Importance of Content Strategy
When people start a blog, they perform all kinds of search on web hosting and content management systems, themes, plugins and all of the technology without taking time to think about a content strategy. It is important to understand that technology is just a tool. Your number one priority should always be your content because that is what people visit your blog for. People will not visit your blog because of your WordPress theme. Design is important but your content is your number one priority.
Choosing a niche
The first part of developing a content strategy is choosing a niche. In other words committing to a specific audience that you want to serve. This is difficult because a lot of people as they are starting out, kind of want to appeal to everyone. Focusing on a specific topic will allow you to position yourself as an expert and grow more quickly than you try to be everything for everyone. When you find yourself a niche it should be specific enough to carve out an audience for yourself, but broad enough that a large enough audience actually exists. It should be something that you will be able to write about on a consistent basis. So ideally is should be something that you are knowledgeable and passionate about.
For example, the first blog that I have was about android technology news. It contained information about phones, apps, companies, developers, etc. It was something that I really enjoyed reading about. It is not easy though for all people as they do not know where to begin. But that is ok as we will be going through a couple of approaches that will help you decide.
How to find your niche
First of all start with things that you are interested in and are passionate about. A couple of things would have popped into your mind but if you are totally blank then that is fine as well. There are some really effective ways to uncover your passion.
The best way is to check where you spend a bunch of your money. If you shop online, go and check your order history and look at the things you are buying on a regular basis. Recreational things can often point to a particular interest of yours which could translate to a blogging niche. If you read a lot of books then you can find a pattern based on the types of books you have. If you watch a lot of movies or surf a lot of videos on youtube, check out the kind of videos you watch. You will find a pattern there. You can also learn a lot by paying attention to how you spend your time. What do you do for fun? Do you like take photos, or play video games, go to concerts, listen to music, watch sports – any of these activities can be translated into your blog content.
Once you have a list of topics in mind, it is time to look into your current skills and expertise. Which field you are most knowledgeable about? Because in that field you would be able to provide additional value to audiences which your average person cannot. If you do not want to commit to a single topic then you can choose a particular audience. So instead of writing about a single topic, you can write about a variety of topics that matter to a particular audience.
Type of Content
Once you have decided which niche to pick, its time to find the type of content to post. Most content servers one of the following purposes:
- Entertainment
- Education
- Persuasion
- Conversion
Entertainment is obviously meant to entertain people. Education is for teaching the reader something. Persuasive content makes arguments for a particular position or viewpoint. Conversion entices people to buy or take some other action. You can apply those purposes to various content formats like lists, how to guides, news articles, reviews, thought and opinion pieces, interviews, case studies and so on.
So start thinking about your content strategy because it will the foundation of your blog. Ask yourself this – How and to whom will you provide value? Who is your audience and what will you content do to improve their lives.
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