Many people freeze up when faced with the prospect of writing. Staring at a blank computer screen when you’re supposed to be writing a blog post about your company’s new Wonder Widget only makes it worse. Here are some tips to make it easier!
- Think of writing a blog post as an interview. Say your favorite journalist is going to ask you five questions about your business. What are the questions, and how would you answer?
Pretend you’re just talking to the reporter and write whatever you’d say.
No editing at first – just write. THEN clean it up a bit to make it easy to read, and voila! you have a blog post. - If a computer screen is too intimidating, get out the ol’ #2 pencil and a piece of paper. Jot down a headline and maybe 5 bullet points. Once you have an outline, it’s not too hard to just fill in the blanks.
- Lists make great blog posts. What parent of a school-age child wouldn’t appreciate “10 Easy Ways to Get Your Kids to Do Their Homework”?
- Go to Google News and search these top newspapers for the topic of your possible blog post. You’ll probably find several good articles written by professional journalists. Print them out, study what they say and how they say it. You’ll probably get some great ideas.
- Comment on something you’ve read in another article, in the news, on a website, in an industry publication. You don’t have to come up with the idea – just reference what you read and voice your own opinion.
Finally – give yourself permission to just do it. You’ve got to trust that people will relate to what you write. These days, adding fresh content to your website is too doggoned important – it’s just part of what you need to do when you market your business online.
You don’t have to write an epic, and you don’t have to sound like a technical writer. Keep it short, keep it simple, make it easy to understand – and hit the PUBLISH button.
