A good blog is an interesting read; a great blog is inspiring.
A story about the plight of the homeless may lead you to start giving some change to the man who begs every day outside of the subway stop. A discussion of growth hormones in milk may make you choose to buy less dairy products. A review of the various types of hair extensions on the market may cause you to call up your hairdresser and set an appointment.
Writing an inspiring blog necessitates good narration style and language skills as well as an eye for format; however the success of a blog is decided even before the first word is put down. Successful blogs are born from ideas which are original, in-depth, and relevant.
If you are talking about the exact same thing as everybody else in the exact same way, you are not likely to leave an impression. Unfortunately hunting for topics that nobody is writing about is an ornery task, can lead you to write blog posts which aren’t relevant to anyone, and makes the work harder for you- we always write best about subjects that we know well.
Originality is best manifested through the way that you address a topic. Have you ever been on the receiving end of an explanation of a concept which you are quite familiar with- be it the principle of thermodynamics or your golf swing- and thought, “Wow! I’d never considered it in that way before!” We are often impressed more by novel descriptions of familiar concepts than we are by hearing about a completely new subject. Use your personal experience to generate paradigms which only you could have thought of even if, or rather especially if, you are discussing a run-of-the-mill topic.
Being original doesn’t mean that you need to constantly change the topics you are writing about. Going into depth in a particular subject matter will help establish you as a leader in that area. Try dedicating a series of blog posts to multiple facets of the same issue or revisit topics that you have addressed in the past with new, updated information.
Don’t be afraid to sacrifice breadth for depth; the latter will usually yield more interesting results.
Chances are that if you do go into depth in a certain area, say a review of modern French cuisine, your readers will be slightly taken aback if you jump to a completely different topic, for example, advice on filing taxes. You should always keep your followers in mind; you can only hope that many of the same will stay on from post to post.
Furthermore, if you are trying to grow your audience, consider what types of topics are relevant to the people out there that you aspire to reach. An easy question for any company to ask and answer is: Who are my clients and what are they interested in? It is important to keep in mind that relevant topics may or may not be directly related to your product. Purchasers of sports bras will likely be more interested in posts about health, sports, and women’s rights than in a history of the bra or manufacturing details.
The originality, depth, and relevance of your blogs is essential to reaching your audience and engendering action; try to judge the quality of your work according to these parameters. Of course social media also provides you with plenty of ways to measure the impact of your blogs; likes, clicks, shares, and comments are all quantifiable actions which should be carefully considered. Herein lies the most important ingredient of inspiring content and the real uniqueness of writing in the digital age: social media provides you with plenty of measures of effectiveness- be willing to listen and learn from your own experience.
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About James Vanzo
James is a content marketer for SalesBlend. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from MIT.