Overcome the "What Will We Write About?" Blog Hurdle: Develop a Beat

In yesterday’s teleclass with Ted Demopoulos, we talked about developing and maintaining a blog. As Ted stated, before you start a blog, you really need to plan what you’re going to write about.

Developing content does indeed take time, but it helps if you develop a “beat” in much the same way a reporter has a beat or niche industry / news focus he or she covers.

(This is also a topic technology reporter Michelle Vranizan Rafter talks about in her Word Count blog – which is where I got the idea.)

Developing a beat helps narrow your focus.

Instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of information out there, you cull items and sources down to only those that relate to your topic area.

And, when reading printed material, such as trade publications, you skim the content for those items of interest — versus reading the publication cover to cover, which takes waaaay too much time.

Here is my daily / weekly / monthly beat for both my blog and my newsletter:

Newspapers
I read the Boston Globe every morning and the Wall Street Journal at lunch. I like to read articles about companies and their successes and failures, social marketing news items, and anything about Google, Apple, P&G, Steve Jobs, Meg Whitman (or any woman CEO), technology, and social media.

If I find someone I know who is quoted, I either email the person with congratulations and/or blog about it.

I also read articles about my clients’ industries. Because I have a real estate client, for example, I’ve been following the sub-prime meltdown very closely — it’s also how I come up with ideas for their newsletter.

Magazines
Fortune is the main business magazine I read, but I also read B2B, Direct, and Target Marketing (although all three have become alarmingly thin). For pleasure I read Bark (for dog owners!) and pay close attention to ads.

Yahoo News
I log in to Yahoo several times a day to see what’s new in the way of news. I find lots of interesting information this way.

E-newsletters / blogs
I have a few blogs I follow religiously plus those I read as time permits. I read blogs to keep abreast of my colleagues and friends — and their ideas.

I also read a number of e-newsletters from companies and individuals. I keep an eagle eye for any new reports, data, surveys, etc. that I can post in this blog. Yesterday, for example, I found a new report published by Silverpop.

In addition to marketing blogs, I also try to read those outside my sphere. For example, I read TechCrunch to keep abreast of new companies in the Silicon Valley and new social media / technology applications.

TechCrunch is where I learned about Meebo — which I love — and Twitter — which I find a huge waste of time.

Google Alerts
I run a number of Google Alerts for specific keywords and as time permits, cull through any interesting items.

Books
I have a bookshelf full of books on my “to read” list. I try to post reviews of these on the blog and in my newsletter.

Items from other bloggers and PR people
When you develop a beat, it quickly becomes apparent what you cover — which means that PR people and other bloggers then start sending you items of interest. Some of these you’ll instantly trash (because you can’t use them) but other items will become the basis of great blog posts.

And that in a nutshell is how you develop “a beat.” It sounds like it takes a lot of time, but for the most part, it’s pretty easy to maintain. The secret is to skim for items of interest — and cull items for future blog posts and newsletter articles.