I’ve spent a lot of time recently working with students who are starting new blogs. It can be a bit nerve wracking to start your online presence. The key to a blog is content = consistent writings. Whether you’re writing on your blog daily, weekly or monthly, you need to be writing. This is where new bloggers get stuck. And I’ll let you in on a little secret but you can’t tell anyone: Even seasoned bloggers get writers block and get stuck for blog content.
You see, the goal with blogging is to provide value to your readers by putting out the best content possible. It’s a great goal and I will tell you that with practice it gets easier and your writing can get better.
So, in honor of my students, I’m giving you all 10 ideas for your blog. You’ll have to alter the topics accordingly and come up with your own titles and story – but at least you’ll have some place to start.
10 Things to Blog About
A Story About Your Pet or Children
A Story About Your Everyday Life (Something that happened today, this week, etc.)
A Book, Movie or Product Review
A Recent Vacation/Your Travels
A Hardship You’ve Overcome
A Best Practice In Your Industry
A Favorite Recipe
A List of Some Sort (Like this one, or a list on anything you’re readers would like)
Share a video from YouTube and why you like it (motivational or inspirational)
Share a link to a an article and why you like it (could be on a business topic or best practice)
You can take any of the topics above and modify them for yourself. While you may be in a particular niche, you cannot always write just about that niche. People want to get to you know. The more personable you can be the more others will return. Of course, you want to give others information that will help them but don’t forget to infuse your personality and sharing about yourself in some of your writings.
When you share a favorite book or movie you’re giving others and insight to you.
When you share a favorite recipe on occasion readers have a chance to get to know you.
Blogging is about connecting with your readers both old and new. It isn’t rocket science and you don’t need to make it be. Step past the fear and just write. It takes practice and you will get better.
My dear blogger friends you just need to get started and get writing. You don’t need to spend 3 hours on every blog post. Many can be written in 10-15 minutes. (And yes, some may take 2 hours).
Write about you, your experiences, and share your personality. You KNOW you. You can write about You.
Let me know what you think of these 10 topics. Also, if you have anything to add to the listI’d love to hear new ideas to share with my students and readers.
Have a blessed day!
Great advice Vanessa! I love how your topics are all focused around topics that will allow your readers to get to know you better. That is the most important thing to building a following on your blog.
When new to blogging, just getting started is exactly what we need to do. So many times we hold ourselves back because we feel like everything needs to be perfect. Once we get started we can always make adjustments later if we aren’t happy with it.
Thanks for sharing the great tips!
Thanks for stopping by Melissa. Blogs are a work in progress. We are always tweaking. 🙂
Great ideas Vanessa, I find writing about my own interests and having an opinion or asking for advice helps to get my viewers interacting too. Whether I’m gardening, cooking, entertaining, decorating, celebrating a holiday, riding my horses or meeting challenges in business, sharing my point of view and asking for others’ perspectives makes me feel my blog is like inviting a friend over for coffee.
Great post VaNessa…
Keeping topics simple, especially when first starting to blog keeps your focus and removes some of the stress involved so that blogging becomes a more consistent activity.
Excellent list, VaNessa. My husband likes to tease me by saying, “You’re playing with your mental blocks again!” It’s easy to get writer’s block when life starts piling up on you. But your list is a reminder that even those problems can be inspiration for blog posts… because others have similar problems, and will welcome your ideas for how to overcome them.
Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
Willena Flewelling
Hi VaNessa,
You’re right on two counts, no matter how often you choose to post, you need to be consistent and yes, everyone gets ‘writer’s block’ sometime! And now for my guilty secret, I just left my poor readers languishing for an entire month because I was struggling for the inspiration to go ‘hit ’em over the head’! – It happens to us all, and all we can do is pick ourselves up and get back on the track. So hopefully that will inspire one of your new fledgling ‘onliner’s that it is ok to falter, people will forgive you (I hope…)
Great post thanks, 🙂
Hi VaNessa,
Those are some wonderful ideas. I wouldn’t have thought of a recipe! And you’re right — writing about ourselves does help people to get to know us better and feel closer to us. That’s important for trust issues.
One thing I’ve learned (but don’t do well yet 🙂 is to be alert to a blog topic early in my weekly blog cycle. Then by the time I sit down to write it, it will already have settled in my mind. That’s my goal, but more like wishful thinking at this point!
Hey Vanessa,
Awesome posting, really!
So many times I run into the same problem when I talk to someone new to blogging. We’ve all faced the “writers block” problem a few times… heck it happens almost every week for me.
But where I always tell others to get started is with classes, courses and or books that they’ve purchased. There they can share what they’ve learned and actually show people what they’ve done since they’ve learned it.
More times than not, in the process of learning, you encounter you own problems and this in turn forces you to find the answer. Then guess what… another thing to write about.
Blogging…. I LOVE IT!
Thanks for the suggestions, it’s gonna be HUGE to those who read it.
-Dereck
Hi VaNessa:
You have given me some inspiration! 🙂 I do some of these already but you gave me a few new ideas.
Thanks!
Kevin
Thanks for some wonderful tips and ideas here. July is my one year anniversary of blogging and I’ve had so much fun. Yes, at first I spent way too much time worry about what to write about, but as I learned to let go and just be me, I’m loving it!
Hi Vanessa, these are great ideas for blog posts, and like you say if you’re new, you just have to get started! I think what stops a lot of new entrepreneurs is fear of “saying the wrong thing”, but it doesn’t matter, you can never say anything “wrong”. Just be yourself and have fun with you’re writing!
bye for now, Julieanne
Thanks so much. I jumped right over to my “Blog Post Ideas” mind map and added about 20 new post ideas. Thanks for jogging my memory!
Debbie
Hi, Vanessa,
I love lists, and this one was just what the doctor ordered. When you think about it, it isn’t really difficult to blog about the things that are most important to you, but – it has to be something you care about. If it isn’t, no one else will care about it either.
Thanks for sharing these ideas.
Angela
Hello Vanessa
I have been think about how to to infuse my personality and sharing about myself in some of my writings. In this post you have given me lots of ideas. Your list of 10 things to blog about and the comments on this post have open my mind to many ways that I can accomplish my objective.
Thanks
Perry A Davis Jr
Music City
Vanessa, I recently read a challenge from Pat Flynn, from the Smart Passive Income Blog. One of his suggestions, which I resonated with, was to write in a recurring fashion (but not too often), about fears faced and overcome. Especially from a business and personal development standpoint. I haven’t implemented that angle yet, but I will in the future 🙂
Hi VaNessa, those are some interesting ideas. I usually blog only about business topics, but your list is encouraging me to think about adding some more “fun” content from time to time. Thanks!