If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

This week I asked our panel of experts …

What are your absolute best tips for coming up with blog post topics and ideas for yourself to write about? (Not for guest bloggers or interviews.)

What do you do when you're feeling out of ideas?

Let's get the brainstorming going…

Felicia Slattery of Credibility and Cash Flow says:

I have a love-hate relationship with blogging. Literally the day I learned what a blog was back in 2006 as I was just trying to figure out what business I was in, I began my blog.

It started out as a way for me to think about what I wanted, a place to play with ideas for articles I planned to develop more fully, and an opportunity for me to feel like I was doing something productive in my business by developing my message. The only visitors I had back then were a handful of family and close friends.

Later, as my business grew, I had my blog redesigned. The only problem was — I HATED it. So my blogging time slowly dwindled to almost nothing. And there it stayed for a couple of years. It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say, it was that there were so many other places to say it — online articles, video, my ezine, social media — it didn't feel like I “had” to blog anymore.

Finally I had my blog redesigned again to something I'm much more proud to send people to. The question of what to write about is similar to people who ask me what they should speak about when they have a few minutes at a networking meeting to talk about their business. Here are a few tips:

1. Current Events: Is something newsworthy happening in your community, your state, your country or the world that you can comment on? When you use the keywords people are searching for you get the added benefit of additional new traffic to your blog.

2. Your Business: Do you work with clients or get emails or comments from people in your business that you could turn into a post? Tell stories of a problem someone has had and explain how you helped resolve it.

3. Social Media: Was there something in your Twitter stream or Facebook wall or Linked In group that got a LOT of attention? Use your blog to expand on it and continue the conversation. Then link to your post in the original social media post so others interested in that topic can read your thoughts and comment.

4. Favorites: Write posts about your favorite tools, books, mentors, or colleagues doing great things. Whenever I find a new online tool — especially a free one I LOVE — I share it with the world. If I'm reading a good book, or a bad one, I'll blog about it. If I have a great experience with another business owner that can help others or meet someone they should know, I use my blog to introduce my readers to that person.

5. Teach a Tip or Technique: When I feel totally out of ideas, I go to my bookshelf and online library and teach something I think my readers will find valuable. Then I ask them for their opinions or ideas, too.

I like to think of blogging as a conversation and work to keep my end going.

Connie Ragen Green of ConnieGreen.com says:

My very best ideas for blog posts come from the questions my students ask during my teleseminars and webinars, as well as when they email me between training sessions. This means that they have taken action with what I am teaching, and are now able to ask a more advanced and specific question. By writing about it in detail on my blog, many people will benefit from the post over time.

I also find topics to blog about based on reading other people's posts. Typically I will leave a comment on their blog, and then think about it before writing my own post.

When I am completely out of ideas, I go back and read my own posts from a year ago, or even further. Many times there have been new developments on those topics, and I have also learned more since writing the original post. Everyone benefits from this type of research and the new blog post I end up writing as a result.

Shannon Cherry of Sponsorship Made Simple says:

The confounded ‘Blogger's Block.' As brilliant as we all are, there are times when we look at our blog we see a blank screen. It especially is tough for those for us who post three or more times a week.

The first thing I do is make sure I know the topic I should be writing about. Because I plan my marketing and promotions calendar, I know what I am promoting 6 months in advance. So I make sure that the theme or topic matches what I have on the calendar. (So when in doubt… plan!)

The second thing I do is look for ways to piggyback on hot topics already in my target market's radar. First, I look at what known holidays are going on and if I can't find one that relates to what my topic is, I turn to Blog Energizer or Chase's Calendar of Events to find more quirky holidays. For example, March is National Noodle Month. Now, I know this is really about noodles (as in the pasta-like food). But what if I take a twist on this… about using your noodle (and buy what I am selling).

By piggybacking, I get inspired and create more interest than the same-old-same old.

Alice Seba of Contentrix says:

A lot of people combine the activity of coming up with topics and blogging, but I think those are two very separate activities.

We've all done it. We sat at the computer and tried to figure out to write about and a few things may have happened. If we're lucky, we come up with a topic right away and we can start writing. But in many cases, it seems to take a while before we come up with a topic or we can't come up with one at all.

That's why I recommend taking time each month (or at an interval that works for you) and make a big list of topics you can write about or have a guest / ghostwriter write about. Once you get your first few topics written down, it's easier to come up with more. Personally, I'd prefer to spend about 30-45 minutes coming up with all the topics, instead of 10-15 minutes each time I sit down and try to write. It's an amazing time saver. Plus, it's much easier for me to be creative and come up with a ton of ideas. In fact, I'll often have more ideas than I need, and I can simply choose the best ones and discard those mediocre ideas. This helps make sure that I deliver only the best to my readers…instead of just “good enough”.

Of course, you still need to know how to get those ideas:

• If you sell your own products (or recommend affiliate products), shape your content topics around what a buyer of those products would want to know about.
• Review the headlines in your RSS reader to see what people are writing about.
• Check out Google News or your favorite news site to see the hot topics.
• Check out a big article directory like EzineArticles.com or look at Nicole's LadyPens.com for topic ideas.
• Find PLR content on topics that are suitable for your blog.
• Use keyword tools like WordTracker.com to find frequently searched for topics.
• Look at magazines and other print materials

Write down every idea that comes to mind. It doesn't matter how lame it may seem. Lame ideas can become good ones with some extra thought and they can breed even better ideas. Review your list when you're done and come up with your blogging schedule. Now you'll never sit and wonder what to write about again…you'll be ready to go instead!

Susanne Myers of AffiliateTreasureChest.com says:

I noticed that I go through cycles where I’m super creative and come up with all sorts of different blog post ideas and then I have weeks where it feels like pulling teeth. The key for me is often just to get started with some ideas and more start to branch of from the initial ideas.

Theme For The Week
My first strategy is to come up with related blog post ideas for the whole week. Once I have the overall theme it’s pretty easy to find individual topics to write about. I also don’t feel like I have to cram everything I know about a topic into one single blog post. Instead I can spread things out and teach one thing at a time.
The added bonus is that I can then take the related blog posts and turn them into a short report.

Keyword Research
Another good option I use frequently is keyword research. I either look at keywords I’m already ranking for and see if that sparks ideas, or I may type some rather general terms like “list building” into a keyword research tool and see what terms come up.
I find it helpful to look for long tail keyword phrases that are questions or include words like “how to” or “tutorial”.

Ask A Friend Or Customer
Last but not least, I just ask a friend, my readers or a customer what they would like me to cover next. Each email that goes out to my blog subscribers at AffiliateTreasureChest.com invites them to reply with a question. Some of my best suggestions have come via Twitter. I just tweet something like “What would you like me to blog about this week” or “What’s your most pressing question about ….” I often get some great replies within a few minutes.

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of JeanetteCates.com says:

When I'm short of ideas for new blog posts, I use several idea generators. First, I keep an ongoing list of questions that I receive from members and the question form on my blog. These are always good article-starters.

I also keep a file of article titles I come up with as ideas pop into my head. I jot down quick ideas on the topic, then file them under “ideas.” I can easily pull one out and fill out the rest of the article.

I have several lists of “Blog Post Ideas” from other marketers and PLR reports I've purchased. Those are also great idea-starters. Plus, any PLR article is a great way to start your writing. Just rewrite it as you go and you have a brand new article!

Finally I've just started using EzineArticle's Title Suggestion tool. It's a nice challenge to have them generate article titles for you, then write to fill the topic.

There are always a ton of great ideas when you keep your mind open and your antenna alert. Enjoy the process!

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

The dreaded blank screen looms ahead. My mind goes even emptier than usual as panic starts to take hold.

“What if I never come up with an idea?! I'll sit here for ever. I'll DIE in this chair. OMG HELP!”

ok. Well, it doesn't get that bad, but sometimes I do wonder if I've run out of things to talk about.

The best thing I can do at that point is to go on a walk or jump in the shower, or do both — but not at the same time. That's just silly.

When I get back, I usually feel like I have more ideas than I could ever write in just one lifetime.

Because this is a question that I get asked about regularly, I wrote a report on this topic that you're welcome to read here:

20 Ways to Come up with an Idea for your Next Blog Post

Recommended Resource

One of the many ways that I come up with ideas to blog about is through keyword research. I let other people tell me what they're looking for online in my field. Then I write about that.

Speaking of keyword research, I sent two free sets of keywords to my EasyPLR lists as a little gift.

• ADHD Keyword Research (pdf)
• Anti-Aging Keyword Research (pdf)

Isn't it nice just to have pages of ideas – telling you what to write about?

But, what if you're in another niche, like Yoga or Crockpots?

You're in luck. My friend, Susanne Myers has put together “Niche Research Packs” for a variety of popular niches.

If the concept of niche research packs is new to you, then let me tell you what you get…

* Detailed niche description
* Who your target market for this niche is
* List of affiliate products available
* 100 domain name ideas (plus list of modifiers for hundreds more)
* Detailed keyword report for over 1000 keywords
* 100 article and blog post ideas
* 15 different author resource boxes
* 2 different detailed marketing plans (beginner and advanced)

Be sure to check it out here if you think it can help you in your business:

NicheResearchPacks.com

It’s Your Turn.

So, now, I’ll pose this question to you. Do you have any special tips for coming up with blog posts when you're fresh out of ideas? I’d love to hear your comments!

Warmly,

Nicole Dean

PS. I have created brandable reports from several of the previous Expert Brief columns that you can use to earn money by giving them away.

ok. Turning this over to Susanne. Enjoy her brilliance!

SEO Tips: How to Optimize your Article Marketing with Keywords

Article marketing is a great way to get traffic and back links to your website, but when you combine this strategy with keyword optimization, you can really drive targeted visitors to your site. Today, I'd like to share the exact steps I use every time I sit down to do some article marketing (or at least most of the time ).

Step One – Optimizing Content On Your Own Site

I always start with the content on my own site and recommend you do the same. I'm just talking plain old on-page seo stuff here. Make sure you pick a good keyword for your new content (for your blog post) and use the keyword in the title as well as 2 or 3 times in the content of your page.

For example, when I sat down to write this blog post, I chose the keyword “keyword optimization” for this post. I used it in the post title and am also sprinkling it throughout the content.

In step 4, you will also use the same keyword again as the “anchor text” for the link back to your site in the resource box of the article that you will write and submit to article directories. More on that in a little bit.

Step Two – Coming Up With An Article Topic (For Article Marketing)

Once I know which page (or blog post) on my site I want to promote with the article, I like to come up with a related topic (or two) for the articles that I will be submitting. Think of something that will allow you to easily transition into the resource box with the link back to your site.

For example, if I wanted to submit an article to promote this blog post here about keyword optimization for article marketing, I may consider topics like:

• How to write a good article title
• A strategy for writing an article in under 15 minutes
• Getting traffic with article marketing

With any of these topics it would be easy to transition into a resource box that invites the reader to this blog post to learn more about how they can make sure their articles get the most traffic by using keyword optimization.

Step Three – Finding A Good Keyword

Once I come up with the general topic for the article, I go back and do some more keyword research. This new keyword will be used to optimize the article that I'm writing and submitting to article directories.  I want to find a keyword that's not terribly competitive but gets at least 20 or 30 searches per day. I use wordtracker to find those keywords, but you can also use several free tools available.

You can read more about how to do the keyword research and why you should not skip this step in this blog post:
What Is Keyword Research

Read through it and then do your keyword research using your tool of choice.

I did some research on the topics from above and decided on the third topic. My keyword for the article will be “article marketing promotion”

Step Four – Writing The Article (For Article Marketing)

Once you have your keyword, it's time to write the actual article. Make sure you use the keyword in the title of your article. I like to use it first thing in the title. So my article title in this example may be “Article Marketing Promotion – Drive Traffic To Your Website By Writing Quality Articles”.

Then write your article, making sure you use the keyword again 2 or 3 times throughout the content. I like to write articles that are about 400 to 500 words long and break them up into several small paragraphs to make them easy to read.

Don't forget to transition into a resource box that links back to the page of your choice on your website using the keyword for that page as the anchor text of your link.

My  article on using article marketing to drive traffic for example, may end with a resource box like this:

And now I would like to invite you to learn how you can get even more targeted traffic by using keyword optimization in your article marketing.

Step Five – My “Super Secret” Weapon For Ultimate Results

Ok, this technique isn't exactly super secret and chances are that you have heard about it, but almost no-one actually does it, yet when you do, the results of your article marketing will skyrocket. That means your site will get a lot more traffic and that means a larger list and more customers for you.

The secret is to not just stop at writing and submitting the article that promotes a page of your website. Instead promote your promotion, by doing some link building to the article itself once it is published. Start with some simple things like bookmarking the article using social bookmarking tools and sending it out to your twitter stream. If it's worth the effort (and you have the time), you may also want to write another related article and link in the resource box to the first article. Often that's enough to get the article listing on the first page of Google's search results for your keywords. And that of course will result in quite a steady stream of traffic to your site from your article marketing efforts.

Susanne Myers

Check out Susanne's complete Link Building Course Here:
Links Building for Beginners

Hey all. If you have questions, comments, or need examples, let us know. We'll be here to help.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

There's a picture of us together from earlier this year. ->

I'm the closer one and she's the one further away. We're both thinking hard, getting smarter.

Well, I'll step down and let Susanne take the stage and shine.  Here she is…

A Step-By-Step Approach To Creating A Niche Website

by Susanne Myers

I spent the past weekend with Nicole at NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing Workshop) in Atlanta where I spent a good bit of my time helping out in the beginner room.

The first stumbling block for many beginning Internet Marketers seems to be choosing a niche that they will then build a website or blog in.

Over the years I've done quite a bit of niche research. Here's my process I go through every time I am considering going into a new niche.

First of All, What IS A Niche?

Let's start by talking about what exactly a niche is.

According to Wikipedia, a niche is

“the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact”.

For Internet marketing in particular they have the following to say:

By appealing to smaller segments of larger markets, referred to as niches, a website can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base, giving the affiliate a small but regular income stream.

Let's look at an example. Health and Wellness is a large market, weightloss is a subset of that market. We can then “niche” it even further down by choosing “weightloss for new moms” as our niche.

Is It a Profitable Niche?

Next I like to take a look at the profit potential of a niche. Some things to consider are:

• Is it popular?
• Does it solve a problem or entertain?
• Is there a magazine (or even better several magazines) out there that target your niche market?
• For ecommerce sites, if you can't find the product at large stores like Wall-Mart, you have a pretty good chance of being able to sell it online.
• Do others buy google adwords ads for products in this niche?

If you can answer several of these questions with a definite yes, your niche has quite a bit of profit potential and it is usually worth spending a little time putting together a website to test the niche further.

Who's My Target Market for this Niche?

My next step is to put myself into my customer's shoes. Get as much information about your target market as you can. Who are they? What kinds of problems do they have that you can help with. What questions do they have that you can answer. Great places to research your target market are niche forums and sites like yahoo answers.

Are There Products I Can Sell?

Before you start building your new site, I want you to check on one more thing…  Are there any products (eletronic or physical) that you can sell to this market? I like to start by looking at affiliate products. Later on I might consider developing my own products, but for now let's focus on affiliate products. If you have several options, move on to the next step.

If there are no good products out there, it may be time to move to another niche. Please do not skip this step. I have spent hours and hours developing a site in the past only to notice a week or two into the project that there was really no good way to monetize the site.

Time For Keyword Research

I mostly get free traffic via search engines to my niche sites and the way to do this is to do some keyword research and then optimize content for these terms.

Pick your favorite keyword research tool. I personally use the paid version of wordtracker, but even the free wordtracker keyword tool or the google adwords keyword tool will do.

Spend a little time figuring out what terms are searched for in your market. Put them in a spreadsheet so you can refer to them easily when you start to create your content plan.

I like to sort my keywords into 3 different segments. The first is my main term. This will be the keyword with the highest search volume, but it will also be very hard to rank for. That keyword becomes my main focus for the home page of my website.  Next I like to choose 5 to 10 keywords that are very general, but a little easier to rank for than the main one. Those become my category pages. All other keywords will be used in individual articles blog posts. This sorting is the first step toward creating a content plan. Let's talk about that a little more.

But first, if you want to learn a bit more about keyword research, listen to this panel discussion I was involved in along with SEO experts Karon Thackston, Lynn Terry and Dan Morris. It's $17, but I think you'll find it well worth the small investment.

Creating A Content Plan

I like to take those “sorted” keywords and come up with a content plan for my new website or blog. It helps me get things up quickly when I'm ready. A great way to organize the keywords is to use a mindmap. You can see a very simple example in the image below:

Of course you would add quite a few more long-tail keywords for the individual article pages (shown here in green). As your site grows you can expand by adding more and more keyword targeted articles.

Of course you can also do the same on paper if you are not comfortable with mindmapping.

Building Your Site

With your plan in hand, it's time to build your niche site. You will need a domain name, website hosting and some sort of content management program. While there are quite a few good ones out there and you could even build a static html page, I prefer using the free wordpress blogging software (www.wordpress.org) to build my niche sites. (If you've never installed a blog, ReliableWebs.com will set one up for you.)

Use your mindmap or content plan to lay out your categories, then start writing your content using the long-tail keywords. I like to get about 10 or so posts in to begin with and then work on adding a few more each week.

Content Promotion Strategies

The last step is to go out and actively promote your new site and the individual articles on it. It's a little outside of the scope of this blog post to cover content promotion in detail, but here are a few ideas to get your started:

• Tweet about your new site and new articles as you add them.
• Do some article marketing.
• Participate on popular niche forums and include a link to your site in your forum signature.
• Comment on other popular blogs in the niche.
• Write some guest blog posts on other blogs.
• Build some backlinks to each page of your site to get it ranking well in the search engines.

I hope you found this step-by-step approach to niche research helpful. Yes, there is quite a bit of work involved, but it's also a fun process to go through once you get a hang of it.

Of if you prefer, I'll do all of the research for you. I create niche research packs that include all sorts of other important niche info at your finger tips to help you enter a new niche or dominate one that you're already in.

Check them out at NicheResearchPacks.com

Susanne Myers

I hope this was helpful!

Please let us know if you have questions by commenting below. We’re happy to keep answering questions as long as you keep asking.

Have a great day!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

What is our weird niche this time? Well, it's not quite as weird as some we've had in the past, but it did make me shake my head.

It's premade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people too busy to make their own… I think?

Can't quite figure out the niche for this one other than it's convenience foods taken too far.  Call me old-fashioned, but I don't get it

I'm a fan of Smuckers Jams, but this is just ridiculous, in my opinion. But, I'll set my opinions aside and we can just analyze this niche and figure out why people are buying it. And, how it got into all of the big grocery chains.

Business Lessons Learned from the Frozen PB&J Niche:

1. Convenience sells.
   Obviously there is a market for convenience. I can see the appeal of having all of your groceries in one box. There have been times when we've run out of jam or bread and needed to run to the store, but still. ..
2. Americana sells.
   PB&J is American history. (It's like apple pie and baseball.) The tradition of mom making a pb&j for you with love every day and putting it into your lunch box with a little note. Oh, wait. Uhhh.. that's not what's happening.
3. Once again – Don't overcomplicate things.
   In your quest for a way to make money in business, obviously it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to make a pb&j, take off the crusts and stick them in a box in the freezer. Just do it!

Yes, I'm being a little sassy today, but that's because I think some things don't need to be convenience'd up for you. Did you know that you can also now buy hard-boiled eggs (yes, pre-cooked) in the store. I understand wanting to have a hard-boiled egg handy, but really? And, the rice in a bag? Next thing you know you'll find pre-peeled bananas and sliced apples. Oh wait.

Anyway, we're talking about Peanut Butter and Jelly today and so I did a little keyword research for you.

Keyword Research for the PB&J Niche:

I ran a bit of keyword research and I found over 750 keyphrases using “Peanut Butter Jelly”.  Surprising? Yes!

Now, not all of these are money-making keyphrases, of course, but it's interesting none-the-less.

During my research I discovered that most people were searching for the song “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” and the accompanying dance. lol. See below for the dancing banana that started the craze.

Sample keyphrases for “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” song.

• peanut butter jelly dance
• peanut butter jelly ring tones

Then, another chunk of the keyphrases were for recipes, of course. People want to make foods (and drinks) with peanut butter and jelly.

• peanut butter jelly martini – YUM!
• peanut butter and jelly and bacon sandwich – (Remember the posts about Bacon products? Weird Niche: Bacon)
• peanut butter jelly wings (Yes, really)
• peanut butter jelly cookie recipe

And, some of the terms that people were searching for were for gifts, oddly enough.

• peanut butter jelly t-shirts
• peanut butter jelly gifts
• peanut butter jelly necklace (go figure)

So I did a little snooping around the ‘net to try to figure out what the heck the “PB&J gifts” were.

Here's what I found.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

You can even get PB&J Shoes:

Design Keds sneakers

I even discovered a recurring revenue model for Peanut Butter afficionados. Yes, a Peanut Butter of the Month club. Go figure!

Peanut Butter of the Month Club from Flying Noodle

Let me know what you think about this week's weird niche. And, have a great day!

Warmly,
Nicole

If you want to find a profitable online niche,
I recommend you check out these pre-researched packages:

Let me tell you a little about my friend.

Lynn and I had crossed paths many times over the years. In fact, a quick search on my personal blog for Lynn shows that we've been in each other's “space” for some time. (Lynn on my blog.)

We finally met a few weeks ago at Willie Crawford's Birthday Bash which was held in Orlando. See?

Here we are:

Lynn was one of the presenters for the conference, and we got to be room-mates for the weekend at the hotel. We at much sushi, stayed up WAY too late every night chatting and left after the conference, knowing that we'd be friends forever.

So, of course, when I decided to interview Successful People, she was one of the first on my list.

I could tell you all about Lynn, but instead, I'll point you to her websites so you can explore them and learn all about this remarkable friend of mine.

The audio recording of our interview is at the end of this blog post. Just look for the “play” button and listen. It's free!

A few of Lynn's Websites:

• Lynn Terry's Internet Marketing Blog
• Lynn's Very Popular Messageboard
• Lynn's Webinars
  

Resources Mentioned in this Call:

• Free Keyword Research Tool – Lynn uses this daily.
• Follow us on Twitter: Lynn Terry on Twitter | Nicole Dean on Twitter
• Free eBook: SEO Fast Start – Free Search Engine Optimization Guide

People who have Influenced Lynn

Most importantly –> Lynn's Grandmother – who sounds like she was am amazing woman.

• Willie Crawford – for integrity.
• Rosalind Gardner – learned a lot about affiliate marketing.
• John Reese – overall business strategies.

Books Mentioned

• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
• The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth

Take a listen and leave me a comment below about your thoughts and/or who you'd like to hear as a guest in a future episode.

Join Lynn's PRIVATE Masterminding Group:

It's for Members Only & Get Access to Brainstorming Calls & Members-Only Webinars.

If you can make a phone call, you can have a radio show like mine with this tool: Click here to learn more: Easy Podcast Recording.

FREE keyword Research Guide (pdf file)
An e-book packed with insight, tips, and techniques on keyword research that you can apply easily to your own website.

I hope you enjoy it!
Nicole