Where Do Bloggers Get Their Content?
Blogging is an activity that’s been causing spear-breaking conflicts ever since it became popular. A lot of people see it as unrelatable, non-profitable work that rarely makes anyone money. Then, in contrast to that, a lot of people see it as an easy activity, because all you need to do is write your own thoughts down and that’s it, right? Well, if you believe either of those statements, you’re very wrong about blogging. It’s important for a blogger to word their thoughts in an interesting way, as much as it’s important for them to keep up with the trends of having fresh content. The latter makes a lot of people think about issues with creativity and engagement, as a lot of people find it improbable that they’d be able to keep coming up with new topics to write about. This is the topic we’ll be taking a look at in this article, and answering the question: where do bloggers get their content?
A lot of bloggers cover topics that don’t need extroverted content-creating and create it on their own. On the other hand, some hire writers for their blogs, invite guests to write, use done-for-you posts, and repurpose their old content.
However, there’s much more to this part of the business than meets the eye. Although there are a lot of simple blogs out there, written for and managed by a single person, blogs have become a real industry and there are nuances to this business that define it and make it what it truly is. In this article, we’ll be answering a lot of questions you might have about blogging, such as: where do bloggers get their content and how can you get it, what kind of content is best for your blog, can you copy content for your blog, and where can you get free content for your blog. Let’s get started.
Where Do Bloggers Get Their Content?
There are many ways bloggers get their content, and we’ll be discussing each one of them. It’s absolutely crucial for blogs to be in overstock of fresh, interesting, attention-drawing content if they want clicks, which in return leads to more revenue.
The first, and the most obvious way, of getting content is writing it yourself. That includes thinking of a topic, developing it, researching it, and writing about it. There are many reasons why this is both a blessing and a curse. Originality is clearly one of the pros of writing your own blog content, your readers will always be able to tell whether or not it was written by someone with their heart behind it or not. This will help you establish a particular style of writing, and if your readers grow to like it, then you’ll develop a more closely-bonded fanbase, which leads us to our next advantage of writing your own content: relatability.
Let’s say you’re writing content for a tech blog (we’ll be using this as a regular example) and you’re reviewing a gadget. If you truly like it or dislike it, you’ll develop a connection with your readers, as they’ll feel that you truly feel what you feel about the product in question. The disadvantage of writing your own content can definitely be assigned to time consumption. There are several reasons it might take you too long to write an article, but we’ll focus on the two most common ones: a) research takes too long b) writer’s block. Again, let’s say you’re reviewing a gadget for your hypothetical tech blog.
Obviously, you’ll want to test it out for a few days before you write your article, and that takes time. Your readers will always insist on regular content, daily content – not weekly content. That’s why having a team of writers might not be a bad idea, as they can finish multiple tasks at the same time (if you assign each writer a task), and you can post them daily. Writer’s block, on the other hand, is much more difficult to solve. Writers have no control of it and simply have to power through, however – it’s completely unprofessional to insert an apology saying “I’m sorry, I had writer’s block.” at the bottom of your blog post as an excuse for being late with the post.
Even if you somehow conduct your research quickly enough, it’s unlikely that you’ll finish your writing on time. If you want to post well-researched and well-written daily content, being a lone writer will definitely make things difficult.
Hiring writers for your blog can solve a lot of issues, especially if you’re having issues with managing your time. Once again, this solution has both its ups and downs. A definite advantage is that you can delegate work to your writers, ensuring frequent content. Say you want to post every day and you have a team of five writers (including yourself) – if every writer writes two articles a week, you’ll have plenty of content. You can even pump those numbers up and go with multiple posts a day.
Know that most blogs that post two or more posts a day definitely use writers. The downside to this is that writing’s not free. Although writing is a massively friendly community, where everyone’s working on self-improvement – no one wants to write for free, and if your blog doesn’t reach high levels of popularity and doesn’t get a lot of revenue – you’ll be having trouble paying your writers.
Done-For-You posts are very simple. There are writing companies out there with thousands of articles ready, waiting for you to purchase them and post them on your blog. Those articles are usually well-written, since they’re done by professional writers, and they mostly deliver exactly what you ordered. However, they’re not free and you’ll be spending a lot of money on these articles if that’s the way you want to go.
Inviting a guest to write can be both great and a nuisance. If the guest writer happens to deliver a good piece of writing, then it’s a win-win situation for both of you; the writer gets noticed, while you develop a more intense relationship with your readers (as they see that they can actually be involved in the blog). However, someone being a fan of a blog or a magazine doesn’t guarantee that they know how to write – meaning that while you’re counting on quality content that will fit your blog, you might be disappointed again and again. In that time, you’ll be losing clicks, so this is an option that should be used if you actually have a guarantee of writing quality.
Repurposing old content can be a blessing in disguise for bloggers, and doesn’t really have any disadvantages. The fact is, Top 10 lists in the style of WatchMojo need to be updated, and in that same fashion; all topics need to be updated. Digging up a five-year-old topic you covered in an article, conducting new research, and rewriting it, while simultaneously referencing your own article, is something that your writers will appreciate. It’s just important not to do it too often, and not to recycle relatively fresh content. Don’t repurpose something you’ve posted six-months ago unless the topic is ‘What Changed in 6 Months?’
If you’re struggling with topics for your content, it’d be ideal to use Reddit. ‘The Front Page of the Internet is a treasure trove of content ideas, as content (in form of discussions) is never-ending and is based on genuine human interaction. Also, it’d be smart to use social media analytics, collecting content ideas from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Which Content Is Best for a Blog?
It’s relatively impossible to say that any sort of specific content is the best you can get for your blog, as every blog covers a specific field of interest. However, all quality content shares several virtues, found in all good blogs, and we’ll be talking about them now.
Frequency and freshness
It’s important to keep your content fresh and frequent in comparison to today’s events in the field you’re writing about. For example, if you’re running a tech blog, nobody wants to listen to Bill Gates’s and Microsoft’s story for what would be the millionth time, as it’s already been dredged up. Readers nowadays don’t have time for that kind of reading, unless you’re running the sort of blog that discusses the history and past events, or any sort of blog that isn’t necessarily in the now. What readers want nowadays is the frequency in relation to today’s event.
If you’re running a story that’s going to be posted in multiple installments, then we’re looking at something that requires a lot of commitment and frequency. For example; even though there are blogs covering exclusively the coronavirus, it’s much more proficient for health or global news blogs to just cover a separate story about the coronavirus. The fact is: the current state we’re living in is not going to last forever, and even when it ends and the consequences of it settle – blogs dedicated exclusively to this purpose will become obsolete.
This happens all the time in business, when a product (coronavirus blog) becomes useless with the advancement of time and technology (the virus going extinct), the product is then thrown away. That’s why it’s important to keep your content fresh and covering new topics, topics the readers will want to read about.
Research
No reader wants to read a badly-researched article. The whole reason people read blogs is to get informed, and if you don’t research for an article properly, in a way that actually establishes an informed opinion, readers won’t enjoy your writing. When researching, you should always try to gather information from professional, reliable, and well-known sources. It’s also best to quote said sources. Conducting your own research and testing is respected highly, as well. Once again, let’s take writing an article about a new tech gadget as an example.
Readers will thoroughly appreciate it if you buy or borrow the gadget (a lot of companies are willing to lend writers gadgets in exchange for an article, that guarantees them more exposure on the internet), making the review even more personal. When researching on your own, it’s best to document that research. Conducting quality research will grant credibility to your work, and establish trust with your reading audience.
Quality of writing
Now we can reference the introduction to this article, as many people think that blogging is easy; simply writing down your own thoughts. Firstly, that couldn’t be farther from the truth, as that’s only true if you’re blogging about your own life or the things around you – there are a lot of celebrities that do this, accompanied by a lot of journalists. Aside from them, nobody’s really interested in reading a random person’s thoughts.
Secondly, be it blogging about yourself or about a specific topic, nobody is going to read bad writing. It doesn’t really matter how good your research is, how fresh your topic is, or how important you may be as a person – if your writing isn’t interesting, inspiring, and intriguing – you won’t be getting those valuable clicks. It’s immensely important to be a good writer in this business. This is why a lot of bloggers hire writers, because even though they may be creative and know how to launch interesting content on the market – that doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily good writers. Good writing is a must.
Combining those three things: good writing, good research, and fresh content is crucial in order to label your content ‘good’. If you’re having trouble with this, you’re in luck. Most big blogs and media groups have PR teams dedicated to exclusively one purpose; determining what kind of content they’ll be posting. These teams analyze the market, and based on that analysis they advise the writers on what topics they should write. Often enough, they’ll be editing the outlook of the blog, as well.
Can You Copy Content For Your Blog?
No, you can’t copy content for your blog. Copying the content is illegal and if your work is recognized as a copy, you’ll be sent a Cease and Desist Notice, colloquially known as a C&D. The creator of the original content now also has the option to sue you, so it’s safe to say that copying content is a no go.
However, you’re more than welcome to read other blogs and let them inspire you for writing and creating your own content. Most artists (especially in music), actually, start by creating content similar to another artist – before they develop their own style. You can do this as well, and it’s perfectly okay to read another blog and let it influence your own writing. If you happen to use information from another blog, be sure to give credit.
Copying will also hurt your popularity on the internet, and I don’t mean just with your audience. Your blog will definitely lose credibility with your audience, obviously, but search engines will rank you lower, as well. Search engines can see what’s going on in the technical area of your blog – meaning that they can see when have you posted something, where from, etc. Google, for example, automatically analyses all posted content and compares it to the rest of the internet. If the algorithm notices too many similarities, it will label your post as a copy and you’ll automatically be ignored by the search engine; meaning that it won’t even show the link to your blog if someone searches the topic you posted about.
Where Can You Get Free Content For Your Blog?
It’s a bit unrealistic to expect to get anything for free nowadays, but there are a few ways you can get content for your blog with minimum work.
Firstly, we’ve already mentioned the guest posting. If the person writing a post for your blog is a good writer, then the content they create can be of great value – all you have to do is edit it and post it. There’s also the option of inviting content marketers to guest post on your blog.
You can also start a discussion on your blog, preferably about a topic that’s raised popularity on your blog. This way, people discussing it will create content for your blog in the comments.
There are also blog post generators. Now, this is a two-way street. There are legitimate post generators that create readable content, but they’re not free. Free content generators simply don’t achieve the same quality, not to mention that even if they did – the writing is simply incomparable to real writing, done by a real writer.
The last thing I’d like to add is interviewing people on the topic you want to cover, and then just edit and post the interview. This way you’ll create invaluable content and provide your readers with a professional opinion on the topic you’re covering.