Business Bloggers – The Ancient Mariner Was Wrong – Part Two

This week’s three Say It For You blog posts are dedicated to the idea of “learning around”. The blog sustainability “secret’ I teach in corporate blogging training sessions is that, if you gather ideas from everything you see, read, and hear, relating each “lesson” to your own business brand, the “water” will never run dry.

The second half of that famous line “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” (from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner), doesn’t ever need to concern business owners or their freelance blog content writers. That’s because everything we observe can be a source of usable content ideas for our business blog!

In the Butler University “Guide to Professional Success”, for example, I found several pieces of advice that can be of business blogging help:
 

• Keep sentences short; begin with varied action words.
  Varying your action words is a perfect technique in corporate blogging for business, because you can cover the same themes, but make it sound new.  Shoot for “just right” in length – offer enough information in each post to     convincingly cover the one key theme.
   
• Concentrate on “transferable” skills you have acquired.
  In corporate blogging for business, you want to be perceived as a subject matter expert offering usable information and insights. Focus on information the readers can use, rather than on your claims of success. Once readers feel assured that you know your stuff and that you care about offering good information and good service, they might be ready to take action.
   
• It’s better to list experiences by order of importance (not in reverse chronological order). If an employer is skimming a resume, you want him or her to see the most relevant experiences first.

In writing any SEO marketing blog, use a technique I call “blogging downhill”. I teach new business bloggers in Indianapolis to address readers’ “What’s-In-It-For-Me?” question at the beginning, rather than later on in each blog post.

(Remember, I did not go looking for blog ideas in the Butler Guide.  As an Executive Career Mentor at Butler College of Business (the other professional “hat” I wear), I was given this material to help students create their first resumes.  By staying on the alert for blog writing ideas, I was able to make use of this “water” in my environment to illustrate my business of creating SEO marketing blogs.)

Where can you go today “learn around” for your blog writing and discover “water” ?