Six easy ways to write your business blog in just ten minutes!
Posted by Mari Saona on Thu, Sep 15, 2011
You already know the advantages of writing a business blog, we’ve told you enough times: they have SEO value, create a following of interested parties and are cheap as chips…
However you might still hold the mistaken belief that writing a blog takes up a lot of time. Time that you could be spending cold calling a disinterested, distracted random target (just kidding). Never fear, this blog post gives you our top tips for writing your business blog fast. What’s more, I’m going to time how long it takes me to write this very post!
1. Curate! Also known as aggregator blogging, this means finding websites or blog articles by someone else that you find interesting and relevant to your business area, then commenting upon them. So, to illustrate the principle. For example, if I was blogging for my banana exporting business I would find an article in the Guardian, about how science has proven bananas make the healthiest breakfast. I would copy the paragraphs that are most crucial to my point then write a small paragraph about my thoughts on the story and make sure I add some fresh perspective and value. Link back to the article you are referring to, and there you have a blog post that is good to go!
2. What’s happening in social media? Look at your industry forums, LinkedIn groups and relevant hashtags on Twitter and see if you agree or disagree. Build on their thoughts and add your own perspectives and experience.
3. Do an email interview. It’s so simple. Email 4 or 5 interview questions to someone that you admire in your industry. Once they’ve replied, you’ve got yourself another blog post, and they’ve got themselves additional coverage and an inbound link.
4. Retro is the new modern. Think about your big stories of times gone by. They say the key to understanding the present is by understanding the past. You can reflect upon and put a spin on your past material – explain what lessons you are still learning from it, or why things today have changed radically since then.
5. Announce a contest. Just describe the rules of the game, the prize (a crate of bananas?) and when you’re winner is going to be announced. By the time that date rolls in, you will have at least another 2 blogs to write: one celebrating your winner and describing just why they are so special, the second describing how they enjoyed their free tour of the banana boat.
6. Invite people to ask you questions. This is like the reverse of tip 3. Pick out the questions you can answer easily and then pretend you are in a quick fire round. You can bang out a blog post quickly and show you really are an expert in your field!
So did I manage to write this blog in 10 minutes? No, I did it in 16 minutes 23 seconds. But that time does include a brief chat with a client and – as you might have suspected - snacking on a banana. Not a bad time for 400 words!
For more information on content creation and blogging for business, check out the rest of our blog.
[Image credit: presentation magazine.com]