PB041: How to Create Great Content For Your Blog – Q&A, Part 1

Note: you can listen to this episode above or load it up in iTunes. We Answer Your Questions About How to Create Great Blog Content Today's episode is all about answering your questions about how to create great content for your blog. Don't be shy about asking us questions in the comments below! Your question could be featured next time. So Many Questions That Answers My School by Alice Zed on 500px In This Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we answer these listener questions: Should I share personal posts on my business blog? How often should I be posting on my blog? How do you develop compelling content? What days of week/time of day are best to post? How did you come to have the great writing skills that you use to blog? Did you ever get any formal training? What have been your most effective techniques for engaging readers? What types of posts have generated lots of authentic comments from your readers? Where do you get your ideas for content? Do you have any techniques/tips to share? Further Reading and Resources for Creating Great Blog Content How Many Posts Should a Blogger Post? [Pros and Cons of Daily Posting] How I Generated Over 6000 Ideas to Write About on My Blog in 15 Minutes Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hi. This is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to episode 41 of the ProBlogger Podcast where today, we're going to do something a little different. I'm going to answer some questions I asked on our Facebook page at facebook.com/problogger a few days ago for people to submit questions that they'd like me to answer on today's show. I had quite a few questions submitted but also had a number of people email me questions as well. I want to tackle some of those today, particularly, questions around content. There were quite a few questions on other areas that I'll tackle on the future show, but today, I want to focus on the content creation side of blogging. You can find today's show notes where I'll include some further reading on each of the questions where I can find it at problogger.com/podcast/41. Today's first question comes from Stephanie Hammond from the Motherhood and Sex blog. I haven't checked that one out yet—it sounds interesting—but the question Stephanie asked is, "How often should I be posting on my blog?" There's no one answer to this. Really, it will depend upon your situation, the topic that you have, and a whole heap of other factors. There are a few things that I would say. There are certainly some pros and cons of different frequencies. Quite often I'm asked, "Should I be posting daily?" That seems to be the most common question that I get. There are definitely some benefits to doing that. Daily or even more than daily can help you get into the groove with your writing. If you're writing or posting frequently, you'll be needing to write frequently. That can help you certainly to get into that groove. I personally find that if I go away for a couple of weeks and don't post for a few weeks, I find it a little bit hard to get back into that groove. Regular posting means regular writing which is good for you as a writer. It also means that you're producing more content. Hopefully, because you're practicing more, you'll improve in your writing. I also find that more regular posting helps you with reader engagement and reader expectations. If a reader knows that every day, for instance, that there'll be something new on the blog or every weekdays—Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—they begin to show up at those times. That can help with engagement. Also, the more you post, the more doorways you have into your blog over time. If you're posting everyday,