How to Blog – Content

Having recently written an article about starting a blog and another about blog maintenance, I got great feedback. This made me think that it would be useful to share my thoughts about blog content creation. I am still relatively new to blogging but have learned so much in my six months of creating posts.

Feel free to share your own suggestions about how to create blog articles below. I really love the blogging community and the way everyone is willing to share ideas and make connections. Here is a previous post about what to do when starting out in the blogging world.

Five Things About Blog Content

1) Make sure you enjoy it

One of the biggest lessons I have learned since establishing a blog earlier this year is that writing content that I don’t honestly care much about is really draining. I almost became a sellout and started writing articles selling irrelevant stuff because I thought that was the right thing to do. Thankfully I realised that I can only sell things that I am interested in myself and I find blogging much more fun when it is organic rather than forced.

I have written a few promotional articles about products that I have actually used and relate to my lifestyle. I was tempted to write about activities that I would not do myself, such as using matched gambling websites, and realised that this just didn’t feel right for me. I am more than happy to promote goods but they have to mean something to me, relating to the things I like writing about (books, movies, the environment, Prosecco – I just have a thing for it, in moderation).

2) Genuine Interest Beats Niche

Although a niche is important to many bloggers and to sponsors, I sometimes feel as though an issue is worth writing about which might not fit my into usual subjects. I have felt happy to write about news issues in the past which do not relate to the environment, yet were really interesting to me.

My own niche is basically three things – books, climate change and general entertainment (theatre, TV, movies). From day one I wrote articles about reading and writing as well as global warming. Now I love to share my top TV watches and a few movie reviews as well.

3) Reading Other Blogs

I get a lot of inspiration from other blogs. I don’t copy them but I do believe that reading their content helps me to feel motivated and enables me to see how successful bloggers work their magic.

Some notable favourites are:

Confidently Kayleigh

Smelly Socks and Garden Peas

NotSoModernGirl

The Grumpy Olive

Smorgasbord

There are so many more but these I read almost daily.

4) Sometimes You Need A Break

I would say that blogging can take over your free time. There is no getting away from this, but if you are passionate enough about it, you will find ways to cope. One of the most useful tips I found somewhere was to have a few articles on evergreen content ready to go, just in case you get too busy or life takes over.

Evergreen content is that which is not only relevant on a particular date. Some topics work well at any time of year and can be dropped onto a blog any day. These are good to have as back up for those days when you lose motivation or need a chance to rest.

5) Not Everything Is Complex

Some bloggers spend hours and hours researching key words and trending topics but I find my most successful blog posts have been off-the-cuff ones which stemmed from fleeting thoughts or random conversations.

Don’t overthink it. When writing comes from the heart, it is always more readable. Not only that, but it makes your blog feel more natural and genuine. Forcing writing around certain trends is actually quite off-putting.

So, there we have it. If you are getting into blogging, there are plenty of articles to read about getting the best out of it. This is just my take on things but I hope that you enjoyed reading it.