When I read my Sunday newspaper (yes I still get the actual paper delivered…at least for now) I always turn first to read a couple of my favorite features. I like the Travel feature and the Wall Street Journal Sunday business section. These are regular features that are in the paper every Sunday.
In a similar vein you can have regular features on your blog. The advantage of having these regular blog features is that it gives your blog some structure. It also helps with content creation, you are not left with a just a blank page staring at you — you have some idea what you are going to write about. Here are some examples of regular blog features that can apply to just about any small business blog:
- Customer Focus – do an interview with one of your customers and describe how they use your product or service. My experience has been that this is usually one of the most popular blog features.
- Answer Questions – you can have an Ask Peter (or whomever the author is) feature where you answer some recent questions that customers are asking.
- Future Trends – the world is changing rapidly and many people are curious as to what the future might hold. You can use your expertise to make some projections about different aspects of your industry.
- Interviews – you can interview someone prominent in your industry in a simple Q&A format.
- Jargon Central – every industry has its jargon and alphabet soup of acronyms. These are terms that all experienced industry observers know, but new people may get easily lost. Explaining your industry jargon will be very popular with newcomers.
By having a handful of regular features like these on your blog you can make your blog more engaging with your readers and at the same time make your writing easier. Then you will have an editorial calendar interspersed with regular features that your readers will likely grow to appreciate.
