I love writing blogs. The casual conversational approach suits my character. A blog can take you to places a newspaper article cannot. You can express your opinion openly and be creative.
I often ghostwrite for clients so it’s important that I can put myself in their shoes. We work closely to understand their businesses better so that when it comes to ghostwriting blogs, or anything else for that matter, we are able to speak with their voice.
Whether you need to do research to write a blog really depends on the depth of your knowledge on the subject matter. We write blogs for clients in the insurance, mortgage and banking world and, although much of my time overseas was spent writing about the financial services industry, new trends and topics arise that need to be looked into further, understood, and discussed. Plus, if you’re producing content on a weekly, and for many of our clients a daily basis, you need to develop new angles and points of interest regularly.
If you’ve been tasked with writing blogs for your business don’t fret. Help is here. I have a few tips to help get you started or, if you’re already knee deep in blogs, provide some inspiration.
First of all, make sure you’re in a writing mood. I find it’s much easier when you get going and the words are flowing onto the page, to knock out a few blogs in one go. Second, because of the more casual nature of a blog, walk away from your desk, and take your laptop with you to a breakout area – a change of scenery can make all the difference. If you have to do research for the blog reliable sources such as journals, trade media, or even colleagues are a great place to start. On the other hand, if you’re writing about a subject you know extremely well, don’t gloss over the salient details.
I tend to keep my blogs to between 300 and 450 words. A blog, in my opinion, is meant to peak someone’s interest in a subject about which they are already intrigued. You are providing them with insight and expertise so that they might explore further – you don’t want to go to heavy and bore them.
Finally, with a blog, or with any piece of writing, it’s a good idea to have someone read it over for you. You want to prevent spelling or grammatical errors from creeping in and ensure you have the right tone for the business you are representing.
So, go forth and get writing. It’s good fun, I promise.
