It could be that you’re an expert fisherman or something as simple as being a total authority on everything Star Wars or Game of Thrones. 

Either way, you should know there is a way to profit from your knowledge (even if you thought it was seemingly useless).

By starting a blog, you can share your expertise, opinions, and interests with the world, and if you play your cards right – you can even make money doing it. 

You get out what you put in, so it’s up to you whether you want to pursue being a full-time blogger or want to earn some extra cash on the side. 

But isn’t blogging dead? Does anyone even still read blogs anymore?

That’s a common myth, as blogging is still alive and strong today, even alongside AI chatbots, TikTok shorts, and YouTube videos. 

In fact, you’ve probably read a blog within the last month or week and probably didn’t even notice.

A staggering 409 million users read WordPress blogs each month, and there are more than 600 million blogs online. 

If you’ve Googled a question and quickly found an answer on a professional, well-written website – you’ve consumed a blog post. 

By harnessing the power of SEO (search engine optimization), you can propel your blog posts to the top of search results so you can reap the rewards.

Are you seeing dollar signs yet?

Then stick around to learn how to start a successful blog right now. 

Developing a New Blog Step-by-Step 

Creating a new blog doesn’t have to be a painful process. That’s because there are only a few key steps to knock out before you can start writing and publishing your first post. 

However, it’s crucial to plan a few things out before you pick a CMS and pay for a domain name and hosting services. 

Also, you’ll want to do your SEO homework beforehand to ensure that your blog topic has a marketable audience and that the competition isn’t too steep.

Here’s a step-by-step process for setting up a new blog. 

Step #1: Select a topic or niche 

First things first, you need to know what you’re going to write about. 

Certain blog topics are more popular than others, which is something you need to take into account. 

The highest-grossing blog topics are as follows:

• Food (avg. monthly income $9,169)
• Personal Finance (avg. monthly income $9,100)
• Lifestyle/Mommy (avg. monthly income $5,174)
• Travel (avg. monthly income $5,000)

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to pick one of these topics to start a successful blog. 

However, if your passion and expertise align with one of these groups, you’ll have your work cut out for you (although you’ll still need to find a way to stand out from the competition to build an audience). 

Other topics are a bit more niche, meaning they aren’t as mainstream, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a loyal following with them. 

To do so, you’ll need to vet your topic of choice by conducting SEO keyword research, which brings us to the next step.

Step #2: Conduct keyword research 

Next, it’s time to check the viability of your chosen blog topic or topics. 

How do you do that?

By conducting keyword research! 

A keyword is a term or phrase that a user enters into a search engine like Google to find information. 

By using a keyword planner tool (like our free offering from The HOTH), you can check the search volume, keyword difficulty (how steep the competition is), and search trends for each topic.

Try entering a few variations of your topic of choice to get a better overview of the interest surrounding it. 

If you want to blog about golf, try searching for keywords like ‘golf techniques,’ ‘golf accessories,’ and ‘golf news’ to see what’s out there. 

Look for keywords that have high search volume (in the thousands), a relatively low keyword difficulty score (lower than 65%), and a search trend that’s rising (meaning it’s still gaining popularity). 

If your topic ideas have these metrics, it’s a strong sign that people want to read what you’re going to write about. 

Pro tip: The keyword research phase can also help you refine the core focus of your blog. Going with the golf example, LIV golf news is a keyword with great metrics, which could inspire you to provide the latest LIV championship updates to your readers. 

Step #3: Know how you’ll monetize 

How do you plan to make money from your blog?

You’ll have quite a few options, including:

• Becoming an affiliate and promoting products from another company
• Displaying digital ads
• Offering coaching/counseling services
• Selling a book 
• Online courses

These are all legit ways to make money from blogging; you just need to decide which you’ll use before designing your blog.

Step #4: Choose a CMS, domain name, and hosting provider

Now it’s time to make your blog a reality, which isn’t nearly as difficult as it may sound. 

You’ll need to pick a content management system (CMS), as it’s where you’ll draft and publish your blogs online. 

After that, you need to pick a domain name and choose a hosting service. 

WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms today, and it’s completely free since it’s open-source. 

Other popular options include Wix, Squarespace, and Blogger (which Google owns). 

On the hosting side, popular platforms include:

• Bluehost
• Hostinger
• HostGator
• GoDaddy 

Some CMS platforms, like Wix, also feature their own hosting. 

The most important part of this step is choosing your blog’s name and domain name. 

They need to be:

• Catchy 
• Memorable
• Keyword-rich 

Don’t hesitate to work some creative magic here, as the more unique your blog name is, the more you’ll stand out from competitors. 

Step #5: Design your blog 

Now that you’ve got a blog website up and running, it’s time to trick it out with all the bells and whistles. 

Besides making your blog look super cool, the colors, style, and layout you choose will serve as your official branding. 

Most modern CMS platforms have tons of fully customizable templates that you can use, which serve as fantastic starting points.

From there, you can tweak the colors, fonts, and buttons to your heart’s content. 

Step #6: Create an editorial calendar and start writing 

Now, all that’s left is to plan out a few months’ worth of content and start writing. 

If you run into writer’s block or aren’t sure of a good topic, you can always turn to AI to kickstart your creativity. 

AI copywriting tools like Copymatic are excellent secret weapons for bloggers. 

Based on a few simple prompts, you can generate entire blog posts that you can customize and add your own voice to. 

To plan out your content, inform your strategy with keyword research (much like you did in step #2, but for each post). 

Once your first post is done, it’s time to promote it like freaking crazy. Share it on all your social media platforms while including relevant tags, and tell all your friends and family to read it. 

After that, you need to monitor your progress using free tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Pay close attention to your average organic traffic and SERP rankings. If you aren’t seeing your desired results, it’s time to return to the drawing board and try something different. 

Don’t Wait to Start Captivating Readers Today 

Starting a blog is easier than ever in today’s age, and you can even get AI to assist you if you’re drawing a blank. 

Moreover, blogging is still highly relevant, and it’s still a great way to make money. 

If you need help creating an outstanding blog for your business, don’t wait to check out HOTH X, our managed SEO services.  

The post How to Start a Kickass Blog That Ranks on Search Engines appeared first on The HOTH.

It’s also expected that 20.8% of all retail purchases will happen online this year. 

Additionally, at least 75% of customers shop online at least once a month, and that number continues to grow every day. 

That’s all great news if you’re an eCommerce store owner. 

However, if you want your store to take off and build a following – you need to master product description SEO. 

What’s that?

Product description search engine optimization (SEO) involves tweaking your eCommerce product pages to rank better on search engines like Google. 

The better your SEO, the higher your product pages will rank – in turn leading to more organic traffic, leads, and conversions. 

Also, there’s a true art to writing good product descriptions. 

Besides appealing to search engines for better online visibility, your descriptions also need to encourage your target audience to take action.

That means using persuasive writing, highlighting the benefits of your product (how your audience will transform), and using CTAs (call-to-action) to boost your conversion rate. 

As you can probably tell by now, there’s quite a bit that goes into product description SEO. 

That’s why we put together this guide breaking down everything you need to know about writing stellar product descriptions, so read on to learn more. 

What Makes a Product Description SEO-Friendly?

How do you know if a product description you wrote will rank well on search engines?

To make a product description SEO-friendly, you need to appeal to certain ranking factors that search engines use to gauge the quality & relevancy of a search result in comparison to the user query (keyword). 

A keyword or search query is a term or phrase a user types into a search engine like Google. 

For example, if a potential customer is looking for gardening tools online, they may search for keywords like ‘best gardening tools,’ ‘affordable gardening tools,’ or simply ‘gardening tools’ on a search engine like Google or Bing. 

The search engine then crawls its index to find high-quality results that directly relate to the user keyword. 

In other words, it searches for content that contains keywords like ‘gardening tools’ in its title, headings, and copy. 

Additionally, search engines also look for results that are trustworthy, readable, informative, and load fast – among other things. 

Therefore, a product description becomes SEO-friendly when it contains the right keywords, provides value to its audience, and comes from a trustworthy source. 

To improve the rankability of your product descriptions, you need to strategically place keywords, write valuable copy, and improve the technical factors of your online store (loading speed, backlink profile, etc.). 

It also takes strategic keyword research to uncover the terms your target audience searches for regularly (more on this down below). 

Why Does SEO Matter for eCommerce?

If you start a new eCommerce site, one of the best things you can do for it is start an SEO campaign.

That’s because a large number of eCommerce transactions begin on search engines. 

53% of all website traffic comes from organic searches, and 33% of all eCommerce visits start the same way. 

Also, SEO is one of the most reliable ways to boost your online visibility, which will help you develop a loyal following of customers. 

For eCommerce stores, your product descriptions will serve as the bread and butter for your SEO efforts. 

While you can and should start a blog to help with your SEO campaign and attract new prospects, you’ll primarily be conducting keyword research to promote specific products. 

Targeting the right keywords for your niche also plays a big role in product description SEO. 

Competition is always fierce, especially on Google, so you’ll need to find keywords that have decent search volume without too many competitors. 

If you attempt to rank for keywords already dominated by larger competitors with better SEO profiles, you likely won’t make any progress at all. 

Additionally, it’s essential to note that while SEO is integral for eCommerce stores, it’s only half the equation. 

SEO is what generates organic visitors to your store, but it’s up to you to convert them with unique, well-written product descriptions that contain CTAs. 

When you combine a solid SEO strategy with excellent copywriting designed to convert, you stand the best chance of increasing your revenue by a significant margin. 

Product Description SEO Writing Tips 

Now that you know a bit more about product description SEO and why it matters, it’s time to learn how to write unique product descriptions that appeal equally to search engines and your target audience. 

That means using persuasive writing geared at your buyer personas while tastefully including your primary and secondary keywords. 

Here are our top tips for writing product descriptions for your online store. 

Target the right product keywords 

As stated before, keyword research is extremely important for product description SEO. 

That’s because there are thousands of potential keywords out there, and you need to know how to choose wisely. 

You want to uncover keywords that are currently popular with your target audience.

That way, you’ll know that there’s plenty of interest in a particular product or topic. 

If you randomly pick keywords to use, you’ll have no way of knowing if they’ll attract any attention from the right people. 

For instance, if you’re selling gardening tools but your keywords attract users looking for construction equipment, you won’t land many sales. 

At the same time, if you target gardening-related keywords that have too much competition, you won’t gain much traction either. 

Keyword research is all about finding keywords that land in the sweet spot of being popular with your target audience yet is light in the way of competition. 

How can you find these types of keywords?

There are multiple methods, but the quickest and easiest way is to use a tool like our free keyword planner from The HOTH. 

All you have to do is enter a phrase related to the keywords you want to generate, and the tool will provide a list of real keywords your audience searches for every day. 

You’ll also get to view essential metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty. 

Ideally, you want to target keywords that have a high search volume but a low keyword difficulty score. 

Tips for proper keyword placement 

Once you’ve compiled a list of relevant product keywords to target, you’ll need to place them in your product descriptions. 

However, you can’t just place them anywhere and hope to see better rankings. 

Instead, there are some key areas where you’ll need to use your keywords to provide the most impact. 

First, do whatever you can to avoid keyword stuffing, as that’s a huge SEO no-no. 

What’s keyword stuffing?

It’s where you use your keywords excessively throughout your content in the hopes of gaming the system and achieving better rankings.

However, Google and other search engines have long caught on to this tactic, so it’s no longer viable. If you keyword stuff your descriptions, you’ll likely receive a penalty that will negatively affect your SERP rankings, so avoid it at all costs. 

Where should you use your target keyword, then?

Here are the areas you should use your keyword:

• In the page’s URL (this matters only a little bit to Google, but it’s EXTREMELY important for Bing & Yahoo)
• A maximum of two times in the body of the description 
• In the title of the product description 
• In the product image, alt text 

If your target keyword is in all these spots, then you can rest easy knowing your product description is well-optimized. Go beyond these recommendations, and you’ll be in danger of keyword stuffing, so beware. 

Focus on benefits instead of features 

A mistake new copywriters make when writing product descriptions is they focus too much on the features of a product instead of its benefits. 

In other words, instead of statically listing a product’s features, focus on how your product will change your customers’ lives for the better. 

After all, the main reason people buy products in the first place is because they want to transform in some way. 

For instance, a prospect may be interested in gardening tools because they want to take up landscaping as a side business. In other words, they want to transform into a landscaper. 

Or it could be that they want to transform into a gardening expert, a DIY’er, or a farmer. 

Either way, it’s best to focus on how your products will improve customers’ lives and help them transform in the way they want instead of merely listing a product’s features. 

An example of benefits vs. features 

To illustrate what we mean, let’s consider two examples. 

Here’s a boring product description that only lists the features of hedge shears:

These state-of-the-art hedge shears feature telescoping steel that provides 2x the cutting power, thanks to its groundbreaking power-lever technology. Its 9-inch frame extends to an impressive 32 inches, and the high-quality steel provides superior durability. 

Yawn. While this description lets us know the key features of the product, it doesn’t tell us much about what it’ll do for us. 

Here’s a better description that focuses on benefits rather than features:

Got a stubborn hedge or bush that just won’t go down? Then you need our powerful hedge trimmers that provide 2x the cutting power of average shears to cut through it with ease. Their 9-inch frame easily extends to 32 inches to take care of those hard-to-reach areas. With our state-of-the-art hedge shears, you can finally become the expert landscaper that you’ve always been. 

That’s much better. Now instead of only listing the features, we mention how each feature can benefit the consumer and how the product will allow them to transform. 

Write to your buyer personas 

Besides harping on benefits instead of features, you should also write as if you’re speaking directly to your buyer persona (also called customer avatar). 

A buyer persona is the personification of an average member of your target demographic. 

Creating a buyer persona is one of the best ways to learn how to speak your audience’s language, as well as uncover their innermost wants, desires, and needs. 

No matter the focus of your eCommerce website, there’ll be people out there interested in what you have to offer. They’re your most viable prospects, and you need to learn how to relate to them on a very personal level. 

How do you develop a buyer persona?

You need to create a fully fleshed-out persona that contains the following:

• A first and last name
• Their age 
• Shopping habits 
• Interests and hobbies 
• Wants and desires 
• Average time spent online 
• A job and income level 

To fill in these blanks, you’ll need to use a tool like Google Analytics to learn more about your customers’ behaviors & demographics. 

You can also take to social media groups and user forums that are popular amongst your prospects to learn more about them. 

Once you have a buyer persona or personas developed, imagine that you’re speaking to them when writing your product descriptions. 

For instance, what type of language do they commonly use (formal, informal, slang, etc.)? What makes them get excited? What do they hope to become more than anything?

Answering those questions will help you directly relate to your audience through your product descriptions, which is what you want. 

Stay consistent with your brand voice 

This tip goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. 

Ideally, your brand voice should fall in line with your target audience’s voice, but that isn’t always the case. 

If you have an established brand voice that you’re known for, you should stick to it like glue. 

However, if your brand isn’t taking off the way you want, it may be time to give your brand a makeover. Using the previous tip will help you understand the type of tone your audience responds to, which is helpful. 

Once you’ve developed a brand voice that your audience responds to, it’s crucial to remain consistent with it throughout all your content, and product descriptions are no exception. 

So if your blogs and homepage have a professional, authoritative tone – your product descriptions should follow suit. Just remember that your brand voice needs to align with your target audience. Otherwise, you’ll be working against yourself. 

You should also consider your brand’s voice for product titles, as that can help you rank higher. 

Why is a brand voice such an important factor?

It is because, according to research, 81% of customers need to trust a brand before they consider buying its products and services. 

That’s why you need to create a distinct and recognizable brand voice, as it’ll help customers trust you and look to your brand whenever they need a question answered. That’s especially true if your online store also has a blog containing lots of unique content that solves user pain points. 

Write compelling meta descriptions 

While meta descriptions are separate from product descriptions, it’s still necessary to optimize them if you want users to click through to your product page from the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

A meta description is a brief line of text that appears under blue hyperlinks on the SERPs. It describes what your web page is about, and it needs to convince a user to click through to learn more. 

That’s why writing a convincing meta description that contains a CTA is so important. 

Using your target keyword is a good idea here, but including it in the title tag is far more crucial for your SEO. 

Instead of helping with rankings, your meta description is more for your target audience. 

Accordingly, you should appeal to them by writing in their language while staying true to your brand’s voice. 

A meta description should never exceed 160 characters, as there won’t be enough room to display it on results pages otherwise. 

Let your audience know why they should click on your result above competitors, and include a quick CTA containing a phrase like ‘don’t wait to check it out’ to further encourage users to click on your result. 

Master the art of writing meta descriptions, and your click-through rates will start to improve drastically. 

Avoid duplicate content 

An eCommerce SEO challenge nearly every online store faces is avoiding duplicate content. 

Why is duplicate content bad?

It is because if there are two identical pieces of content attempting to rank for the same keyword, Google can become confused and not know which to rank – causing both results to disappear from the SERPs. 

Duplicate content is such a challenge for eCommerce stores because they often have dozens of product pages that are nearly identical save for a few product details. 

For instance, if you sell two different sizes of garden shears, you’ll have two product pages that are an exact match (keywords and all) except for the difference in size. 

As a result, Google’s algorithms will see both pages as duplicates, throwing a wrench into your SEO strategy. 

This becomes a real problem when eCommerce stores sell thousands of products that each have pages for varying sizes and colors. 

The solution?

You need to designate the default version of each product as ‘canon’ by using a canonical tag and then marking all the duplicates with ‘noindex’ tags. 

That way, Google Search will only rank the canon version of each product, and the non-canon pages won’t affect your SEO. 

That means that you should only write product descriptions for canon pages. If you can’t write a completely unique product description for each product page, then you should hit it with a noindex tag to avoid duplicate content. 

Compress and optimize product images and videos 

Including high-resolution pictures and videos for your products is a no-brainer, but there are a few tweaks you should make to them to help with SEO. 

First, EVERY product image needs alt text containing your target keyword for that product page. 

Why is alt text so important for SEO?

It’s because search engine crawlers don’t have computer vision, so they won’t be able to see any images that you upload. Instead, they look to the alt text to understand what an image displays, which is why optimizing it is so important. 

Using your target keyword in the alt text is another ranking signal that crawler bots will pick up on. 

Besides including keywords in your alt text, you also need to compress your images and videos so they aren’t too large. 

If your images and videos are too big, they could slow down your product pages, which you definitely don’t want. 

Not only do online users detest slow loading speeds (and will most likely click off your page when it doesn’t load, hurting your bounce rate and dwell time), but search engines also don’t care for slower pages. 

In fact, Google runs a Core Web Vitals test on every page in its index to ensure it loads quickly. If your website isn’t able to pass the test, your content won’t appear in the SERPs. 

So if you want to find success with your product description SEO, don’t forget to ensure your pages load extremely fast. 

To find out if you’re having trouble with loading times, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights, which is a free tool that will let you know if your loading speed is up to par or not. It also provides suggestions for speeding up your site, so it’s a great tool to add to your repertoire. 

Include CTAs at the end of each description 

No product description is truly complete without a call to action at the end. 

After all, why spend so much time buttering up one of your products if you aren’t going to encourage the reader to actually buy it?

It’s imperative not to beat around the bush with your CTA, either. 

Writing a CTA is as easy as telling your audience to ‘add the product to their cart now.’ 

You can also use CTA buttons that enable users to add items to their cart or to a wishlist for purchase later on. 

Final Thoughts: Product Description SEO 

Product descriptions are the heart and soul of eCommerce SEO, which is why you need to optimize them to generate more traffic and sales. 

Besides writing a compelling product description, you must add relevant keywords, compress product images, add alt text, and include a clear CTA at the end. 

Do you need help writing SEO-friendly product descriptions at your company?

Then don’t wait to check out our managed content packages from The HOTH. Our content creation experts will develop a strategy to help you dominate the SERPs, so don’t wait to contact The HOTH team today.     

The post Product Description SEO: Optimizing Your Product Copy appeared first on The HOTH.

Small businesses often outsource jobs like accounting, human resources, payroll, and many more projects to stay on budget. 

Actually, freeing up resources to be able to focus on core businesses is the most widely cited reason for outsourcing.  

The remaining article will explore how you can outsource blog writing if you should hire a ghostwriter, and everything else you need to know about buying high-quality content. 

Ready to start outsourcing?

When Should You Consider Outsourcing Blog Writing?

A company should begin blog outsourcing when they need to focus more on business-critical aspects rather than smaller projects. 

Adding people to your team to do skills that are not part of your core business can not only save your business money but will also offer a wide variety of experts to choose from. 

Here are a few things to consider before you should begin outsourcing: 

• If you are having trouble keeping up with your workflow
• Your employees are doing too much
• Mistakes are costing too much money
• Budgets are getting tight
• You can’t find the right talent for the project
• Routine tasks are taking too much time and effort

How to Find Writers for Your Blog

When you are looking for ghostwriters for your blog, your primary goal should be to find someone who has solid writing experience. 

It could be someone with a background in journalism, copywriting, blogging, etc. 

When deciding on a writer, you may want to find one that has knowledge regarding your niche or industry. 

However, you don’t need an industry expert if your writer has excellent research skills and is able to learn a topic quickly. 

Here are a few ways to find good writers:

Freelance Marketplaces 

Freelance writers can be found on websites such as FreeUp, Fiverr, and even LinkedIn.

FreeUp pre-vets their freelancers so clients can have the best experience possible. One of the biggest benefits of using a freelance marketplace is that it makes it easy to connect with writers. In addition to writing, you may be able to use a freelance marketplace to find someone you can outsource other kinds of work to.

Marketing Agencies

Many marketing companies offer content writing services. These agencies can even help come up with blog topics and other content ideas that will fit your brand. For example, when you purchase content through HOTH Blogger, you can rest assured that your articles will be relevant to your niche and match your company’s voice.

Did you know that websites with active blogs get a whopping 55% more organic visitors from search engines? 

With that said, hiring a professional freelancer or blog writer service can be an asset to your team or project. 

Outsourcing blog posts require specific content that is loaded with messages you want your target audience to see. 

Here are a few tips to consider before you get started:

• Don’t begin outsourcing until you have a strategy and content calendar set up
• Have a budget set aside for outsourcing 
• Have a basic understanding of content marketing
• Create a tone and brand guidelines for your writer
• Test content lengths, headlines, and CTAs

What are the Benefits of Outsourcing Blog Writing?

Blogs offer an audience a unique chance to learn knowledge related to a specific search query. 

That is one reason why many business owners choose to use blogs to promote their services or products. 

In fact, 64% of B2B marketers that use blogging to promote products and services are outsourcing their written content. 

In addition, 88% of businesses also outsource their blogs to add credibility to their business. 

Here are some benefits to outsourcing a ghostwriter: 

• Blog outsourcing allows you to find experts in content creation
• Improvisation in marketing strategy
• Can save you money

Not everyone is skilled in blog writing. For example, a lyricist may not be the best fit for an SEO content writer. 

That is why it’s best to either hire a freelancer that you vet yourself, or use a writing service that hires professionals to get the job done. 

Prices always vary depending on your choices, but hiring a ghostwriter is always a choice if you need to outsource your content creation. 

Many blog writers are aware of the latest blogging trends. They are usually aware of what information to put into your blog. 

Although every website has its own objective, most blog writers can use experiences in blogging to make their content more impactful. 

Realistically, outsourcing is cheaper than hiring a new employee. 

According to a Deloitte survey, 62% of companies report 10% to 25% savings when they begin outsourcing. Additionally, 38% of companies reported saving as much as 40%. 

How Much Does it Cost to Outsource Blog Writing?

Research from Orbit Media suggests that on average, you can expect to pay an experienced writer for at the very least 6 hours to write a high-quality blog post of 2,000 words or more. 

That’s also not counting research or depth of industry topics. 

The fact is, writing takes time and good writing, such as creating an optimized, purposeful, and written for both human understanding and search engines, may take even longer. 

The cost of outsourcing blog writing can vary depending on the quality, word count, and complexity of the article. 

On average, you can expect to pay a freelancer anywhere from $25 to $250 or more per blog post.

Blogging agencies vary depending on your plan. However, you could expect to pay an agency anywhere from $35 to $135, depending on the writer’s experience and the length of your chosen blog post. 

Most writing services will create the following content for you:

• Blog posts
• Articles
• Videos and social media content
• Thought leadership articles
• White papers

Also, keep in mind agencies usually have in-house editors, whereas most freelancers are strictly writers.  

Things to Know Before You Outsource Blog Writing to a Ghostwriter

Now that you’ve decided to outsource your blog writing, you may be wondering what you should know before you begin. 

Blog outsourcing is a business investment, so it is vital to have a clear path moving forward. 

You need a good content strategy and it would be best to be well prepared and know what you need before you begin taking those first few steps. 

To ensure that the content writing topics you will be publishing will be a hit with your core audience, here are a few things you should know:

• Scope of projects
• Content needs
• Size of your team, if you can need a full-time writer, or if you need an in-house writer
• Your brand voice and culture

Some things you should consider for your blogging strategy are:

• Define your outsourcing and blogging goals
• Plan your budget
• List your requirements for onboarding
• Choose the best outsourcing partner for you
• Assign relevant roles and responsibilities
• Establish the best channels for communication 

Additionally, using tools like SEMrush Topic Research, or Buzzsumo, you can find blog topics that are gaining traction with your target audience.

Scrutinize Writers Heavily

Finding writers isn’t a hard process, however, finding the right writer for you can be daunting. What can be hard is finding a high-quality writer. 

That’s why you’ll have to sift through a lot of writers to find one that can write–without the fluff.

You’ll want to scrutinize or vet your writer thoroughly. 

Check for writing quality, turnaround time, and consistency.

Here are a few tips for screening your ghostwriter:

• Interview them
• Read their samples
• Ask about industry specialties
• Ask about any SEO experience
• Offer a paid-test article
• Decide to hire

Write & Format For The Web

Make sure your writer knows how to write for search engine crawlers. This is very different from standard college papers or other types of writing.

Using clear, plain language will help readers understand the message you’re trying to convey.

More than just the language, formatting for the web is crucial.

Breaking up your article into subheads, using line breaks, bullet lists, and spacing can keep attention spans higher and help skimmers find what they are looking for.

Here are a few tips for writing for the web:

• Use short paragraphs
• Understand your first paragraph is the most important
• Write in an inverted pyramid style
• Headings and subheadings are used to clarify subjects
• Don’t waste space with fluff

Optimize for SEO

The ghostwriter should also understand SEO.

y optimizing your titles, metas, and other basic OnPage factors, you’ll boost your chances of ranking.

Here are some tips for optimizing your SEO: 

• Publish relevant content
• Update pre-existing content regularly
• Metadata
• Link building
• Use alt-tags 
• Keyword research 

Pre-Format HTML & Upload

Have you ever tried to copy and paste a word document into WordPress? It’s a nightmare.

Make sure your ghostwriter can format your posts in HTML so they are ready to go.

Bonus points if the writer will actually upload the post for you.

It would be best to make sure your ghostwriter has a basic understanding of SEO. 

They need to know how search engine crawlers work, and the basic details of your website architecture. 

It would also be best to use your target keywords and track your metrics after your posts are published.

Track your keywords for each topic and each page, and it would be best if your ghostwriter has a basic understanding of keyword fluffing and how not to do it. 

That’s about it! 

Finding a ghostwriter can be difficult–which is why we created our own blog content service that solves all these problems.

Book a call with one of our experts to discuss your needs! 

Don’t forget to sign up for free and take advantage of our free SEO tools and resources. 

The post Blog Outsourcing: Should You Hire A Ghost Writer? appeared first on The HOTH.

Not only that but every month, 70 million+ blog articles are posted on WordPress websites, generating nearly 80 million blog comments. 

Most bloggers start their blogs to monetize their expertise and knowledge and create an extra income stream. 

The remaining content is a beginner’s guide to the most popular blogging topics.

If owning a successful blog is your goal, keep reading to learn how to improve your chances.

The Most Popular and Most Profitable Topics to Blog About

Most bloggers blog about what they know. 

However, starting a great blog isn’t as easy as simply writing about something you’re an expert on.

One of the keys to preparing a blog is ensuring you have sufficient topics and ideas to blog about. 

One way to do this is to write at least 100 blog topics and ideas before beginning. 

If you were to write two blogs a week, 100 topics would give you nearly 2-year’s worth of blog ideas.

Additionally, when starting out, you may want to consider the concept of guest blogging. 

This involves contacting other blogging influencers and posting guest blogs on their website.

This can help gain you traffic and exposure to a new audience. 

How to Pick a Blog Niche

Another essential task before starting a blog is to pick a subject to blog about. 

If the blog is for your business, the most likely niche would be something about that business.

However, if it’s not about your business, there are many other methods to blog. 

Below are several different methods for choosing what to blog about.

• Pick a blog niche you’re passionate about
• Understand how often you should blog
• Look for a niche with low competition but will gain more interest from your target audience
• Choose a niche in which you have some expertise, especially if you’re blogging about healthcare, finances, engineering, etc.
• Will your topic stay relevant over time? 
• Choose a blog niche where advertisers will want to place ads

Here are some different topics and types of blogs you can choose from:

Food & Drink Blogs

Food in all its glory is an insanely popular blog topic with a huge variety of subtopics and niches. 

That means there are a lot of people out there trying to do the same thing as you. Don’t fall into the category of blog niche saturation.

However, if done right, blogging about food can be very profitable.  

Food critic bloggers, for example, go from restaurant to restaurant, sampling their dishes and passing judgment on their cuisine, service, ambiance, and prices. 

Infatuation is one of the best, but there are thousands more.

However, food blogs on different blogging platforms with recipes, instructions, and cooking lessons are more popular than food critic blogs. 

The subtopics are just as varied, from preparing certain foods to finding the right ingredients, cooking tools and utensils that are best for preparing food, and step-by-step instructions.

One of the biggest subtopics in the food blog niche is wine, beer, and spirits blogs that search far and wide to find the best adult beverages. 

Craft beer bloggers are very popular, especially with craft breweries opening nationwide. (Beervana out of Portland is a standout.) 

Wine blogs are no different, plus whisky, gin, scotch, and, well, name the spirit, and it’s likely got its new blog. 

The Top 5 food and drink blogs include:

1. Food52– One of the premier food blogs online today.

2.  Serious Eats– A leading resource for all things delicious.

3. Deliciously Ella– A simple blog turned into a successful business!

4. A Pinch of Yum– Delish recipes are the heart of this top food blog.

5. Balanced Bites- A virtual nutritionist with tips on eating whole and healthy.

Fashion Blogs

The fashion industry is massive and provides an equally massive number of niches to blog about. 

Blogging about fashion and beauty has made some top fashion bloggers wealthy, although you must note that the topic is highly competitive. 

Fashion blogging can also be time-consuming and require extensive travel and expense outlay. Plus, getting recognition usually takes several years and Herculean effort. 

As with many of today’s blog topics, fashion and beauty have a wide range of subtopics. 

You’ll find it all in one fashion blog or another, from the newest style trends to luxury, bespoke garments, textiles, footwear, fashion shows, and even how to sew fashionable clothing for yourself.

Some of the perks of being a fashion blogger are pretty sweet. 

Free clothing is one of the best, often given to fashion bloggers in exchange for promoting a certain brand or model on their blog. 

Some top fashion bloggers get invited to the swankiest fashion shows in cities like Milan and New York. 

Even lesser-known fashion bloggers can do well as the topic is so big and in demand. 

With literally thousands of sub-topics to choose from, fashion blogging is one of the most popular blog topics on the internet today. 

The Top 5 fashion blogs include:

1. The Zoe Report– All you need to know about fashion.
2. Elle– One of the top fashion blogs by a top fashion mag.
3. Yes Style– Focusing on style in Asia.
4. Popsugar Fashion– All the styles and fashions being worn by celebs.
5. Who What Wear– Celebrity style with a blog name to die for.

Travel Blogs

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t like to travel or constantly dreams of their next travel adventure. 

One of the most popular searches on the internet is for travel, as millions hunt for information, advice, and reviews to plan their next vacation or trip. 

Review blogs are some of the most popular in the travel niche, including reviews of resorts, hotels, vacation spots, tour packages, etc.  

The subtopics for travel blog ideas are seemingly infinite. 

Some focus on a specific city or country and give you everything you could want to know about the people, culture, and attractions. 

Other travel blogs concentrate on getting great discounts for their followers on travel arrangements, including flights, accommodations, rental cars, and tour packages. 

There are travel blogs for hikers, bikers, mountain climbers, and wine enthusiasts, all geared towards letting readers know the best and most beautiful places to enjoy their specific sport, hobby, or interest.

Perks can be fantastic for top travel bloggers, including free hotel stays, travel to specific locations and experiences, and discounts on various travel-related products. 

One drawback is that you have to travel a lot if you want to write about traveling, which can be stressful. 

Five of the top travel blogs include:

1. Dan Flying Solo– A very well-done travel blog by a Lonely Planet Ambassador
2. Y Travel Blog– A blog based on traveling with family
3. The Planet D- Comprehensive travel guides, tips, and itineraries from a fun-loving couple
4. The Blonde Abroad– Tips and info on how to travel solo plus inspirational writing
5. The Points Guy– The best blog for travel discounts, airline points, and travel credit cards

Photography Blogs

Blogging has been a huge boon for photographers around the world, allowing them to show off their work to millions (and get paid for it). 

Many people love seeing gorgeous photographs and hearing stories about how, where, and when the photographer took them.

For many photographers, blogging about photography can be a dream job that allows them to turn their hobby into a full-blown career. 

Photography blogging is also an excellent method for a photographer to advertise their skills and get hired by new customers.

For example, it makes perfect sense to have a wedding photography blog if you’re a wedding photographer. 

It gives potential clients a clear picture (if you’ll pardon the pun) of what you can do for them during their own wedding. 

Many photography bloggers write about how they take their pictures and give their followers tips, advice, and information about becoming better photographers. 

Subtopics in the photography blogging space include nature, fashion, portrait, equipment, and photo-editing program reviews. 

There are even blogs dedicated to photographers who photograph food.  

The Top 5 photography blogs include:

1. Behind the Shutter– An huge catalog of photography tutorials.
2. Creative Boom– Career tips and photography Gear reviews.
3. Strobist–  A blog geared towards lighting your photographs perfectly.
4. The Phoblographer– Photography with a psychological twist.
5. We Eat Together– The authoritative blog on food photography. 

Parenting Blogs

The number of parenting blogs has skyrocketed in the last few years, especially with the recent pandemic sending millions of children home from school to study virtually. 

Even before then, however, the parenting blog niche was quite popular. One reason is likely that parenting is one of life’s most stressful (but rewarding) jobs. 

Parents are always looking for parenting tips and hacks that will make it more of a reward and less stress.

Parenting blogs aren’t just for moms, either. 

Thousands of dad bloggers give their input and advice and put their parenting experiences down on virtual paper. 

One of the most popular subtopics in the parenting blog niche is being a single dad (or mom) and raising kids single-handedly. 

There are even blogs about being an older parent and dealing with the trials and tribulations of parenthood while also getting older.

Some parenting blog ideas focus on reviewing baby and child products, including clothing, toys, and sports equipment. 

Baby food and foods specifically for kids are also a big topic, plus how to discipline kids in today’s modern world. 

Some of the top parenting bloggers have masses of devoted fans who reward their advice, tips, and insights with a generous affiliate income stream. 

Below are the top 5 parenting blogs, including:

1. Scary Mommy– Extremely popular blog with provocative and insightful opinion pieces.
2. Support for Stepdads–  A blog to help stepdads cope. 
3. Parenting today from the Child Development Institute– Top parenting blog from the experts. 
4. BabyCenter– Everything a woman needs to know about being pregnant.

Health and Fitness Blogs

In today’s health-obsessed world, it’s no wonder health and fitness bloggers are incredibly popular. 

From how to get in shape to eating well, fasting, exercise equipment reviews, and many more, health and fitness blogs span many topics and subtopics. 

Certified personal trainers, dietitians, fitness experts, and more have gotten involved in health and fitness blogging.

One drawback when blogging about health and fitness that we should mention is that legally speaking, it’s a topic that could land you in hot water. 

If you’re not a medical professional, it’s essential that you let your followers know this and advise them to seek medical help if needed. 

Some health and fitness blogs have been shut down for providing medical information without the proper licensing.

Still, whether a medical professional or not, blogging about health and fitness is an excellent way to build a following, monetize your expertise and create an extra income stream. 

The range of subtopics is vast, and the demand for quality information, tips, and hacks on staying healthy and fit are massive. 

They include physical and mental health, dieting, healthy snacks, and even what to wear when exercising. 

The Top 5 health and fitness blog ideas include:

1. Mark’s Daily Apple–  Amazing content from a lifetime fitness expert.
2. Carrots ‘n’ Cake- Focuses on women who want to become fit and healthy.
3. Breaking Muscle -One of the best blogs for serious bodybuilders. 
4.  Advanced Human Performance -An award-winning fitness in personal training blog.
5. Blogilates– A huge variety of fitness and health content, including recipes, workouts, diet plans, etc.

Woodworking Blogs

There are few DIY blog topics more popular than woodworking. 

Creating something with wood, for many people, is extremely satisfying and woodworking bloggers know this. 

Some of the best are world-class carpenters who share their advice and tips on how to get the best results from a raw piece of wood. 

Most woodworking blogs include how-to articles, resources for procuring different types of wood, tool reviews, and the latest woodworking tips and tricks. 

The beauty of wood is that you can use it to create so many different things. 

Wood is used in almost every facet of human life from your typical table and chairs to magnificent sculptures, beautiful frames for artwork, or the entire frame for a house.

Subtopics in the woodworking blog space are as varied and unique as the different species of wood you can use to create. 

Some blogs concentrate on home construction and remodeling, while others go deep into the details of creating wooden toys. 

Cabinet making is a very popular woodworking blog niche, as are wood sculpting, how to lay a solid wood floor, and blogs for refurbishing and refinishing antique wooden furniture. 

Five of the top woodworking blogs are below, including one from celebrity Nick Offerman:

1. Offerman Woodshop– What more can you say about a top woodworking blog by the star of “Parks and Recreation”?!
2. The House of Wood– A female Centric DIY wood blogger that includes furniture building, home renovation, and more.
3. The Rogue Engineer– Step-by-step plans for all the furniture your home could need.
4. The Handmade Home–  a wide variety of inspirational ideas and projects for your home.
5. Jays Custom Creations– Plans for some cool creations and projects.

Crafting and DIY Blogs

One look at Etsy, the DIY craft marketplace, proves that crafting is incredibly popular. 

Almost anything highly popular also makes an excellent blog topic, and thus there are thousands of crafting and DIY blogs.

One caveat about starting a crafting and DIY blog is that creating videos to go with your blog articles is essential.  

That’s because many crafts require many different steps to complete. 

Many people are visual learners and will have a better experience if they see something being explained on video rather than reading it in a blog. 

Indeed, many of the best craft and DIY bloggers are also popular YouTubers. 

Crafting may be one of the biggest blogging topics available simply because there are so many different DIY crafts. 

From selling your clothes to making toys, crocheting, knitting, and creating decorations and cards, the list goes on and on. 

One DIY blog niche involves activity blogs for kids that are extremely popular and blogs many parents flock to. The Top 5 crafting and DIY blogs include:

1. A Beautiful Mess– All sorts of wonderful DIY and crafting content brought to you by two talented sisters.
2. Paper and Stitch-. Started by an art teacher ten years ago and is now her main business!
3. Lovely Indeed– This blog has grown to include crafts and home decor. It started as a showcase for wedding projects.
4. Almost Makes Perfect– Crafting elevated to a higher art form.
5.  Aunt Peaches– Simple, inexpensive projects and kids’ crafts.

Personal Finance Blogs

When you consider that personal finance is something most people are never taught, it’s no surprise personal finance blogs are so popular. 

Millions of folks don’t even know the basics of finance, including how to create a budget, take out a loan, or start a retirement fund for themselves. 

Personal finance bloggers fill this massive gap, giving their followers sound financial advice and tips on making better financial decisions. 

There are finance blogs to create wealth, manage money, create multiple income streams, and start a business. 

Some of the top personal finance blogs are followed by hundreds of thousands of people who willingly exchange their time for advice that saves them money.

One of the bigger personal finance subtopics is retirement planning, which grows larger daily as the population ages.  

Blogs ideas on how to invest in the stock market are also popular, as well as blogs on investing in different foreign markets. 

One of the most popular finance blogs of all is Get Rich Slowly. 

It’s also one of the original finance blogs that started in 2006. 

Five of the top personal finance blogs include:

1. Smart Passive Income– Articles on entrepreneurship, passive income streams, and side hustles, among others.
2. I Will Teach You to Be Rich– The name says exactly what the blog aims to do.
3. Wise Bread- Advice on saving, investing, Financial Planning, and reducing debt with straightforward explanations and real-life situations.
4. Mr. Money Mustache– A wide variety of money-saving tips, tricks, and hacks
5. Money Crashers– A well-written blog from financial industry teachers and advisors.

Automobile Blogs

Automobile bloggers tap into this love for anything and everything on four wheels, bringing their followers a wide range of car and truck topics. 

Classic and collectible car blogs are hugely popular, especially the famed “muscle cars” that came out of Detroit in the 1960s and 70s. 

Customizing a car is a huge hobby, and many automobile blogs focus on customization tips, hacks, and techniques. 

There are numerous blog topics in the automobile blogging niche, from those focusing on one specific automobile brand to others that dig into the history of cars and the many revolutionary advancements made in the auto industry. 

How to repair and refurbish cars and trucks is a huge subtopic, especially among the DIY car repair crowd. 

Some blogs focus on investing in cars and flipping cars for extra cash.

Car bloggers travel the world searching for, driving, and reviewing cars, and some of the perks include invites to exclusive car shows and auctions. 

Automotive products are always given to car bloggers for reviews and mentions, and some of the top auto bloggers are world-famous. 

One of the best automotive car blogs today is Jalopnik which features a wide range of automobile topics, news, and reviews. 

One of the most trusted auto blogs today is produced by Motor Trend, whose original print magazine dates back to 1949. 

The Top 5 auto blogs include:

1. YourMechanic– The ultimate go-to blog for repairing and diagnosing auto problems.
2. Motor Verso-  Luxury, high-performance cars are the focus of this excellent blog.
3. Motor Trend– One of the best automotive blogs written by a premier American automotive magazine.
4. Car Talk– This blog is for you if you want your car to go faster.
5. Girls Auto Clinic Blog– An excellent automotive blog geared toward women who love cars. 

Wedding and Bridal Blogs

The wedding industry is one of the biggest globally, especially in the United States and many other countries, popular for honeymooners. 

Millions of people get married yearly, and thousands of wedding and bridal bloggers help them prepare for the big day! 

The sheer volume of different wedding blogs is astounding, as well as the number of subtopics in the wedding blog niche.

Many bridal blogs focus, of course, on the bride, including her all-important gown. 

Other wedding blogs focus on planning the event, what food to eat, and how to have your wedding outdoors. 

There are thousands of wedding photography blogs and even super-niche blogs about wedding cakes. 

One very popular wedding blog niche is how to throw a wedding party on a budget or have the wedding reception at home. 

The Top 5 wedding and bridal blogs include:

1. Ruffled– Advice on throwing a luxurious wedding along with DIY guides and honeymoon planning tips.
2. Love, Inc–  One of the more engaging wedding blogs specializing in inclusivity.
3. The Knot– Your One-Stop source for everything you need to know to get married.
4. Green Wedding Shoes– A fashion-focused wedding blog for everyone from the bride to the flower girls and ring bearers.
5. A Practical Wedding–  Tips, budgets, and timelines to help you get through your wedding day unscathed.

Business and Entrepreneurship Blogs

When you ask many of the most successful entrepreneurs and business people what they owe their success, many will answer with one word; reading. 

Not surprisingly, if you press further, many successful business people will admit that a lot of the information they read comes from business blogs.

Blogs that focus on starting a business from scratch are very popular,  especially today, as entrepreneurship continues to be popular. 

Many business blogs focus on changes in a specific industry, while others delve into the ins and outs of marketing, advertising, and brand building. 

As with many of the most popular blogging topics, there are hundreds of different subtopics in the business and entrepreneurship blogging space.

If you’re going to be a business and entrepreneurship blogger, one caveat is that your knowledge must be on point. 

It’s one thing, for example, to give someone advice on how to bake a cake or make their own table from scrap wood. 

It’s another altogether to advise someone on investing a quarter of a million dollars in a new business. 

Business Insider is an excellent example of a well-run, insightful, impactful business blog. 

From the latest economic news to interviews with top entrepreneurs, trend analyses, and market predictions, thousands of business people start their day with this excellent blog. 

The Top 5 Business Blogs include

1. Business Insider – The best business journalism in blog form.
2. Entrepreneur –  Interviews, book reviews, and business news.
3. Fast Company– The latest advice and Leadership ideas on growing a business.
4. Harvard Business Review – Well-written, influential articles make this a must-read business blog.
5. Small Business Trends – The top small business trends include marketing, management, and technology.

News Blogs

News today travels around the world at lightning speed. 

Depending on what news is important to you, you can read one of the thousands of news blogs that will fill you in on the latest stories and the people at their center. 

News bloggers come in a wide variety of flavors, from business news to entertainment, sports, religion, and international news, to name just a few.

Today, people are looking for news sources they can rely on to provide fair, unbiased accounts of what’s happening and every news story’s who, what, where, and why.  

The Top 4 news blogs include:

1. The Daily Beast– With over a million visitors daily, The Daily Beast is just that, a news beast.
2. Mashable– The best blog if you want the latest on culture, technology, and video entertainment.
3. HuffPost– Thousands of bloggers write for this major news blog covering every major category of news and most of the subcategories.
4. TechCrunch– All the news you need to know about the latest technological breakthroughs.

Marketing Blogs

If there’s one thing about the marketing industry, it is constantly changing. 

Trying to keep up with marketing is an almost impossible task for small and medium-sized business owners. 

To do it, many entrepreneurs and business owners look to various marketing blogs online.

Marketing bloggers engage their readers with the latest marketing trends, how to improve marketing campaigns, and the newest marketing technologies. 

There are quite a few subtopics in the marketing blogosphere, from content and digital marketing to social media, SEO, email, you name it.

Some of the most popular marketing blogs are known for taking confusing subjects and simplifying them for the layperson.

Others give solid advice on running digital marketing campaigns as well as real-world, brick-and-mortar marketing. 

There are, of course, plenty of blogs that focus on marketing trends and best practices. 

The top 4 marketing blogs include:

1. Digiday–  Covers a wide array of digital marketing topics, including online marketing, video marketing, and blog posts.
2. Content Marketing Institute–  One of the best blogs for content marketing being digitally published today.
3. Copyblogger– All you need to know about the most important part of selling online; the copy.
4. Social Media Today– An excellent blog for best business practices when marketing via social media.

The Most Popular and Most Profitable Topics to Blog About: Honorable Mentions

Today’s list of the most popular blogging topics features the best of the best, but there are so many others we felt it necessary to give several more at least a shout-out! 

Below are the best of the rest of the blog topics:

• Affiliate Marketing Blogs
• Pet Blogs
• Product Reviews Blogs
• Gaming Blogs
• Interior Design Blogs
• Personal Blogs
• Sports Blogs
• Life Hacks Blogs
• Mental Health Blogs
• Lifestyle Blogs

Now You Understand The Most Popular Blogging Topics 

Today’s list of the most popular blogging topics is relatively short compared to the absolutely massive variety of blogs you’ll find online at any given moment. 

Of course, the biggest challenge is finding the time to write and edit a blog, especially as an entrepreneur or small business owner. 

Still need a little help? 

Contact us today! 

Also, don’t forget to sign up for free and check out our free SEO resources. 

The post The Most Popular (and Most Profitable) Topics to Blog About appeared first on The HOTH.

SEO experts agree that blogging frequency should be anywhere from two to four times per week, depending on your company size and industry.  

At a maximum, a post every day is more than enough to maintain a good content marketing strategy. In fact, bloggers who publish more often are more likely to report “strong results”

The remaining article will explain and explore how often you should blog, what blogging accomplishes, the life cycles of a blog post, and everything else you need to know about blogging.  

Ready to learn? 

Let’s start with what blogging can do for your business: 

What Does Blogging Accomplish?

You may be wondering what your business can accomplish by putting hard work and time into blogging and maintaining a posting schedule with an editorial calendar. 

Many businesses agree that blogging holds value to their digital marketing strategy. In fact, 77% of bloggers report that blogging drives big results. 

Here are a few other benefits of creating blog content: 

• Posting frequency helps you rank in SERPs
• Helps you become a thought leader in your niche and boosts brand awareness
• Helps bring in website traffic
• Helps you engage with your audience

Businesses use blogs to help their website rank in search engines and to accomplish providing information that addresses pain points and questions. 

The more helpful, informative, and otherwise great content you have on your website, the more Google will view your website as an authoritative source. 

Blogging Tips 

Here are a few SEO basics you can implement into your blog right now:

Use long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer and usually more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they’re ready to purchase. Most long-tail keywords have a lower search volume but a higher conversion rate. 

The best way to use long-tail keywords is to group them into clusters that all have the same type of search intent and write a blog post that targets all of them individually. 

A few examples of long-tail keywords would be, “dentists offices near me” or “buy running shoes near me.” 

Keyword research is a huge part of SEO and something you can focus on now. Try out The HOTH’s Google Keyword Planner to help get you started!

Keep a blogging schedule 

Maintaining a blogging schedule can help your audience grow and get better results from every post. 

Here are some helpful steps to begin your blogging schedule: 

Step 1: Start by defining your goals

Step 2: Map out your schedule using apps like ClickUp or Asana

Step 3: Keep up with your schedule

Step 4: Measure your results 

Optimize your blog for mobile devices

Google states that more than 50% of search queries come from mobile devices. 

With that said, here’s how to optimize your website for mobile devices:

• Test your website using Google’s Mobile-Friendly tool
• Use a responsive WordPress theme (responsive WordPress themes mean that regardless of screen size, the website will fit the screen and present it clearly)
• Keep your website secure 
• Declutter your pages
• Improve your website’s page speeds
• Make sure your pop-ups work for mobile as well as desktop

Optimize your on-page SEO, include images, and internal links

Search engines such as Google tend to value visuals for keywords. Images and videos are among the most common visual displays that will appear on SERPs. 

To be able to achieve a spot in an image pack or a video snippet, you will want to design graphics, use original pictures and videos, and add good descriptive alt text to every visual in your blog post. 

Here are a few ways you can do this:

• Crawl your website
• Conduct an SEO audit
• Update your URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions
• Make sure your keyword is in your URLs
• Include your keyword throughout your page but don’t keyword stuff
• Track and measure your keywords and topics

Furthermore, meta descriptions, alt-text, and other elements of technical SEO are required to be able to rank highly in SERPs. If that is your goal, learning the ins and outs of search engine optimization may be required.

Here are a few other valuable content tips for blogging: 

Blog post frequency: how often should you blog?

A daily post or creating a publishing schedule on a daily blog with fresh content is a good practice for large businesses or companies trying to rank in SERPs. 

However, a new blogger or small business that is just starting out should focus on quality posts rather than the number of posts in a week. Creating high-quality content is just as important if not more as blog post frequency. 

Experts suggest publishing relevant content on a new blog post at least once a week for new bloggers or small businesses. 

Larger companies may have the time and resources to post quality blogs on a daily basis. 

Blog post length

To be realistic, there is no official “Google Approved” length for blog posts. 

Although industry leaders such as Yoast believe that your blog shouldn’t be less than 300 words. Furthermore, a HubSpot study states that writing longer posts should be the rule to blog posts rather than an exception. 

In fact, Neil Patel recommends the sweet spot of an average blog post to be anywhere from 1,400 to 1,900 words. 

Additionally, another Hubspot study found that 73% of people admit to skimming blog posts while only 27% read the entire post thoroughly. 

Blog posts should be easily read but long enough to answer any questions a reader might have. 

Post high-quality content

High-quality content is any content that is informative, authoritative, and engaging for your audience. This kind of content can help you earn more backlinks while also boosting your trustworthiness in the eyes of your audience (and Google). 

How do you know you have a piece of high-quality content?

• It answers your target audience’s questions
• It’s engaging and easy to read
• It’s optimized for search engines

Repurposing old blogs

If you have any old blog posts that are not getting any traffic hits, you can reuse them. 

Here are a few tips for repurposing old blogs:

• Turn it into a podcast episode
• Use it as a script for a video
• Turn your blog content into ebooks
• Break it down and use it for posting on social media
• Repurpose your old blog posts into guest posts
• Optimize and repost with fresh information

How to Get Content Ideas

You can use these methods to come up with your next new video. 

Here are some great tips to help you find content ideas:

• Create topic lists
• Find content gaps
• Search through blog comments and questions
• Conduct interviews
• Look at your competitors’ websites
• Answethepublic and other Google search suggestions
• Recent reviews
• Questions on your product reviews

The average lifespan of a blog post

There are many factors that come into play, however, a recent study done by ContentHacker found that the average lifespan of a blog post can be up to 2 years. 

Compared to other platform lifespans:

• Twitter: 15 – 20 minutes
• Instagram: a few days
• Pinterest: a few months to a year
• TikTok: a few minutes
• Youtube: a month

With that said, depending on your content type and platform, the lifespan of a post can differ greatly. That’s why it’s so important to keep your content optimized for the right platform. For example, if you use the same Twitter strategy for your blog, it may not turn out as successful as you would hope. 

How to Track Your Blog Posts

By keeping track of blog metrics, you will gain the insights you need to add context to your traffic data which will help you make more informed data-driven decisions. 

How do you measure the success of a blog post? 

• With pageviews
• average time spent on a page
• average pages per session
• returning visitors
• conversion rates

Google Analytics can help you keep track of your blog posts’ metrics. This method can help you keep track of which blog posts are performing well and which ones need some work. 

In Google Analytics, traffic is counted as “page views.” This is the number of times your individual blog post has been viewed. 

Here’s how to find pageview data on Analytics: 

1. Click on Behavior > Site Content > All Pages

There you will be able to see your pageview data for every webpage on your site. 

In the same area you looked at “page views” you will find the average time spent on a page or (dwell time). There you can see how long someone lingered on a piece of content. 

Additionally, Analytics will show you the average pages someone visited per session. This will tell you how many pages of your site in total someone viewed on their visit. 

Finding where your returning visitors are for your blog posts in Google Analytics is a tad more complicated. However, you should keep an eye on this metric because it affects your conversion rates.

1. Behavior > Site Content > All Pages
2. Click the “Secondary dimension” and select “User Type”

By doing this, you will add another column to your report that shows you the type of user either returning or new for each page of your website. 

Outsourcing

Let me be honest here, blogging can be really hard. In fact, 88% of businesses that do outsourcing pay people to write for them.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed just reading this article, one of the questions you should ask yourself is, “is it time to start outsourcing my blog?” 

A 2020 report found that 84% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers are outsourcing their content creation. So, you aren’t alone!

There are some things to consider when deciding whether outsourcing is right for you: 

The main points you should consider would be the relationship with your readers, the content writer you need, your budget, and if working with a ghostwriter would be right for you. 

Outsourcing can be a freelancer or an agency such as The HOTH Blogger. Agencies like these offer highly-vetted and trained expert blog writers to write your blog content for you. 

To Summarize

Now that you can answer the question “how often you should blog?”, you can grow your content production exponentially.

Want some help? Book a call with an expert now! 

HOTH Blogger uses keyword research and SEO best practices to craft blogs that drive traffic. Outsourcing can be intimidating, that’s why The HOTH does it for you with results you can trust. 

We designed this product with all the above principles in mind based on our experience working with thousands of publishers over the last few years.

Sign up for free and start using our free SEO tools and resources! 

The post How Often Should You Blog appeared first on The HOTH.

In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, 80% of marketing content goes unused by sales teams because it’s irrelevant or hard to find. 

Below, we’ll cover how you can conduct a blog audit, how to make your content audits more effective, and the best practices for SEO audits. 

Ready to send your content straight into your readers’ search results? 

Keep scrolling!

What Are the Differences Between a Blog Audit, Content Audit, and an SEO Audit?

Audits are an important part of checking in on the success of your page SEO, blogs, and overall content marketing strategy.

You can run an audit on your entire website, on specific landing pages, on your own blogs, and much more. 

Blog audits focus on the quality and relevancy of your content. 

Additionally, a blog audit is a complete review of your blog. 

It is a comprehensive check of:

• SEO
• Social sharing
• Email marketing
• Blog layout and design
• Monetization strategy

Whereas a search engine optimization (SEO) audit focuses on technical features of your website, such as your use of:

• Keywords
• Links (internal and external)
• Heading structures

Finally, a content audit catalogs and analyzes the content on your blog or website including its performance metrics. 

The Importance of SEO Blog Audits

Content audits look at how valuable your blogs are to your audience, but SEO audits are the best technique for informing you about organic traffic on your website. 

Content marketing relies heavily on SEO techniques to ensure new content is not only informative and relevant but searchable by your target audience. 

With a basic understanding of SEO, you can improve your blog’s chances of being seen by your target audience.

Blog SEO strategy includes a close look at metrics using analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. 

Many of which are built into the most popular blogging platforms, like WordPress. 

As you decide to dive deeper into SEO, you might consider investing in tools like SEMrush, which offers highly detailed analyses of the most effective SEO methods for your content. 

Or, you can use our free SEO audit tools that are just as helpful.

Understanding Google Analytics and how it plays an important role in search engine results will help you build a successful strategy, but more on that later. 

For now, one of the best ways to get started is to perform your first audit. 

How to Audit Your Blog Content

Auditing your blog content is a process that allows you to optimize every aspect of your content strategy by pinpointing its weaknesses. 

Here are a few things to consider when conducting your blog audit: 

• Know your goals
• Collect and analyze data
• Draw up an action plan
• Adjust your content marketing strategy if necessary

Your piece of content needs to rank high in relevancy, quality, and searchability. 

Content audit tools can make this process simple and fast.

WordPress is one of the most popular engines used by bloggers to publish their content on the web, and it has great auditing tools built in. 

You can use the Yoast feature, for example, to quickly search through the SEO and content quality of your blogs.

Regardless of the platform you choose, you’ll need to follow a few steps to gather information to begin auditing:

1. Use a template to organize and plan your audit

To begin your audit, you’ll need to compile a detailed list of all your posts. 

The easiest way to create this list is to export your blog’s information into a spreadsheet. 

WordPress’s Yoast plugin offers this feature, but you can also use your Google Webmaster Tools console or software like Screaming Frog or SEO Spider Tool. 

If you don’t have a suitable tool, you can find many templates online that help you organize your content. 

These templates typically recommend you list your blog titles, URLs, and analytics.

Once you have a list of all your blogs and URLs, you’ll want to create a labeling system that will help you see how effective each blog is.

Try creating a color code for this purpose that includes labels for keeping a post as-is, improving it, or deleting it.

Now, you can focus on pinpointing which blogs need attention.

2. Check the analytics

Content auditing tools like Yoast on WordPress will help you quickly identify which posts need attention. 

You’ll be able to see whether a blog needs work by glancing at whether it is marked by a red, yellow, or green dot respectively.

If you have the luxury of a content auditing tool like Yoast, click on each post to see how it ranks the blog according to different categories. 

Whether your analysis is automatic or manual, you’ll now be able to create a to-do list using the color coding you’ve created for your spreadsheet.

3. Learn from your mistakes

If you’re a beginner, your first blog audit is an extremely powerful way to learn about SEO, creating quality content, and improving your strategy.

Many bloggers realize that their preferred types of content and topics have changed over time with their goals and interests. 

Blogs you published years ago may no longer be relevant. 

Seeing what’s driving in new customers will also help you redirect your efforts to focus on those topics. 

Handy Blog Audit Checklist

Audits range from simple to in-depth, and it’s up to you to decide based on time commitment and experience.

Follow these tasks step-by-step to see how effective your blog is within your content marketing strategy:

Intentional content creation

Intentional content creation means staying in touch with what’s working in your target market.  

You want to make sure you’re always delivering the content that your audience really wants. 

Further, it means creating thoughtful, high-quality posts that go beyond keyword-stuffing (the dreaded act of unnaturally using as many keywords as possible to over-inflate your post’s importance in search results). 

The best blog audit process will not only look for SEO markers and user behavior analytics, but deeply tap into which topics and content types are working the most effectively and refining your strategy.

Setting target keywords

Picking the right keywords for your content is a huge part of reaching your ideal audience. 

In many content management platforms–especially in WordPress–you’ll be able to set a target keyword as the guide for your blog audit.

For an auditing tool, the target keyword helps in determining if you’ve written relevant and quality content. 

For search engines, keywords help the algorithms deliver relevant posts to searchers.

Make sure every one of your blogs has a target keyword. 

Then, ensure it appears in your title, introduction, several headings, and conclusion, as well as interspersed throughout the body of your content. 

You can also choose several secondary keywords to interspersed throughout your content.

Heading structures

Choosing the right heading categories for the sections of your content is important to how search engines read your content and how readers find what they need. 

Correctly identifying which headers are Heading 1, 2, 3, and so on will help properly order the importance of the information and create a neat outline for skimmers.

Meta description, titles, and tags

Most content management platforms will allow you to set up SEO assets, such as search result titles, meta descriptions, tags, and more. 

Instead of allowing search engines to create them, you’ll want to take charge and write your own. 

In fact, Google rewrites meta descriptions over 70% of the time, according to a recent study examining search results for 30,000 keywords.

You can write your SEO title differently than the title of your blog, and often, it’s best that you do. 

Keep your audience in mind by asking yourself how you can be both concise and answer the question that a searcher has typed in the search bar.

Meta descriptions are the short blurb that shows up under the title of your search result, so make sure the text captures the topic discussed. 

Experienced bloggers can play with meta tags and other advanced features that help search engines best categorize their content.

Building up backlinks

Backlinks are links published on other sites that direct readers to your content. 

Building up backlinks tells search engines that your site is a reliable, trustworthy source for valuable content.

While gaining backlinks isn’t always in your control, you can try including links to your blogs in social media posts and asking others to share your content. 

This may also boost your conversion rate in ranking in SERPs.  

Check your backlinks with backlink checker tools and see if you’ll need to be more active in building your list.

Incorporating internal links

Internal links are links you’ve incorporated into your content that direct readers to your content in other places.

For example, include links to other relevant blog posts or landing pages on your site so that readers can become engaged and stay on your website longer. 

They might even find a product they like enough to buy.

Sticking to word count

Word count is hugely important to SEO and to your audience. 

Studies have shown that specific word count ranges are more effective than others for both ranking high in search results and keeping readers engaged. 

Most importantly, make sure every word you include is valuable. Don’t write more just because of a metric, but don’t cut down too much if what you’re writing is important to your readers.

Many times, long-form content is more effective, but make sure to do your research on your topic and niche.

Opt-ins and social shares

Most content marketers go beyond writing blog posts as their strategy. 

You probably also have email marketing, social media accounts, and other channels of engagement. 

Make sure any social share buttons and opt-ins are easily available for old and new visitors to choose for engagement. 

Also, make sure you’ve optimized the way your blogs show up on social posts.

Look into your bounce rate and user behavior

Finally, look at how your visitors typically behave when viewing your content. 

How long they spend on your site and how many times they click on links are great indicators of whether your blogs are effective.

Bounce rate is an important number to check: it will tell you if your visitors immediately leave after they arrive rather than interacting with your site.

Perform an Expert Blog Audit

With our handy blog audit checklist and a better grasp of best practices for SEO and content creation, you’ll drive more traffic and engagement on your site than ever before. 

Make sure to take your time with each task, keeping in mind that a great blog audit is time-consuming and educational. 

For more help in improving your site’s performance, whether that’s with content creation, SEO, or other marketing tactics, the HOTH is here to help.

Schedule a call today with our digital marketing consultants to learn more.

The post Conducting a Blog Audit: Content Audits, SEO Audits, and Why They Matter appeared first on The HOTH.

But nothing helps more than data collected with tracking tools when it comes to effectively planning, producing, and delivering content at scale.

Content analytics is like a navigator helping you find or correct your course. It enables you to make more data-driven decisions, create the content that your audience craves, and deliver it across their favorite channels.

The good news is that content analytics isn’t that intimidating or confusing, even though it involves metrics, algorithms, and custom reports. You can measure and learn from the success of your content without being a trained data scientist, that is if you know what to look for.

Let’s break it down.

What Is Content Analytics?

Creating stellar content is just half the battle. You also need to understand how much of it you should produce, how to package it, and how to make sure it gets noticed. That’s where content analytics comes in.

Content analytics, also known as content intelligence, allows marketers and content creators to gain insights into how users interact with their content. It’s not just about measuring likes and shares — it’s about understanding user behavior and sentiment.

Content analytics isn’t synonymous with web analytics — they are two slightly different processes that complement each other. Let’s compare them to see the differences more clearly:

In other words, content analytics helps you generate insights and find out whether you produce diverse and impactful content. Unique data sets and analytics help uncover how your audience discovers and engages with your blog articles, videos, social media posts, podcasts, and other assets.

Content analytics goes hand in hand with SEO analytics because optimizing for search means creating highly relevant content. If your audience finds your blog valuable and unique, chances are, search engines will love it, too (as long as your content is based on robust keyword research, and meets the bar for on-page optimization).

Why Do You Need Content Analytics?

Global ad spending is growing rapidly, and so are content budgets. Yet almost half of the interviewed marketers say that they don’t fully know how their content is performing. And around 70% make content strategy decisions relying on requests from other teams rather than content intelligence tools.

How come so many companies keep investing in content creation but don’t measure its performance and simply hope for the best? The main reason is that common web analytics tools aren’t very approachable and aren’t exactly content-centric.

But “publish and pray” isn’t a viable strategy — you could be throwing your money out the window without knowing it. What you need is user-friendly content tracking software that will allow you to have a look behind the curtains and see whether your efforts pay off.

Here are the key benefits of content analytics:

1. Build a long-term content strategy: Develop a clear understanding of where you’re going and how you can reach new milestones.
2. Understand your target audience better: Find out whether you need to update your buyer personas or reshape your approach to content creation.
3. Personalize your content: Understand what resonates with different segments of your audience.
4. Cater to your audience’s needs: Share insights, observations, tips, or manuals that will help them achieve their goals.
5. Outpace your competition: Be more flexible and attentive when it comes to what your target audience wants.
6. Save time and resources: Find out what your audience expects from you instead of going in blind and wasting money.
7. Fill the gaps in your content plan: Try out new content types, formats, and ideas that your current plan is missing.
8. Experiment with confidence: Focus on creating content pieces that you know are going to grab attention.
9. Set clear goals and realistic expectations: Track key content-related metrics to see your actual progress as well as your weak spots.

As you can see, content intelligence can be incredibly useful not only for marketers and content creators but also for SEO experts, strategists, and editors. It allows you to reclaim control, map your content more effectively, and finally reap the fruits of your labor.

Key Content Metrics and Reports That Will Help You Break Down Content Performance

Traditional metrics such as page views or social shares don’t give you enough data on how real users consume and interact with your content pieces. You need to take a look under the hood by tracking more subtle metrics.

These content metrics will give you more clarity on how well your content pieces are performing and what can be improved:

• Engaged time — how much time users spend actively interacting with your piece. This includes scrolling, clicking, watching, etc.
• Session duration — how much time they spend on your website in general and whether they make it to your blog at all.
• Bounce rates — what percentage of your visitors on specific pages leave without engaging with further content.
• Unique visitors — how many new readers your content attracts.
• Returning visitors — how many loyal readers you have.
• Off-site interactions — how users react to your content across your social media channels.
• Social referrals — how many visitors discover your website through social media platforms.
• Top-performing authors — who creates the most effective content for your brand.
• Device breakdown — where people read your content.
• Conversion rates — which content pieces directly drive sales.
• Evergreen content — which posts attract attention long after they’ve been published.
• Micro-conversions — sign-ups, registrations, filled-out forms, internal link clicks, or any other expressions of purchasing intent.
• Post-click engagement — how far your visitors scroll and how interested they are in discovering more of your content.

Some content performance platforms allow you to set custom metrics and get more granular data. You can compare week-over-week, month-over-month, or quarter-over-quarter stats to see your progress and make predictions.

How To Use Content Analytics To Improve Engagement and Conversions

Almost 40% of marketers acknowledge that their biggest challenge with content is low user engagement. Partly because of that, more than 50% of companies don’t tie their revenue goals to content at all. Clearly, something has to change.

Content analysis isn’t just about finding better topics or headlines. It helps you understand user behavior patterns and preferences. Armed with that knowledge, you’ll be able to tap into their emotions and encourage them to engage with your blog posts, articles, and even sales emails.

Content analytics allows you to find out:

• How often you should be creating and publishing content
• When your audience is the most active and likely to interact with content
• How your audience feels about your content
• What kind of content they are more likely to read, share, or download
• Which CTAs they are more likely to react to
• Which content types and formats they prefer
• What kind of content they tend to skip

In short, content intelligence tools show you what your audience wants to read and how often. They process tons of user data to help you understand how to push the right buttons and get the desired response.

The best thing about content analytics is that you can generate clear, insightful reports that contain all the key content-related metrics and share them with other teams, decision-makers, or stakeholders. Intuitive reporting allows you to articulate your content decisions, demonstrate your success, and get everyone in your organization on the same page.

4 Content Analytics Software Examples

As we have established, measuring content in Google Analytics isn’t always enough — it doesn’t give you a full range of content performance metrics. That’s why we’ve collected a few content analytics tools that can help you dive deeper into the subject.

State-of-the-art content analytics tools can be pricey because a lot of research, tracking, and processing is happening behind the scenes. But in return, you get unprecedented insights, so it’s an investment well worth making (if you’re serious about content marketing).

That’s why you don’t have to limit yourself to one tool, either. For example, you can use one solution for tracking your content and a more budget-friendly tool for SEO optimization.

#1. Parse.ly

This software promises “instant content insights without the hassle” and does exactly that. It’s built for content managers, marketers, creators, analysts, and developers to help them understand content performance and make data-driven decisions.

Parse.ly lets you see a list of resources and apps sending traffic your way. It also visualizes the performance of your content across all your channels. You can track various content types, from articles and landing pages to image galleries and podcasts. Parse.ly can also give you personalized recommendations on how to increase readership.

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The software has plug-and-play integrations for the most popular CMSs, but it’s also possible to integrate it with any website or CMS using a tracking pixel. Parse.ly doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can get a personalized demo to make sure it’s a good fit.

#2. Clearscope

Clearscope is an AI-powered SEO optimization platform. It helps you target the right keywords and make your content more relevant, and that’s a sure way to get more organic traffic and engagement.

Clearscope is another kind of content analysis software — it’s used for analyzing pieces before they go live. The tool gives you detailed recommendations and suggests relevant words and phrases so that you can make your content more search-engine friendly.

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The software makes it easy for teams to collaborate and carry out multi-stage review processes. You can also share Clearscope reports by just sending a link.

The platform is extremely user-friendly and caters to a wide audience — there are pricing plans for small businesses and individual creators, big teams, and enterprises. Upon sign-up, you get free live training and onboarding. You can seamlessly switch between plans once you hit the limits of the basic plan.

#3. LiveSession

You can use this analytics software to understand your visitors’ behavior and increase conversion rates. It’s a good match if you want to analyze not just blog posts but whole landing pages or websites. LiveSession will show you where your visitors get stuck or bored and what steals their focus.

While Google Analytics shows usage patterns and data averages, this tool also allows you to record sessions and create click maps to register more subtle things like rage clicks or focal points.

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Even though it’s a web analytics and UX testing tool, it can help you make informed content marketing decisions and improve your site’s user experience. You can gently look over your visitor’s shoulder and observe how they interact with your content in real-time.

LiveSession offers tailored plans for businesses of all sizes. In addition, the platform has a free basic plan and a free 14-day trial.

#4. Chartbeat

Chartbeat is intended for large and mid-sized companies, but small businesses can also benefit from using it, especially if they heavily rely on content to acquire new customers and don’t want to leave it to chance.

For starters, Chartbeat allows you to test images and headlines to find a winning formula:

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You can track how your readers are consuming your content across platforms, channels, and devices and establish what engages them the most. And it’s not just historical data — you can also see how your audience is connecting with your new content in real-time. There are dozens of other advanced metrics that you can track, such as engaged time or loyal visitors.

In addition, Chartbeat provides you with customizable and flexible reporting. Each report contains auto-generated insights to help you identify noteworthy patterns and trends in your audience data.

You can get a demo to see Chartbeat in action. The platform offers core and premium bundles.

Use Content Analytics To Strategize; We’ll Do the Rest

Do you want to improve your SEO game without diving into complex topics and formulas? Check out HOTH X, our combined SEO and content marketing service. It’s crafted specifically for busy marketers, executives, agencies, and business owners wishing to increase their traffic and rankings.

Book a call to learn more about HOTH X. We’ll connect you with an SEO expert who will design a customized campaign for you. They will help you pick the right keywords, optimize your website, get strong backlinks, and will even create high-performing content for you.

On top of that, we’ll be sending you transparent reports showing how your SEO campaign is progressing.

The post Content Analytics: Publish, Measure, Repeat appeared first on The HOTH.

According to Demand Metric, content marketing cost 62% less than traditional marketing and generates 3 times as many leads. It’s no surprise that 90% of organizations use content marketing as part of their marketing efforts and that it continues to grow in popularity.

There are many questions that business owners ask themselves such as:

• What do you do if you are in a “boring” niche?
• Does content marketing work for “boring” industries?
• Will people actually read your content if you write it?
• Will it attract links, social shares, and boost long-term traffic and sales?

(Disclamer: we don’t mean to call yours, or any, industry downright “boring,” but when you’re writing content for a niche that doesn’t automatically drive engagement, there can be difficulties!)

The good news is that if you follow the ideas presented in this article, the answer is a resounding yes! Content creation can work for you even if you have a difficult niche, you just need to pick the right target audience. 

Let me show you a few ways you can create content niche content for great SEO marketing results!

Ready? Let’s do this!

What Problems Do Your Customers Have?

The first important thing to remember is that content isn’t boring if it solves a problem for a specific audience. 

For example, an article about cleaning your pool might be less exciting than “How to Make a Zillion Dollars,” but when you have friends coming over to your pool party on Friday, and the pool is really dirty, that niche content becomes really interesting, super fast.

When you write informative content that solves the problems or answers the questions of your prospects, your content becomes more valuable to your audience and to you as the content creator. 

Start by defining your customer profile’s search intent and thinking about what type of information your customer might be looking for.

Here are a few ways to get content ideas:

• Write a list of questions you get asked every day.
• Write a list of common misconceptions that people have about buying your product or service.
• Visit forums and communities where people are asking about your topic and see what questions are being asked.
• Use Answer The Public to find questions that are popular.

Turn all these ideas into a piece of content! These concepts can boost the performance of your  content marketing strategy simply by answering the questions your target audience asks. It can also keep your audience engaged and increase your organic traffic for your specific niche.

Help Your Audience Achieve A Result

Another way to look at creating content is to find out what end result customers want and show them how to get it.

A great example of turning a seemingly boring niche idea into a successful piece of content would be “lawn care.” 

The lawn care brand Toro has racked up a nice 2.6 MILLION views with this video on lawn striping.

Toro understood that customers wanted their lawns to look amazing, so they produced this video showing how to achieve that result, and gained millions of views in the process.

The point is to help your target audience achieve a result, regardless of how difficult or unentertaining that result is. In fact, a case study by BrightEdge states that 60% of online experiences happen with a single search. 

That means, that regardless of what the question is, most people just Google it. That leaves a huge demographic available to you, even if your niche is a little less trendy.

Conduct Original Research

One type of content that performs well in any niche is original research, which can be created by gathering and analyzing data on a topic or conducting surveys. People love research and data studies because they provide strong support to back up ideas.  

In fact, according to Dragon Search Marketing, 61% of customers said they were more likely to buy from a company that created interesting custom content.

Although many content marketers want to create more data-driven content for search engines, many businesses struggle with this type of content. EMarketer presented several studies which showed that businesses have difficulty with data management and performing data analysis. 

Research and data-driven content can also take longer and require more resources to produce. Due to the resources required, research and data-driven content is scarcer and thus more popular among readers.

Before creating data-driven content for your digital marketing strategy, also ask yourself if you have access to content assets that your competitors lack. 

For example, if you have built up a blog readership that is interested in your niche topic, you could survey them to create original content. Or you may be able to analyze your customer data to find unique insights into your market.

Moz has been very successful with this tactic and one example is their Local Search Rankings Factors survey. In this study, they interview industry experts about the local search ranking factors. They release a new survey each year so that they can continue creating content and providing up-to-date information.

Another example of original research is Orbit Media’s annual blogger survey. Andy Crestodina sends a survey to over 1,000 bloggers to find useful data like how often bloggers write and promote their content. According to our Backlink Checker, the page has over 3,700 backlinks from over 1,000 domains.

Add A Story

Another way to create quality content for a boring niche is to create content that entertains. Not only do you need the right type of keyword research and SEO basics, but you need great content. Entertainment-related content can result in a much larger reach in some cases, which can be great for branding and driving awareness of your business. 

Alex Turnbull ran an experiment where he created a blog post and added a story to the beginning of it. 

He split tested the version with the story at the beginning against a version with no story and the version with the story had around 300% more readers and over 500% more time on the page than the version without the story. This proves groups of people like entertainment! 

Stories are so powerful that one of Twitter’s co-founders started a called Medium, a social media blogging platform for people to share their stories and a great niche market. The platform grew to 25 million users and had an estimated $400 million net worth in 2015.

Here are a couple of stories that did really well on the platform: 

Stephanie St Claire, a business coach, wrote this blog post sharing 11 things she wished she had learned before starting her business. She starts off with her entrepreneur story and then shares lessons she learned. The post got upvoted over 17,000 times.

Another story that did well was Naoki Hiroshima’s story about how he lost his $50,000 social media platform Twitter name to scammers in 2014. Even though he only published one blog post on Medium, that post gained him 2.8k followers on the platform.

You’ll also want to write compelling blog headlines to attract readers. Try our FREE Headline Title Generator to help you create the best headline! 

Stories are a powerful tool for making content more engaging, even in boring niches.

Focus on Entertaining Your Audience

Entertainment is so powerful that some businesses choose to focus their content on creating entertainment value rather than education. Here are some examples of boring products that got massive results by getting creative.

• Let me use Squatty Potty LLC as an example. This company started as a small family business in Utah. They offer a wide range of Squatty Potty toilet stools for toddlers. Seems like a topic not too many people want to talk about. However, by creating some type of controversy in their marketing it created a seemingly boring topic and created something interesting and entertaining. With well over 40 million subscribers on Youtube, it proves that walking on thin ice can work for some businesses. Just remember that controversial advertisement needs to be well thought out and planned right, so your company doesn’t spiral downhill. 
• The Dollar Shave Club is another example of using entertainment as a marketing tool. In 2012, this company consisted of 10 employees and needed to boost its brand to be able to compete in such a saturated market. They took to Youtube and created an ad that reached over 27 million views. 10 years later, the company was sold for 1 billion dollars.

Notice that in all of the above examples, the focus was more on using entertainment value to bring attention and awareness, versus just promoting the product itself.

Here are a couple of examples of entertaining content: 

Make a video, podcast, or infographic

Most people these days look for products or services online to get brand information such as trustworthiness or product reviews. With that said, most people want to see these products in action with content such as videos rather than written material. 

In fact, videos are 50 times more likely to get organic rankings than plain text results alone. Another interesting statistic is that 62% of Gen Z and Millennials say they want more visual search results than any other new technology. 

Another great way to make your content entertaining is to create a podcast! 78% of people know what a podcast is, and 24% of people listen to podcasts weekly. 45% of podcast listeners have a monthly income over $75K and 50% of all U.S. households are fans of podcasts. This audio marketing campaign alone may increase your conversion rate and sales just by talking about your products and services! 

As an extra tip, you could also bring some color to your content by creating fun illustrations or infographics.

In addition, did you know that 67% of B2B marketers are currently creating infographics and around 32% of them say that images and other visuals are one of the most important forms of content for their business? People love to see their brands create great visual content! 

Hire An Expert

Still can’t figure out a way to make your niche content interesting?

Try hiring an expert to do it for you. Actually, did you know that 61% of companies have indicated they outsource content marketing work to either agencies or freelancers? There’s no shame in getting professionals to do it for you!

Often times “getting out of your own head” and hiring someone can help get the train rolling.

When you hire an expert, you can drastically improve your content because the expert can weave together insights that you may have not considered!

Niche Content Is the Way to Go

Even if you’re in an industry or small business that’s typically considered boring, you can still write killer niche content that is effective in getting traffic.

Remember that content is not boring for people who are looking for solutions to their problems, informs, or entertains them.

If you’d like some help creating great content for your brand, you might be interested in our HOTH Blogger service!

Don’t forget to sign up for free and schedule a quick call to one of our search engine optimization experts to get the ball rolling!

The post How To Create Content For Boring or Difficult Niches appeared first on The HOTH.

Or maybe the blog post topics you’ve published haven’t taken off like you thought they would?

If you’re wondering what to write about, you’re about to learn how to find great blog ideas by validating the topics ahead of time in this step-by-step guide!

There are some simple strategies you can do to find great blog topics that will definitely work – before you even start writing.

Your audience will actually care about and want to read your content.

This can lead to more engagement, higher traffic, and more sales!

We use many of these techniques when coming up with killer topic ideas for our own blog, as well as with our product HOTH Blogger.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to:

1. Define Your Target Avatar
2. Get 1000+ Topic Ideas In Less Than 5 Min (Including Target Keywords!)
3. Find HOT Trending Topics
4. Get 60+ Blog Post Angles & Ideas For Higher Engagement

Let’s get into it!

Start By Defining Your Audience Avatar

The first part of creating any blogging content strategy is to start by defining the avatar or persona of the person you’re writing to.

Think about your perfect customer and the kinds of problems they have.

We want to really hone in on who this person is, especially what kinds of things they would be interested in and be searching for online.

For us, our target customer is someone who wants help with SEO, so we write answers to the questions we get asked all the time:

Avatar: John needs link building to increase his traffic

• What kind of SEO strategy should I use?
• How can I prevent penguin penalties?
• What’s the easiest way to do keyword research?

Writing blog posts on these kinds of topics will attract a general, but interested audience.

Notice we don’t write about “what is SEO” because we generally don’t want to try to “sell” anyone on SEO. Instead, we want customers that already know about SEO and its value and just want help getting it done.

When we define our customer a bit more, our best customer is an SEO agency or an SEO consultant.

So we think about what kinds of questions or problems SEO agencies would run into, and we write articles about that:

Avatar: Andy, a manager at an SEO Agency

• How To Get SEO Leads
• How To Double Your SEO Business

These kinds of articles are more specific, and they are meant to attract our perfect customer.

When you’re creating your customer avatar, try to really hone in on who your perfect customer is.

Then think about the kinds of problems or questions they have that they would search for online. You should craft your articles based on this.

Think about the customer path:

• What do they need to know before they use your product or service?
• What other types of products/services would they be interested in?
• What kinds of questions do they ask every time before purchasing?
• What kinds of problems/doubts/fears would prevent them from purchasing?

This can give you a great starting point for doing research!

SEO Driven Topic Research

SEO can be a very powerful factor to consider when coming up with popular blog post ideas. Every blog post you write is a chance to rank for new keywords, new topics, and bring in your target customer.

We like to take an SEO-first approach to writing content by first identifying potential target keywords, then creating a topic around them. Our free Blog Topic Generator can help with brainstorming.

That’s not to say that every blog post NEEDs to be SEO driven – There are lots of reasons to write non-SEO-driven content like news, personal stories, roundups, fun articles, etc. However, if you want consistent traffic over time, taking an SEO-driven approach can be extremely valuable.

So what’s the easiest and fastest method for generating a HUGE list of killer keywords that you can target?

We are absolutely in love with doing what’s called a competitive gap analysis. Essentially, a competitive gap analysis looks at what your top competitors are ranking for that you are not. Usually, with this process, we can generate a list of over 1000+ keywords to target in a few minutes!

Here’s how to do it:

How to Get 1000+ Keyword Ideas With A Competitive Gap Analysis

The first step is to find your top competitors in search. Think about companies that sell the same products you do, or sell to the same audience you do. Another good way to find competitors is to think about who is putting out the best content in your industry.

Once you have your list of competitors, you can hop over to The HOTH’s keyword gap analysis tool and put in the competitors along with your domain name.

After you’re done, our tool will produce a list of the top keywords that your competitors are ranking for that you are not!

There are a few tips to tweaking this to make it work:

• If you are getting generic results, try putting in smaller or more niche-specific competitor sites. If you put in a very large site, it can often rank for too many keywords and will make your keyword gap unusable.
• Make sure you put in competitors that actually rank and have good content – Don’t just put in a competitor that you’re familiar with, put in a competitor that is competing in search.
• Filter the list by CPC – We like to go after terms that have a CPC cost associated to validate that they are worthwhile keywords to go after.

You’ll need to scrutinize this list and remove keywords that are difficult, have low search volume, or are not useful.

After you’re done, our tool will produce a list of the top keywords that your competitors are ranking for that you are not!

There are a few tips for tweaking this to make it work:

• If you are getting generic results, try putting in smaller or more niche-specific competitor sites. If you put in a very large site, it can often rank for too many keywords and will make your keyword gap unusable.
• Make sure you put in competitors that actually rank and have good content – Don’t just put in a competitor that you’re familiar with, put in a competitor that is competing in search.
• Filter the list by CPC – We like to go after terms that have a CPC cost associated to validate that they are worthwhile keywords to go after.

You’ll need to scrutinize this list and remove keywords that are difficult, have low search volume, or are not useful.

When you’re done, take a look at the top-ranking content for your target keyword and make a better version of it!

How to tap into your customers’ questions with answer the public

A lot of great blog post topics answer questions people are asking in search engines.

With Answer the Public, you can input your target keyword and generate a list of all the common questions being asked about it in Google.

This is perfect, because we’re trying to find out questions/topics we can write articles on, and this will tell us what kinds of questions people are typing in.

For instance, if you have to write an article about the topic of masonry paint, how would you make that interesting?

1. Go to Answer the Public here, and type in masonry paint.

2. Check out the answers.

Answer the Public will give you all sorts of ways to look at the scraped results. You’ll want to click on ‘data’ and just check out what came up.

They have sections for questions, prepositions, and alphabetical. Any one of these sections could bring in cool topic ideas, so check them all out.

Here’s one I found that looks interesting – “masonry paint for fireplaces”.

By using answer the public you can quickly get a list of ideas or angles about your main keyword! This is a great way to start searching for what your audience cares about!

Trending Topics Driven Blog Ideas

It can also be useful to take a look at what’s trending. By covering hot stories or topics, you can be at the forefront of new trends.

Here are a few ways to keep your ear to the ground for HOT topics!

Find HOT trending topics & seed content with Reddit

Reddit is AWESOME for finding ideas.

Here’s why:

1. There is a subreddit for almost everything (including giraffes with Joseph Gorden Levitt’s face photoshopped onto them)
2. Users are active and vote up what they care about (thanks for doing the work for me, dudes!)
3. It’s constantly up to date with trending topics
4. It’s easy to see what’s popular by using the now, week, month, year, and all-time filters
5. The comments section is often GOLD for finding seed content

Here’s how to use Reddit for blog topic ideas:

1. Find your subreddit by searching Reddit or by using Snoop Snoo.
2. Check out the topics.

For more active subreddits, you may find topics on the default view. For subreddits that are not as active, you may have to sort by top month, year, or all time.

3. Check out the comments section.

This can be GOLD when an expert drops knowledge bombs or extra resources.

You can find either seed content, more resources, or ideas in there too!

4. Bonus – Check out the sidebar of the subreddit.

Oftentimes, there are links to guides that have already been written or popular subjects in that niche. You can find links to awesome resources/tools here.

Keep up with trending topics & news with an RSS aggregator

Finally, another way to keep track of what’s popular going forward is to take the subreddits, sites, competitors, etc that you found in this research and create a Feedly out of them.

Feedly is an RSS aggregator that will let you quickly see what type of content is coming up in your niche.

Here’s how:

1. Sign up for Feedly.
2. Search for or add RSS feeds of sites in your niche.

You can find sites in your niche by visiting AllTop or by simply searching Google.

3. Keep an eye on trending topics.

Feedly will give you a “share” score right beside the article name, so you can easily identify what’s getting shared.

This is a great way to keep your blog current and even take advantage of new topics/keywords that aren’t showing up in keyword planner yet.

Now you have some simple, yet advanced methods for figuring out blog topics that will work for you.

The next step is to use the list below to get some solid ideas to write about.

60+ Ideas For Successful Blog Posts

Now that we covered how to find hot ideas and keywords, let’s talk about the style of post that you’re going to write. Below we list over 60+ types of blog posts to start getting your creative juices flowing.

With the ultimate list of blog post ideas here, you’ll never be short on topics to write about. Create some linkable assets for your site that naturally attract backlinks.

Take 30 minutes to come up with an interactive content idea for each list item now, and you have all of the blog content ideas you need for a year!

Let’s get into it!

Useful Blog Post Ideas

Valuable blog posts improve your audience’s life. It’s why you read your favorite blog.

Informative posts position you as an authority on the topic while making your audience like and trust you. So, be useful!

1. List post

List posts, known as “listicles” are probably the most common type of post. Why? Because they’re useful and people enjoy reading them! 

Create a great list of anything that the audience in your niche would find valuable or interesting. For example, this post you’re reading is a list of blog topics to write about, because content marketing is important for SEO. 

Another idea for listicles is creating a list of resources, such as a list of Amazon Kindle books or free resources your audience can download for information on your industry.

2. “How to” post

A How-To Post is one you’ll find yourself using often and is a good starting point for new bloggers. Break down an outcome into steps. Make it easy to understand by including images, videos, and/or audio. Example: How To Make A YouTube Video

3. Case study post

A case study looks at a project, process, and result in more of a story-driven format. Try using it to highlight the success of your product or service. Example: SEO Case Studies

4. Problem/solution post

Identify a problem in your post’s title, headline, and introduction.

Then use the rest of the post to present the solution to that problem.

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This type of post can also be framed as a “How-To,” an Ultimate Guide, or another angle.

5. Beginner’s guide post

Creating a beginner’s guide for a specific task or skill can be helpful for those interested in expanding their knowledge. For example ‘A Beginner’s Guide to WordPress.” As always, tailor your beginner’s guide to the  target audience of your blog

6. The morning routine post

A post about your morning routine could be funny and interesting to many people, especially if you’re describing how to solve issues your audience generally has in the mornings.

For example:  “10 Things to do for a Perfect Morning Routine”

7. FAQ post

People often search their questions on Google and other search engines.

An FAQ post lets you create a piece of content answering those questions.

If you have a more detailed answer to a question, link to that post from your FAQ.

8. YouTube video cut-up post

You can do this for your own video or a popular video made by someone else.

Turn the video into a blog post of text and images with the equivalent information.

Embed the video, take screenshots and add text.

9. Questions to ask post

This post recommends questions that your audience should ask but usually don’t.

It’s a good way to inform and educate. You can format it like an FAQ.

10. Research post

Publishing a study you’ve conducted can get you referral traffic through social shares and marketing links.

Find a good angle and back it up with real data.

11. Checklist post

This type of post gives your audience a list of action steps to take. Crossing items off a list is engaging.

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Want the ultimate SEO strategy template? We hold back nothing in this to-the-point guide on getting your site ranked!

12. Ultimate guide post

An ultimate guide should be a truly epic post on a topic.

It can be a tutorial or a definitive source of information on a topic.

For example, we have a guide on blogger outreach for guest posts and influencer marketing: blogger-outreach

13. Definition post

If people are searching for “What is [topic]?” you can provide a post answering that question for them.

It can even be your brand.

14. Series post

Separate a topic into a series of posts. Link them together as they get published.

15. Statistical post

Similar to a research post, you publish relevant numbers around your blog’s topic.

If you can’t come up with internal statistics for an interesting post, you can combine statistics from multiple posts and curate them into yours. Just be sure to give credit where it’s due.

Amazing New SEO Case Studies: 842.4%+ Increase In Traffic!

Authoritative Blog Post Ideas

You can leverage someone else’s authority by promoting them on your blog.

To get promoted by other people and brands, be generous by first promoting them.

Just be sure to do some blogger outreach and let them know they appeared in your article.

16. Link roundup

Are you reading other blogs?

If you’re regularly consuming content, curate the best pieces of content around a topic into a list your audience would be interested in.

Add a description and link for each piece and you’re done!

17. Quote post

Frame a topic or ask a question, then aggregate them into a list of quotes from related influencers.

Quotes from movers and shakers are a great way to whip up a quick post. You can also create a list of inspirational quotes from celebrities and contemporary wisdom for those in your industry. These posts have a lot of shareable material for social media if the quotes resonate with your audience’s feelings.

18. Crowdsourced post

You can reach out to influencers to get a unique quote from each of them.

Email 10 influencers or so asking them to answer a question in 100 words or less.

19. Interview post

Have you thought about interviewing someone?

You’d be surprised at who might be willing to give you an interview.

Set up a call that you record through an app like Zoom or Skype.

Transcribe the interview (or have it transcribed for you) and publish the video interview with the transcription below it.

For example:

“We contacted 10 entrepreneurs on how to build a successful business”

20. The best “_” post

Similar to a link roundup, but with more of a reviewer’s tone to the writing.

Create a list of the best tools, book reviews, resources, or other content with a description, main takeaways, and link for each.

This can lead to more engagement, higher traffic, and more sales! 

21. The best “_” to follow post

Create a list of your favorite things. Such as events, influencers, podcasts, Facebook groups, blogs, Youtube channels, etc. for your audience to follow.

Add links to the website, social media channels, or any relevant links to direct your audience to.

22. Profile post

You can write a magazine-style profile of a relevant influencer.

Contact them to make sure they know you’ve profiled them.

Chances are, they’ll share it with their network!

23. Viral content aggregator post

Identify new content around a topic that’s been getting a lot of social shares.

Curate it into one post of all that’s going viral during the past week or month for that topic.

24. Weekly pick post

Make a short blog post that details a piece of content, resource or tool that your audience might find valuable.

It can be something on your site or another site. It’s a chance to highlight a single thing your audience might like to see.

Fun Blog Post Ideas

You can entertain people with your creative blogging ideas! It’s hard but if you can do it right you’ll get some very engaged readers.

Here are some fun blog post ideas.

25. Narrative post

Storytelling is a fantastic way to keep your reader’s attention.

The surprising secret to creating a million dollar a month business that you love.

26. Infographic post

An infographic post provides visitors with information in a fun and easy-to-read way that they can even download for later use. If it’s beautiful enough, they might even share it on LinkedIn, Pinterest, or even Instagram.

For example: ’3 Useful Email Marketing Hacks Infographic”.

27. Compilation post

​​A compilation post assembles an index of several posts or post ideas and presents them to the audience. 

In fact, this post itself could be considered a compilation example, compiling a list of possible ideas and examples for each entry!

28. Satirical post

Can you make people laugh through satire? Use irony or hyperbole for timely topics and this can work well.

For example, our 2018 April Fool’s post recommended cat-related content for Google’s algorithm. Some people even believed what they read!

Shocking New Google Ranking Factor Revealed, Entire SEO Industry Transforms Overnight

29. Meme post

Memes are humorous viral images or videos that get shared on the web.

We love memes here at The HOTH, we sprinkle them in our blog posts sometimes.

You might not want to publish a post that is just a single meme, but a curated meme roundup around a theme could be a great post.

30. Illustrated post

A comic or illustration can get your audience giggling and thinking at the same time.

Check out this example:

branded content

31. Parody post

Similar to a satirical post. You can imitate a widely known brand or person in your niche.

You can turn them into a funny caricature and entertain.

32. Warning posts

A good idea to make your warning posts more creative is to clear up misconceptions. This could also be framed as “expectations vs reality” or “myths vs facts” about an industry.

A couple of examples:

“5 Common Misconceptions About Freelancing”

“Plant-based deodorants: Myths vs Facts”

Timely Blog Post Ideas

Why do people read the news? Because it’s about what’s happening right now!

Timely blog posts can be very effective because you’re a source for trending information.

33. Review post

Write an honest review about a product, service, event, or anything else.

Be honest in your review rather than highlighting just the positives.

For example:

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34. Survey post

Survey your audience about a trending or newsworthy topic. Poll them through email, social media, or in person. You can also poll them directly through your email list if it’s active.

Present the results in a blog post and add your commentary on them.

35. News update post

Make a new post for every major current event.

You don’t need to be the first to write about it, but you do need to present it in a way that your audience finds valuable.

We keep our audience up-to-date on Google’s search algorithms.

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36. Trendspotting post

If you can spot trends before they’re popular, make a post about the trend itself and piggyback off its increasing interest.

37. Concerns post

What are some current challenges facing your audience?

Voice the concerns they might have about an issue that affects them and recommend a solution.

38. Q & A post 

You can also use online forums like Quora and Reddit to create links to your blog. Quora is a wildly popular question-and-answer site that receives several hundred million visits a month. It has over 400,000 topics with Hundreds of thousands of questions being added and answered every week.

On the other hand, Reddit is an online community full of subcommunities that tend to post questions that you can possibly answer, or share your articles there as long as you follow the content guidelines of each subreddit. There are more than 2.8 million subreddits, so there’s a place for everyone in Reddit.

Write a Personal Blog Post

These personal blog post ideas can show that there’s a real human behind the content you’re putting out.

Add these personal blog topics to your lineup to help add variety to your content.

39. Inspirational post

Inspiring content can be very engaging. We all want to be inspired.

This can take shape as a profile post, a story, a quote post…anything that is truly inspirational.

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40. Open letter post

An open letter post draws attention to issues that affect an industry or are directed to a person or company. These posts can resonate with your audience’s feelings on a particular issue.

41. Personal experience post

Lower your guard and write from a first-person perspective to describe a relatable personal experience.

Whether it’s an epic failure or a sweet success, this post humanizes you as a publisher.

The surprising secret to creating a million dollar a month business that you love.

42. Playlist post

You can see examples of most ideas described in this post in many popular blogs, but how many blogs have you seen providing their audience with a playlist of their creation?

Yep, this is one of the quirkiest posts you can make, yet most people listen to music when working. Nielsen’s Total Audience Report: Work from Home Edition estimated that a surprising three quarters (75%9 of people listen to music while working from home.

Share ideas for playlists people can listen to so to boost their productivity, relax, or to create creative moods.

43. Rant post

Using this depends on your brand voice. It won’t work for everyone.

A rant about a topic your audience is already thinking about and discussing can be engaging if you can make a coherent argument.

44. Off-topic post

You want to make sure to bring this type of post back around to the value you offer your audience.

It can be very interesting to see a post with an off-topic angle from someone who you’ve grown accustomed to.

Write a Controversial Blog Post

A controversial blog post can pique your audience’s interest in the blog topic you write about.

45. Persuasive post

Try presenting your side of an argument under debate to convince your audience.

If you can find someone to disagree with, give their side of the argument in the same post.

46. Prediction post

We’re all curious about the future.

Speculating about it and making a prediction can generate debate.

47. Reaction post

React to a notable piece of content is published by someone else.

Give your thoughts on a blog post, a video, an online course, an event.

You can embed a video or social media post and react to it, as another way to do this.

48. What if post

Speculate on how things might be different by framing your post accordingly.

Make sure you pick something that people would actually care about or find interesting.

For example: What if X happened, what would the result be?

49. Critical post

If you do this type of controversial blog post it can be very interesting.

Just make sure you’re justified in your attack on the company, event, or person so that you don’t end up the loser.

This can be a polarizing topic, but it can get people strongly on your side.

Lifestyle Blog Post Ideas

Like personal blog posts, a lifestyle post humanizes you or your business, more so if its a small business.

Use these posts to show them that yes, you’re just like them! People engage with blogs that they like and trust.

50. Behind the scenes post

This type of post lets your audience see what things look like from your perspective.

Show the process you used to make content, give an office tour, or describe a recent experience at an event– all of these are good behind-the-scenes topics for you to create.

51. Holiday post

Rather than take a break during holidays, try using it to create a holiday-themed post.

This lets you celebrate with your audience.

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52. Fashion post

Create content showing pictures and describing what you or people at your online business wearing (hint: Swag). If you don’t at least have a T-shirt with your blog logo made, you’re missing out!

Selling your own branded apparel can be an added revenue stream for all kinds of businesses. You plan to grow your fans, right?

Promotional Blog Post Ideas

Depending on you or your company, you might use your blog for promotional purposes.

The key is not to annoy or frustrate your loyal readers. Keep providing them value through your promotional blog posts.

53. Best of post

Make a quick blog post that rounds up the most popular content on your site, such as online courses, blog posts with a lot of traction, and webinars.

54. Company news or product update post

If you have loyal customers, posting about happenings at your company or a new product can do well on your blog.

55. Product tips post

Sell products? Make sure your audience is getting the most value out of them.

Write a blog post that helps them get a better experience out of using your product or service.

56. Comparison post

Compare your product or service’s features/benefits to other solutions out there.

57. Project log post

If you’re working on a big project, keep your readers excited about it by regularly updating them on its progress.

Mention what you’ve accomplished so far, and what you have left to do.

58. Income breakdown post

It can be intriguing to see an income report!

Give the people what they want and show them the money you or your company is making.

Or show them the traffic you’re getting:

How We Get 434,886 Pageviews Per Month

Audience Engagement Blog Post Ideas

Reading is a passive activity.

Spice it up by asking your audience to interact with these engaging blog post ideas.

59. Challenge post

Have your readers participate in a challenge.

Showcase the people who are participating, and provide regular updates on the challenge as a series.

60. Giveaway post

Tell your audience about something free that they’ll like.

Describe what it is and what they need to do to get it.

61. Answer post

You can prompt discussion on your own blog. Other people will make the content for you!

Pose a question to the audience and ask them to answer it in the comments section.

62. Question post

Ask a question and get answers from audience members. Ask it on social media, in the comments section of your blog, or in person.

Conclusion

Getting ideas for blog topics shouldn’t be a random thought process.

With just a little research, you’ll be able to validate blog topics that are already proven to be popular in your niche!

Bookmark this blog post idea cheat sheet, you’ll never run out of content ideas that drive traffic to your website.

Want even more ideas? Try our free Headline Generator Tool.

When we start any new project at HOTH Blogger, we go through a similar process to research and validate topics and make sure each article is a winner before we even start writing.

We spent years building a network of hundreds of elite writers who take great care to create only high-quality content.

We love our writers from all over the U.S. and the world, they consistently do an incredible job writing for any blog post topic.

Have any questions or other suggestions for blog post ideas?

We’d love to hear them in the comments!

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The post 60+ Awesome Blog Post Ideas (That Will Bring More Traffic!) appeared first on The HOTH.