This has to be on a list of blogging tips, even if it is not the most creative of blog writing methods. Writing about what others are writing about does have its benefits though. You will always have current material to reference, and pingbacks from those blogs can get you extra traffic and citations.

For instance, sometimes, we write about things that are on Google’s blog, even though the rest of the world is doing the same. Occasionally there can even be some traffic from their “list of blogs referencing this blog”, but it is an ephemeral thing, and probably more effective if you have a blog title that is controversial.

Writing a blog about the latest news can be very rewarding – if you thought a post or announcement was interesting, and you have a point of view on the same subject, then it can be one of the easiest blogs to write, that just flow off the keyboard. On the flip side, just regurgitating the same as everyone else can be tiresome for your readers, particularly if they are likely to be reading the same source material!

As I mentioned above, controversial posts can attract extra traffic and buzz. This is a tactic that the Shoemoney blog is very good at, but he does take some severe flak for this. If you are writing for a company, then being controversial might not be something that is approved of. But entering into the conversation in the blogosphere is very much one of the reasons for writing a blog, and this aspect should not be ignored.

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