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How to Never Run Out of Things to Say

question-mark-writers-block

One fear many business bloggers seem to have is running out of stuff to say. They know blogs are supposed to be updated on a regular basis, so their fear is definitely legitimate.

When blogging expert, Chris Garrett, tackled this issue on Blog Herald, I took notice. He’s a prolific blogger with over 500 blog posts this year so he knows what he’s talking about. He basically gives two principles.

  1. Be truly interested in your topic.
  2. Talk to other people about your topic.

I’ve found that most business bloggers are passionate about their topic so the number #1 principle doesn’t seem to be a problem. However, many bloggers don’t do the number #2 principle.

Interacting with other people is great idea if you get a bad case of writer’s block. Chris writes:

Most of my best ideas come from just talking to people. I am mainly in niches where I have a real fascination with the subject so I love to discuss them, and inevitably something inspires a post so I note down the ideas I have.

So, where can you interact with others? Chris gives five places:

  1. Twitter
  2. Forums
  3. Chat
  4. Real life
  5. Skype

There’s another great benefit from talking with others. If you’re writing about something other people are willing to talk about, chances are your blog readers will also be interested in that topic.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Start Business Blogging

time-for-2009

With 2009 right around the corner, it’s really time to start blogging if you haven’t already.

One of the things I’ve noticed is how blogging is getting more and more mainstream. Blogs are starting up where I least expected it. I work in a couple industries and know friends that work in other industries. One trend we’ve been seeing recently is the proliferation of blogs in industries that didn’t use to have a lot of blogs.

In social media and blogging, the first mover advantage is very real especially with blogging becoming the norm. If you’re one of the first ones in your niche to start blogging, you’ll probably earn a great reputation within your industry.

Blogging has changed the tech and political landscape. It will only be a matter of time until blogging affects all the other industries.

Also, you might think, it’s only the younger crowd that really does social media, but if you look at many of the blogs out there, a lot of them are written by people over 30 years old. Also, a quick check into Facebook, MySpace, and even Twitter shows that many of the participants on those sites are also over 30 years old.

I believe in the next couple of years most online businesses will have blogs. Internet users are becoming more savvy. They are realizing that they can easily participate online instead of just consuming information. So, they’re creating blogs and joining social media sites. I think many online business owners are seeing this. They’re starting to realize that social media users are more likely to buy from companies that also join the social media movement.

Got Writer’s Block in the Middle of a Blog Post? Take a Break.

tea-break

I don’t usually post on Sundays especially during NFL season 🙂 I’ve pretty much obsessed with American football and today has a lot of big games.

However, I have this simple but effective blogging tip that just came to me and it shouldn’t take too long to write.

Getting writer’s block while you’re in the middle of writing a blog post can be frustrating. You started with a great idea and you’ve knocked out a couple of paragraphs. However, somewhere during the writing process you get stuck and can’t think of anything else to write. Still, you know the post is incomplete.

If this happens to you, try taking a break. Take a tea break, coffee break, or whatever kind of break you like to take. Basically, step away from the keyboard for a couple minutes and don’t think about your post.

When your break is done, you’ll usually have new inspiration to complete your blog post or at least, improve on it.

This tactic seems counter intuitive but it actually works because it allows your subconscious “to work on the post”. Let’s face it, much of our great post ideas come from seemingly random flashes of insight when were not even thinking about blogging.

You can focus too closely on your post that it becomes hard to think creatively (or “outside the box”). However, by taking a break, you can often jar your brain into a new perspective that leads to great ideas to add to your blog post.

Also, it can be hard to see the big picture of where your post should be going. This is especially true for longer posts. While you’re trying to get that one sentence just right, you may be losing the big picture. Oftentimes, a break is just what is needed to get that big picture perspective again.

This principle works with longer breaks too. Some of my best work has come from half-written blog posts that I didn’t look at for days – even weeks. But when I finally looked over the posts again, I was able to turn them into high quality posts.

5 Partnership Opportunities for Business Bloggers

partnerships-hand-in-hand

Yesterday, I talked about how your business blog can help you create profitable online partnerships. Today, let’s look specifically at some of those partnership opportunities. This list is not meant to be comprehensive. These opportunities are just some of the common ones I’ve seen.

Link Exchange

Link exchanges are link swaps. A blogger will email another blogger and basically say, “I’ll link to you if you link to me”. The links usually get placed on the sidebar or a links page. This tactic is usually done for SEO purposes but you might get some traffic if the blog your partner with is popular. I just wrote about this partnership opportunity so check out “How to Deal With Link Exchange Requests” for more info.

Guest Post

A guest post is a post which doesn’t go on your blog. Instead, it’s published on another blog. At the end of your guest post, you talk briefly about your blog and link back to it.

Basically, you send a blogger your guest post and ask them to publish it on their blog. This benefits them because they get free content while you get some traffic and SEO benefit because of your link.

Compared to a link exchange, you’ll usually get more traffic because your link is in the content part of the blog. Also, your link will provide more SEO benefit because search engines give more weight to content-based links over sidebar links or links on a links page.

Affiliate Program

An affiliate program involves two different partners. One is the merchant and the other is the affiliate. The merchant lets the affiliate sell his product. Whenever the affiliate sells the product, he gets a percentage of the revenue.

An affiliate program benefits the merchant because he gets free traffic while the affiliate pitching the product gets an opportunity to make money without buying or creating the product.

Collaborating on Content

Sometimes it’s better to co-write a blog post than write it yourself. If you can write 1000 words on a topic and then find another blogger to add 1000 more words from their unique perspective, with a little bit of editing, you could combine both blog posts into one killer blog post. Add a little bit of marketing and that one post could get popular through word of mouth and be known as a top resource in your industry.

This blog post was co-written by two bloggers. It received a ton of traffic and links. Also, it brought both of them many new clients and sales.

Collaborating on a Product/Service

You’ll often see this partnership with two people with different skill sets. For example, a web designer will work with a web programmer and create a package deal for their clients that want both design and programming services.

For information products, it often makes sense to partner with another blogger to add value to your existing product. For example, a blogger that sells an ebook might work with a video blogger to create a video product based on his ebook.

Over to You

What have you done to partner with other bloggers?

Blogging Allows You to Create Profitable Online Partnerships

I don’t have much experience in offline business, but I have a friend that consults and helps offline businesses. I like to pick his brain whenever I get the chance. One of the things that I’ve noticed in his business stories is how often the successful businesses are ones that are able to partner with other great businesses.

He told me of a wedding planner that was able to build her client base by exchanging referrals with a local wedding store that sold dresses and other wedding products. I love his story of the car salesman that partnered up with well-known local realtor to increase his sales.

He told me the main ingredient that makes these partnerships work is trust. And to build that trust, you have to have positive face to face interaction. Yes, you can get away without this interaction if you have a good referral. But even that referral is built through a face to face friendship.

Basically, it boils down to personal interaction.

So how can we apply this principle online? I mean, it can be difficult to interact with an online business person face to face.

This is where blogging can help a lot. If you have a blog, all a prospective partner has to do is check out your blog. By reading your blog, they should get a sense of the kind of person you are. Moreover, they can do it on their own time so you don’t have to inconvenience them with a scheduled meeting.

Let’s face it, people respond to other people whereas they ignore the impersonal, faceless company. A business blog is one of the best ways to put a “face” to your online business.

Therefore, if you want to partner with someone, make your offer and then point them to your blog. If they like what they see, they’ll partner with you.

Also, to make your blog more personal, write in a conversational tone and include pictures of yourself on your blog’s about page.

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