Once you’ve started writing – keep them reading. It has been said many times that “Content is King.” Content will become the most important thing that draws in your readers on the blog, creating trust and building loyalty as they learn from your expertise. Through the use of several techniques you can encourage and maintain this readership.

What should I write about? Several topics and post ideas

A benchmark for effective content is that you are creating something of value for potential clients. Put yourself in the position of the reader to understand what kind of writing would be useful, and consider what blogging qualities keep you reading and entice you to subscribe to blogs you read.

Here is a list of basic blogging ideas for you to consider. We encourage you to brainstorm additional ideas on your own or with your colleagues before your blog launch, and every few months from there after. This way, you will always have a list of ideas to reference when having difficulty with content development or audience engagement.

• Create a weekly feature that readers will look forward to.
• Be timely – if a major event has happened that you need to respond to, make sure you keep up with the blogging buzz as other bloggers respond.
• Write a review or regular reviews of products, services, blogs, books, and/or other things your reader might find valuable.
• Research a question that has been bothering you and post about it on the blog.
• If you find a solution to a problem related to your business or field, be sure to share it.
• Tell a story – never underestimate the power of narrative. Using stories to put ideas into context is a helpful way to engage readers.
• Highlight a client’s feedback or interesting story of how your product or service has affected them.
• Pick out a frequent commenter to interview on your blog through a short email format – these types of posts can get lots of traffic and the commenter may also have an influential blog.
• Highlight a client’s feedback or interesting story of how your product or service has affected them.
• Select a frequent commenter to interview on your blog through a short email format.

Technorati Tags

Technorati is an established site that compiles and ranks blogs. The more other bloggers link to you, the more authority you earn on Technorati, thus increasing your visibility in searches, since people searching have the option to use authority as search criteria.

Using the WordPress ping, every time you post, your Technorati profile is updated. You can increase your chances of being found through Technorati search by adding Technorati tags at the end of your entries.

Technorati will recognize your WordPress categories as tags, but it is recommended to put in additional manual tags since you may be keeping a conservative list of categories. Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines incorporate Technorati tags into search results.

Link Building

Link, link, link! It’s important to reveal your sources. Embed hyperlinks so readers can visit the web sites and blogs you reference to learn more.

Each time you link to another blog entry or website, there is a good chance the creator of that source will take a moment to see what wrote about when you linked to them. Linking to other blogs can result in reciprocated links, which are an important source of incoming traffic and help to build your presence on blog ranking web sites like Technorati, as well as search engines.When writing about something you did not previously research online, take a few minutes to do a quick blog search and see if you can find other bloggers who have published content on the same topic. Link to external blogs as sources of additional information or use their content as a jumping off point or a primer.

This transparency in the blogging community is important to keep in mind if writing about and linking to other competitors. Understanding that the interconnections of the blogosphere are so immediate is a helpful reminder to keep a respectful and amicable tone, while still remaining upfront about what you have to offer.

When you find great links, images, or other great resources you want to blog about, it’s a common courtesy to give credit to your source. For example, if I am writing about an interesting point of news that I read on the Tech Daily blog, at the end of my post I might write [via Tech Daily] or [Thanks Tech Daily]. The hyperlink should be to the permalink of the post where you got the tip – this has the added benefit of automatically adding a trackback to their site, which the author may notice and choose to visit.

Make embedded links clear and intuitive to make it easier for the reader. When you are discussing a topic on your blog, let’s say a post on iPod enhancements on Tech Daily, you may wish to use embedded links. It is important to make it obvious in the use of embedded links what you’re actually linking to. It is recommended to attach links to verbs or nouns where appropriate. If you are writing about a post written by a specific person, you can attach a hyperlink to the title of the post itself as it occurs naturally in your post. You could also choose to link to that person’s blog if that was appropriate, by attaching another hyperlink to his name. Do not be afraid to embed links to outside sites, but make sure these links are not confusing to your reader.

Bells and Whistles: Embedded Video and Images

There are plenty of visual learners out there who love to see accompanying images or videos to help reinforce the information they are reading. Videos from YouTube, Google Video, and other video sharing sites can be easily embedded within the post. Images can likewise enhance your writing by contributing to the tone or mood of a particular topic – you can get creative with these connections.