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 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
About John Alexander
John Alexander is Co-director of Training at
Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops
with partner Robin Nobles as well as online search engine
marketing courses through
Online Web Training. John is author of
an e-book called
Wordtracker Magic and
co-author of the Totally
Non-Technical Guide for A Successful Web Site.
