Why Are You Creating a Blog? Useful Content is Key

A blog requires content, especially if you expect readers and if you want to make money from that readership. In this article, Linda discusses writing issues such as how to find content, how to make a writing plan, and how to maintain a consistent schedule for your writing.

Find and Write Content

Now that you have a plan about what to write about, you need to find information about those topics. If I lived in northern Wales, I might create a garden and grow some plants to provide images and information for my blog. But, I cannot grow everything in my yard that might grow in northern Wales. So, I need further information.

While I could find information on the Web, what I might do instead is find other places and people in the area who are interested in gardening. A cursory search for gardeners and garden shops in northern Wales turns up this information:

I discovered a list of garden centres in northern Wales, and these garden centres also can supply me with content and information. What can I do with this information? This is a gold mine...I can put new batteries and a blank memory card in my digital camera, take along a tape recorder or a notepad, and go introduce myself to the garden centre owner.

I can take photos, and – if the owner is not busy – ask for an interview. I make sure I have a small list of questions (no more than ten) on a given topic (go back to your topic list) and fire off some questions for some expert answers. An interview is a great way to meet a new acquaintance, and it also is a wonderful way to learn more about any given topic from another person's perspective.

In the process, you have gained new interest in your site, too. Be sure to create links to that garden centre, and don't be afraid to ask for a link in return...especially after  you have published the interview on your site. In this interview with Jakob Nielsen, you can see that the interviewer asked only seven questions. And, those questions pertained to Nielsen's expertise in Web usability. None of the questions strayed from this format.

Don't be afraid to go out to interview people in your area, or to reach out to people outside your physical sphere to ask questions for an interview. You can gain much traction for your Web site by offering other perspectives through interviews and through guest blogs. Offering other people's perspectives can free your brain up and provide you with some fruitful downtime while still adding content to your site.

Make Your Content Useful

By planning content and providing a wide variety of content on a specific topic, you can make your site useful to your readers. If your site is usable and accessible and if you have useful content, the design of your site is secondary. So is SEO. Content is the most important issue for your blog, no matter if it is verbal or visual.

Useful content also is how you monetize your site. Unless you get traffic to that site, no affiliation in the world will bring you money. You need traffic, and – to cut your work in half (at least) – provide useful content that your readers will want to return to time and again. Return readership is the Holy Grail...because those readers may provide you with the links you need for SEO and with the word-of-mouth or Web advertising that doesn't cost anything other than your time to create that useful content.