8 Simple Ideas for Effective Blog Articles

Vinny La Barbera
Written by

Vinny La Barbera

Are you all out of ideas for new blog articles? Are you not even sure what to start writing about for your new blog? We all get writer’s block at some point or another, but sometimes a little direction and inspiration can get us right back on track.

There are article topic ideas all around us every day. However, knowing how easy it is to get sidetracked we thought we would help you stay focused, and busy, by providing our list of ideas for effective blog articles.

Effective Blog Article Ideas

What Makes an Effective Blog Article?

Before you go exerting time and energy on new blog articles it is important to understand what actually makes a blog article effective.

Based on our experience and research, effective blog articles are made up of the following characteristics.

Each blog article you write should aim to have…

  • A clear, unique headline
  • At least 500 words
  • Some complimentary media (images, charts, audio files)
  • A focus on one primary theme (often your main key phrase)
  • Implementation of fundamental on-page optimization (SEO)
  • Links to other pages or articles on your website / blog
  • Relevant, helpful links to external web pages
  • Social sharing options (limit to your top 3-4)
  • A call to action

There are, of course, occasions where an extremely effective blog article can simply be a video, an image or an infographic. For the sake of this post though, let’s focus on blog articles that YOU can develop without having to rely on extensive design or production help.


The List

 

Simple, but Effective Blog Article Ideas

Often times the best, and most effective, blog article ideas are all around us every day. Once you stop over-thinking new ideas you will start to see the low hanging fruit that can jump start your blogging efforts.

With that said, here is our list of 8 simple ideas for effective blog articles to get you going:

1. Answer Common Questions. Ask your customer service or sales teams what they get asked on a regular basis and make a frequently asked questions list. Put together a blog post on each of these questions. If you want to get creative, then shoot a short video of someone answering each question to compliment your blog article.

2. Create a “How to” List. Think about what your business specializes in and brainstorm some topics that can be made into tutorials on how to do something. You shouldn’t be focusing on how to only promote your product or service, but rather how to help someone. If your product or service naturally fits into that solution, then definitely be sure to mention it, but don’t make it a sales article.

3. Create a Tip Sheet. Like a “How to” list, a tip sheet should be a list of things that may solve a problem that your audience may have. There are some really effective tip sheet articles that showcase over 100 tips, but we recommend starting with something that won’t overwhelm you by focusing on quantities less than 20. Keep your tips as concise as possible so your blog article doesn’t get too wordy.

4. Create a “Top” List. Can you tell we love lists? One of our favorite, and most effective article ideas is a “Top [10]” list. The number is arbitrary, but think about some products, services, influencers, and even competitors, that are relevant to your business and put them in a Top [10] list. Make sure to link to any other website you mention to establish credibility (and good karma) and to possibly pick up some reciprocal backlinks (yes, this is link building).

5. Interview a Customer. If you have a reputable company that provides a great product or service, then you should have a good number of customers that would love to talk about you. On top of that some people just love to talk about themselves or their experiences. Use these opportunities to interview a few customers and use their responses to craft a blog article. Supplement the article with a video or audio recording for even more credibility.

6. Share Some Data. If you’re constantly collecting data about your customers, services, sales, support (hopefully you are), then you’re sitting on a gold mine of information to use for multiple blog articles. Thinking about who your target readers are, select some of your data and put together a blog article talking about 3-4 of your main data points that are relevant to them. Try to accompany this data with some simple graphs or charts to liven things up.

7. Talk About Relevant News. You’re not going to find lower hanging fruit than relevant industry news. Subscribe to industry blogs and trade journals, setup some Google Alerts or save some Twitter searches to stay on top of the latest news about your industry. Pick a few articles, summarize them (don’t copy and paste them) and share your take and additional insights. If you can’t break the news, then providing a unique, helpful take on it will boost your authority.

8. Scour Some Social Sites. If you’re still running dry after the 7 ideas provided above, then it’s time to tap the seemingly bottomless well of ideas from popular social sites. Sites like Quora, Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers already have thousands of Q&A threads going. Search these sites for discussions specific to your product, service and/or industry and you’ll be sure to find something you can write about in your own words.


Blogging Can Produce Results

Blogging is an extremely effective way to (1) grow your website’s content, (2) drive more traffic, (3) build authority and trust and (4) generate new business. If your company does not have a blogging or content development strategy, then it is behind the curve and missing out on some great opportunities.

We know that blogging works very well, which is why it is a staple of our marketing and customer service efforts. At the same time we understand that some businesses just don’t have the resources or know-how to pull off an effective blogging strategy yet. With this in mind, we would like to extend our expertise and resources to you to help you get started. Something is better than nothing and we can help you start somewhere.

Are you interested in speaking with a blogging consultant to get a quote for your business?

Yes, Let’s Talk


2 Comments

    May 13, 2013

    Like this article. Very good ideas for starting out blogging. Our blog is a business blog and suggestions such as interviews with clients are spot-on for what we need.

    December 30, 2013

    Nice Post !!! Thank you for sharing…

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