Hey, guys, Tyree here from Website Muscle. We are going through our top ten must do’s for good blog posts. And you guys, we’re halfway through already! We are now are on number five, which I like to call original(ish) content.
Original(ish) Content
Now the reason I don’t say “original content” is because there’s a lot of good content out there. You’re probably already reading industry blogs, newspapers, and other news sources to find out what’s going on in your industry and with your business. And you probably find pieces of content every once in a while that you’re like, “I really want to share that with my readers.”
The problem comes in when your instinct is to just copy and paste that into your blog.
First of all, that is copyright infringement, and it’s also just really bad form. You want to build trust and authority in your brand, not someone else’s brand, okay?
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, but you can repurpose other people’s content. You can make it your own. You can add your own thoughts into it, your own personality, your own…bits about your own company, and so forth.
Don’t Sell Yourself Short
So get inspired, absolutely. Cite direct quotes, most definitely. And overall, take that interesting subject matter and rewrite it in your own words, to your own audience.
Don’t sell yourself short. You have something very valuable to offer. You have a unique value. So generate your own content. Show off your knowledge, your technical knowledge, your industry expertise, write how-to’s, talk about your company culture, do case studies, expand on frequently asked questions, and so forth. There’s really no limit to what you can do.
Best Practices for Sharing Original(ish) Content
An important note, if you do link to another post (which is fine) be sure that that post opens in a new tab. You don’t want to have someone click a link and then leave your site altogether, okay?
We’re trying to keep people on your site. So make sure that new tabs that go off of your page or your site open in a new tab. And there you go, original(ish) content.
Note: Our “Blog Writing Guide” eBook has more tips for your company’s blog strategy. If you’re interested, you can fill out a form and download it here.
Happy blogging!
