Blogging is one of the best ways to draw unique visitors to your website and grow your online business. By posting regularly, you position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and become a name that consumers trust when looking for information related to your products or services. The promise of fresh content keeps visitors checking back for more, which in turn allows you to make a bit of extra cash on ads and affiliates. More than anything, though, blogging regularly lends credibility to your brand and your business.
The downside, of course, is that you’ve got to come up with blog content, and lots of it! This means that you’ve got to develop ideas for blog topics and then find the time to write them out. It’s a lot of work! The good news, though, is that most visitors don’t have the time or attention span to read several 500-word articles each week. They want content, yes, but they want it fast.
In our ever-changing world where consistency is king and attention spans are dwindling, here are five ways to consistently produce great blog content.
1. Try vlogging.
A portmanteau of video blogging, vlogging is simply posting your blog content as a video. For many people, this is considerably easier than writing a well-thought-out article, especially since the video doesn’t have to be fancy. If you speak well and are comfortable in front of a camera, simply set up your smartphone, record yourself saying what you want to say, upload it to YouTube, and embed the link on your blog. It can all be done in about five minutes!
2. Invite contributions from guest bloggers.
Invite others to contribute to your business’s blog. You might ask employees, or satisfied customers, or mentors, or others you admire to write a short piece on a relevant topic. Not only does a guest blog post provide for a different perspective, but it also takes a lot of the pressure off of you to come up with content. You might aim for one guest blog post a week.
3. Say it with pictures.
Whether they’re snaps from a recent trip, compelling pictures of your business, or something else related to what you do, upload a few of your best images with a few sentences of explanation or some words of inspiration. These don’t have to be professional photos, either; some well-composed pics from your smartphone are perfect.
4. Re-post old content.
Have a blog post from a year or two ago that’s still relevant? Don’t be afraid to repost it! Or, if you’ve got an old blog post that needs updating, you might give it an update. Either one of these approaches will take considerably less time than creating a new blog post from scratch.
5. Shoot a quick interview.
If you’ve got an idea for a guest blogger but he or she isn’t able to write something, pay them a visit and create a short video interview with them. For employees, customers, or mentors who are especially dynamic speakers, this may be even better than having them write a post. Coming up with several fresh blog posts each week may seem like a daunting task. However, regular posting becomes easier when you realize that you don’t have to make each contribution a full article — and when you realize that you can delegate blogging responsibility to someone else! Keep these five ideas in mind as you schedule future blog posts, and you’ll find the task much less stressful.