14 Resources to Reference When Writing a Blog Post

A few months ago, we discussed the two fundamentals of every successful B2B content marketing strategy: creation and distribution. (Tweet This).

While this two-step process applies to any content format - white papers, eBooks, reports, video, and infographics - we're most familiar with it for daily or weekly blog posts. Create a good blog post, then distribute it. Repeat Monday through Friday.

To avoid creative burnout, take time to revitalize the content creation part of your routine blog operation with this great library of resources. And if you're a new B2B marketer, copywriter or freelance blogger, this curated list will get you started on your first content creation:

Inspirational Resources

"What should I write about?" This conundrum is probably the hardest part of content creation- especially for 1000 word blog posts. You know relevancy to your product, customer, and company are all musts but you've already exhausted your area of expertise to it's bare little bones. Here are some great tools and sites to use to uncover those hidden blog ideas:

Tweak Your Biz Title Generator

For lack of a better description, this tool is absolutely awesome. When you run out of ideas or ways to talk about your (perhaps boring) product or service, simply enter your topic (be sure to label as a noun or a verb) and be graciously delivered a plethora of blog posts ideas. Some of them may be cheesy or irrelevant to your business, but I can guarantee at least one will strike one of your idea chords. Note: This tool can also be used to generate interesting copy for your social media posts as well. Tweet This Resource

Hubspot's Blog Topic Generator

This entertaining algorithmic-generated tool allows the researcher to input a maximum of 3 nouns to create a week's worth interesting topic ideas . For example, if you sell both retail display and promotional items to small businesses, this tool will return titles for both products. Tweet This Resource

hubpot blog topic generator

Quora

A popular voting Q&A platform, Quora welcomes questions and their respective answers, facts, and opinions. This platform is especially helpful as it's content license allows users to republish questions and/or answers with accompanying links back to the site. Search your topic of choice, join a few conversations, and structure a blog post around one of the featured questions or responses. Tweet This Resource

Google Alerts

Not only useful for one-off research projects, but for continual monitoring of industry relevant trends, studies, and reports. Be the first to explain product-related studies to your customers in timely blog posts.

Topsy

I'm constantly using Topsy to monitor trends and inspire my blog post subjects. Simply enter your phrase of choice and filter the search results by social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Google+) to discover shared and trending content. You can further scrutinize your search by filtering on Likes, Tweets, Comments, Images, or Videos. Tweet This Resource

topsy example

RSS Feed Reader

You most likely already follow your favorite industry thought leaders, bloggers, and marketing gurus. Start following people outside the proverbial box: your competitors, your customers, or notable companies in a completely unrelated industry (they create content too).

Your Own Blog Dashboard

Scouring your own blog posts for future ideas might be the best source of inspiration. By pinpointing the themes, titles, and authors that resonated the most with your audience, you can elaborate on the successful topics and nix the areas your readers aren't interested in. Lengthen the lifespan of a successful blog post by converting the article into another medium. Animate your top performers into visually appealing infographics, videos, or comic. Tweet This Resource

Copywriting and SEO Resources

After you've perused through the aforementioned sites to reignite your creativity, it's now time to focus on the dirty work: writing your blog post. A captivating title and subject is paramount, but if you fail to deliver high value content or completely ignore SEO, your 800 word piece of crafted inspiration will fall flat. Take a look at the following copywriting and SEO resources to amplify the meat and bones of your blog post:

Copywriting 101 from CopyBlogger

This is a great resource for anyone in content marketing. From crafting compelling SEO copy that converts to learning how to build authority, the experts here offer a library full of eBooks, webinars, forums, and member insights. It requires a registration and offers an upgraded "Authority" membership, but if you're interested in writing well (and with a purpose) then have a look. The platform also has an ungated blog as well. Tweet This Resource

ProBlogger

Darren Rowse offers tips to improve the technical aspect of your writing and discusses secrets that will transform your post into a digestible piece of content. Rather than providing theoretical insights on blogging, he gives the reader actionable advice that can be immediately applied to any type of blog. Tweet This Resource

Blog Post Templates

Hubspot ingeniously created 5 essential blog posts templates: The List Post, The How-to Post, The Slideshare Presentation, the Newsjacking Post, and the Curated Collection. After choosing a blog format, follow the fill-in-the-blank format to quickly create posts. Tweet This Resource

how_to_blog_post_template_writing_your_intro

Freelancer or oDesk:

For those weeks (or quarters) that require some outside help to fill your pipeline with quality blog posts, hire a freelance writer. Be sure to hire a contractor with experience in your field and outline necessary guidelines up front.