Blogging on Your Professional Site for the Home Office Freelancer: Blogging Topics

A common mistake that home office freelancers and freelance writers make when blogging on their professional sites is forgetting who they want to attract. As a freelancer, you learn a lot about the world of online freelancing, writing, how to find jobs, and a plethora of details that only "the initiated" will appreciate. So, naturally, you might think that those kind of topics are suitable for your freelance professional site. Here is the problem with that assumption: you end up attracting other freelancers rather than the potential clients you built the site to attract. The freelance knowledge you have gained can be invaluable in some other application (perhaps as part of a blogging network, forum, social networking site, ebook, or otherwise), but for your professional blog, you need to choose topics that will appeal to the clients you wish to gain.

In order to determine the appropriate topics for your blog, you need to determine who your ideal clients are. What type of material are they looking for? What topics do they search for when they get on the internet? What kind of content do they need for their websites? What subjects are relevant in their businesses? What type of expert are they wanting to hire? As a freelancer, you may find yourself covering such a diverse collection of topics that you feel equally comfortable blogging about international business or quick dinner ideas. There is a way to integrate your diversity (keep reading), but make sure you define the topics and thus, the potential clients, that you most want to attract for your long-term freelance career.

Once you have determined who your potential clients are, think about the subjects in the terms they do; for example, if you enjoy writing about gardening, home decor, and cooking, then your potential clients are marketing to home owners, gardeners, women, and cooks. All three of those topics could be codified under a category such as "Women's Interest" or "Home Management Articles." Your job, when determining categories, is to name them as your potential clients view them, not as your potential readership does.

However diverse you may have been in your freelancing thus far, your blog will be much more impressive if you have a good amount of information on a few subjects rather than just a bit of information on many subjects. In order to show potential clients that you are an expert and able writer in the topics that interest them, you need to show a good background, a depth of information, and a thorough understanding of the subject in general. One or two little blog posts per topic won't work; build up a repertoire.

Read the next part in the series to learn the blogging techniques for building up those blog topics without having to dedicate a lot of time or develop much new material for each one.