If a songwriter could only write hit songs they would. But that’s not usually how it works. Just about all of the most successful songwriters in history have used consistent writing schedules to create the greatest songs in history.
Dolly Parton, for example, once said something to the effect that she’s written 5,000 songs in order to create 5 great ones.
Now, I would argue that she’s created more than that. But it’s easy to understand her point. It’s important, if you’re creating some type of content, to commit to a regular schedule that generates both quantity and quality.
In business blogging you need to do the same. You can commit to one post per week, for example. After 5 years you’re going to have about 250 blog posts.
In terms of strategy I’m a fan of aligning yours with Google’s. That means identifying questions your target audience is asking and providing the best answers you can with blog posts. You can find those questions in person, on the phone and online. I’ve found that this strategy can lead to a lot of ideas for potential blog posts.
Running Out of Ideas
But even with that strategy you’re going to run into occasions when you’re writing about similar topics, questions and answers. That’s generally okay. You can update old content if you see that it needs updating. You can create similar content with new posts.
But another way to continue to create blog content is to mix topics.
Can You Mix Topics: Yes
It is certainly okay to mix topics on a business blog. Obviously you want to do so within reason, but you can always test and see how things go. Test for traffic and interest from readers. Also make sure that you’re attracting the target audience to your blog if you decide to mix in a new topic or topics.
One of my favorite examples of this was quite a few years ago. A law firm was writing about legal questions that their target customers were asking. They were doing a great job, but they also noticed that a lot of their customers were interested in golf. So they started sprinkling in blog posts about golf. Just a little testing. Maybe one in every 10 posts was about golf. After several months they started seeing that those posts did very well and they continued to attract the right person to the blog and to the brand.
That’s a bit of an extreme example, but hopefully it makes the point that you can generally expand the topics on your blog. Especially on a test basis. I would look at things that are a little more personal. Perhaps you could tell stories about what’s happening in your business. Or you could tell stories about you and the team. People like doing business with people, not just brands. Especially in small business settings. Personal stories or stories with a personal touch can do that.
And feel free to research your target audience a little more. See what their hobbies and interests are outside of the business you’re in. See if there are topics you can test on your blog that might attract their attention.
Conclusion
In general, it’s fine to mix topics on your business blog. I would recommend doing it on a test basis to start. Maybe up to 10% of your posts. This way you have enough data after a few months to see how things are going. But you’re not doing enough to change the overall strategy of the blog without any data.
So whatever the reason, go ahead and do some testing with new topics. It could lead to more traffic for your blog.