Sitting in the Minneapolis airport during a two hour layover between flights, I decided to challenge myself to find at least one week’s worth of ideas for Say It For You blog posts in a single magazine issue.  I planned to use this idea for myself as a freelance blog writer, and then for corporate blogging training sessions. After browsing the shelves, I chose the August issue of Self.

Why that choice? Well, one idea-generating technique I like to recommend to novice blog content writers in Indianapolis is lists. Lists are often overused, yet they represent a good way to organize content, and the cover of Self caught my attention with no fewer than five examples of the technique:

• 1,007 freebies for you inside
• 1 easy move to slim all over
• 7 new ways to wear your hair
• Showy summer cocktails – 97 calories. Yum!
• 10 tips from The Biggest Loser Show Alison Sweeney

(What series of helpful hints can YOU offer online visitors in your corporate blogging for business?  Think “Ways to…”, “Tips for…”, “New ideas for….”  “Things to avoid…”.)

For example, on Page 114 of the Self magazine, I found an interesting article called “Pretty Your Way”.  “Let’s face it.  What looks gorgeous on the runway doesn’t always work in real life,” the article begins. As a professional ghost blogger offering business blogging assistance, reading that article made me think there’s a parallel to be drawn with traditional websites and blogs. Not every bit of content appropriate for a company’s website is necessarily the kind of content most appropriate for their SEO marketing blog.

Writing for business in blog posts is more conversational and less formal.  Those providing blog writing services need to include more usable advice, with more about the core beliefs of the business owners, more “how to” and less “we do” than the website might include. Of course, the content for both website and blog posts musts be in a style best suited to the target audience and comfort level.

What magazine will you choose as a source of blogging ideas? I challenge you to let me know which and why… Remember: the challenge is to choose at least three articles from the same magazine and use each article as an idea "trigger" for business blog writing.

Whether in lifestyle choices or blog writing for business, some simple additions and subtractions can make for a healthier result. In “More This, Less That”, Readers’ Digest tells us that adding peppermint, veggies, and yoga to our lives will do us good, while adding long hours at our job can raise our odds for a heart attack.

So, from the point of view as a professional ghost blogger providing corporate blogging training, what do I think are the blog writing “more-this-less-that” parallels to those lifestyle recommendations?

More focus, fewer words.
Eating smaller servings is certainly a favorite recommendation by nutritionists.  Even in meeting planning, says Kristen Arnold, president of the National Speakers Association, “there’s a global trend towards fewer and smaller meeting with more focused content.” When it comes to blog content writing, sticking to one main idea per blog post keeps the content tightly focused.

More examples, fewer claims.
A liberal sprinkling of testimonials and anecdotes in blogging for business gets the point across more poignantly than all the claims you can muster. Careerbuilder.com warns against using words that are “unsupported claims of greatness” instead of accomplishment-based statements. Showing, rather than crowing, will get you’re a lot farther in blog content writing.

More care, less scare. (More “we believe”, less “we offer”.)
Blogging is the perfect vehicle for “being yourself”, expressing the passion business owners have for their work. I teach content writers in Indianapolis to blog in answer to the question, “If you had only 10-12 words to express what value you want to bring to clients and customers, what would those words be?” 

Less SEO, more flow.
One of the obvious business motivations for maintaining an SEO marketing blog is to draw traffic and meet “strangers” who need what you know and what you have but don’t know you. Still one of guidelines I stress in offering business blogging assistance is that the content isn’t likely to get read unless it’s readable.  The sentences must flow naturally and conversationally, (Strings of keyword phrases tied together with prepositions are unlikely to win you friendsl).

“Real” and “fresh” may be qualities as important in corporate blog writing as they are in nutrition and lifestyle!