Extraordinary Uses Make for Extraordinary Blog Posts

No, I didn’t know about these extraordinary uses for ordinary things, and, unless you’re a Reader’s Digest fan like me, you probably didn’t, either:

• Salt removes red-wine carpet stains.
• Models and performers reduce puffiness around their eyes with hemorrhoid cream.
• Ketchup is good for polishing silver.
• You can use a piece of uncooked spaghetti to light hard to reach candles.
• Adding black pepper to the wash load brightens tablecloths.

Blogging about unusual ways your products or services have been applied in different situations is a good way to capture interest. In blogging training sessions, I call those "triggering tidbits", pieces of unusual or little-known information that can be tied to explanations of your own company's products, services, and culture in order to capture online readers' interest.

So that the information really is useful to readers, though, your reason for including the information has to be apparent early on in the marketing blog post. It’s best if the new information relates, not only to your topic, but to something with which readers are already familiar.

Establishing the relevance of the information you’re presenting is important, I explain to freelance blog writers, not only from the standpoint of search engine optimization, but for putting that information into perspective for readers.

On the other hand, it’s reassuring to remember, there’s no need to over-think the question of whether to include interesting tidbits in your posts. The very fact that  your company, practice, or organization has a well-kept blog with lots of fresh content tells people you’re “in the game” .