Put Your Expertise to Work in a Personal Blog

By Joshua Waldman from Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies

Your original blog content may wind up becoming your biggest career asset. A blog provides deep insight into your voice, your passions, your values, and your abilities. Whether you think so or not, you’re an expert at something. The shift from arm-chair specialist to outspoken expert is really just a mental shift. As long as you educate, inform, or even entertain your audience, your blog is read-worthy.

Finding what you want your blog to be about can be a difficult task; however, if you think about it in terms of your own passions, then it can be quite simple. Think about something you’re good at. When people come to you for advice, what do they generally ask?

Picking a topic you like and that you’re knowledgeable about is important for the continuity of your blog as well. You want to pick a topic that keeps inspiring ideas for articles. If you’re not particularly passionate about the topic, it’ll eventually become impossible to generate new content.

The more specifically you can define your area of expertise, the better. General topics don’t tend to develop strong audiences. Try to narrow down your topic to the point where it becomes different from what everyone else is covering.

Often, you can simply put a new spin on an old idea or have a unique perspective when collecting artifacts. What you choose to blog about and how you represent it comes back to your personal brand because your name becomes associated with the topic.

If you’re having trouble identifying what you should blog about, ask yourself these questions:

What’s a topic I can talk about for hours without ever getting bored?
What’s something I do that makes me lose track of time when I do it?
What subject do I tend to have strong opinions about (apart from politics or religion)?
What have I done for years, and maybe not realize, that I have amassed more experience than most people?
Do I have a new interpretation of a concept or a new method of doing something that may benefit others? If so, what is that?
When others come to me for advice, what do they ask? In other words, what can I write about that will resonate with others.
Are there objects I like to collect and react to, such as funny ads, new products, or something else that relates to my career?

If you’re getting stuck on ideas to build your expertise around, you may want to look at what other bloggers are writing about. Based on your survey of what blogs are already out there (and their quality), you’ll be better able to identify your niche. The following list may help narrow your topics down: