Tips & Talk 82 – How to Find Good Blog Topics

Hi there.

It's Sue and thanks for joining me for Tips and Talk

Day. These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions

and things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small

business. If you'd like to submit a topic DME over on

Instagram at Gift Biz Unwrapped,

gosh, this year I've rolled out a number of new opportunities

for you.

Here there are the bashes where you have a chance to

showcase your business to this entire listening audience.

There's the new OWL app.

When you have a quick question where you'd like my input

and now I'm excited to bring you Gift Biz boosts,

think of these as free strategy sessions,

leaving you with a clear action plan to boost you forward.

Whether you're at the beginning of your business journey and need

concrete steps on how to start,

or you've been doing this for a while and could use

a fresh approach,

these boosts are for you.

You'll know a podcast is a boost.

If you see that word in the title,

want to get your own free boost?

I'm taking these on a first come first serve basis.

Head over to gift biz unwrapped.com/boost

and sign up for your session today.

What a great topic today.

Thank you,

Mel, for requesting that we cover this.

Mel is wondering what to write about in her blog when

you're a maker and sell your handmade products.

I talk about this in Tips and Talk episode 67,

but let's dive deeper here.

I wanna start out by talking about the purpose of your

blog. As a product based business,

you aren't blogging just to have a blog.

It needs to serve a purpose and compliment your business goals

in some way.

Different articles may feed into different goals.

Some reasons to put time into blogging can be to attract

new customers,

to inform potential customers about the quality or certain characteristics of

your products,

to educate them on how to use your products or various

applications for your products to answer frequently asked questions that will

advance someone towards choosing to buy or to share valuable lifestyle

information on topics related to your products.

All of these ultimately lead a potential customer to trust you

and see you as an expert that they'd wanna buy from.

For current customers,

it reinforces their smart decision of past purchases and reminds them

of you when it's time to buy.

Again. Now that we've put into proper perspective why you'd want

a blog and a few of the general categories of content

you could write about,

let's get even more specific about how you can find topics.

Here are seven approaches to get inspiration and ideas for blog

topics. First off,

you can do a Google search,

either on your product,

an ingredient or a use for your product,

and then write down in that first initial search screen,

you can scroll and see what topic variations come up.

This can give you great ideas.

I just entered the simple words beaded jewelry and looked at

the various options that appeared.

and that sparked my curiosity,

so I clicked on that and it led me to articles,

products, and Pinterest pins that all are connected with the topic.

While you aren't going to copy someone else's article,

this can inspire you and you can take on this topic

and spin it in your own way.

Another place to look is magazines,

just regular consumer magazines.

Take a peek at them with a new eye,

honestly, a browse through good housekeeping.

Real simple cooking light can spark a number of ideas for

your own writing.

A third way to find blog topics is consider your customer

interactions. The next time you're talking with a customer or working

at a craft show table,

take note of the questions you're being asked.

Do you continually demonstrate how to tie your scarves?

Do you generally make suggestions about how to barbecue with your

unique blend of spices?

These could both be great topics for a blog.

Number four,

pay attention to social media content.

How are others even outside of your industry positioning topics to

match their offerings?

Go on TikTok and look at reels.

Even look at Facebook groups for ideas.

Again, not to duplicate what's already there,

but to prompt new versions that you can do.

It gets the creative juices flowing,

if you will.

Another thing you can do is consider current events or seasonal

triggers. Is there a brand new must see movie out that

you can associate with your products or the newest out of

the norm?

Seasonal color?

If you can catch the wave on anything that's trending,

it will attract new viewers through search.

When you have a title of an article that has the

wording of that current trend,

finding ideas for blog topics.

Number six,

if you wanna do a blog article around your newest product

launch, create an angle that goes beyond discussion of what the

product is and where to buy it.

How about what inspired you to choose this direction,

a challenge that you had in getting the product completed and

available for purchase or what you learned in the process.

Maybe you have a story behind your launch that would be

inspirational to your reader that they can use and apply in

their own life.

Or if a portion of your product's proceeds go to a

cause, definitely highlight that cause and why it's important to you,

so you get the idea here.

Finally, number seven,

how might your readers answer this open ended question?

Ever wonder about fill in the blank.

Here you can write about what you know in relation to

your product that others might be curious about.

If I were to brainstorm some examples here,

what's the best yarn to use for a knitted beanie?

And then you can go into various yarns,

the pros and cons,

and then your suggestion or what determines how long a candle

will burn.

Here, you can talk about different sizes and waxes and the

advantages of each plus how to get the most time out

of a burning candle.

That could actually be a separate article entirely.

And one more.

As I'm thinking about topics on this,

how about a recipe that includes your fresh herb mixes,

recipes, how-tos and checklists make great content that will be saved

and shared?

So to summarize,

here are the seven ideas that I've just given you in

ways of gaining inspiration.

To find great topics for your blog,

do a Google search.

Look in consumer magazines.

Consider customer interactions.

What are people asking you?

Pay attention to social media.

Think about current events and seasonal triggers.

Review your next product launch,

but in a way that's interesting to your reader and not

just selling.

And finally,

answer this open-ended question.

Ever wonder about blank?

Regardless of the topic of your blog articles,

keep in mind that it needs to be titled and positioned

so it's interesting to your readers.

You can talk about the exact same thing and have it

be read or rejected solely by the words you choose for

your title.

For example,

instead of saying Introducing our new autumn designs,

which we all know means you're leading to sell us something,

title a blog.

Why We always incorporate pumpkin into our autumn spice blends.

In this example,

you can talk about health benefits of pumpkin or some fun

little known facts about the history of pumpkin.

It still ties back to your products,

but brings additional value to the reader.

Observe your own style.

Take a look at what entices you to click through and

read others articles.

Now, having said all that,

I'd like to conclude by reminding you that your blog articles

should be housed on your website in a section dedicated to

them, but just because you've written an article doesn't mean your

job is done.

You need to let people know it's there.

Not count on Google.

Search entirely for traffic to your blog.

That's where other forms of promotion come in.

Social media for one,

creating posts stories or going live and directing people to your

blog articles to do this,

your messaging should be explaining what the reader will get out

of reviewing your article.

Don't give it all away.

Poke at their curiosity and then include the link to the

article that sits on your website.

Another great way to draw people over to your blog articles

is through email,

and that brings up the topic of a newsletter.

Also, do you have one tune into next week's tips and

talk where we'll continue the conversation of promoting your blog articles

through emails and expand on email content overall and what's appropriate

there, because blog copy and email content are not the same.

I know this is a huge obstacle for many of you.

You've started collecting emails but don't know what to say in

them on a regular basis.

That's what's on tap for next week,

and I'll see you then.

That's a wrap.

I'm a get to the point kind of girl,

and this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

sessions. Now it's your turn.

Go out and fulfill that dream of yours.

Share your handmade products with us.

We want them,