Generating Ideas for Online Content

Now that we have reviewed the guidelines, it is time to start writing (if you haven’t already started); but first you must generate some ideas and decide what to write for online content.

Regardless of the type of business you run, I guarantee you know more than your customers. You have experience and valuable expertise to share with them. In fact, you are probably already doing that day-in and day-out, without even realizing it.

Arizona Summer Heat Disaster

Quick story . . . I live in Arizona and the summers are HOT! In the middle of July last year the temperature was 112°F. and my air conditioning went out.

To make matters worse my daughter and her three children were visiting from California and not used to the heat. It was three days before the A/C repairman serviced my unit. It was a disaster. They couldn’t stay with me and I hardly saw them at all.

Is there something I could have done to prevent that from happening? Maybe – maybe not, but there is definitely a story that could have been used on that company’s blog. In fact, any service business has hundreds of situations that occur and questions they are asked regularly that could be great web articles.

Wine Shop

Another example is a wine shop. A wine shop owner may not be a sommelier, but s/he can definitely recommend a delicious wine to go with the lamb you are planning for dinner on Sunday. They can do the same thing on a blog – the topics are endless.

Internet Security

An engineer who develops Internet security software can give you countless tips right off the top of his head that will keep your computer safe from malware. Those tips could be topics for many blog posts.

Interior Designer

For years, I was an interior designer and gave free advice to friends all the time. I could walk into a customer’s home and within 15 minutes offer multiple suggestions on how to beautify her living room, or master bedroom. If the Internet had been in existence at that time, writing a 500-word blog post filled with ideas would have been a snap.

Share Your Expertise

The point is . . . you have expertise to share what people want and need to know and you can do it through your website and blog. Your mind is full of information and experience that the average person simply does not know.

Sit down right now and make a list of everything customers and potential customers can learn from you.

What are the tips, shortcuts, ideas, stories you can share with your readers that will help them and improve their lives.
Now you know what to write about – just do it!

If not you, then who . . . and why not you?