Sometimes the perfect business and its equally perfect website can fail to bring the customers and sales expected. Simply adding a self-promoting blog to the website is a remedy for this problem. A self-promoting blog is a periodically updated string of articles that provide information and often entertainment to customers. It also serves as a tool to get the website recognized by search engines, which list website link results according to relevance to the keyword.

Creating a self-promoting blog can be a difficult task, especially if you don’t know what to write about. Some website products and services are easier to write about than others. Although, promoting a business with a blog is very challenging, it is also crucial to the survival of your web business.

SEO is the Key

Whether your business is selling cosmetics or fixing cars, you’ll want to create blogging topics which draw in the right kind of visitors to your website.  This is your target audience or the people most likely to use your products and services. You want to draw them in with things they need or topics that keep their interest. By offering the right SEO or Search Engine Optimized articles on such topics, you will to capture your audience and put the website to the top of the search engine lists.

10 Ways to Pick a Topic

Here are a few key points to writing blogs and creating strong blog topics:

• Keep it short. Your blog doesn’t have to be a book in order to catch the reader’s interest.  In fact, shorter may be better.  Therefore, you must find a topic that can be discussed without an encyclopedia of writing.

• Make it fun, but get straight to the point.  Grab the reader’s interest without wasting their time.  The information provided in the blog needs to be valuable to the reader to keep him or her coming back. Choose a topic that you can make fun, but one that isn’t so abstract as to be difficult to get to the point.

• Write what you know. If you’re lucky enough to offer a service that has a wide variety of information, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to blog about it.  Plumbers, for example, can offer a blog on common household fixes, but point out the times when a professional should be called.

• Look for similar topics. If you have a service that is more difficult to write about, like children’s party supplies, you may consider hitting on similar, generalized topics.  For example, the children’s party supply business can use a blog about children’s party themes and ideas. Within the blog, use specific keywords and incorporate some of the products you sell.

• Blog about the business. If your business is particularly difficult to blog about such as a transcription service, begin with writing blogs about how a customer can get into contact with you. Then, write about upcoming projects over the next few months. You might also blog about little known facts about your profession. Another topic may be how to get into the profession

• Think customer care. You might also blog about ways to avoid the need for customer service support. Another blog topic would be how to get best out of a customer service support experience with your company. This article may have things that customers should have handy before contacting customer support, or even troubleshooting that should be done before making the call.

• Go back in history. If all else fails, try doing a company history blog. Making it personal is a great way to incorporate certain keywords and key phrases into your blog. It also allows the customer to get to know you a little bit better. Typically, this familiarity has the effect of making a customer want to purchase your product or service.

• Extol the good works. If your company participates in community services or donating to well good causes, use it as a blog topic. This is also an excellent way to promote your business. 

• "Find a need and fill it" is something my mother always said.  Find what captures the customer’s interest and draws them back to your site.  The economy is not doing very well right now. Touching on money-saving tips, especially if using your services or products saves people money, is one way to get to the heart of the potential customer.

• Make it personal. If you’re more than a one-man or one-woman show, you might consider doing individual blogs. The people who help you provide your excellent services can have a blog of their own, tailored to their lives at work and home. Some successful blogs have been about working while raising children, starting the business and even blogs in which employees document their progress through a particular project or process.