Everybody knows that to blog like you mean it you need to be passionate about the topic that you are writing about. When I’m writing about Google, my mind quivers with excitement, a thousand ideas crash through my brain at once, and usually within just an hour or so, I can turn out a literary masterpiece, brimming with current, engaging and informative text for the reader.
But what happens when I am not so passionate about a subject?
Finance topics, for instance, are my nemesis. My brain freezes, it will churn ideas slowly, and just finding a suitable angle to cover such a dull topic can feel strangely overwhelming.
Lets just say that my productivity decreases quite dramatically.
So, how do you blog like you mean it, when you don't?
Find a Fun Approach
If the secret to successful blogging is writing about something that you are passionate about, then you must find a way to address the topic in question that will ignite that spark within you. Always write your articles from a first-person POV, and write them how you speak. This will embed your character into the post and make it instantly seem more personal and enjoyable to read.
Ask Questions
If you want to blog like you mean it you must ask questions. The reason I love SEO and the reason I love to blog are one and the same thing. I love to learn, and both these topics inspire me to read and absorb as much information as I can on a daily basis. The best way to learn is to do your research and continue to ask questions. By asking questions within an article, you are giving yourself a clear direction and your blogging efforts a purpose.
After all, If you are asking yourself these questions, you can bet that there will be countless others out there searching for answers to the very same questions. The best gift you can give to your readers is to learn all about the topic in question, so they don’t have to. In order to blog like you mean it, ask yourself as many questions as you can. Then ask some more. Keep going until you find a question that sparks a real interest for you personally and use this as the main focus of your content.
Conduct Research
To blog like you mean it you need to conduct a lot of research. Conducting research takes time. You should dedicate approximately half of the time that you spend writing an article to researching the topic. Once you have your question, this is the question that is going to enable you to blog like you mean it, you need to begin conducting research around that question.
A great resource, that will enable you to blog like you mean it, by finding both questions and answers centered around a specific topic is; Quora. By typing your subject of choice within the search bar on Quora you are accessing a minefield of data. These are the questions that people are really asking about your topic.
For me, a quick search on Quora today resulted in the following finance related questions:
“What books have contributed to your financial intelligence?”
“What is the best way to invest $1200 as a teenager?”
“Should I Buy or Invest in Facebook Shares?”
These are all questions that I probably wouldn’t have thought of myself. Yet I would find writing an article called “5 Ways to Invest $1000 as a Teenager” really good fun. Certainly much more so than “What is a Hedge Fund?”, which is all that my dull and unproductive brain could muster up on this occasion.
So, even if the topic you are blogging about isn’t really all that interesting to you, there are always ways to make it seem more interesting.
Recommended: How to Make Your Corporate Blog More Interesting and More Successful
Blog Like You Mean It, Every Time!
The important thing to remember is that to blog like you mean it, you need to focus your content on one specific question or set of questions. From this, all other ideas should flourish. Not all of your articles will attract large readerships but this should not be your end goal. It is more important to appeal to the people that are out there browsing the internet looking for an answer to a specific question. These are the readers that will engage in your content, and as we move into the future, engagement is everything.
Here's a podcast from Ms. Ileane that goes into some details on this topic. She also answers a question about promotion.
