As you may have
heard, blogs are a hot topic these days. A blog (which is short form
for Web log) is nothing more than a public journal which is published
online and can often represent the personality of the author or the
Web site. Why are blogs one of the hottest trends today? They
represent such tremendous potential for fresh original content being
added to the Web and updated daily to the Web. Search engine spiders
absolutely love indexing blogs and many blogs are being read on a
daily and sometimes even on an hourly basis by a wide range of
readership.
From a technical
point of view, search engines love blogs because there are now
literally millions of people writing fresh content, at least daily,
sometimes several times a day. Millions of people all sharing their
"points of view" on a variety of topics including philosophy
on life, politics, health, travel, religion, business, entertainment
and much more.
Are you considering
creating a new Blog because someone told you that you should really
have one? But what type of Blog will you create? There are a variety
of different styles of blogging software which are free to set up. But
I want to talk more about the concept of your Blog topic and what you
will create while in mind your natural talents and inclination. Look
to and explore those natural thinking styles to create something
pleasing for your audience of readers.
Give some thought to
considering your own "thinking style" and making the most of
it by fashioning your Blog after your natural thinking style. We
all have a little different outlook on any issue but there may be some
things you could offer to your blog readers, that others could not.
Remember, blogs often reflect personality.
Thinking Styles -
What is your natural thinking style and how might it be a benefit to
your readers?
We all think differently as individuals and we each have some
specific talents and abilities that we are more inclined towards, some
more than others. How you are naturally inclined to think about
issues?
We all think. When we think, it establishes a thought. From those
thoughts gathered, we form ideas and opinions. As we act on those
ideas formed, we are creating actions. However, we tend to have more
strengths in one area than another. It's not that one type of thinking
is better than another, it's just that each style has advantages and
disadvantages.
So what type of
thinker are you?
Are you the type of
thinker who is analytical?
Do you have the ability to analyze things with clear logic?
How might this type of thinking benefit people who are reading your
blog?
What type of topics might you consider writing about that would
benefit people from an analytical point of view?
Creative people may
often be thought of as "dreamers" who are always coming up
with tons of new ideas. But then some people don't feel too creative
at all. Instead of focusing on the fact that you may not feel like you
can come up with new ideas, you certainly will have some natural
"thinking style" and strength all of your own. Perhaps you
are more analytically minded. Do you like to examine a lot of data or
are you fascinated by the accuracy of data?
Maybe you are more logic driven. You like to apply logic to create
useful solutions to problems. Are you good with mathematical
equations? Are you a problem solver or someone who enjoys a good
challenge? Or have you got a flare for artwork. Do you enjoy writing
poetry or writing fiction.
Need help to come
up with a concept for your new blog?
Start by making a
list of your natural talents. What do you feel that you are good at
and how might it relate to your Web site? What do other people
tell you that you are good at doing?
If you are creative,
maybe you could create a blog based on idea generation, helping others
come up with new ideas.
If you are
analytical, try creating a list of topics that naturally appeal to
you. These could range from insights on accounting to your real life
experiences in business. Blogs are daily journals so what ever type of
concept you come up with, think in terms of something you could write
about and enjoy writing about on a daily basis.
Perhaps you have a blend of several
thinking styles but you'll often find that one may be more predominant
than the rest.
Keep in mind, that because you write in a Blog on a daily routine
basis, your blog will often represent and carry across the type of
personality you are. Why not focus on topics for your blog, that you
yourself love to write about or that you have some natural talent
with? Although many don't feel like they are writers, it's amazing
what you can create if you focus on topics that you enjoy and are
knowledgeable about. Writing in your blog then becomes fun and you can
literally offer your readers content that will attract and benefit
other like minded readers.
Example One: KEI
Observation Deck for free keyword phrase suggestions
One of the things I enjoy doing, is performing behavior research on
the Internet. Now this may sound absolutely boring to some people, but
I am fascinated with how people search for things on the search
engines. It's not about "keyword research" which can tend to
be more analytical (which I am not). For me, it's more about
behavioral research and discovering other peoples niche interests. I
do tend to be creative and come up with lots of ideas, but I'm not
great with accounting or have no gift with mathematical equations. So
what I chose to create, was a blog that I call the KEI Observation
Deck. In this blog, I observe niche "windows of opportunity"
based on peoples searches on the major search engines. I enjoy it and
I find that other people seem to enjoy it too. Particularly the
Internet marketers and SEO professionals who visit our blog looking
for niche phrases.
Example Two: http://www.pajamahadin.com/index.php
Here is a high traffic blog created based on the topics of political
and cultural events. Learn more about Michael
Marshall and his background here. Topics on this blog involve
political topics and all sorts of news and you can tell it's a busy
blog from it's
viewing statistics.
Example Three: Everyone is blogging
these days including William
Shatner
Okay, his last post, at the point time I visited, appears to be in
February, but the point is that even Star Trek actors have their own
blogs, here William is writing about his experiences with his newest
TV show etc.
A Few other Simple Tips for Blogging:
(regardless of your chosen topic)
- Use common layman's terms to clearly
make your point. Try not to ramble on too long.
- Try and stick to one topic per post
as opposed to talking about dozens of different focuses.
- In a blog, you are writing a
journal. In a way, it's like thinking out loud for your readers.
- Don't forget to link to a variety of
other interesting places (besides your site) while dialoguing with
readers.
- Don't forget to use your important
keywords and remember to stay focused on one topic per post.
- Create interesting and original
content for your readers
- Update your blog frequently.
Outside of the natural benefits of
blogging, I encourage you to create something based on your own
thinking style. Let your content be your own original talent shining
through to deliver some value to your readers. Your blog can be used
to educate or just communicate in general. It's totally up to you of
course, whatever you decide to write about, but if the topic is
something relating to a topic you enjoy, then you won't feel like it's
even work to make regular entries and updates, you'll be to busy
having fun and enjoying the blogging experience. Start making a
list of ideas and do some fresh thinking about what kind of blog you
will create for your readers.
Highest Regards,
John Alexander
john@searchengineworkshops.com
