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How to write an effective content writing brief for your content writer

Writing an effective content brief

For more than two weeks I have been interacting with a client trying to understand what he really requires for his accounting website.

If you are wondering why I talk so much about accounting websites these days it is because, due to my improved rankings for phrases like, “content writer for accounting websites” I’m getting more work from accountants.

But I digress.

So, it has been more than two weeks.

Now, the client has begun to complain that the work hasn’t yet started.

The problem on my side is that I’m not getting a proper brief from the client.

What is a content writing brief?

A content writing brief can be a dedicated document, or it can be simply sent by email.

As long as there is a brief, I don’t even mind clients describing it to me on WhatsApp.

Some clients, especially agencies, sent content writing briefs even for individual blog posts and articles.

Many agencies use tools like SEMRush and with these tools, minute details about individual blog posts can be extracted based on keywords, competitor blog posts, and the number of words required vis-à-vis the competition.

Some agencies use a standardized template that asks you to follow a format something like

SEO title
One-line description
Target audience
Primary keywords
Secondary keywords
Meta description
Word count
Internal links, if any
Some competitor articles
CTA
Additional notes

Why is content writing brief important?

There are two types of content briefs.

One is the general brief that a client sends about the entire website.

This includes page titles, target audience, keywords and reference websites.

The other is the individual brief for blog posts, web pages and articles.

A content brief makes it easier for the content writer to focus on your core need.

It also prevents rewrites and reduces the number of revisions needed.

The content writer doesn’t miss critical bits of information because you have mentioned everything in the content brief.

Remember that when the content writer’s time is being wasted, your time too is wasted because the delivery of your content is delayed.

Before starting a project, here is the information I need from a typical client:

Clearly defined titles of the web pages

This is the site map.

Over the years I have learned that if the client and I are not on the same page about the exact titles of the web pages, it becomes difficult to write content.

Most of the client send me a bulleted list of web page titles they want me to work on.

We first mutually agree on the bulleted list and then I start working on the content writing process.

But this particular client has just told me the basic nature of his business – accounting outsourcing – and that’s it.

He keeps on saying that I should visit other websites and see how they have structured their content.

It doesn’t work that way.

Every website is unique

They have their own service descriptions.

Even if the basic nature of a business is the same – accounting outsourcing or engineering parts – people provide different sets of services and products.

No two websites are the same.

Why I need to be specific?

The clients are not paying an hourly rate.

They either pay per page or per word.

Hence, I need to be very specific about what pages I’m working on, otherwise, I end up wasting lots of time making changes because suddenly the client thinks that that was not the page he or she was looking for.

Whether I spend one hour or three hours on a document, they are going to pay the fixed rate, and hence, I need to have as much specific information as possible from them.

A list of reference websites

Most of the clients send me a list of reference websites whose content they prefer and the writing style they want me to emulate.

Of course, due to the problems of plagiarism nobody wants me to directly copy the content.

It’s just that when we have a list of reference websites, we have a clear idea of how the content flow must be and how various ideas must be expressed.

It also reduces my workload.

Finding my own reference websites is like throwing darts in darkness.

I can do that – find reference websites on my own – but then, as I have mentioned above, it rarely happens that a client pays an hourly rate.

When you are doing research, you never know how much time it is going to take.

Since the client is managing his or her business, I assume he or she has a better idea of which websites precisely represent their business.

A list of keywords

Although I provide SEO content writing and blogging services, I’m not an SEO agency.

Since most of the clients are paying for content and not for SEO research, I don’t subscribe to expensive SEO tools that are normally used for keyword research.

I’m not saying every business requires SEO tools.

If you have a good understanding of your customers, it is easier to create a basic list of keywords to target for.

As a content writer, I see keywords as a guideline for formulating language.

People use Google and other search engines in their own language.

They type the queries in the language they use in their day-to-day interactions.

The same language must be used when writing content so that it is easier for people to find it on search engines.

This is why a basic list of keywords is important.

Some writing-related guidelines

These are not absolutely necessary but there are some clients who have very specific requirements.

I have been writing content for more than 17 years now and I pretty well understand how content must be written for the web.

I know how it should be formatted for better SEO.

I know how to write content that is easier on the eye.

Nonetheless, sometimes there are certain words and terms the client wants in the content that I may not be aware of because I’m not from that profession.

For example, there must be some legal terms for a law attorney that must be used on the website.

Architects use different jargon – although I discourage the use of jargon, sometimes they are important to express certain concepts.

Then there are some words that need to be avoided.

I have another client who doesn’t want certain words to appear in his content and in the beginning, he hadn’t informed me of that.

After having worked on 15 documents suddenly he realized that the words he didn’t want on his website were appearing in the content.

He wanted those portions to be either deleted or revised.

Wasted lots of time.

A content writing brief saves lots of time

On the client side, it hardly takes 30-60 minutes to write a good content writing brief.

The problem is that some clients cannot understand that a content writer works on a tight schedule simply because the clients are not ready to pay an hourly rate.

On the other hand, they expect a content writer to work as a hired hand, which is not possible.

Two hours wasted in revisions and to and fro communication means two hours of lost revenue for the content writer.

When I had just started working as a content writer I must have wasted hundreds of hours simply because the clients didn’t give me the right content writing brief.

Now I am savvier in that regard.

Take for example the above-mentioned client whose work has been delayed by almost 2 weeks.

I’m not going to spend a few hours finding information that he should have found and delivered to me.

That’s his or her job.

Are you doing customer centric or products centric content writing

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Should content writing be customer centric pr product centric

How do you draw the difference between writing customer centric or product centric content?

I was reading this blog post on the importance of being customer centric or product centric when designing products or mobile apps, and thought that this philosophy is also applicable to content writing.

What is customer centric content writing?

In simple terms, customer centric content writing means focusing on benefits rather than features.

Features are important.

A mobile phone that comes with 280 GB memory sounds quite impressive.

This is a feature – our phone has this much memory.

What is the benefit to the customer?

You’re not going to have to delete data to make more space very soon.

Many phone users face this problem.

They go on making videos and taking photographs unmindful of the space they are taking, and then suddenly, they begin to get the warning that they are running out of space.

280 GB is a lot of space.

You can tell your customers that they can store up to 10,000 videos (depending on the length).

You can tell them that they can store more than 100,000 photographs.

They are not going to have to delete data for at least a few years.

As a content writer, you need to be the customer’s advocate.

It is the customer who buys a product or a service.

It is the reader who reads your content.

If there is no connection, the customer is not going to buy, and the reader is not going to read.

How to write customer centric content?

To be able to write customer centric content you must understand what the customer needs.

Instead of thinking about what you are offering, think about what the customer wants.

Here are a few things you can do to write customer centric content.

Use the language your customers use

Every industry has its own set of jargon.

Jargons may be important within the industry because they make your communication unambiguous and eliminate scope for contradictions and confusion.

Sometimes, something that can be explained in a couple of sentences can be explained in a single word using a jargon.

But your customers may not understand them.

Take for example if someone tells you, “Give me a hard copy.”

Most people won’t know what “hard copy” means unless they have used the word before.

They won’t be able to make out that “hard copy” simply means giving some information on a printed sheet, through a printer.

Hence, if you are writing content for a printer, instead of saying, “it gives you 500 hard copies per cartridge” you can say, “you can print out 500 sheets per cartridge.”

Write in a very simple language

Although I don’t believe in dumbing down readers, when people are quickly reading, they don’t want to spend time deciphering what your sentences mean.

When I’m writing content, as much as I can, I use simple sentences.

When I’m writing content, my intention is not to showcase my prowess as a writer or a content writer.

My only purpose is to make my writing convincing and simple so that people do business with my clients.

Sometimes my sentences contain just three words.

In a copywriting e-book I read that even if sometimes you make grammar mistakes, don’t worry.

Though, I don’t agree.

Grammar mistakes make you look unprofessional.

Nonetheless, use as many simple sentences as you can.

Avoid writing compound and complex sentences as much as you can.

Write for a clearly defined persona

Write for a person.

Don’t let it be a vague person.

Before starting to write your main content, on a sheet of paper or in a Word Doc, make a list of the attributes the person has (for whom you are writing).

You can write her age, her income, the region she comes from, her marital status, how much she generally spends on similar products and services you are promoting, how she has conversations, what are her habits, and so on.

Creating a persona can be time-consuming but it improves the customer centricity of your content writing process.

Once you have defined the persona, imagine the person is sitting in front of you and you are talking to her.

Have a conversation – use a conversational tone.

It is very important to use the language your customer uses on day-to-day basis.

Answer all the questions and fears your customer may have

Your customers may react with “so what?”

They must come up with, “what if?”

Suppose you’re promoting a cloud-based accounting software.

Think of all the questions your target customer may have.

Think of all the apprehensions.

Make a list of all the reasons why that customer may not take a decision in favor of your cloud-hosted accounting software.

Will they be able to port their existing data as it is?

Is there a steep learning curve?

Is the software going to cost more in terms of time and money compared to their existing software?

Is the software accessible on all devices?

Is it customizable?

How many reports does it generate?

How is it going to improve your accounting?

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages to such an extent that they should start using the software?

Why shouldn’t they use your competitor’s software?

And so on.

Think in terms of what your customer may think.

Speak in a definitive language

Instead of telling them many people are using your software, tell them 1500 people are using your software.

Don’t just tell them that yours is the best software – show them the accolades it has acquired.

Tell them stories of people who have improved their businesses or their personal lives with your software.

Don’t use vague expressions like “etc.” or “so on”.

Even if you have just three claims to make, just make those three claims and then leave it up to the customer whether she wants to be impressed or not.

Write a list of problems your product solves

Customers are more interested in knowing what problems your product solves rather than what cool features it has.

Your mobile phone has haptic touch? What does it mean?

How does it solve the phone user’s problem?

How does it give more feature to the user?

You offer storage space in the cloud?

How easy is it to upload and sync files?

Can the files be synced across all devices?

How much data can be stored?

How secure is the data on your servers?

Don’t assume solutions to what sort of problems people are seeking.

Talk to them.

Conduct interviews.

Conduct survey and polls.

Have one-on-one chats.

What is product centric content writing?

Product centric content writing is when you talk about the features and the parameters of the product without telling your customers how these features and parameters are going to improve their lives.

There is a dialogue in a Kevin Costner movie, Field of dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”

This is pertaining to the Las Vegas city that was being built, but does it hold for products?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

When Steve jobs came up with the idea of an iPhone people laughed at him.

It was hard to imagine a mobile phone without a keyboard.

Nonetheless, he went ahead with the innovation and the rest is history.

In such a context, you can say that sometimes the product-centric approach works.

But these are rarest of the rare events.

When writing content, you must strike a balance between customer centric and product centric content writing.

Even when you talk about features, talk about them in such a manner that they read like benefits to the customers.

How to improve your content writing in 3 easy steps

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Improve your content writing in 3 easy steps

Do you want to improve your content writing? Then these three easy steps can take you a long way.

Content writing is the process of writing for websites, blogs and other digital pieces of information that businesses may use to nurture leads and keep their visitors engaged.

As a professional content writer, I work on the following content writing assignments:

Main website content
Blog posts
Case studies
White papers
Landing pages
LinkedIn profiles
Email marketing campaigns
Social media updates

Do I work on all content writing assignments by myself?

Not necessarily.

These days I’m closely working with at least 15 content writers.

They write well.

They are hard-working.

Their English is good (most of my content writing involves writing in English).

I regularly mentor them.

You may like to read: 15 Content Writing Best Practices

Just being able to write well doesn’t help you improve your content writing

If you want to improve your content writing in the sense that you want to work on more lucrative assignments and get paid better, you need to understand one thing:

Professional content writing isn’t just about knowing how to write well. This is not how you improve your content writing.

Even English professors can write well. There are grammarians who can give you sleepless nights with the length and breadth of their knowledge.

No.

Content writing isn’t just about writing. It is a combination of various factors – inherent and acquired – that makes you a professional content writer worth paying for.

Sometimes when I tell my clients that I am working with other writers and I’m not writing all the content by myself, they become reluctant.

They come to my website.

They read my content.

The go through my blog posts.

They ask for samples and like them.

They want similar content writing.

For that, they want me to personally write for them.

It is humanly not possible.

After years of writing content, I am more interested in getting content writing assignments – as many as possible – and then making my writers work on them.

Nonetheless, when other writers do content writing for me, I go through every individual page and unless it satisfies benchmarks I have defined, I don’t forward the documents to the clients.

So, how do you improve your content writing?

Frankly, a book can be written on the topic, but here I’m going to list three fundamental steps that you can take to improve your content writing.

Incorporate these steps and you will instantly notice a marked difference in your writing. Here they are.

Define the search intent clearly to improve your content writing

The term search intent comes from SEO, but it can help you become an effective content writer.

You can read more about search intent on this blog post: What are the benefits of writing content for informational search intent?

Understanding search intent helps you understand why would people read your content?

What information are they looking for?

What is the intention of looking for that information?

Are they looking for information just to get educated and have some knowledge?

Are they looking for comparison and reviews?

Do they want to buy your product or service?

Are they still in the process of making up their minds?

These differences may be subtle and even indistinguishable to the untrained eye but for an experienced content writer, the ability to know the differences is invaluable.

Suppose your intention is to attract people who are in the process of deciding whether they need your services or not.

Suppose you provide content writing services.

They have realized that they need a professional content writer but they haven’t yet decided whom to hire.

They are ready to hire.

This is commercial search intent.

They may search for

Content writing services for educational content
Content writing services for accounting website
Content writer for your digital marketing company

Yes, people use longer, specific queries.

For the above-mentioned queries they are not looking for educational or informative content.

There is no need to convince them that they need to hire a professional content writing service for their business.

They already know.

What you have to do is, convince them that yours is the right content writing service for their accounting website or for their digital marketing company.

This is where you may commit a mistake as a content writer.

Instead of explaining to them why your content writing service is the perfect fit for their accounting website, you may end up explaining why a content writing service is beneficial to their accounting business.

They don’t want to be informed.

They don’t want to be educated or explained.

They simply want to know why they should hire you.

Knowing the difference can generally help you become an effective content writer.

Write simple sentences to improve content writing

I have seen this is a problem with content writers who don’t habitually speak English.

Maybe they want to prove how well they write, but they use long, convoluted sentences and expressions when a simple sentence can do the job.

Avoid sentences having multiple independent and dependent clauses – complex and complex compound sentences.

Take for example the sentence:

The late 1950s was a key era for programming languages because IBM introduced Fortran in 1957 and John McCarthy introduced Lisp the following year, which gave programmers both an iterative way of solving problems and a recursive way. (source)

Structurally and grammar-wise there is nothing wrong in the sentence, but it is needlessly long and makes a difficult reading.

It captures multiple ideas in a single breath.

I can easily write this sentence in 4 sentences:

The late 1950s was a key era for programming languages.

IBM introduced Fortran in 1957.

John McCarthy introduced Lisp the following year.

These languages gave the programmers both an iterative way and a recursive way of solving problems.

I’m not saying there is something special in these four sentences, but it makes the narrative easier to read.

The sentences are more engaging.

It is easier to focus on them.

I’m not saying that you should always write smaller sentences.

But make sure that there are fewer conjunctions and commas in a sentence.

Another tendency that I have seen among writers is to use passive voice because they think that officially it sounds good.

It does not.

Instead of saying

This has been brought to our notice

you should say

We have noticed.

Instead of writing

The assignment will be done by our outstation team.

Try to write

Our outstation team will do the assignment.

Sentences in active voice are easier to read and less tiring.

Additionally, when you are writing for the web, write in a conversational manner.

This will improve your content writing: write as if you are talking to someone sitting in front of you.

As a writer this advice may seem strange, but it actually works on the Internet.

You will notice that your writing will certainly improve when you start writing the way you talk (without abuses, of course).

Use headings and subheadings strategically

Frankly, headings and subheadings are the heart and soul of your content writing.

Many clients are aware of the importance of headings and subheadings, and they insist that you format your content using them.

Unless they are looking for something very specific, most of the people, when they read on the Internet, first quickly go through the headings and subheadings.

It doesn’t make sense to use headings in a short document.

Usually there must be 3-4 headings and subheadings in 1000-word long document.

On the Internet you have 15 seconds to capture the attention of your readers.

Your main headline or your main heading is the proverbial foot inside the door.

It must be punchy.

It must ask the right question, or it must provide the right answer.

Take for example this headline

7 silly grammar mistakes that can embarrass you

Nobody likes committing grammar mistakes.

Nobody wants to be embarrassed.

Even those who write well would like to take a look at your blog or article to make sure that he or she is not committing these silly grammar mistakes.

Even if you are a professional content writer, to improve your content writing you may want to go beyond the headline and see what all grammar mistakes are covered.

What about subheadings?

These are sectional headings.

For example, above you can see the subheading

Use headings and subheadings strategically

You use subheadings to sectionally divide your content and make it easier for your readers to skim through it.

Even if you don’t read this blog post in its entirety, by simply going through the subheadings you can make sense of what suggestions I am making.

Therefore, it is important to write subheadings in such a manner that they truly represent the information that is presented below them.

There are innumerable suggestions that I can make to help you improve your content writing, but these 3 steps can give you an instant start.

You can implement these suggestions right now and create an effective web page or blog post.

6 tips to help you write better

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Tips to help you write better

What exactly is better writing?

It is engaging. It reads fluently. It sticks to the narrative. It is easier to understand. It is captivating. It is free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Ultimately, it emotionally moves the readers, and in terms of business writing, turns them from readers to customers and clients.

The way you write reflects on your attitude towards your readers. You don’t have to write like a classical novelist but when people are reading your writing, they should get the feeling that you take your writing seriously. You don’t take your readers for granted.

Everyone writes these days. People are posting updates on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You write when you send messages on instant messaging apps – in fact, many instant messaging apps have their own lingo that is quite different from the way you write.

There is writing for relatives and friends and there is writing for customers and clients. Your relatives and friends don’t mind how you write as long as you can convey your message.

Your customers and clients mind if you don’t write better. If you are not careful with your writing, how can you be careful with delivering your business?

Your writing style matters when you write for your business blog. If you have business accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking platforms then too the way you write matters.

I often get queries from people who want me to write their business emails. It means they understand the importance of writing well-formed email messages.

When you write better, you make a good impression. People take you seriously. You are more convincing. People are not distracted, and they can focus on your core message.

Listed below are 6 tips to help you write better

1. Create an outline

You must have learned this in school and by now forgotten. Your English teacher used to make you create an outline for essay writing assignments.

Creating an outline is a very simple process. You can use bulleted points. You can simply use one-line paragraphs to jot down the main points you want to convey.

Creating an outline helps you collect all your ideas on a single page. At this stage, you can also do some research if you want to find credible information.

The main parts of an outline cab be

An introduction and the main headline.
What is the gist of the article, or the blog post you are going to write?
What is the most compelling point that will be represented by your article or blog post?
What is the objective of what you are writing?
Main points – headings and subheadings that you would like to expand further.

When creating an outline don’t worry about your writing style or grammar or spelling mistakes. You can create your outline in monosyllables.

The basic idea is to get as much information as possible out there.

2. Write short sentences

Short sentences are powerful than long sentences. The ability to express complete ideas with fewer words allows you to be succinct and direct.

Shorter sentences improve readability. They are less distracting. They make a stronger impact. There is a reason why famous axioms and traditional folklore sayings are expressed in short and crisp sentences.

Longer and verbose sentences on the other hand distract your readers. Remove the unnecessary words. Don’t use adverbs and adjectives needlessly. Say what you want to say directly, and simply.

3. Write shorter paragraphs

This is also good for your SEO, especially when you are writing articles and blog posts to improve your search engine rankings.

Don’t have more than two or three sentences in a paragraph.

Many people these days prefer to read on their mobile phones or smaller devices. Reading very long paragraphs can tire them and distract them away from what you have published.

Short paragraphs maintain the attention span. They are easier to grasp and digest. They create more white space and hence, make your page visually appealing.

Also, short paragraphs help you develop the habit of expressing one thought in one paragraph, making it easier for you to articulate complex ideas in simple language.

4. Use active voice as much as possible

Here is an example of active voice:

Scientists believe that there are multiple universes.

In passive voice, the same sentence becomes

It is believed by scientists that there are multiple universes.

Passive voice certainly has its uses but when you are explaining something or when you are having a conversation with your readers, use active voice.

Hence, when writing sentences, always write “The dog is chasing the ball” instead of “the ball is being chased by the dog”.

It is always easier to read a sentence when a subject is directly performing an action on an object.

5. Find your unique writing voice

Your writing voice is the way you form sentences and use certain words. It gives you an identity. It helps you develop a perspective. When you have written extensively, it also helps your readers easily identify you through your writing.

In the beginning of our writing careers, we tend to get influenced by the writers we read and admire. In my early years I read classical writers like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy and tried to adopt their writing styles.

When I began to admire Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I tried to write the way they wrote.

There is nothing wrong in emulating writers you admire and in fact, emulating them is a good way to start writing until you develop your own voice.

You are not born with an innate writing voice. You cannot even force-develop it. It needs to come into being on its own.

Write regularly. Develop your own vocabulary. Write sentences in your own way. Develop a conviction.

6. Write regularly without waiting for inspiration or muse

Successful and established writers write every day. It is not a choice for them, it is a necessity.

As a professional content writer, I cannot wait for “inspiration”. My clients give me topics. Sometimes they give me research data. Based on this information, I must start writing immediately.

The same goes for my content writing and copywriting blog. I am not as regular as I should be because I sometimes get busy with my professional commitments, but whenever I get time, I don’t wait for ideas and inspirations. I simply come up with a topic and start writing on it.

The benefit of writing every day is that you get used to expressing yourself without making an extra effort. You are learning and using new words and phrases. You are forming new sentences. You are constantly figuring out how to express different thoughts and ideas.

Practice your writing muscle regularly. The best way of learning to write is when you don’t want to write.

Learn every day. Memorize new words. Take notes whenever you come across sentences you can use in your own writing. Read to learn and absorb than simply for entertainment and education.

How to constantly get new content writing ideas?

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Constantly get new content writing ideas

Are you constantly running out of content writing and blogging ideas? Then we are on the same boat.

I write for my own blog. I also write for many clients. Most of the clients send me topics but there are some who insist that I provide topics to them.

Therefore, I don’t just need to come up with new content writing ideas for my own blog, but also for blogs and websites of my clients. How do I do that?

Some of the ideation happens on autopilot and some happens with lots of research, reading and constant looking around.

Why is there a problem in getting new content writing ideas?

To maintain your visibility, you need to publish regularly. How regular you are depends on your content marketing strategy. I try to publish every day for my blog although I must confess, I’m not as regular as I should have been. I’m trying to be now.

Most of the clients cannot afford to publish every day. So, they publish either once a week or twice a week. No matter what your frequency is, you eventually run out of content writing ideas. In the beginning it’s quite exciting because you are bubbling with ideas but as you write regularly (provided you are consistent) you run out of things to say.

It is like a conversation between two individuals. There are only finite things you can talk about and eventually, you run not of topics. The same happens when you are writing content for your website. After a while, you run out of topics.

Then how come there are so many blogs that have been publishing awesome content for years? And they publish almost daily.

Listed below are a few ways you can have an ongoing stream of content writing ideas for your website and blog

Subscribe to the feeds of different blogs

You can use a tool like Feedly to subscribe to the feeds of your favorite 20-50 blogs. These blogs, preferably big names in your niche, publish almost every day. Even if not every day, 10-15 blogs out of these will have new content. Don’t copy their ideas but you can use their content for inspiration.

Another good thing about established blogs is that they publish lots of useful information that you can use (after citing them) for your own content writing efforts.

So, in the morning whenever you need new content writing ideas, just go through your Feedly feeds and start writing.

Maintain a journal of content writing ideas

This can be a notebook. You can use OneNote. You can use Google Keep. You can also use an Excel sheet. Whenever you come up with a new blogging idea you jot it down at a safe place that you can easily find. I prefer to keep all my content writing and blogging ideas using OneNote because I find it easiest to maintain intricate hierarchies of information.

Some people also use Pinterest to simply pin blog posts from other sources so that they can visit their dashboards whenever they cannot come up with some great content writing or blogging ideas.

Keep an eye on social media feeds

Do you like to spend time on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? There also you can follow your favorite publications. These publications post links on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn whenever they publish new content. You will be instantly notified.

You also find a wealth of information on social networking platforms that can stimulate completely unique content writing and blogging ideas.

Accept guest blog posts

Even if sometimes you cannot come up with great content writing and blogging ideas some guest bloggers can. Guest bloggers won’t approach you unless you have crossed a threshold – your page rank has improved or your search engine rankings are better and they can easily find your content and get impressed.

But once you reach a stage where people begin to approach you for guest blogging opportunities, don’t refuse them. There comes a time when so many people will approach you for guest blog posts that you won’t have to constantly think of content writing and blogging ideas for yourself. Make sure you maintain quality standards.

Get content writing ideas from your own blog

Again, you must have published for a few months. When writing a blog post or a web page you often divide your various ideas into headings and subheadings. Sometimes these headings and subheadings can be expanded into complete blog posts.

For example, I wrote a blog post on What is search intent and in this blog post, there is a subheading called Informational search intent. There are other subheadings such as navigational search intent, commercial search intent, or transactional search intent. Don’t you think individual blog posts can be written on these search intents? Surely they can be.

You can also re-purpose your existing content by curating themed blog posts and web pages. For example, I can curate all my copywriting blog posts into a single blog post.

Write a series of blog posts on a single topic

A hit movie often has a sequel. A TV series that does well has seasons. Similarly, if there is a blog post that generates lots of traffic, you can write a sequel or a prequel. A sequel means, ever since you have written that blog post, you must have learnt something new that you can add. Or you can present a completely different take on the same topic to intrigue your readers.

This you can do with even those blog posts that didn’t do well but you feel that they have the potential to generate lots of traffic for you. Without duplicating content, write their variations. Rewrite them from a different perspective. You can contradict yourself in a certain blog post by writing completely opposite of what you said previously, but in such a convincing manner that people don’t doubt your judgement.

Link to other blog posts and articles

Although most of your content must be original, ideally, should come from you, you can also link to other blog posts and articles to keep your content writing and blogging idea engine smoothly functioning.

Suppose, you come across a blog post you really like. Although right now you cannot come up with a similar, complete blog post by yourself, you have some pointers to share with your readers regarding the contents of the blog post. You can quickly write a couple of paragraphs and then you can link to the original blog post. This way you can write lots of content for your website.

But ultimately, if you write most of your web pages and blog posts like this, Google may think that you are publishing thin content. So do that with discretion. I do it occasionally.

Continuously coming with great content writing and blogging ideas can be a challenge but if you really get involved in writing and publishing content, you will be surprised to know that most of the ideas begin to come to you on your own. Something or the other keeps happening, and you keep stumbling upon great writing ideas.