If you have a long list of topics for your blog content, and your research is up-to-date, you are ready to write. But what to do when you want to write but do not have a good idea or sufficient research material? Here is one approach that may help if you are under a time crunch.

1. Find interesting news articles
Your blog should be focused on a specific topic. Use that topic to find interesting articles that may be of interest to your readers. You can find these articles in newspapers, Google News, magazines, and the RSS feeds to which you subscribe.

2. Develop an opinion
React to each article you find. Is the article presenting facts or opinions? Are there other views that should be considered? Do you agree or disagree? Most importantly, does it translate into action that people should take?

3. Intersect with your audience
Next, evaluate if your audience should care about the article. I often try to make technical computer security relevant to people who are not technically savvy, but who just want to know what they need to do to be secure on-line. Often times this audience does not care about the articles that interest me, but sometimes they need to know why a recent event or article should matter to them. See if your article has relevance to your target audience.

4. Write
Finally, write your post. Start by describing the event or ideas in the article in your own words, and link to the article. Describe in one paragraph what it is and why your reader should care. Then translate the details of the article and your opinion into relevant points. The remainder of your post may be a list of steps or a simple call to action.

Do your best to make your article or post “evergreen”. News comes and goes. Use recent events to create relevant content that has long-term value. This way, your content will not be competing as a news source, but will act as a reference to which readers will come back.

Here is an example of a blog post that fits this model. I wrote it today… in a pinch.

• «Previous Post
• Next Post »

---