A blog is almost required equipment for a corporate website these days. It grows indexed pages, encourages links, and helps you latch on to new search terms in your industry.

The hard part isn’t getting started, it’s keeping one going. In fact, this post itself is inspired by the fact that this blog has been stagnant for over a month a now.

To help you keep the train on the tracks, I’d like to present a 2-step method to help keep you blogging. Use this whenever you hit the wall. Maybe you’re getting ready to write a massive post, with research and references, but in the interim there is no new life in your blog. Maybe you’re just overwhelmed with the business of doing business and don’t have time to bang out an earth-shattering blog.

Whatever the excuse reason, this should help you get writing again.

Step 1: Get Over It And Hold Some Hands

Remember that the majority of people reading your blog don’t have the same grasp of your industry that you do. Even if they do, they don’t have your unique perspective. They read your blog because even your most basic posts will give them another view on something.

That means that even if you write about the things that you take for granted in your industry, someone out there is going to find them interesting. People come into and leave industries every hour of every day. Don’t believe me?

Go to Google and search: “[your industry] forum”. Take a look at a few posts in the general area and I guarantee you will see a thread that goes something like:

Newbie101 writes:
Hi guys, I’m new here and I’m wondering about [some basic niche topic] and how I can get better at it. Any ideas?

IndustryVet67 writes:
Use the SEARCH button! This has been discussed 1000s of times!

Someone is out there seeking veteran advice on your topic, and all you have to do is put it out there.

Step 2: Find a Hand That Needs Holding

Want to know what the common questions are in your industry or niche? Here’s a shortcut:

Keyword Questions Tool

What is it? This tool keeps a log of search terms beginning with how, what, why, when, and where. You can then search for your keyword and get a list of questions that people are so desperate to have answered that they are literally asking a machine in plain English.

The great thing about questions is that all you have to do to make them an answer is take away the question mark and add a sentence.

For Example…
Let’s say I run a worm farm called “I Got Worms!” My worm-blog has been stagnating recently. I decide to see what questions people have about worms so I go to the tool above and type in “worms“.

Wow! Aside from the questions related to gastronomic and gastro-intestinal topics (my worms are for gardening, not eating) I can see a few gems like:

why do worms come out in the rain?
what animals eats worms?
how to raise worms?

Now, I’m a professional worm farmer, so I will tackle the last one: “How to raise worms?” Watch how this question becomes an answer:

How To Raise Worms In Your Spare Time

Don’t be fooled: raising worms the right way can be a time consuming and expensive process. However, in my 27 years as a professional worm farmer, I’ve picked up 3 tips that will help you raise longer, smarter worms than anyone else on your block!

[Worm Tip 1]
[Worm Tip 2]
[Worm Tip 3]

Now, if this all sounds like a bit too much work, check out our assorted selections of worms for sale.

Any industry expert can come up with 3 tips off the top of their head (just think about what you would tell a neighbor who asked for your expertise on your niche).

In Just 15 Minutes You Have:

• Added a relevant post to your blog
• Answered a popular question of potential customers or readers and,
• Added a keyword-rich link back to your website which will also drive sales.

Not bad for 2-steps, eh?

P.S. I have a feeling this post will eventually rank for something relating to worms and worm farming. I don’t know anything about worms or worm farms. Please seek an expert here.

Tags: doing business, excuse, google, grasp, industry forum, niche topic, search button, search terms, step 1, step 2

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 4:58 pm and is filed under The Untouchable Playbook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.