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Content Writers Find and Process Facts

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“Without solid information, your article doesn’t come across as credible,” makealivingwriting.com cautions. But, with all the information bouncing around on the internet, the editor admits, the key is to use sources you can trust. Four major sources for data include:

  • the federal government (Centers for Disease control, National Institutes of Health, USA.gov)
  • national organizations (nonprofit groups, industry associations, special interest organizations)
  • trade publications
  • name brand studies and surveys (find the original poll, study, or survey rather than citing a secondary source)

Use well-known news sites, Elna Cain advises, such as:

  • Harvard Business review
  • Psychology Today
  • The New York Times

At Say It For You, freelance content writers are encouraged to curate, meaning to gather OPW (Other People’s Wisdom) and share that with readers, commenting on that material and relating it to their own topic. In fact, in order to sustain our blog content writing over long periods of time without losing reader excitement and engagement, we need to constantly add to our own body of knowledge – about our industry or professional field, and about what’s going on around us in our culture. Business blogging can serve as a form of market research in itself, as we find sources of knowledge and then add our own original thinking about what we’re sharing.

But, as we find and share content in order to bring value to readers, it’s important to remember that collating and curating are two different things. When we collate, we are putting together collections of content on a topic. That content might comes from our own former blog posts, newsletters, or emails, or selected from books or articles by other authors. We organize those materials into new categories, summarizing the main ideas we think will be most useful to readers. Curating goes a step further, offering our own perspective on each item, and using our understanding of our target audience to show readers why there’s something important here for them.

In content writing, we take care in finding reliable, trustworthy, primary sources of information. Our job as curators then becomes interpreting and synthesizing information, putting into terms our readers can understand and to which they are most likely to relate.

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Blog to Bring it Home

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One in five media journalists lives in New York, Los Angeles, or Washington D.C., the New York Times reports. “This is a huge loss for regional journalism as local stories—what’s happening in our own communities, towns, and regions, is arguably the most important for our everyday lives,” Alison Hill mourns in Writer’s Digest. 

“One of the most common – and most effective – ways to get consistent hits on your blog is to tie your content to current events,” Ray Access suggests. “If you’re writing about food poisoning, for example, tie that in with the latest headlines about cruise line food poisoning outbreak,” The practical suggestion Ray Access offers to content writers is to get in the habit of scanning headlines of a daily news website, using “newsworthy keywords to get a search engine’s attention”..

When it comes to engaging readers’ attention, at Say It for You, we take the Ray Access general concept a step further, recommending tying blog content, wherever possible to local events and issues.

(Communication policy scholar Christopher Ali explains that “localism” (can be spatial, based on geographic location, or based on shared interests. While many of these Say It for You blog posts have been focused on the importance of understanding your “community” in the sense of your target audience – wherever they may be located – today I want to focus on the home town meaning of “local”.)

Getting personal is a huge element in the success of content marketing. A huge part of engaging readers is reflecting and even directly alluding to current happenings and concerns in the local community. What’s more, people tend to be comfortable associating with professionals and business owners who give back to the local community and who are actively participating in home town events.

The more focused a blog is on connecting with a narrowly defined target audience, the more successful it will be in converting prospects to clients and customers. “Leverage your community, Susan Solovic of Constant Contact advises. Blog marketing, we teach newbie content creators, is really nothing more than “meeting” strangers and helping to turn those strangers into friends.  Blogging really is all about community!

Blog to bring it “home”!

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Blog It Again, Sam – But Different

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Out of new ideas? Rewrite the same piece using another POV (point of view), advises Mariah Richard in Writer’s Digest. Richards suggests a variety of same-but-different approaches, including:

  • If you told the story in first person, try telling it in third person.
  • Start with what was the conclusion in your first piece, follow with the “back story”.
  • Relate the same set of events, but from the perspective of a different character.

“Writing is rewriting”, MasterClass warns, and mastering the art of the rewrite is essential for novice writers and professionals alike. “If you put real work into your rewrite, a good piece of writing can become great.”

Both these concepts – generating new content by reworking old content and updating already published content – apply to content marketing, we know at Say It For You.

Using existing content as inspiration for content now
When our Indiana freelance blog content writers are sitting down with business owners or professional practitioners who are preparing to launch a blog, one important step in that launch is to select recurring themes that will appear and reappear over time in their blog posts. But, to add variety and maintain interest (on the part of both writers and readers!), the “templates” can be varied, including list posts,, review posts, OpEd opinion pieces, and interview posts. In addition to varying the format or template, I teach, you can offer different kinds of information in different blog posts.

Updating old blog posts
“Refreshing and rewriting blog posts can be pivotal to the success of your blog,” nectafy.com explains. “Aim for an update at least every 15 months.” The changes can reflect progress and changes in the industry as well as changes in the products and services offered by the business or practice owner.

Out of “new” blog post ideas? Re-new the “core” concepts using a different point of view. Blog it again, Sam, but different!

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National Blog Marketing Appreciation Day?

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“Jumping in on the ‘National Days’ hype can be a great way for your business to spread awareness about a cause, as well as being a great tool for marketing and really boosting those engagement rates.” Polly Oakes advises in Remarkable Commerce.

So right. At Say It For You, we teach, tying blog content to current community happenings and currents events is a winning strategy. Leveraging your community is really nothing more than “meeting” strangers and helping to turn those strangers into friends.  Using National Days simply expands the “reach”.

So how have all these national days come to be? Individuals who wish to promote a cause, go through their legislators, who in turn request of the President of the United States to issue a proclamation, which then must be approved by congressional vote.

This very month of August, 2023, for example, started out marking World Lung Cancer Day, International Mahjong Day, Respect for Parents Day, and National Raspberry Cream Pie Day, all on August 1st! Today, August 10, is a content marketing bonanza:

  • National S’mores Day Use to market cooking classes, groceries, for cooking classes, camping outfitters?

  • National Skyscraper Appreciation Day (marks the anniversary of the birth of William Van Alen, designer of the Chrysler Building) Use for architectural and design firms, travel agencies, art deco interior design, jewelry?

  • National Spoil Your Dog Day Use in marketing dog food, pet care, trainers, obedience school?

  • World Lion Day (founded ten years ago by Dereck and Beverly Doubert in partnership with National Geographic to raise awareness about lions being an endangered species due to hunting and poaching). Use in marketing content for the zoo? For veterinary practices? Pet shops?

In addition to using national days, when we enter conversations that are trending at the time, tying the blog content to current events, and to conversations that are trending at the time, that serves the dual purpose of “playing off” already existing popular interest while possibly earning search engine “Brownie points” as well. Did we attend a performance or rally? How does what we heard and saw tie in with our own work in the community?

Mahjong with s’mores, anyone?

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Blog Content By and For the Unquenchably Curious

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This week’s Say It For You blog posts are based on the book What Makes Flamingos Pink, by Bill McLain, “a colorful collection of Q & A’s for the unquenchably curious”…

One thing it’s always a good idea to include, I tell content marketers, is interesting information on topics related to their business or professional practice. If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, we explain at Say It For You, all the better. So long as there’s a real “back story” demonstrating valuable lessons learned and why that information should matter to the web visitor, tidbits can prove to be enormously useful tools….

The color of most birds is a matter of genetics, McClain explains in the book. Bluebirds are blue by nature, cardinals red for the same reason – their inherited genes. Famingos are different – they are pink because their diet is heavy in natural pigments called carotenoids. Wisely, the author is quick to show readers the relevance of that information – “When we eat carrots or beets, we are also eating carotenoids,” he explains. ” But no matter how many beets and carrots we eat, the only way we can turn pink is to blush or get a sunburn,” he adds.

One big goal of the writing we do for our business owner and professional practitioner clients is positioning them as experts in the eyes of both their existing clients and their web visitors. While good blog post content can and should be entertaining, it’s important to remember that most online searchers are not pursuing a recreational activity, but instead are on a fact-finding mission. You can hook them, we teach at Say It For You, with humorous and fascinating trivia tidbits, but the material you serve up needs to be meaningful to that audience and – actionable.

The factoid about flamingos’ pink coloring is an example of how trivia can be used in content marketing to accomplish a variety of initiatives: defining basic industry terminology, sparking curiosity about the subject, putting modern-day practices and beliefs into perspective, and explaining why the business owner or practitioner chooses to operate in a certain way.

Always remember, though – they may be “unquenchably curious”, but online visitors are rarely unquenchably patient. Structure the content so as to address the two questions “So what?” (why it might matter) and “Now what?” directing them to the next step.

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