Write a How-To post
Walk-throughs, tutorials and how-to’s tend to do very well online.
How many times have you done this: We’ve all done it – gone to Google (or your favorite other search engine) and started typing “How to…” into the search box. I’ve done this with repairing things on my car, fixing things in my house, and figuring out how to do math the new way my kids are learning in school (that was definitely not the way I learned). There’s some great blog posts and YouTube videos out there that have helped me with things that weren’t as intuitive as they would seem. (My dad used to be a mechanic, and he instilled a healthy zeal for DIY repairs into his kids.)
For my own YouTube channel, I’ve created how-to videos for some of the most common questions that I see people asking about in forums and Facebook groups.
So, in your industry, what can you demonstrate how to do for your audience? These can be done in video, text, screenshots, audio recording, etc – whatever medium you are most comfortable with and what you think would be the best for the demo. If you do create a video, you should consider adding it to your site as a blog post, with some description for SEO to help bring more people to your site instead of just to YouTube.
Bust a Myth
What are common beliefs people hold in your industry that simply aren’t true?
Busting a myth is such a fun and interesting thing to do, there was a whole TV show about it!
Okay, so we can’t all create gravity defying 360-degree swings or fill swimming pools with ballistic gel, but there are bound to be some common misconceptions in your industry that you can educate your audience on. If you’re not sure what some of those myths are, try entering your industry and “myth” into your favorite search engine.
If not “myths” so much, think about common misconceptions or misunderstandings about your industry. This is your chance to educate your audience, and help them feel more comfortable thinking of you
Tell an entertaining and educational story
Share the story of how you have helped someone with your products/services.
People love to read/watch/hear a story and imagine themselves in it. Why do you think fiction is so popular? When I was a kid, I was totally part of the Unicorns with The Sweet Valley Twins. You can use this to your advantage by telling a story about the problem one of your customers had and how you helped them solve it.
These are called case studies, and they are fantastic for your blog. Think of common problems your target audience might have, and write about how you solved that problem for one (or more) of your customers. (Make sure you get their permission to use their name.) Think of the uncommon problems you’ve solved, and write about them as well. These kinds of blog posts help you customer feel secure in your ability to help them.
Answer a question
What are common questions people have and what are their answers?
This is my favorite suggestion for coming up with blog post ideas – answering a frequently asked question. Every day in our work, we answer questions for our customers. For me, it’s things like “What’s the difference between hosting and a domain?” or ” What’s the difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com?”
Think of the questions you often have from potential customers. What do they need to know about? If you are coming up with a bunch of questions, then you can write a separate blog post about each of them. Or, if they are all short answers, make one post that answers several of them. Not only are these helpful to your audience and customers, but if you’re using the words that a potential customer might use to search for this information, you are aiding your Search Engine Optimization efforts, as well.
Examine a Problem
Take an issue that people often get stuck on and go in depth into its causes and solutions.
This might be similar to one of your case study posts. Or maybe it’s just something that you think your audience would be interested in.
A few years ago, I saw someone that someone had asked how to create a private page in WordPress for some of their users without using a complicated membership plugin. I had just recently solved that issue for someone and decided to make a video answer the question. That video got a lot of hits on my YouTube channel, and I decided to write a blog post around that same topic.
In addition to discussing how to solve the problem, you can go over what might cause the problem. other possible solutions, and maybe even how to avoid the problem (if possible.)