Blog posts attract people to your website and profile – so they are great for marketing! They are an easy and cost-efficient way to put your expertise out there for the world to see and to introduce yourself to potential clients. So if you are not blogging yet, or not often enough, you are missing out!

Don’t know where to start? Don’t know what to write about? ‘Just do it’ is the best advice. I’ve been there. I used to think that I did not have anything worth writing about so I did not have a blog. But there is actually a lot that you could write about, even if you don’t realize it now.

What, you ask? What could I possibly contribute to the online world? Well, for starters there is a lot you know about your profession that other people in other lines of work are not aware of. Plus, you have built your impressive expertise over the years – you can share your knowledge. You have spotted work methods you would like to see changed – or work methods you have changed yourself. And you must have experienced some remarkable things. Maybe you even have a funny story to tell. Unexpected projects, weird clients, noteworthy results… But smaller things are just as useful. You may have read a post in a Facebook group that made you stop and think. You may have even commented on it, so that means you do have an opinion worth sharing. Or you may feel that you are different from your colleagues: you have different opinions on something everyone else seems to agree on. Or you can’t relate to what they are posting because your work is different. Different is good. Different is interesting. Write about it.

Do you need inspiration right now? This is what you could do:

Ask yourself:

• What do you like about your job?
• What trends do you see?
• What annoys you?
• What do you wish more people knew about your profession?
• What advice could you give to colleagues or potential clients?
• What did you learn from a recent project?
• What methods and technology in your line of work do you like or hate and why?
• What questions do you get asked a lot when you tell people what you do for a living?
• What misconceptions do people have about your job?
• Would you recommend your profession to students starting at university today? Why (not)?
• What has changed in your work or industry since you started out?
• What is something you have recently discussed with your partner, family members or friends about your job?

Practical tips if you are looking for inspiration:

• Go to your favourite business-related Facebook or LinkedIn groups and:Read questions – which could you have answered? It means you have expertise.
• Check trending topics – which posts received a lot of comments? It means they are worth talking about.
• Search for the posts you commented on. It means you have an opinion you could share.
• Go back to the posts you started yourself. It means you needed to know something your blog readers might not know yet – and now you have the answers.
• Browse blogs from colleagues to see what they are writing about.
• Have you found a topic, but don’t feel confident enough to write about it? Post a question online and use the feedback in your blog post or article.

Set things up so that inspiration comes to you on a daily basis:

• Follow interesting people, companies and groups on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Subscribe to blogs from colleagues and other interesting bloggers
• Read news about your profession and anything related on a regular basis
• Subscribe to channels that may send you interesting news
• Set up Google alerts so that interesting news and articles are delivered directly to your inbox

Ready, set, write. And don’t forget to share.