50 Blogging Ideas

What's the hardest thing about blogging? Coming up with fresh, new content! And you have to publish new posts frequently - twice a week at the very least - to keep readers interested and earn search engine love.

If you're feeling stuck, here is a list of 50 blogging ideas that are sure to inspire you to come up with new content for your blog. Most of the ideas can be used more than once, so you won't run out of blog posts for months to come.

And by the way, if you want to make more money from your blog, Blogger's Paycheck shows you how to make passive income from your blog without spending all day at it.

1. Special events - Relate your blog topic to a special event, national day of, or holiday.

2. News - Subscribe to Google news alert on your keywords and write about the latest news in your niche.

3. Book review.

4. Respond to a post on another blog in a niche similar or related to yours.

5. Blog milestone - Write about your blogging milestones, such as publishing your 100th post, getting your 1000th comment....

6. Niche heroes -Blog about a person who made a positive contribution in your niche.

7. Blog memes - Join in blog memes such as "Wordless Wednesday". There's at least one for every day of the week!

8. Product review - An excellent way to work in some affiliate links.

9. FAQs in your niche - Write a short Q & A based on FAQs about your niche.

10. Blog comment response - Write a long and expanded response to a comment on your blog.

11. Predict trends - What do you see happening in your niche in a year? 5 years?

12. Historical view - What was your niche in the past? Or what past event influenced your niche?

13. Top tips on any topic of interest to your readers.

14. Best of... - A good year ender, make a list of your best posts for the year.

15. Contests - Organize a contest for your blog readers, or make a list of contests your readers can join.

16. What I learned from... a current event, a person you met, or an experience you had.

17. Definitions - Define terms that are commonly used in your niche but a beginner may not understand

18. New products - Not a review but simply an announcement of a new product relevant to your niche. This is another good opportunity to drop in some affiliate links.

19. Biggest problem - Ask your readers what their biggest problem is about your blog topic or niche. They post their answers in the comments section.

20. Biggest problem follow up - Summarize the comments from #19 in another post.

21. Biggest problem follow up series - Write a separate blog post tackling each question from #19.

22. Interview somebody knowledgeable in your niche, or has succeeded in it, or is otherwise interesting to your readers.

23. Big list - Compile a big list of various resources, just like this one. The bigger the better!

24. Reader Survey - Put up a brief survey online and blog about the results.

25. Be provocative. Challenge a common belief or widely accepted idea in your niche.

26. New idea - What new idea about your blog topic or niche have you come across lately?

27. YouTube - Embed a funny, moving or insightful video on YouTube. You can even have a "video day" once a week.

28. YouTube version 2 - Make YOUR own YouTube video. Publish it on YouTube then embed on your blog. This way, you can attract traffic from YouTube to your blog.

29. Freebie - Scour the 'net for freebies that your readers will love. Or create a freebie of your own, such as a checklist or special report.

30. Personal story - Use a personal story to illustrate an important concept or principle in your niche.

31. Free to publish articles - Check out relevant articles in article directories such as Ezine Articles... but don't publish them entirely on your blog. Instead, use an article or a group of articles as your take-off point for a blog post, or several.

32. Link love - This is a post with links to other blogs. Some bloggers set aside one day a week to publish a list of the best blog posts on their topic.

33. Photo - A picture is worth thousand words, right? Search Flickr for creative commons pictures that your readers will like.

34. Hot topics - Look at Digg for hot topics in your niche

35. Pros and cons - Examine what's good and bad about something related to your blog topic

36. Respond to relevant questions you find in Ask.com

37. Guest post - Invite another blogger to write a guest post for your blog

38. Reader's post - Invite blog subscribers to submit an article or post to be published on the blog

39. Inspirational post - Write a motivational post for your readers.

40. Update an old post with fresh ideas, new learnings and current research findings.

41. Beginner's guide - What do beginners in your niche struggle with? Write a post to guide them through it.

Best list - Patterned after "best dressed lists" make a list of the best ___ in your niche.

43. Worst list - Make your version of the "worst dressed list" for your niche.

44. New uses for - Think of new ways your readers can use gadgets and other stuff.

45. Write about a live event that you attended and what you learned from it.

46. Bribe post - Bribe your readers with a freebie in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter or RSS feed.

47. Around the world - Compare how people in different countries do something related to your niche.

48. Seasonal - Relate the month or season to your blog topic.

49. Blog carnival - Join or host a blog carnival, where several publish posts about the same topic on the same day.

50. Host a virtual "conference" on your blog - Invite "speakers" to publish their post on a specified date and time. Q&A happens in the comments section.

Now that you've got a steady flow of fresh content, how do you actually make money from your blog? Visit Blogger's Paycheck for a step-by-step guide on blogging for profit.

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG - Get into Search Engines

GETTING INTO THE SEARCH ENGINES


In order for your blog to come up in search engine results, the search engine must know it exists. Getting discovered, and indexed, by search engines is a critical first step to securing search engine traffic.

Contrary to the beliefs held by some, a search engine cannot simply “find” your blog on its own. It must be led to the blog in some fashion. There are two general ways by which this can happen. You can either tell the search engine about your blog, or you can devise a means by which it will find you.

At first glance, it seems like just telling the search engine would be the optimal solution. At one time, this strategy was the easiest way of getting indexed. However, it is no longer the best way to go about things.

You can directly submit your blog to Google, for instance. However, it may take the search engine months to get around to your request. At some point, in frustration, you might be led to submit the information again. There are fairly credible reports that frequent submission of a blog directly to the search engine may actually lead to a penalty. They would prefer to find you all by themselves. I have personally not noticed any problems with direct submission to MSN’s search engine. However, considering the variety of ways by which one can be found without utilizing direct submission, it does not seem necessary to tip off MSN in that manner.


WAYS TO BE DISCOVERED

All it requires for a search engine to find you is a link to your blog on another site. Eventually, the search engines will spider that link and discover the blog. You can increase the likelihood of being found quickly by getting multiple links for your site out there and by trying to get links that are likely to be spidered quickly.

Large, popular sites are frequently spidered and a link on a site of this sort can lead to your blog’s inclusion in the search engines relatively quickly. A link from a frequently indexed site could lead to your blog’s discovery within as little as a day.

Any of the link-building strategies mentioned in this ebook can be used to lead the search engine to your blog. Things like link trades, sigging, articles and directory listings can do the trick.
Remember, building these links not only encourages necessary indexing, it also serves as a way of improving long-term traffic, as every link can be helpful.

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG - Content Usability

CONTENT USABILITY

Usability, as it relates to online endeavors, can involve everything from site structure to color choices. With respect to written content, we will primarily be concerned with constructing posts that comport with readers’ preferences and expectations for written materials.

Internet readers tend be “scanners.” They generally scan a page or post and then make a determination as to whether or not to invest more time and effort in reading the material carefully. If their scan does not provide them with something to grab their attention and interest, they are more likely to click away than they are to continue reading.
Thus, content should be offered in a way that is easy for users to scan. It should also be provided in a way that encourages online reading. What does this mean in terms of practical considerations?
One should offer text in a size that is easily read. They should also offer content in the form of shorter paragraphs and make use of “white space” to make scanning easier. Long paragraphs are not as well-received as shorter ones.
The choice of a font should be based on readability rather than on whether or not one feels it possesses some greater aesthetic value.
Content usability is important and any blogger truly interested in maximizing the comfort and value of the user’s experience. That attention to detail can increase repeat visitation and total page views.

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG - Keywords and content

KEYWORDS & CONTENT 

Search engines operate on keywords. Put simply, keywords are the words for which people are searching. By making sure you use these keywords in your content, you are more likely to be discovered.

Thus, you can produce some pretty remarkable traffic jumps by using the keyword phrases people are typing into Google. This is obvious, but it does bring up a few interesting questions.

How do I find which keywords are popular for searches in my niche? There are a variety of free online tools available to help with keyword research. Earlier, we mentioned Nichebot, which does an admirable job of showing what phrases and keywords are in “high demand.” A quick Google search for “keyword finder” and other similar phrases should provide you with some other options. There are paid services, like WordTracker, that also assist in keyword research, but free options remain available.
How should I use the keywords once I have found them? This is a subject of some debate. The question about how many times keywords should appear in order to trigger a positive response from search engines is a constant topic of argument in the search engine optimization field. Some will argue that a keyword should be used enough to comprise 3-5% of the total text in any post.

Others will argue that a higher density is necessary. Some will maintain that keyword density is not as important as producing content that contains the keyword and related relevant terms.

There are a few ways of making sure your content does its job when it comes to keywords. One is to carefully monitor your use and to write posts around popular keywords related to your topic. Another is simply to focus on turning out good, relevant content and assuming the volume of your output and its overall quality will produce desired keyword results. Generally speaking, the best strategy for most bloggers probably lies somewhere in the middle of those extremes. By producing content with an understanding of keywords while not compromising its integrity in an effort to stuff every post with popular search terms, one can usually be relatively successful.

One should strive to make use of their primary keywords in the titles of their blog’s posts. They should also attempt to use those words and phrases, along with keywords of secondary importance within the posts themselves. There are free keyword analyzers available online that will give you breakdowns of keyword density for your posts. It makes sense to check your work against these at least occasionally to make sure your content is working its hardest to get you that coveted search engine traffic.

One should beware of overusing keywords. Search engines grow smarter all the time, and the days when one could get real results by stuffing keywords onto a page without rhyme or reason are gone. Remember that the search engine algorithms are designed to reward sites that are using keywords in a valuable context. They are able to discern that an endless stream of keywords is probably nothing more than an effort to fool their robots

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG - Updating Content

UPDATING CONTENT

People like new information. If they are interested in your topic, they want to see more information about it as often as possible. Search engines mimic people in that regard. They absolutely adore frequently updated sites. They reward blogs that provide frequent updates with better locations in search results. Providing regular content is one of the best ways to appeal both to your human readers and the search engine robots that will lead even more real people to your blog.

Finding the right patterns will be a byproduct of experimentation, combined with your own personal time limitations and interest levels. I personally recommend updating a blog at least a few times per week. If you can update more frequently, do so. However, make sure these updates offer something of value. Writing for the sake of writing may help with respect to fooling search engine spiders, but it will undoubtedly antagonize real readers so much as to render the strategy useless.

Those who make a living online will tell you that “content is king.”Content is what brings people to any site. It is what keeps them there, too. It is also the favorite discover of every search engine spider. The more content you have, the better off you are going to be.

Some niches may be so underserved that a blog can continue to successfully generate traffic with infrequent updates. However, more competitive fields will require more and more content to stay afloat.

Updates can vary in length. Generally speaking, however, extremely short posts will have less value (both to the search engines and readers) than more involved writing. However, the desire to provide more lengthy and meaningful posts will need to be balanced against usability considerations, which we will discuss later. Many will argue that content additions that “weigh in” between 250-600 words are optimal.

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG - Create readership

Good content creates a readership.

Those repeat visitors can be the lifeblood of a successful blog. Additionally, other people who operate blogs notice good content and web sites and they will often link back to your quality posts. This creates a direct traffic stream from those links, as well as adding to your total cache of backlinks, which can help in search engine results.

People will come back to a site they know provides grade-A information or that touches them in some way. Humor sites that are not funny do not get repeat visitors. Sites about technological advances that contain inaccuracies do not develop a readership. Blogs that are littered with grammatical and spelling errors seldom generate massive traffic.

Effective writing is key to a successful blog.

Most of us, fortunately, have an idea of what separates the good from the bad. Writing effectively may take more time and effort than simply spewing forth a few posts to your blog, but the end result is worth the extra energy.

In addition to writing well, you should strive to produce unique content that will distinguish your blog from others. This includes choosing topics that are interesting, opinions that are compelling, and doing whatever else is necessary to capture and hold a reader’s interest. You need to give people a reason to choose your blog over others in the same field. You must provide them with something they cannot get elsewhere.

This raises the subject of re-blogging. Re-blogging occurs when a blogger provides a synopsis of what someone else has written (perhaps even with an excerpt) and then adds a small amount of personal commentary. Re-blogging can be effective in two circumstances. If your blog is operating primarily as a news aggregator and a means of providing readers with an edited compendium of potential items of interest, it is a natural fit. Second, if your commentary somehow illuminates or provides an interesting twist to the original content it can also be effective. Too often, however, reblogging is nothing more than repetition of what could be found elsewhere and fails to impress readers.

Instead of relying upon re-blogging, a successful blogger will generally try to stay on top of his or her chosen field and will become the initial source of exciting information and opinion. It is fine to share the remarkable work of others--making sure that information gets out to everyone is one of the great things you can do with a blog--but it is even better if you can make yourself into a primary source of quality, unique content.

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG - Subject Matter

Blogs that tackle a specific and limited range of concerns generally tend to outdraw those with a more scattered approach. Blogging within a particular niche is usually the best way to experience success. However, there are limits to specificity. If one chooses a subject area that is too limited, the potentiality for high-volume traffic is reduced. Alternatively, if one opts to blog in a well-covered subject matter they risk getting lost in the shuffle and not finding a regular readership.

There is no secret formula that will yield the perfect niche for your blog. There are, however, some guidelines you can follow when selecting a blog topic that will help lead you to a choice that has good traffic potential.

First, remember that you will be revisiting, updating, tweaking and researching the topic of your blog for as long as you decide to maintain it. Thus, it makes a great deal of sense to choose a subject matter in which you have a keen interest and a developed knowledge base. You may discover that there are a lot of people looking for information on widgets and that there are few great sources for that information online. However, if you don’t know a lot about widgets and find them a complete bore, you will probably have a hard time maintaining the site over the long run.

Second, remember that there are two different factors you must consider when trying to choose a topic with real traffic potential. You will want to write about something in which others are interested. There must be a group of people out there who are regularly looking for information on your topic. That is a necessary factor. However, you must also consider how many other sources of information are out there already. It can be very tough to break out in a competitive field.

You can get an idea of the competition and interest levels by using any of a number of freely available online tools. One tool I have found to be invaluable and easy to use is Nichebot at http://www.nichebot.com. It operates almost like a search engine: you type in the word or string in which you are interested and it then supplies you with a breakdown of how many people are searching for that phrase (and related phrases) every month. It then provides you with an indication of how many sites online contain the words in your search phrase. It even goes so far as to express the ratio of sites to searchers, making determinations of a niche’s viability relatively simple. Nichebot offers some additional tools that can make subject selection easier.

Ideally, you will find a hot topic with little competition. However, that is far easier said than done! One could spend days plugging possible subjects into Nichebot without finding a wildly underserved group of searchers for a topic in which the blogger has an interest. However, it does a great job of letting one know what they might be up against in terms of competition and occasionally you can discover some very interesting gaps in the information market.

Third, remember that although finding an underserved niche will make your life easier, it is not necessarily a requirement for success. There are some people who will tell you that operating in a competitive sector is great. After all, you know in advance that there are hordes of potential visitors on a hot topic. All you have to do is give them a reason to come to you instead of others. That is, of course, easier said than done. However, if you are up for a challenge and believe you can offer something that will truly separate you from the rest; you may consider blogging in a competitive field.

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG - Content and links

What produces traffic?

What is it about some websites that makes them popular destinations for a huge number of visitors? 

Why are some blogs checked out by tens of thousands of people every day while others struggle to find a single visitor? 

The issue of traffic can be complicated. There are a variety of factors at play, and every strategy can be dissected and the details debated ad infinitum.

However, there are two keys to traffic upon which everyone can agree: Content and Links.

Content is essential to traffic flow.

You have to offer something that makes your site worth visiting. Content creates repeat visitors, increases their stay, encourages word-of-mouth type promotion and assists in improving a blog’s standing with the search engines.

Every link can conceivably serve a traffic producer.

If someone finds a link to your blog on another site, they are only one mouse-click away from being part of your traffic. Search engines also assess the number and quality of links to your blog. They regard sites that are linked to frequently as authoritative and reward them with higher placement in search engine results.

So, if you want traffic to your blog, you need to do two things: Provide content and acquire links. The end result should be higher traffic numbers for your blog.

BLOGGER TUTORIALS 04 - Adjusting Blogger Settings

 

video courtesy of JBroMarketing.com

This is the ADVANCED ADJUSTMENTS of the BLOGGER DASHBOARD SETTINGS

• Title and Description
• Blog URL
• Blog address
• Adding authors
• Lightbox for pictures
• Comment moderation
• Mobile options
• Language Settings
• Site Feeds

Try to be familiarized with this settings. Try to adjust them to your taste or to maximize your blogging potentials. You can use this for others to easily read your posts and how they can easily find you in the internet. So better be familiar with these settings if you want it make big in blogging.

BLOGGER TUTORIAL 03 - Settings and Blog Postings

 

video coutesy of JBroMarketing.com

STEP 3 - Settings and Blog Posting

 In here you will get to know how to:

• Change the name of your blog
• Add description
• Write text
• Embed video
• Put a link to a website
• Put a post title
• Publish

Constant posting on your blog is VERY VERY important, because GOOGLE monitors ACTIVE blogs, and most likely you have always fresh content, your site will be easily listed in the GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE. This GREATLY helps you get visitors searching for your topic.

It is also important to use related words for your topic. This helps SEARCH ENGINE find your blog easily..

Inserting related videos in your posts and linking to related websites, improves the quality of your post, and also helping others by LEADING readers and visitors to their blog or website.

Constant posting is very helpful, but don't just post anything, post QUALITY POSTS thus making the internet a better place of learning

BLOGGER TUTORIAL 02 - THE BLOGGER DASHBOARD

 

video courtesy of JBroMarketing.com

STEP 2 - THE BLOGGER DASH BOARD

After SIGNING UP for a new Blogger blog, it is BEST to know first the DASHBOARD. This will your back office for your blogging agenda. Most likely you would visit this often so better be familiar with it to MAXIMIZE each function.

Just take a lot at the video for you to know everything there is in the dashboard so BLOGGING would be more fun even before you start.

BLOGGER TUTORIAL 01 - How to setup a new blog on BLOGGER tutorial

 video courtesy of JBroMarketing.com

STEP 1 - CREATE A GMAIL FOR YOUR NEW BLOG

 
Blogger.com is a one of the GOOGLE SITES. It is connected with GMAIL. If you have an EXISTING GMAIL, you can use it for your NEW BLOG. But if you are planning to be a PRO-BLOGGER, better CREATE a NEW GMAIL, so you can separate every activity for your new blog. Setting up is a breeze, this video shows us a step by step tutorial to setup a GMAIL and a BLOGGER account