It goes without saying that your blog posts should cover the topics that your audience finds the most interesting. If you’re looking for ideas and you’re unsure what topics are popular, or if you’re unsure about how to find out, here are some tips for keeping your current readers and for attracting new ones:
Follow the Leaders – What are people reading? Find the blog posts that are achieving high readerships for the leaders in your field or industry. Scan through their Twitter and Facebook feeds for the posts and topics that draw the most readers and receive the most likes.
Just Ask Your Readers – Solicit feedback. Ask readers what topics interest them the most, but be specific. Compile a short list of topics and ask your readers to pick from the list. Solicit their comments too; find out why readers are more concerned with some topics than with others.
Determine What’s Already Working – Facebook Insights can tell you how well your individual Facebook posts perform. When you find your most successful posts scan over them. What elements do your successful posts have in common? What distinguishes your successful posts from the unsuccessful ones? For Twitter, Sprout Social is a useful tool for determining which of your tweets have the most success.
Keep narrowing your focus – When you’ve determined what topics interest your readers, write extensively on those topics. Then determine which of those posts have drawn the most readers, and write more about the specific topics that those posts discuss.
Grammar and spelling count – Probably no blog is perfect. Occasionally a misspelled word or a typographical error will slide past even the best writers, editors, proofreaders, and webmasters. But consistently poor writing and multiple spelling mistakes will drive away your readers. Many professionals and small business owners hire a ghostwriter or a social marketing firm to provide their blog’s readers with high-quality writing and attention-grabbing ideas and topics.
