Regularly updating your blog – that means five times a week - can become tiresome. Articles need to be relevant and original for people to take time to read them. How exactly do you choose topics that are interesting and, once turned into an article, share-worthy?

Below we share some of our tried and tested tips for rolling out interesting posts – every time.

• FAQs

Find out what your customers are asking. Which pages on your website do they visit? This can be a lead to what kind of information they’re after and pretty much guarantees that you’ll have readers. The stats don’t lie.

• Common threads

When you frequent certain blogs, you’ll notice when there are commonalities between them. A common thread between many great minds can make a good curated article. Reference others and put your own spin on an existing idea.

• Trends

Search social platforms to see what’s trending in your field. Don’t just focus on the big names; look at sites like Delicious and apps like Flipboard.

• News

Create topical articles out of news by adding an industry relevant spin to it.

• Comments

Reader’s comments on your existing blog posts can be a good indicator of what else you can add. Comments often include questions which can easily be elaborated upon, or readers give different insights which you can play with.

• Interviews

Ask industry experts to predict future trends, ask them what their biggest “light bulb moment” this year was or ask what their most important industry lesson ever learnt was. By expanding on their answers you can create interesting articles.

• Checklists

Create checklists of processes in your own company. This is an easy way of dealing with complexity and making sure that you cover all bases, for example; Managing Your Twitter Account: Checklist

• Surveys/Polls

Conduct your own surveys or polls and write an article discussing the implications of the results.

• Disagree

Disagreeing with something you read can be the starting point of a thought-provoking article. If you have expert knowledge and you see an opinion that you believe is fundamentally flawed – write about it. Everyone loves a bit of controversy – just make sure that you can substantiate your own claims.

• Quotes & jokes

Quotes and jokes are both good opening lines for articles. If you play around on ‘joke and quote sites’ long enough you’re bound to find something that draws your interest. You can build an article around this and you’ll have a relevant or humorous introduction.

• Unrelated interests

If reading about topics that are not at all industry related your thoughts can easily be lead to finding similarities between whatever you’re reading and whatever your industry. So, read as much as possible.

• Ask

This is probably the easiest way of getting ideas for articles – ask your audience, which is exactly what I’ll be doing now…

What do you want to read about? Let me know by commenting below or tell me on Twitter @soundidea

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency. For more information, contact 012 66 44 227 or email to info@soundidea.co.za

Carina Claassens is a Writer for Sound Idea Digital | carina@soundidea.co.za | Sound Idea Digital | www.soundidea.co.za

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