12 experienced bloggers: How to crowdsource a killer article for your blog
I need to start this out with a little confession: I’m not going to feature the tips from 12 experienced bloggers here. I used that headline because that’s the kind of headline you’ll be able to write when you follow up on the tips I’m about to share with you.
A curated collection of advice from experts is one of the most popular categories of blog, or content marketing material that you can feature on your small business website. I know how difficult it is to pump out a steady stream of blogs, so how to come up with great blog ideas is always among the fears that keep us from developing blogs as well as we should develop them.
So what I want to give you today are a few ways you can have other people write a blog for you. All you’ll have to do is do a little copying, pasting, editing and adding a couple of paragraphs as introductory and concluding comments.
Select your topic
This process starts by selecting your blog topic. You want it to be something that is far reaching. You want to address a problem or issue that everyone in your audience deals with and then express this problem in the form of a question.
For example, today I’m writing about how to get articles for your blog, or what to do when you run out of blog topics. So my question might be something like:
- How do you get ideas for your blog?
- What are some of the best ideas for blog articles?
- What blog articles are the most popular on your website?
With a good question in hand, the next step – and really the heart of this crowdsourcing strategy – is to pose that question at various places around the Internet.
Quora
Quora is all about crowdsourcing answers to specific questions. It is one of the perennial favorite sites for bloggers in search of article ideas. When you start using the site and visit to pose your question, you might find that the question has already been asked. All you’ll have to do is scoop up the best answers.
One good thing about Quora is that users often do a good job identifying themselves, unlike some sites where people will give themselves user names like Unicorn546. You’ll even find that users will tell you what company they work for and more about their professional background. This makes them ideal for using in an article of curated content from experts.
By the way, when you look at a specific question on Quora, you get a sidebar that offers links to “related questions.” Don’t forget to explore those: They can be a gold mine for coming up with other article ideas.
Forums
There are all kinds of forums on virtually every area of interest. These can be excellent places to pose your question. Sometimes users are a little less open about their true identity in these places, so you might mention that you’re pulling together an article and would like to credit the folks who offer great answers.
I think you’ll also discover, as with Quora, that forums can generally be good places to uncover creative ideas for blogs.
HARO
Help A Reporter Out has been around for many years. Reporters ask questions and experts respond. On these pages we’re usually talking about HARO from the point of view of the small business owner wanting to gain publicity; when you answer someone’s question, there’s a good chance you’ll get mentioned in an article that appears somewhere. The snag with using HARO is that your website needs to have an Alexa rating of under 1 million.
Yahoo Answers
You can get a lot of questions addressed through Yahoo Answers, and sometimes the answers can be right on the money. However, you’ll probably find that people identify themselves even worse than they do on forums. But, with some clever editing and writing on your part, you can probably find a way to features these answers anyway. Drop the attribution and them under a heading like:
- Quick bites
- Other takes
- Miscellaneous tactics.
If you’re on Twitter, post your question and ask for responses. Use a hashtag that will help you get exposure beyond just your own followers. Also, tweet the request on several days at different times so it has a better chance to be seen by more of your following. The 140-character limit for answers will help make responses ideal for this kind of article.
Just ask the experts
If you know some experts that you suspect would have a good response to your question, do a little research, find an email address, message via twitter, or even use a website contact box to ask your question. Mention that you’re pulling together an article of expert advice and would like to feature their ideas. Tell them that just a sentence or two would be fine.
One bonus idea: If you find some good responses to your question already posted on the blogs of other people, don’t be afraid to excerpt them, give them credit, and link to their original posts. It would even be a good idea to send a note to the original blogger saying how you liked the person’s ideas and are planning to quote them in a blog of your own. It could be the start of a good strategic alliance.
When you crowdsource curated expert content like this, your final article should be a compilation of short paragraphs that boil down each idea to its essence, with each expert credited. If you can find headshots – maybe from Twitter profiles – they would be good to feature with each expert’s response.