic. You don't have to be a power player, but it's a waste for me to continue to feed you the latest news if people will never be able to find it.....that is of course unless you have a multi-million dollar marketing and advertising budget, then you can be as cutesy as you wish....until then...work with the math.

vangogh
08-10-2009, 11:54 AM
Interesting idea, though I would suggest this would only work for certain kinds of blogs. It essentially means your blog would be a news or industry blog, which may not be what you want. If you do want that kind of blog this could be a good way to get content. Something tells me you'll still need to break your own news at times and do your own reporting outside of what other companies send you.

Harold Mansfield
08-10-2009, 12:14 PM
Interesting idea, though I would suggest this would only work for certain kinds of blogs. It essentially means your blog would be a news or industry blog, which may not be what you want. If you do want that kind of blog this could be a good way to get content. Something tells me you'll still need to break your own news at times and do your own reporting outside of what other companies send you.

Of course, there are a million different ways to blog. This works best if your are blogging for dollars. Have a niche that you are blogging about.
For me, this is the way that I break news...to get it form the source.
If I read it somewhere else first, it's not breaking.

It is very rare that I will go out on the road to investigate my own industry news. What new blogger has that kind of budget ?
It's worked for me because I get the information up quicker than most in my niche and then have others refer to my blog as the source.

Of course if you are blogging about your services, it would depend on what that service is. Many service providers are some kind of affiliate anyway..if you install Home Theaters, you don't create and construct the electronics, you are using already created products...so this is a good way to keep customers abreast of new technology and products that you have available...If you are an Interior Designer, unless you have your own Lama farms and Pine Forests, you still use materials and fabrics from other people.....no different than any sales page, or catalog.

Unless you get information sent it, there is no way that you will know about any industry changes or news. You can't stand in the waiting room at Sony 24/7 waiting for them to break out a new product.....Someone has to be the source. Most companies don't have their own media,(Sony does) they rely on others to tell their story.

If you think of all the industry publications out there, how do you think they get their information? From the source.

For me, at least, it is a good way for me to report news that I know months in advance before something actually happens, or launches. That's breaking !

I mean there's really only 2 ways to do it. Read it somewhere else first, and put your own spin or review on it..or report it first. Of course you still have your own opinion, instructional and knowledge pieces, but this can fill in many days of uncertainty when you have no ideas...especially if you post everyday. Even if you don't post on holidays and take a day off here and there, 300 posts is lot to come up with in a year without any outside information coming in.

vangogh
08-10-2009, 06:12 PM
I agree with you if the blog is about industry news. Not all blogs are going to be about industry news of course.

In my case my blog is there to help show my expertise in web design and development, etc. That should help me sell my services and later sell products or other information around the topics I blog about. For example say I wanted to sell an ebook on web development. The blog as is (mostly how to posts) would go a long toward showing the information in the ebook is likely valuable and worth the money.

Were my blog a news blog I don't think it would help so much selling that kind of ebook. Of course there are plenty of other ways to monetize a news blog. I'm not trying to imply what you're suggesting is a bad idea at all. I actually think it's a great way for a small blogger to break or mostly break news.

My point is that your blog has to match your business model and for some the news blog isn't the right match.

Harold Mansfield
08-10-2009, 07:37 PM
I agree with you if the blog is about industry news. Not all blogs are going to be about industry news of course.

In my case my blog is there to help show my expertise in web design and development, etc. That should help me sell my services and later sell products or other information around the topics I blog about. For example say I wanted to sell an ebook on web development. The blog as is (mostly how to posts) would go a long toward showing the information in the ebook is likely valuable and worth the money.

Were my blog a news blog I don't think it would help so much selling that kind of ebook. Of course there are plenty of other ways to monetize a news blog. I'm not trying to imply what you're suggesting is a bad idea at all. I actually think it's a great way for a small blogger to break or mostly break news.

My point is that your blog has to match your business model and for some the news blog isn't the right match.

No. Probably wouldn't be applicable if you are blogging for your own agenda.
This would make more sense for people blogging for affiliate or ad income. It doesn't have to be a "news" blog...if you are looking to make money from adsense of affiliate links, you have to be blogging about some kind of niche, and you can't come up with stuff in a vacuum.
We all get our information from somewhere, I'm just suggesting to go to the source and get it first hand and kill 2 birds with one stone...content that signals which relevant ads to show ( in the case of adsense) , and information for readers.

vangogh
08-10-2009, 08:16 PM
Again I agree. I hope I didn't imply that there was anything wrong with your idea. I actually think it's a really good one. Just wanted to make sure others realize it's not necessarily for all blogs. Depends on the blog and the goals of the blog.

But yeah, good idea.

Harold Mansfield
08-10-2009, 08:44 PM
Again I agree. I hope I didn't imply that there was anything wrong with your idea. I actually think it's a really good one. Just wanted to make sure others realize it's not necessarily for all blogs. Depends on the blog and the goals of the blog.

But yeah, good idea.

Well no of course not. It's an important point because no matter how many tips and suggestions you read...everything is not for everybody, and all blogs, or blog agendas are not the same...therefore, what works for me, may not work for someone else.

Sometimes I think that (especially new bloggers) people think that there is a certain formula that works for successful blogs across the board..and there isn't.

As we say in the old neighborhood, "You gotta get it where you fit it", meaning you have to find the spot that works for you. Most times on the web, that means doing something that has never been done before, or doing it better than someone else.

vangogh
08-11-2009, 12:18 AM
Sometimes I think that (especially new bloggers) people think that there is a certain formula that works for successful blogs across the board..and there isn't.

Absolutely. That's a very important point and one reason I don't when anyone offers a recipe for success. People mistake strategy and tactics all the time. Most of the advice you see online is tactics. Much of it while perfectly true only works if it matches your strategy. Unfortunately many try to squeeze any tactic into any strategy and when the tactic fails they come to the conclusion it doesn't work. It does work, but it has to be done in the right context.

Harold Mansfield
08-12-2009, 06:30 PM
Absolutely. That's a very important point and one reason I don't when anyone offers a recipe for success. People mistake strategy and tactics all the time. Most of the advice you see online is tactics. Much of it while perfectly true only works if it matches your strategy. Unfortunately many try to squeeze any tactic into any strategy and when the tactic fails they come to the conclusion it doesn't work. It does work, but it has to be done in the right context.

Well for me , I learned that no one really wants to hear what I have to say (on my music blog) they want to know what's going on, so I decided a while ago, with the exception of album reviews, to get the information that people are looking for and put it up, so on the occasion that I do have something to say, like one of my recent rants on Dance Music Marketing in the U.S., I can pick up some good links from around the hub.

vangogh
08-13-2009, 01:26 AM
That makes sense for your decision. In the end you have to give your audience what they want and not what you want. On another site it's possible people would prefer to hear what you want to say over what's going on. If on this site they want what's going on, then you have to give it to them.