Ghost Blogger

It’s always great to add that little extra “something” in order to stand out from the crowd, and SEO marketing blogs are no exception. And, with this being a leap year, it’s a particularly appropriate time to discuss how including extra tidbits of information can add value in corporate blog writing.

In blogging for business, is it worth the effort of digging up curious and little-known facts related to your business or Industry?  Make that a big “Oh, yes”!  Readers’ interest is piqued, you’re positioned as an expert in your field, and you’re rewarded with precious extra moments of precious attention.

Mental Floss magazine writers, masters at serving up tidbits and busting myths (both highly effective tools for freelance blog writers), talk about leaplings, kids born on February 29th.

• Kids can have their pick between February 28th and March 1 for parties and presents.
  
• For Social Security, the birthday is treated as Feb. 28th.
  
• Some states make leaplings wait until March 1 to apply for a driver’s license.

As part of corporate blogging training for business owners, I recommend presenting little-known statistics about the history of your industry, the number of people experiencing the problems you help solve, or unexpected applications for your product and service.  You want to evoke an “I didn’t know that!” response in your readers.

“Leaplings”, or unusual bits of information can be myth busters in themselves.  If there are false impressions people seem to have about your industry or product, statistics show how things really are.  If you want to demonstrate how widespread a problem is, statistics can be of great business blogging help.

For anyone offering business blogging services, blog content “leaplings” can help add that little extra “something” that means a lot!

The obituary section of the news is not a place freelance blog content writers would normally go for ideas. Still, there’s something worth noting in articles such as “10 Notable Deaths” by Associated Press – the reporters manage to drill down to the essence of each person’s accomplishments.

As a ghost blogger in Indianapolis, when I offer business blogging assistance, I often refer to blogs as the sound bites of the Internet. In short segments, business owners convey to readers the essence of their accomplishments.  Corporate blog writing means telling readers about the essence of your special knowledge, insights, and beliefs, as well as about the products or services you offer.

In using “10 Notable Deaths” as a model of condensed writing for business, I’d point out that the AP reporter used only 16 words to describe Andy Rooney, 26 for Betty Ford, and 19 for Jack Kevorkian. Still, I found, the obits were hardly impersonal or dispassionate; each managed to evoke a larger portrait, with a taste of the “style” of each notable person.

Elizabeth Taylor is described as “the violet-eyed American film goddess whose sultry screen persona, stormy personal life and enduring fame and glamour made her one of the last of the classic movie starts and a template for modern celebrity.”

Kim Jong IL’s obit lists him as “North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic leader, whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade.”

In corporate blogging training sessions I explain that it’s not enough in business blog writing to offer information about the subject.  The information needs to be put into a framework, into context, so that readers can see why it’s relevant to them and to the subject.

Elizabeth Taylor “became a template or model of film celebrity. Jong IL’s nuclear efforts “dominated world fears”. Kevorkian was the “defiant proponent of doctor-assisted suicide”.

Indianapolis bloggers, take a tip from the 10 Notable Deaths.  Online searchers know what they need, but they lack expertise in your industry.  They need your help drilling down to the essence of what you know, what you do, and how you can be of benefit to them.

“The really important stuff is at the top,” Dennis the Menace points out to Santa Claus. In corporate blogging training, I might point out the same thing.

Blog titles, as content writers in Indianapolis know, can be really important stuff. Titles have a triple function – engage readers, offer an overview of the topic of the post, and incorporate keyword phrases to attract search engine matches.

As a fellow blogger puts it in her Nicky Blog, when people read your headline, you can expect two kinds of responses:

- Oh wow, sounds interesting. I want to know more… OR - Ah, boring.

Since the first is obviously the desired response in blogging for business, Nicky explains, catchy headlines are a must. SEO experts say, she adds, that no more than 7-8 words and no fewer than four words should be used, with Google showing up to 69 characters.

As Santa’s looking through his list, Dennis can’t resist adding “But all the stuff in the middle is important, too!” “Let me guess,” says Santa with a smile. “All the stuff on the bottom is also really important.” Of course it is, Santa understands.

Freelance blog writers understand that, too. Even SEO marketing blogs with the catchiest of titles will disappoint readers unless the post itself delivers on the title’s promise, with new and interesting information that readers can use.

Whether you’re creating a Christmas list or blogging for business, the really important stuff is at the top, the middle, and the bottom as well!

“The bunt isn’t a game changer, like a homer or a triple.  Instead, it nudges things along – keeping the ball as far as possible from where your opponent wants it to be,” is just one of many of the lessons from her Dad that Sandy Hingston recalls in FamilyDigest.


When I offer business blogging assistance to Say It For You clients, I often need to remind business owners new to blogging that it isn’t the sort of marketing tactic likely to “hit it out of the park”.  On the other hand, consistent business blog writing, very much like bunting in a ball game, will almost certainly nudge things along.

Sandy Hingston’s dad taught all his kids that bunts are things of beauty, “means to an end, a strategy, brains over brawn.” As a professional ghost blogger offering corporate blogging training, I think Mr. Hingston’s teachings are quite fitting when it comes to writing for business in the form of blogs.

“Remember: control.”
A blog can give a business the ability to exercise journalistic control.  Blog content writers have the ability to put out news about the business with the business owner’s own slant on it! If there’s ever any negative news about the industry or the company, I teach Indianapolis blog writers, the blog is the perfect place to field questions and comments head-on.

“He makes me do it again and again and again.”
Material that is recent and frequently posted is more likely to be indexed by search engines. Like bunting practice with Sandy’s dad, SEO marketing blogs succeed in large part based on continuing to post new content every few days.

“Brains over brawn.”
Blogging for business is one way small business owners with small marketing budgets can compete, using “pull marketing” to meet strangers and increase their customer base without mounting expensive advertising campaigns. According to Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, because blogs are specific, relevant, and personal, they tend to be more successful than traditional websites in targeting and attracting the right kind of visitors, those who need and want what you have to offer.

No, as I remind freelance blog writers and their business owner clients who are in a rush to make the cash register ring, blogging for business is rarely a game changer. But as a means to an end, part of an overall, long-term marketing strategy, it can be a thing of beauty!

There are ways to lose in business – even when you’re the best, explains Whale Hunters’ sales trainer Barbara Weaver Smith.  Since SEO marketing blogs are one tactic businesses use to lead to sales, several of Weaver’s observations can be of great use in corporate blogging training.

Your service is too specialized. If your prospects are unfamiliar not only with your company, but with the services or products you provide, explains Weaver-Smith, you have two selling jobs to do!

When it comes to corporate blog posts, online readers likely to find your blog through organic search  will be those who already have a need for what you have to sell and for what you do. On the other hand, at Say It For You, we’re convinced  blogging for business is the perfect tool for introducing readers to newer products and services with which they’re less familiar, but which can solve problems for them.

Your story is too complex. If your service or product is highly complex, says Weaver-Smith, it may turn off buyers, who might seek simpler solutions elsewhere to avoid having to deal with a many-step, high-commitment process.

This is an issue with which freelance blog writers deal all the time.  One recommendation I offer in corporate blogging training sessions is to focus blog content writing on the end results of your process rather than on its steps. “People rarely think of your actual brand first.  They think about what they want,” emphasizes blogger Ryan Karpeles.

Your business blog writing must give online searchers a “feel” for the desired outcomes of using your products and services. While customers may lack experience with the latest processes or technology in your field of expertise, they know what their own needs are. Write about outcomes, I teach Indianapolis blog writers.

You underestimate buyers’ fears. When you’re totally focused on the great advantages that you provide with your products and services, cautions Weaver-Smith,
You forget that 99% of buying decisions are made based on irrational, emotional issues.

Now, there’s a truth every blog content writer needs to keep in mind!  Blogging for business , with its conversational, personal tone, is actually a great way to provide reassurance to buyers fearful of making the wrong choice.  In fact, business blogs take their cue from Joan Rivers, asking “Can we tawk?”

These days, when company owners express doubt about their ability to keep generating new content for their corporate blog posts, I talk to them about leitmotifs and about Steve Jobs. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late CEO of Apple Computer, Jobs owned some one hundred Issey Miyaki black turtlenecks. Jobs, by all accounts, liked the idea of having a “uniform”, not only for convenience’s sake, but because of its ability to convey a signature style.

In corporate blogging training sessions I teach that effective blog posts are centered around key themes, just like the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony.  As you continue to write about your industry, your products, and your services, you’ll naturally find yourself repeating some key ideas - in fact, that's exactly what professionals offering business blogging assistance will say you should  be doing to keep your blogs focused and targeted.

In writing for business, as blog content writers soon learn, the variety comes from the e.g.’s and the i.e's, meaning all the details you fill in around these central leitmotifs.  Indianapolis blog writers might use different examples of ways the company’s products can be helpful, or examples of how the company helped solved various problems.  It’s these stories and examples that lend variety to the blog, even though all the anecdotes reinforce the same few core ideas.

Like the Jobs turtlenecks, freelance blog writers will find, leitmotifs in blogs help develop a company’s signature style, which is part of any company’s branding. Focus (just as in building an entire wardrobe around one type of garment) helps corporate blog posts stay smaller, lighter in scale, and more flexible than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website.

You might say leitmotifs are the turtlenecks of corporate blog writing!

The pointy-headed boss wants Dilbert to show him how to download apps on his new phone. “How often do you expect to download apps?” asks Dilbert.  “It’s hard to say.  I just know I want all of them.  How many are there?” To which Dilbert replies: “Four”.

Comic strip writer Scott Adams is using dry humor to convey a message about non-productive effort.  (Dilbert knows perfectly well that the number of phone apps is closer to fifty thousand than four, but he isn’t interested in spending time teaching phone apps to a man who’s failed to catch on to Excel after Dilbert spent eight sessions teaching him).

There are a couple of messages here for corporate bloggers, too.  As I explain to freelance blog writers and business owners, trying to engage potential customers, anyone with a computer has access to the largest repository of information in human history, namely the Internet. Online readers, though, can absorb only so much in a sitting. Still, the statements in SEO marketing blogs must be correct and truthful - four in place of fifty thousand just won’t do.

What I’ve found in my work as professional ghost blogger is that both sides may need some business blogging assistance.  Blog content writers, on the one hand, need to keep each blog post focused on one main idea, one “app”, if you will, out of all the products and services and expert advice the company has to offer.

Blog content readers, on the other hand need to gain perspective about the information they’re being given. Is that different than what I’ll find with your competitor?  In what way?  What makes your company so special? How will the information you’ve offered benefit me? Assuming the reader understands that you’ve offered technically correct information, that reader may still not know what to make of that information.

Like the pointy-headed boss, readers want an answer to the question “How many are there?”  Effective writing for business serves to reassure those searchers that you can, over time, offer help with all of the “apps”.  But, for today’s corporate blog post, teach just one.

Indianapolis blog writers, particularly those providing content for SEO marketing blogs, need to read what Tim Altom has to say in the Indianapolis Business Journal on the subject of Groupon deals.

“Want hordes of new customers battering down your doors and filling your lobby?” he asks.  “Groupon says it can get you there.” “ Even Groupon’s proponents sing its praises only warily, and its critics can be scathing in their condemnation,” Altom adds, going on to describe the way a Groupon deal is structured and to share some of the best and worst results clients have been reporting..

As a professional ghost blogger who offers business blogging help to various corporations, I have to say there are best and worst results to report about corporate blogging for business, too.

At least a part of the motivation for companies hiring freelance blog writers is the same as the motivation for offering Groupon deals - wanting those hordes of new customers to batter down the doors.  And, in theory, corporate blogging is one way to get you there. ”Blogs are very powerful in terms of search engine optimization, explains webbequity.com, describing several reasons that’s true:

• Blog content demonstrates thought leadership more than vendor websites, and therefore search engines give more authority to blogs.
  
• Blog content is updated much more frequently than commercial website content, providing an advantage in real-time search results.
  
• Due to the informational rather than promotional nature of the content, blog posts are more likely to draw links from news stories and articles. I advise blog writers to “prime the pump” by writing guest posts on other people’s blogs and to invite others to write guest posts on theirs.

So what are the negatives, I’m often asked in corporate blogging training sessions? and why do results vary so much for both Groupon and in writing for business?
“Groupon can pull them in,” explains Tim Altom, “but you have to close the rest of the retention deal yourself.” 

Similarly, searchers looking for information, help, products, and services are drawn to your SEO marketing blog, but there are several things that need to be put into place – smooth navigation to and around your website, capturing of email addresses, and a system of follow-up to convert some of those searchers into customers.
 
“Savvy merchants are adopting Groupon as only part of a bigger strategy for catching new business and encouraging returns,” concludes Altom.

Blogging for business works exactly the same way!

“Rare is the writer who can sit down and knock out a perfect writing draft without corrections,” warn the authors of The Little Red Writing Book. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons the vast majority of businesses who engage in online marketing end up needing professional business blogging help.

As far back as 2008, a survey by Technorati showed that 95% of blogs have been abandoned and neglected! “We know we need to do it, but we’re so focused on the overwhelming tasks that build up day to day, that many well meaning marketers simply abandon their blog altogether,” points out Web Marketing Therapy.

At least in theory, blogging for business should be much easier than writing brochures or ads for the company. Since, as I explain during corporate blogging training sessions, blog content writing should be conversational and informal, are second drafts even needed when it comes to blogs?

“When is it really finished?” asks The Little Red Writing Book, acknowledging that “Making changes to your writing is annoying and grueling”, but also admitting that writing for everyday purposes takes less editing and reviewing.

When it comes to business blog posts, I tell freelance blog writers, more important than the SpellCheck and GrammarCheck go-around is checking to make sure of two things:

• Each blog post is focused on one, and only one, main idea.
  
• You’ve visualized your target readers, the customers that are right for your business. Are you satisfied that this blog post truly been addressed to them, in their language, addressing their concerns?

As all Say It For You Indianapolis blog writers know, it takes more than one pass to get it right.  Better to serve your SECOND draft!

While Milo Frank’s ideas on painting word pictures and finding a common language with your audience were the stuff of Monday’s Say It For You wordsmithing ideas for blog content writers, today let’s return to another of my favorite authors – Malcom Gladwell.

Since I offer business blogging help and am always on the alert for interesting information that can help freelance blog writers appeal to online readers, I loved learning about the Jack Tinker advertising agency.  I was fascinated to hear that it was the Tinker agency that came up with the name Riviera for Buick’s luxury car, the name Accutron for Bulova’s quartz watch, and the name for Oasis cigarettes.  All these choices were based on the kind of psychological research that was a Tinker speciality.

The one Gladwell anecdote that really stood out for me as a professional ghost blogger, relates to Tinker researcher Herta Herzog.  In the middle of discussing new approaches for Alka Seltzer commercials, Herzog said, “You show a hand dropping an Alka-Seltzer  into a glass of water.  Why not show the hand dropping TWO?  You’ll double sales.” And, explains Gladwell, that’s exactly what happened!

All of us involved in providing business blogging services need to keep that Alka Seltzer strategy firmly in mind.  For one thing, the story demonstrates the power of images, reminding us how important it is for us to incorporate photos, video, and even clip art into our SEO marketing blogs.

Even more important in blogging for business is putting your products and services in context for the online visitor.  How will I use the product?  How much will I use? How often? Where? What will it look like?  How will I feel?

In business blog writing, then, painting the picture is only Step #1.  What comes next is putting the reader into the picture!

So much positive feedback came in from Say It For You readers about my wordsmithing tip series, I decided to add a second set of tips this week.  Needless to say, I encourage all my Indianapolis blog writer friends to submit their own tips to me as well.

“People in different companies and industries often don’t speak the same language,” observes one of my favorite wordsmiths, Milo O. Frank (How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less).

My own observation, based on working with different industries doing corporate blogging training, is that lack of clarity between writer and reader is worse with business-to-consumer corporate blog writing.  But even among suppliers, consultants, and retailers within a single industry, there’s no question that the clearer the words are to all the parties, the easier it becomes for transactions (obviously one of the end goals of SEO marketing blogs) to happen.

In his book, Frank offers a great example of a better way to get a complex point across to an audience through a metaphor:

Not-so-good version:
“Bypass refers to the use of telecommunications services…to circumvent the local telephone company network.  This will deteriorate revenues and increase costs to residential consumers.”

Much better version:
“Think of your local telephone company as the Main Street Bridge, which costs $100,000 a year to operate regardless of the amount of traffic.  A big company builds a new bridge just for trucks.  Now the cars have to pay more to cross the Main Street Bridge because there are no trucks to help carry the costs.  That is bypass.”

Freelance blog writers are reminded to paint a picture for their online readers. (In Frank’s example, it’s the image of the bridge that gets the point across.)

Business blogs are all about getting found, then getting the point across.  Words and pictures are your two tools in blogging for business!

You can now sample Discovery Channel’s science-fact series through a book.  Mythbusters authors Keith and Kent Zimmerman “blow up things”, both literally and in the form of debunking common myths. 

Myth-busting is a tactic blog content writers can use to grab online visitors’ attention.  In corporate blogging training sessions, I explain to newbie content writers in Indianapolis that citing statistics to disprove popular myths gives business owners the chance to showcase their own knowledge and expertise.

Most of us, for example, in answer to the question “If you get caught in the rain, 
will you stay drier if you walk or run?” would say running makes the most sense.  
The Zimmermans created controlled conditions, including a sprinkler system in a tall
building to measure the velocity of rain, to bust that “common sense” conclusion.

Even experts from the National Oceanographic Atmosphere Administrsation thought running would keep you drier than walking, but the actual results of the Mythbusters experiment demonstrated you’d stay drier by walking!

This experiment is an example of mythbusting at its most compelling.  There is real proof offered, not just an “I’m-the-expert-and-you’re-not” material offered.

Since one of the purposes of any SEO marketing blog is to attract potential customers to the business’ website, it would be a tactical mistake for freelance blog writers to imply they’re out to prove those online visitors wrong.  The Mythbusters authors acknowledge that their readers’ conclusions are intuitive and natural. Anyone might reasonably have come to the conclusion that running to get out of the rain will keep you drier; itt just happens to be that reality is counterintuitive.

In corporate blog writing, then, the trick is to engage interest, but not in “Gotcha!” style. Business owners and professional practitioners blogging for business can showcase their own expertise without “showing up” their readers’ lack of it!

According to Natural Health Magazine, “If there’s one thing the food industry is good at, it’s nutritional sleight of hand.  In “Health Food Shockers”, nutritional medical professional Beth Reardon does some debunking worth noting by anyone involved in mythbusting through corporate blog writing.

Reardon lists several “sneaky” food items we all think of as healthy. She debunks some of the myths surrounding each food, offering health hints. As a professional ghost blogger offering "healthy blogging tips” to business owners and freelance blog writers, I couldn’t help reflecting on some uncanny parallels:

Corporate blogging for business is supposed to be unqualifiedly healthy for business owners’ and professional practitioners’ bottom line, but there are some “sneaky” aspects to avoid in SEO marketing blogs just as there are in food choices.

Natural Health Sneaky stuff: Store-bought vegetable juice
Real deal: Many of these juices are heavy on starchy vegetables, with sugars and salt added for flavor.
Healthy hint: Make your own juice in a blender to keep as much fiber intact as possible. One serving shouldn’t exceed 15 grams of carbs.

Sneaky stuff for Indianapolis blog writers: Posting blogs telling about the company’s products and services.
Real deal:   Other people, specifically online searchers, are interested, first and foremost, in themselves and their own needs, wants, and interests.
Healthy hint: Never forget – now the online visitors have arrived at your blog, they want to find content that demonstrates you understand their needs, not content that boasts of what you know and what you have!



Natural Health sneaky stuff: Dried fruits
Real deal: The drying process removes a lot of water, and the product becomes a concentrated source of sugar. Many brands add sulfur as a preservative, which causes bloating in the body.
Healthy hint: Opt for organic (no sulfur) and “no sugar added” products.

Sneaky stuff for Indianapolis blog writers: Testimonials from customers.
Real deal:  Many clients ask the business owner to write a testimonial paragraph for them, or to give them a fill-in-the-blanks form..
Healthy hint: Give clients questions to answer in their own words. Executive coach Larry Laswell gives some examples: “What perceptions and misgivings did you have before you hired me?” “What did you really find?” “What was the result?”


Healthy hint for blog content writers:  Blogging for business is an ideal way to debunk myths and clear up common consumer misunderstandings. Be yourself in your blog and allow visitors get to know what makes you and your company tick.  Those readers will be able to tell - you’re the real deal!

Business blogs are wonderful tools around facts.  That’s why business owners can use corporate blog writing as a way to dispense information, but, even more important, to address misinformation.

Why is that important to do? False beliefs about products and services often stand in the way of customers taking action. You might say that the de-bunking function of business blog writing is owners’ way of taking up arms against a sea of customers’ unfounded fears and biases.  Blog content writing is a way of “cleaning the air”, replacing factoids with facts, so that buyers can see their way to making decisions.

Take this example from James and John Caher’s book Personal Bankruptcy Laws for Dummies. One myth the Cahers address is that “people who go bankrupt are sleazy deadbeats.”

The authors combat misapprehension with statistics and findings from scientific studies:

• A five-year study published in Health Affairs in February 2005 revealed that, “from 1981 – 2001, medically-related bankruptcies increased 2200%.  Most of the filers were middle class folks with health insurance.”
  
• The fastest-growing group of bankruptcy filers are older Americans and more than half are forced into bankruptcy by medical debt.

Granted, this example of using statistics to combat mistaken perceptions comes from a 350-page book, not a corporate blog.  Still, I think, it serves as a perfect example for corporate blogging training.  Once the myths are out of the way, readers can deal with the question “How could filing bankruptcy help me?”

Every industry, every profession has its myths, ideas that sound true but simply aren’t.  Presenting the actual facts and statistics in your corporate blog writing has the same effect as the windshield defogger on your car. Once the mist is cleared off the glass, you can see for yourself what’s out there – you won’t need to be either told or sold!

Speaking of selling, one concept I continually stress to Indianapolis blog writers is that blog posts are not advertisements.  Hard-selling is nothing but a “turn-off” for online visitors.  The goal, instead, is to win loyal fans and to build trust, talking with readers and showing who you are in addition to what you do and how you do it.

In corporate blogging for business, the products and services you offer, properly presented with the myths cleared away, will sell themselves!

“Formula-fed” SEO marketing blogs might make life easier for blog content writers and online visitors alike. 

As a longtime freelance blog writer, I was delighted to learn that writing coach Ali Luke thinks what she calls formulaic writing can be a very good thing.  In corporate blogging training sessions, I tell newbie Indianapolis blog writers the same thing – stick to a formula: 

• Choose one main idea as the focus for each blog post.  I call that the Power of One. (More to add? Save it for future posts.)
  
• Compose an opening sentence that’s a “grabber”, so that readers just have to find out what you meant.
  
• Explain, clarify, illustrate, discuss your one main point, using a few short paragraphs.
  
• Issue your parting “shot”, a snappy exit line that sums up the thought you want your readers to remember. This one tip, I’ve found, can be of enormous business blogging help.

Novels follow specific formulas, says Luke.  Readers expect a showdown between the hero and the villain at the end of an adventure story or thriller, and romantic comedies should have the expected happy endings.  Formulas are popular, Luke explains, because they work.

Formulas work in blog writing, too, Luke adds.  When a post is titled “10 Ways to be More Creative”, readers know just what to expect, she explains, and if they’re interested in the topic, they’ll read on,

In fact, readers finding just what they expect is the principle behind online search, and the “matching” of searchers’ needs with the right information that is a goal in corporate blogging for business.

Internet traffic solutions firm FullTraffic.com, summarizing Google’s guide to writing quality web content, says the acid test for content writing is this: Would internet users complain if this website turned up in their search results? After years of offering business blogging assistance to companies of all types, I’d have to agree.  Formulas provide framework.  They don’t stop writers from being creative and engaging.

Formula-fed corporate blogging for business can assure first-time blog visitors they’ve come to just the right place to get what they need!

I was flattered when friends Tracie and Greg Mrakich included me among the recipients of their email list of “Puns for Those With a Slightly Higher IQ”. A couple of the cutest, I thought were:

• Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses.
  
• Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
  
• A lot of money is tainted – T’ain’t yours and t’ain’t mine.

The one pun I’ve chosen to discuss with all blog content writers, though, is more than just funny – it contains some wisdom that can really improve corporate blogging for business:

“He had a photographic memory that was never developed.”

Most business owners can think of quite a number of things they want to convey about their products, their professional services, their industry, and their customer service standards. Still, I’ve found over the years of being a business blogging trainer, business owners’ biggest fear seems to be running out of blog content writing ideas.

That’s why Tracie and Greg’s pun jumped out at me. It’s not, I realized, that business owners (or thefreelance blog writers they employ) don’t have enough ideas – it’s that those ideas need to be developed! In other words, it’s possible to continue to write about the same few central themes, yet continually develop those themes into fresh, interesting, and engaging content.

If you’ve built a business, it’s likely no one has knowledge of its ins and outs as “photographic” as yours.  The basic purpose behind your business blog writing doesn’t change over time – it’s to tell your story.  One post at a time, corporate blogging for business informs readers what you have (your products), what you do (the services you provide), and what you know (your experience and expertise).

The most effective kind of blogging for business, though, goes further and develops and expands on those basic themes. What are some of the best ways to take your photographic knowledge of your field and present that information in fresh new ways?

• “Learn around.” Ideas are everywhere – conversations, magazines, radio, bulletin boards – ask yourself how you can use remarks and observations you hear and read to clarify to readers what you do and how you do it. Quoting experts in your field and linking to blogs written by others shows blog visitors you keep current.
  
• Become a teacher rather than a “teller”. Imagine you’re tutoring the slowest students in your class, helping them grasp some aspect of your business. What diagrams can you use to illustrate your points? What comparisons might you use?
  
• Use stories in the news. Find articles that can help you explain the way you do business or your particular processes of manufacture or of client service.
  
• Use metaphors.  Writers developing blog content in Indianapolis, for example, might choose comparisons with car racing. You might use the new traffic “roundabouts” to explain how your company takes the hassle out of ordering and shipping.  Metaphors help “develop” pictures in blog visitors’ minds of how they’ll feel using your company to solve their problems.

Freelance blog writers can start with the basic blog content, then add breadth and depth by developing the “photographically memorized” facts!

I really enjoyed the article “Kitchen Clean-up” in Tucker Talks Real Estate, (the little newsletter my realtor friend Katrina Basile sends me.  November and December, I was reminded, are good times for me to give a little love to my kitchen and prep my appliances for holiday entertaining.

Coming up on four and a half years as a professional ghost blogger, I couldn’t help thinking I ought to remind attendees in corporate blogging training sessions that blogs and blog sites may need periodic ”cleansing” as well.

1.  For example, “Kitchen Clean-Up” talks about going through your refrigerator shelves and removing every item that’s past its expiration date.

One function of any SEO marketing blog is updating and correction information.  Mistaken data may have been inadvertently published on your business blog. There may have been updates in a company policy, or in one or more of the products. Or, there might have been a recent development in your industry that makes one or more of your former blog posts “incorrect”. 

I explain to new blog content writers that they can go back to former blog posts and write an update, usually in bold type.  That way, when online searchers find that “old” post, they can see that the company is keeping its readers current.

2.   Leveling the refrigerator is a second suggestion in “Kitchen Cleanup”. That means adjusting the feet on the bottom of the fridge, I learned.

“Leveling” business blog writing, particularly in SEO marketing blogs, involves checking your keyword phrase list to see if you’re overusing some terms and forgetting to include others. Referring to analytics to see which search terms are actually helping online searchers find your blog, you can adjust the degree of emphasis you’re putting on different keyword phrases over time. Make sure your content is not straying from the central themes or “leitmotifs” around which you based your blog marketing plan.

3.   Checking your user manual for each appliance to see what recommendations for care the manufacturer suggests, is the third piece of advice in “Kitchen Cleanup”.

For business owners and freelance blog content writers, the ”manual” consists of the features available in the blogging platform (Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr,and Drupal are examples; this Say It For You blog uses Compendium Blogware).

Are you aware of all the key features and capabilities of whatever platform you’re using?  An important part of your “clean up” involves using all the tools that can make your writing for business yield the results you want.

“Now that your appliances are nice and spiffy, you can spend more time focusing on that perfect pumpkin pie,” explains “Kitchen Cleanup”.  And once, I’m hoping, Indianapolis blog writers have“cleaned up” the kitchen and “spiffiy-ed” up the platform, it will be a snap to focus on “cooking up” a perfect series of readable, engaging business blog posts!

“Congo is bigger than it looks,” Mental Floss Magazine informs readers.  “Although it looks pretty small on a Mercator map, Congo is the world’s 12th largest nation.”

As a professional ghost blogger, I must say I liked this article – a lot.  First of all, not only did it present all sorts of interesting information on the topic (the Democratic Republic of Congo), but information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know.  In similar vein, I tell blog content writers that including what I dub “startling statistics” makes the material more engaging.

“Most Americans don’t know it,” the article continues, “but they own precious slivers of Congo in their laptops, cell phones, and iPods.” (Tantulum stores electricity in digital cameras, and Blackberrys use tungsten to vibrate; Congo is the world’s leading source for each of these minerals.) A generous sprinkling of fascinating trivia keeps blog content writing fresh, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions.

“The country has only 300 miles of paved roads.” Using little-known background details in SEO marketing blogs is a great way to establish authority while capturing searchers’ interest.

But, I advise Indianapolis blog writers, be sure to include information that is actionable. For example, the Mental Floss article taught me something I plan to keep in mind when shopping for electronics:

In 2010, the U.S. government passed a law requiring American companies to disclose whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines (rife with violent crime and child labor).  Consumers, I learned, can choose not to buy products that don’t say “conflict mineral-free”.

What I liked best about the Congo feature story was one of its sub-titles: “Congo is bigger than it looks.” Corporate blogging might be described in precisely the same terms.
Business blog writing is short by definition, offering just enough to convey to the reader that he/she's come to the right place. On the other hand, what can be done is to offer different kinds of information in different blog posts. In a way, each time you post (or have your professional ghost blogger post), you're adding to the overall power of the blog.  Individual blog posts are little, but blogs – they’re a LOT bigger and more powerful than they look!

“We call them ‘utility items’,” explains Dennis Ryerson, editor of the Indianapolis Star, referring to that end of the information spectrum that is not traditional big breaking news, but stories “designed to help you navigate your community and your life.”

Come to think of it, blogging for business is designed around a similar concept – helping online searchers navigate their lives and find information they can utilize.

Ryerson’s examples of utility items in that issue of the Star (10/16/11) include:

• Telling you what to look for if you have gold jewelry to sell.
• Telling you how to capture a great fall photograph
• Learn ways to fight the flu.
• Tell you about fall festivals.
• Telling you ways to save money while shopping.
• Giving you advice about home remodeling.
• Telling you how to care for a product you’ve bought to preserve the benefits.

While corporate blog writing would, of necessity, have a narrower focus, concentrating on one business or industry, the “utility” in SEO marketing blogs comes from just the sort of practical tips Ryerson’s list includes.

Telling you what to look for. Readers who are looking for a product or a service need more than a photo and a price list; they need to know how to judge the value of what you have to offer. Does your corporate blog writing help readers ask the right questions?

Telling you how to… The people who are likely to find your blog are those who need your product, service, or expertise - they don't want to do it themselves. Using blogging for business to share advice and information serves to showcase your know-how and build the kind of trust it takes for searchers to become buyers.

Telling you about fall festivals….I’m always telling blog content writers in Indianapolis that the blog is an ideal bulletin board to preview -  and then review – special events and special sales the company is hosting.

“Big stories or small, you can learn a lot here,” promises Ryerson in the Star. Precisely the promise, I stress in corporate blogging training sessions, that freelance blog writers should strive to fulfill!