by 
When instead of thinking:
“I’ve got to blog to attract more customers”
You think:
“My readers really seem to struggle with X. I wonder how I can help them with this?”
In the first scenario, it’s all about you and that’s a lot of pressure.
With that kind of pressure, your thoughts can turn to just trying to write popular content. But you might find that as you obsess about viral posts, and high traffic numbers, thinking of what to actually write about feels like an impossible task.
In the second situation though, we have so much more inspiration for ideas!
I know so many business owners who can talk non-stop about the different problems their customers face and how they can help.
In fact if you and I sat down right now I’ll bet you could talk easily about your customer’s problems, the questions they ask, and what you can do for them.
Let’s have a look at an imaginary conversation a life coach might have while chatting about their customers:
“Most of my life coaching clients are at a cross roads, it could be a new job, or a new relationships or just feeling stuck in a rut. Sometimes they’re hesitant about contacting me because they’re just not sure what a life coach is and some even think only crazy people need a coach! They don’t realise that it’s more mainstream these days, and even celebrities are using them. One of the things I’ll always do before working with someone is to get on the phone for a free consultation because it’s really important to see if there’s a fit of personalities.”
Already, we have 10 possible blog posts – how many did you spot?
- What to do when you’re stuck at a cross roads in life
- Got a big decision to make? Here’s 10 tips to help
- How to be confident and happy in a new job
- Relationships – should you stay or should you go?
- What does a life-coach do?
- How to know if your problem can be solved by a life-coach
- 5 Celebrities that use life-coaches (and what they’re achieved)
- Is life-coaching still taboo?
- How to get the most from a free life-coaching consultation
- How to pick the best life-coach for your personality
What about you? Can you sit down, write a brief paragraph on the problems your customers face and see if it kicks up a blog post idea you’ve not yet thought of?
If you want some help hashing out ideas, submit your thoughts in the comments below.
I stuggled with blogging for the longest time.
It wasn’t that i didnt know what to say, it was about finding an autheticity to my voice and a belief that I should be saying it.
Getting past the doubt of ‘Why would people want to hear from me on this topic?’ was hard, until i stopped trying to be a definitive answer and focused on relaxing and being my answer.
The idea that I could post an incomplete thought, and update or repost was uplifiting.
Thanks for the blog.
Now then Steve! Great to see you here.
I think it’s a very common, and worthy concern – trying to be the best you can be in a blog post. But trying to pin down criteria to know you’re meeting that is so hard. Like you say, if an incomplete thought or an update is helpful to you and your readers, then that’s just perfect.
🙂