1. Speak Your Posts – If you’re more comfortable speaking than you are writing, speak your content and have it transcribed into blog posts. You can purchase software that will do this for you—Dragon Naturally Speaking—which is used by doctors, attorneys and other professionals for transcription purposes.
2. Interview Industry Professionals – Invite people to contribute interviews for your blog. Seek out industry experts, customers, and anyone else with something to share that would be of interest to your audience. These interviews don’t even need to be time consuming since you can request that they be conducted in writing. Submit questions via email or create an online submission form.
3. Invite Guest Contributors – There are several great advantages to inviting guest contributors to your blog. Aside from acquiring great blog content, guest contributors will also promote their posts to their own networks, thus raising visibility and traffic for your site. Inviting guest contributors can also give you a powerful reason to reach out to influential people in your industry and form new alliances.
4. Leverage Video Blogging – If you’re comfortable and charismatic on camera, record your blog posts on video. You can create your own YouTube channel and embed the videos into blog posts. Keep them brief (under five minutes for best results) and you can begin to build an audience by doing something you enjoy.
5. Compile Round-up Posts – Ask a question and compile the responses into one long post—or a series of posts. You can even submit your request via http://helpareporter.com.
6. Link to Articles – Blog posts don’t always need to be long. You can post a quick paragraph with your thoughts on an article or industry news and include a link to the article so your readers can see it too. Remember, when you host a blog the goal should be to provide valuable information that provides value for your readers—whether that’s information you create or information that comes from other sources.
7. Compile an Index of Previous Posts – If you’ve amassed a series of blog posts about a specific topic, why not put them all into one easy list for readers to discover? A friend of mine did this recently and reported a big boost in traffic as a result.
8. Hold a Comment Contest – Ask site visitors to post a comment with an answer to a trivia question or explaining how they do something. Give away a free ebook, audio recording series or other prize and enjoy the amount of buzz you can generate as a result.
9. Compile Industry News – Become a valuable source for your readers by compiling a list of industry news stories. You might do this once each week or once a month. Whatever the interval, providing links to interesting industry information can be a great asset for your readers. Think of it as your Twitter feed all added to one big blog post!
10. Conduct Interviews – For years we’ve hosted written interviews. We have a simple contact form that users can fill out and if the content is right for the site, we will feature the interview on the home page—and forever in our archives. This creates a win-win situation for all involved. The featured interviewee gets additional exposure from our site and social media, while we provide interesting content for our readers and ensure we’re adding content to the site on a regular basis.
11. Crowd Source Your Content – Reach out to your social media networks and invite people to get involved. You could build your blog much like a magazine site, which allows registered contributors to add and modify content. This could be a fun and creative way to generate content for your site. You could even consider adding incentives to get it started, such as a monthly prize awarded to the top contributor. Once you’re generating enough traffic and visibility, contributors will be clamoring to be part of your content network. Sites like About.com and Huffington Post have been built on the concept of developing a network of regular guest contributors.
12. Create Lists – Social media users love resources. You can compile top 10-style lists of the best resources for your industry, best Tweeters, software solutions, apps, books, etc.
13. Barter for Blog Posts – If you’re willing to barter your products or services, you can pursue a content writer willing to exchange quality posts.
14. Enlist Peers and Joint Venture Partners – Sometimes all you need to do is ask. Don’t forget to reach out to your peers and the people you partner with on a regular basis. Many will likely be flattered that you asked for content and will be glad to provide guest posts for your site.
15. Hire an assistant. If the above suggestions still sound like a lot of work for you, then consider hiring someone to help. Hiring a blog content manager was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I still write my own content—and always will—but my content manager helps with round-ups, guest blog posts and other tasks that I no longer have to manage. This frees me up to focus on what I love to do and ensures that we consistently publish great content. A virtual assistant can make it all much easier in the long run!
16. Hire an Intern – Local colleges and trade schools love to help their students land internships. Depending on where you live, some interns may be willing to workfor free. Be sure to check state laws about working with interns, however, since states like California and New York have strict guidelines against free internships and expect you to pay at least minimum wage.
17. Remember the Goal – Most important of all, remember that this isn’t about simply filling your blog with content. It’s about filling your blog with compelling content so that you provide value for your audience. If your blog content doesn’t dazzle, your blogging strategy will fall flat.
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