This week on the Content Cash Machine podcast I was talking about one of my favorite things to do for my business and my clients: coming up with ideas for blog topics!

Whether you love blogging or hate it, the fact of the matter is when blogging is done properly and strategically it is one of the best things that you can do to grow your business through organic search.

But coming up with blog post topics can be one of the most challenging parts of starting and maintaining blogging for business.

Lucky for you, on the podcast this week I shared my super-secret strategy to come up with tons of ideas for blog topics - like a whole year’s worth - in under an hour!

You can listen to the full strategy here, but if reading is more your style then I’m sharing all the tips right here in this blog post, too.

Why Blogging for Business Works

Blogging can really help a business in a few key ways:

Blogging offers a longer form of content that you can use keywords in to get more organic search traffic (yep, blogging SEO even works for business owners, not just food or lifestyle bloggers!).
By using keywords or phrases that your ideal clients are searching for on Google in your blog, you're increasing the odds of your customers finding you. Even better, you’re creating helpful content that you *know* they’re already out there searching for.
You can answer your customer's questions and give them the information that they're already searching for online. Answering common questions is one of the best ways to serve your clients, prospective clients and anyone else who comes across you on the internet. Question-based keywords are also some of the most popular searches online, so they’re a great way to get more traffic.

How to Plan a Years worth of Blog Topics in 1 Hour

All right, now that I have you convinced that blogging for business is key to your SEO and organic lead generation success, you’re probably wondering how to choose blog topics. So let’s talk about coming up with ideas for blog topics, shall we?

The following is the exact strategy that I use when coming up with blog post topics for myself and my clients:

Step One: Brainstorming

Think about who your audience is, what they care about, their common questions, the problems that they have and think about how they might search for your services to, or your product.

Step Two: Research

For the research step I recommend using Ubersuggest it's a keyword research tool from Neil Patel.

Step Three: Organize

Use Ubersuggest to get data on your keyword phrases and get more ideas. Copy and paste from Ubersuggest into a simple spreadsheet.

Step Four: Refine

Go through your list and start highlighting those words and phrases that you think are going to be best for your audience. You’ll want to make sure that you're choosing blog topics that are super relevant to what it is that you do and what it is that your audience wants and needs.

Step Five: Plan

I would aim to plan at least 12 blog topics. That's one blog post a month for a year, but you can certainly do more and choose as many as you want. I use this blog post topic planning spreadsheet to actually plan out my topics once I know the keywords I’m building them around. You can download your own copy for free!

Conclusion

This was something I said on the podcast episode that talked all about ideas for blog topics, and I think it sums up this strategy really well:

“When you base your blog post topics off of what your clients or your audience is already searching for online, then you know, you're giving them what they need. Nothing can beat that.”

Have you considered blogging for business? Do you struggle to come up with ideas for blog topics? Try out this strategy and see how it works for you! And be sure to join my free Content Cash Machine Facebook group for blogging and content creation tips, plus free weekly live training!

Resources To Help You Get Ideas for Blog Topics:

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