How To Create Olympic Champion Blog Topics (Gold Medal Rules)
Posted by Jody Raines
If you are like me, you've been glued to the television on at least one occasion, watching the activities of the Olympic Games in Vancouver. How exhilarating to watch these incredibly talented athletes perform at the pinacle of their chosen event. The competition is fierce, there is just one gold medal winner.
When it comes to having a terrific blog, there are some analogies that can be made with the Olympic champions. For example, when a prospect hovers above the search bar in a search engine, and types in their query, is your content going to be among the results? Will you be the Gold Medalist when they decide to click on a link?
Partially, this has to do with relevance, partially with your understanding of the audience, and partially with creating really great blog topics. The relevance and understanding of your audience are related to SEO and search engine optimization - in other words, understanding what terms to use, which relevant keywords will lead to being discovered, and how to create content that will rank for those terms. That's very important to being found, but you also have to have Gold Medal topics - you know, the one that gets clicked and read... This article is about how to create blog topics.
Great blog topics. What are they? In a nutshell, the idea is to create topics that creates interest in the reader. It's a way to share knowledge, develop relationships and create a flow of interested parties to your website.
What makes great topics? And how do you know that you have a great topic?
Before writing an article, I typically ask myself these three questions that I've boiled down into simple rules to follow when deciding what to write about:
1. Is my topic helpful? If my blog topic is preachy or salesy, I toss it. Frankly, there are enough people blasting you with commercials. That's not what 'inbound marketing' is about. The topic has to be of interest to companies or individuals in order to attract interest and readership. I liken this to the old days on the Atlantic City boardwalk - you may remember walking past those shops where they had an auction taking place - or maybe they were trying to get you to buy those knives that never get dull...? In any case, there was someone outside the store who was 'hawking' at you, or soliciting you to get you to come and participate. Today's consumer is smart, and when they decide to opt-out or block you, you are left without a way to appeal to them. If however, you offer information that they need at a time when they are looking for exactly what you are presenting, then you have a chance of appealing to them through opt-in marketing! Your prospect finds YOU and asks YOU for the information.
2. Can you tell me how-to? Many of my best clients are companies that understand what I do. They also recognize why I am good at it. It's not a matter of whether they can do it themselves - most likely they can. The value is the depth of knowledge and the level of understanding that I bring to the table. Here's what I mean - you are an attorney who practices divorce law. Can someone buy a kit to do-it-yourself-divorce? Yes. Is that advisable? Not really. So, if that's the case, explain what the pitfalls are, and how to protect yourself if you go that route. The people who are looking for this advice are in the market for what you offer. They may have thought that they would save money by doing it themselves, and that is what they are seeking. However, what they find (assuming that your content is well thought out and developed and that you used appropriate keywords and SEO positioning strategy) is that it's not as simple or easy or inexpensive as they originally thought. Now you are in a great position to help them.
3. Is it relevant? No one wants to read the same old stuff that you published last week. It's got to be fresh and new and timely. If the Olympics are today, then discuss the Olympics. If the Word Series is today, don't discuss the Olympics, discuss the World Series. In a day and age when 140 character micro blogs (such as Twitter) rule the planet, you have to be timely and relevant. Consider news events, topical events and activities that are compelling for angles and buzz.
Bottom line - keep your postings helpful, entertaining and relevant. Like the Olympic athlete, it takes training - the more you do it, the better you get. So, practice often. Learn from others. Watch the competition, and then when it's your turn, make it original and make it your best.
WebMarCom is an Internet strategy and Web Marketing Communications Agency based in South Jersey and Philadelphia.