It happens to all of us. We sit in front of our computers, stare at the screen and have no idea what to write about. It should be so easy, yet nothing comes to mind. Chances are, we’re thinking to hard.

If you do have bloggers block, here are 10 topics to help you come up with an idea to blog about.

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

Every business gets asked the same questions over and over again. These could come from prospects or clients and are great topics for blog posts. Chances are, if they are a FAQ, they’re also searched on a lot too.

New Products and Services

What’s new with your company? What are you offering now that you didn’t previously? Maybe its brand new or maybe it’s version 2 of an existing product. Don’t be afraid to tell the world when you have something new to offer them.

Feature Spotlight

I’d be willing to bet that most people don’t know how to use half the features of the products they use every day. That’s why putting the spotlight on different features is such a good idea. People love to get more out of what they are already using.

When you think about blogging don’t think about quantity of blog posts, think about quality. The quality of content is one of the biggest factors leading to a successful blog because people like original, thought-provoking content.

If you output a lot of mediocre posts, visitors or search engines won’t see value. The blog will get less traffic, fewer comments, lower rankings, and visitors will be far less likely to share it.

If you take some time and create engaging content, with unique and original thoughts, the value of that content will be much greater. Those posts will get more attention from search engines, visitors will get more value, and the likelihood of those posts being shared on the social web increase considerably.

One thing to keep in mind is that quantity, or post frequency, doesn’t appear on this chart. The more often you post, the more hooks in the water you have; however quantity is often misinterpreted. People tend to think that the posting more often is so important that quality gets sacrificed when quantity comes into play. Yes, it would be nice to have a large number of quality posts, but that may take time to accomplish; and that’s OK.

Every company want to blog these days as they feel that it’s a good way to increase brand visibility, search engine traffic, and gain more sales; which it can if done it right.

Here are 10 tips you should keep in mind when working with a blog.

Don’t Over Think Everything

A blog should not be so complex that you can’t come up with posts or move forward. Stop, relax, and simplify. Post like you’re talking to your customers and you should be fine.

Know Your Target Audience

Are you posting for new customers, existing customers, industry professionals, or a little bit of everyone?

If posting for new customers, or people who don’t know your industry, be careful not to use acronyms or industry terminology without first explaining them.

If posting for existing customers, then don’t try to sell them your product when they already have it.

Posting to everyone isn’t a bad idea, but your posts should be broken out so that some are for newbies, while others are more technical. Mix it up and don’t try to target two different types of people with one kind of post.

Do you like cupcakes? Who doesn’t? But what is it about a cupcake that makes you love it? And how do cupcakes relate to blogs?

Presentation

Lets start with the presentation. Most cupcakes catch your eye because of how they look. Maybe it’s the coloring of frosting or the overall design. This is the first impression and it’s important that the cupcake speaks to the right audience.

Now when you have a blog, the same holds true. When someone visits a blog, the first reaction is on the look and feel, the colors, the layout. Is it visually appealing?

Sure, cupcakes and blogs are about more than just the look and feel, but sometimes people can’t get past an ugly one.

Satisfaction

Maybe it’s how you feel once you’ve consumed one. Eat one good cupcake and you’re bound to have another. Eat a great cupcake and chances are you’ll tell a friend about it.

Reading a blog post should leave the visitor satisfied and happy. Readers should want to share it, bookmark it and come back.

No one is ever going to tell their friends about a generic boring cupcake, so why would they share a generic blog post?

TopRank’s recent Blogging and SEO survey of in-house, agency and independent marketing, advertising and PR professionals revealed that 95% of respondents incorporate blogs as part of their online marketing mix. Nearly 88% have successfully increased measurable SEO objectives as a direct result of blogging.

Thousands of new blogs are started by companies and individuals each day. Yet getting a blog set-up, optimized, and launched are just the first steps. No one will know you have a blog to read, subscribe or link to unless you take an important next step: promotion. There are plenty of places you can promote and market a new blog:

• Add A Link – If it’s a company blog, or if it’s attached to another site, add a link to the blog from the main navigation on the parent website.
• Create A Badge – On the main website, add a badge to the homepage, or sidebar, that promotes the blog. Images are a good way to catch a visitor’s attention.
• Email – Add a link to the blog in your email signature.
• Newsletter – Announce the blog in the company newsletter.

A blog should be considered the central hub of your social networking universe. Everything you do should drive traffic back to your blog, or website, as a way of combining all your efforts to give your brand maximum exposure.

Once thing you can do to help populate your social networks would be to update your status with your blog posts when new content is published.

By no means is auto-populating a service like Twitter going to get good results on its own, but as one piece of a social networking strategy, it can help a network grow.

Here are just a few of the many ways you can automatically syndicate a blog post to social networks.

TwitterFeed

TwitterFeed is quite possibly the best way to syndicate content. TwitterFeed can update Twitter, Facebook, Ping.fm, HelloTXT and Laconica. It also integrates URL shortening services, hash tags and keyword filters.

Ping.fm and HelloTXT

By default, Ping.fm and HelloTXT need someone to manually send out updates, but when integrated with TwitterFeed, you can auto post blog posts across the social web. Ping.fm and HelloTXT include nearly all social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, Tumblr, Posterous, Flickr, Yammer and many more.

One of the biggest features that Blogger.com had over other free blogging sites is the ability to publish files to a website via FTP. This allowed site owners to have a blog in a directory on their site without having to install and maintain software on their web server.

Unfortunately, on March 26th, Blogger.com is shutting down their FTP functionality.

Blogger claims that only .5% of their users use this feature and that it’s a big strain on their engineering staff to keep it working like it should. So they are shutting it down.

So now what? Are you a part of that .5%?

Believe it or not, this is a blessing in disguise. If you were using the FTP functionality, then you probably are serous about blogging. And if you are, then it’s time to take the next step and move away from Blogger.com.

The best advice is to setup WordPress on your site and import all your blogger posts. Setting-up, importing, and learning new software may take some additional time, but the in the long run, you’ll be happy you did. Not only will you have more features and more control over your blog, but it’ll be better for your users and perform better in search engines.

If MacGyver has taught us anything, it’s that you don’t need big expensive tools to get the job done. The same goes for blogging.

There are plenty of free blogging tools and resources to do everything from creating SEO friendly sites to keyword research and analytics. Why spend the money on a tool when you could use that money on internet marketing services or to grow your company?

Here are 13 free blogging tools and resources that MacGyver would be proud of.

WordPress

MacGyver would surly use the most popular, customizable, powerful, and completely free, blogging software on the internet. WordPress offers a large number of feature and hundreds of plugins that will make any blog successful. From newbies to web design professionals, WordPress is a great choice for ease of use, search engine optimization and price.

Google Analytics

MacGyver’s got to keep tabs on his site and know where his traffic is coming from.  For this, Google Analytics is a no brainer. No need to spend hundreds on an analytics package, Google Analytics as all the features you need at a price that can’t be beat.

With literally hundreds of millions of blogs in the vast blogosphere, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to develop a unique brand for your blog by writing posts that are unique, creative and entertaining. The next time you find yourself in a rut, try these 7 blog copywriting ideas for creating fresh and interesting content:

1. Start With the Headline

It might seem logical to write the body of the post first. After all, length-wise, it’s the most significant piece of the puzzle. Instead, try coming up with the most creative, most intriguing headline possible. Then design a post around that inspirational headline. Similarly, you could choose an image or create a call to action first. Whatever your typical process, turn it around to inspire some fresh thinking.

2. Tell Your Story With a Graphic

Instead of using words to convey a concept that’s perhaps been covered by other bloggers — or even your own blog — rely on a custom illustration to tell the story. This tactic can have some SEO benefits, as well. A creative, useful graphic or illustration can have the potential to go viral, with readers linking to it and sharing it.

Guest posters are a good idea for all blogs. Different people have different ideas, different writing styles, and different ways to connect to visitors.

Not only is it a good idea for your readers, it’s a good idea for your blog.

The more authors a blog has, the more content that will get generated, the more active the blog will appear and, when that happens, search engines can give more rankings and traffic. All of this leading to more sales, revenue, or whatever the blogs KPI is.

More bloggers help out a blog in more ways than one and growing a blog with multiple authors, or guest posters, is a win-win situation.

And with that, BloggerDesign is happy to have Michelle Bowles, a copywriter at TopRank Marketing, publishing her first post here tomorrow! Check back to see what tips she has for bloggers.