One of the most important aspects of your SEO strategy is the generation of back links. One of the best ways to do that is to blog.

Constantly adding fresh content, in the form of blog posts, will help drive traffic to your website, enable you to build a constant stream of back links and attract links to your website.

Blogging will also:

• Add value to your relationships with your customers
• Position you as an expert in your field
• Boost your online exposure because you’ll own more of the web

No matter what your market sector, you can utilise the power of blogging to drive more traffic to your website and improve your rankings.

Of course, you do have to come up with a constant stream of ideas.

Idea generation

Trust me, you have a wealth of ideas to write about – you just have to tap into them.

As a copywriter, I started out writing about copywriting and marketing. Then, I started to introduce tips on social media and how to market your business through it. If you are a web designer, you could blog about techy stuff other web designers would be interested in, as well as information about SEO, web design etc., that your clients might want to know about.

Make sure you blog about subjects relevant to your niche and target audience. If I suddenly started talking about garden design (if you’ve ever seen my garden you’d know that is very unlikely), my readers would think I’d gone mad.

Stick to what you know and write posts about ‘How to…’, top lists, advice, introducing new ideas etc.

Make your posts work for you

By writing about your niche, you’ll draw people to you who are interested in what you do.

Make sure your headings include your keywords so your posts are also found through the search engines. Plus, you also need to promote your content through social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).

To drive traffic to your website, make sure you link back using your keywords (as I have above through ‘copywriter’). You can also promote older blog posts by linking to them – but only do this if it’s relevant to the subject you’re writing about.

Grabbing ideas

You have to grab blog ideas when they come to you, so always have a pen and paper to hand to make sure none of them get away.

Then, you can use the following as ways to kick start your ideas list:

• Go for a walk – fresh air is a great way to spark creativity
• Write what you know
• Read other blogs, magazines and newspapers – any of these can spark ideas (but always refer back to the original article)
• Conversations with friends and customers are a great way to spark ideas

Once you have an idea, write down an outline and then go back and flesh it out. Write a great headline that draws the reader in (and that contains your keywords) and make your post look interesting by using lots of sub headings, bulleted lists and pictures.

Blogging is a powerful business tool that shouldn’t be overlooked. It can boost your rankings, position  you as an expert and draw traffic to your website. What have you got to lose? Give it a try.

Are you already a blogger? If so, leave a comment below and let us know how you find your ideas.

The power of a blog is a wonderful thing.

It gives you the opportunity to get your personal view of things out there in the open where others can read them.

You can share tips and advice. Engage your worldwide audience and share your knowledge to position yourself as an expert in your field.

You can create a buzz and a following that gets your name and your business noticed by potentially thousands of people.

Of course there is one downside that puts many people off:

A blog is for life, not just for Christmas

If you want to make an impact with your blog you have to be dedicated, blog regularly and come up with an endless stream of content.

Dedication

A good blogger is a dedicated blogger.

They live to engage with their readers and provide them with an endless stream of quality content.

Their posts generate debate and a following. Sounds impossible but you too can achieve this through regular blogging. Posts that are relevant and interesting to your audience will get you noticed. People will come back to your blog time and time again and share it with others through social media.

Adding value

Regular blogging is all well and good but only if it adds value which means you must generate great ideas.

Inspiration for topics can strike anytime so make sure you always have pen and paper close by so you can write down your ideas when they strike.

Be useful

Long posts, short posts. Each topic and your own preference/writing style will dictate here. But if you keep your posts relatively brief, the information is more likely to be easily absorbed and will get them to come back for more.

Mix it up

People absorb information in different ways.

Some like to read, others prefer to listen and some like to watch videos. Offering a range of posts that use all these methods will widen the appeal of your blog.

What it comes down to is this – if you want to build a blog that draws in readers you have to write regularly, well, with variety but always it has to have interesting content.

Blogging really can help your business – it doesn’t matter if you’re a copywriter, a plumber, a solicitor or an accountant – a well written blog can help you by positioning yourself as an expert in your field.

Copywriters are always having to come up with new ideas. Whether it’s for blog posts, client projects or for their own web copy, fresh and original content generation is a part of their daily life.

I’ve been working as a freelance copywriter for several years now and I would be love it if i could just sit at my desk in the morning and create an unlimited number of original ideas without any effort.

Wouldn’t that be great? Just think how easy it would make anyone’s life if they could simply produce idea after idea after idea. Never again would a project stump you, you’d write oodles of great blog posts, newsletter and email content would flow freely.

But the real world isn’t like that. In the real world we all suffer from writers’ block. How many times have you sat in front of your computer, stared at the blank screen only to realise your mind is equally as blank?

We’ve all been there – even me.

So how do you break the spell?

Well one way is to create a swipe file.

Idea generation – the swipe file

Now before you recoil in horror, a swipe file is not a means to plagiarism.

Your swipe file is a way of generating inspiration.

No doubt you get bombarded with emails and mail shots all trying to sell you something. Most of them you’ll bin or delete, but one or two may catch your eye. They are the ones to place in your swipe file.

If they caught your eye the chances are they also caught someone else’s.

Study it – what was it that made you read it? Was it the layout, headline, content, use of images?

This type of analysis will help you understand what techniques make people read something.

Make a note of them and gradually you’ll build up a reference library of great headlines, techniques etc., that will help you strengthen your own copy.

This ideas file (whether in physical form or held on your computer) will help trigger your creativity when the dreaded writer’s block strikes.

Remember though the material in your swipe file is there for inspiration and not to be copied.

Do you already have a swipe file? If so, what piece of marketing really caught your eye and why? Leave a comment and share it with us.