As a content writer in Indianapolis, I can think of few professional pleasures that top having a fellow blogger take one of my ideas and run with it.  Damon Richards of Port-to-Port Consulting has done just that, and four times over, composing a different blog post for each of thetidbits listed on my Say It For You blog.

Damon helped me prove a point I stress in corporate blogging training sessions: Blog content writers need never worry about "getting stuck" for new material to use in presenting their own products, services, and viewpoints.  Aside from their understandable lack of time to compose blogs, business owners often express the fear of running out of ideas.  My response is that ideas are everywhere – once you get in the habit of listening, seeing, and jotting down "tidbits" of information.

It’s interesting.  At Ivy Tech Community College, where I tutor in the English lab and conduct workshops on writing college papers, I find that students often have a hard time knowing the difference between the Topic and the Thesis of a paper.  I offer them the example of "Graduation Cap Tassels" as a topic.  Their thesis needs to answer the question "So, what about those graduation cap tassels?  Is moving the tassel from one side of the cap to the other an outmoded custom, or is it a venerable tradition, without which a graduation wouldn’t be a graduation?"

Relating that to my little corporate blogging training exercise, the "tidbit" is your topic.  (Of course, in any SEO marketing blog, the over-arching topic is the business itself, but the tidbit forms the topic for this one blog post. The tidbit might be a slogan from a bulletin board or magazine advertisement.  It could be a line from a song, a photo, a fact, a statistic, or a storefront sign.  If, in writing for business, bloggers were to keep an "ideas folder" (either digital or an actual file folder), a good portion of the work of composing a blog post would already be done! What would remain to write would be the thesis, answering the question of how that tidbit of information relates to your business and your industry.

Damon Richards took the tidbit about redheads needing more anesthetic at the dentist and used it to explain that some of his technology service clients need more handholding and are more resistant to change in technology.  He used the tidbit about blue lobsters to discuss rare but not unexpected glitches that occur with computer hard drives.  In short, Damon used the tidbit topics to highlight aspects of his own business practices.

A good part of providing business blogging help to my clients, I’ve found, is providing reassurance that corporate blog writing can be sustained over months and even years without ever running out of ideas! 

The Say It For You blog writing tidbit challenge deadline isn’t until June 15th. There’s still time for YOU to use a tidbit or two to explain what you do, what you sell, and what you know about!

"Marketers often forget that the main reason people use the Web is for content…Search engines organize content and direct people to it," explains Ted Demopoulis in What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting.

Often, the questions I field from business owners during corporate blogging training sessions have to do with "speed" and intensity. Basically these entrepreneurs and managers are asking how long and how hard they will need to work at blog content writing in order to "win the race", with winning measured by their blog’s appearance at or near the top of Page 1 on a Google search.

Although I hasten to disclaim any expertise in SEO technology (Say It For You provides business blog writing services and business blogging assistance, working with the company’s advisers on search engine optimization and with their web designer), I can put the question about how long and how hard in context:  In a recent issue of the children’s magazine TIME for Kids,  I found the most wonderful metaphor for business blogging.

Under "Top 5 Fastest Land Animals," the article lists the African Cheetah as the clear winner; the animal clocks 70 miles per hour! Also in the top five, and also from Africa, the Thompson’s gazelle clocks in at 10 miles per hour.  The author’s observation is very telling for anyone planning an SEO marketing blog or anyone needing business blogging help: "The Cheetah is faster, but the gazelle has more staying power."

In my four years as  professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I’ve observed the same phenomenon with corporate blogs.  Putting a lot of new, relevant content online within a condensed time frame can produce Cheetah-like indexing results.  That can be particularly true in local markets where the blogging company’s competitors are making few efforts to enhance their online presence.

On the other hand, the majority of corporate blog writing efforts have tended to taper off rather rapidly, and, with no staying power, companies find that those coveted spots on Page 1 can be easily lost. Thompson’s Gazelle-like blog copy writers, by contrast, maintain the discipline of creating new blog content over weeks, months, and years.

Does your corporate blog have staying power?