Back to Blog

The Ideas Incubator

blog guest blogs Nov 27, 2020

My name’s Lisa Norman and I set up The Ideas Incubator to help with business owners struggling with ideas generation. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram. Reach out if you want ideas more specific to your business.

Sometimes you’re just too close to your business and new ideas just refuse to surface long enough for you to grasp and run with. Stress can also reduce creativity leading to overwhelm.

One of the things I’m asked about most is blogs. I’ve some generic ideas that will help you or will give you that spark to think of other ideas.

Generic blog ideas

  • Behind the scenes
  • Christmas/Valentines/Easter etc.
  • A-Z series
  • Monthly themed blog e.g. book of the month
  • Guest blog feature
  • Top 5 tips
  • Top 5 don’ts
  • The history of your trade
  • Famous people in your trade
  • Interview someone
  • Bust some myths
  • Teach your audience something – step by step
  • The latest trend
  • Trends throughout the years
  • Create a quiz
  • Cover something controversial

Blog Inspiration

  • Ask your audience what you can help them with
  • Use Pinterest as a research tool
  • What’s your competition talking about – DON’T copy! See if you could cover similar topics or the complete opposite.
  • What are the big companies talking about?
  • What awareness days/weeks/months can you link either your business to or you personally to?

Monetising your blog

  • Set up affiliate links – make sure any products you affiliate are aligned with your brand
  • Sell advertising space on your blog
  • Charge to link to products – again make sure they align with your brand

Remember: You will probably need a good amount of traffic to your website to charge for the last 2 ideas.

Repurpose your content

Take quotes from your blog that might hook your ideal client in. Turn them into graphics.

Where can the graphic be used?

  • Facebook as a post
  • Facebook stories
  • Instagram grid
  • Instagram stories
  • A pin on Pinterest

Use your blog as a script and create a

recording:

  • IGTV
  • Instagram stories
  • Instagram grid
  • Facebook live
  • YouTube
  • Podcast

Blog writing tips

  • Keep it between 500 and 1400 words
  • The title needs to grab your audiences attention but also use key words your audience would search.
  • Paragraphs – use them. Your audience wants to breathe!
  • Use photos
  • Write how you talk, this will help your blog stay on brand
  • Don’t underestimate how long it takes to write a blog
  • Do your research if your covering something controversial
  • Gather quotes from other businesses – they might share your blog if they have featured in it
  • Plan your blogs in advance as much as you can.

Growing your business

  • Helps place you as an expert
  • Guest blogging – builds the know, like, trust factor. Helps with those important backlinks. Taps into new audiences
  • If it’s too much of someone’s time to write a full blog then ask if they have time for a quote or paragraph – let them know when you publish and hopefully they will share across their social media
  • Don’t just talk about a blog once – share, share, share
  • Approach people with your blog and see if it could be useful to their audience – this works best if they are in a different sector of the same industry e.g. fashion designer/fashion photographer.

SEO Top TiPS

  • Make sure and Internal link and external link is included
  • 500+ words. Google loves content so the more the better!
  • Search term/phrase – use it more than once
  • Directories – there are free and paid for ones out there
  • Post blogs regularly – pick a day
  • Use sub headings
  • Use active words (I have done this and it helps VS doing this is helpful)
  • Include photos
  • Meta data is important and helps make your blog user friendly
  • Backlinks
  • Analyse your stats regularly – see what’s working
  • If people like your content ask them to leave a comment

Email: [email protected]

Facebook Group: The Ideas Incubator with Lisa Norman