One of the biggest challenges for a new blogger learning how to blog is determining what to write about. We have a list of 15 different ways to blog that we share with our clients, and I’ll describe one of them here.

First, think about the question, “What is something my readers really need to know about?” Make a list of the 10 most common questions you get about your topic. Then do keyword research to see exactly what phrases are used most often in the search engines for that topic.

For example, one of the topics you need to know about when creating your blog is a “blogroll”. So I went to the Wordtracker keyword tool and determined that the most commonly typed phrase is What is a blogroll? So then I wrote a post with the title, Glossary: What is a Blogroll? and back when I created this post, I ranked #11 on Google for this phrase–and I got traffic from it.

The Wordtracker keyword tool will tell you the different phrases people type in and how popular each one is. The best way to start is by typing in a fairly general phrase (for example, I used “blog”) and then look at the list Wordtracker generates. Then you can pick a phrase that is used often and is easy for you to blog about.

So if you’re having trouble determining what to blog about, follow these three simple steps:

1) Go back to basics. What do your readers need to know?
2) Do keyword research with the Wordtracker keyword tool to see how they are looking for that phrase.
3) Create a post with a commonly-used keyword phrase in the title and in the post.

It doesn’t get much easier than that when you are trying to learn how to blog!

I’m sure you’ve heard the proverb that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In the blogging world, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture on a blog is priceless.

Pictures add feelings, emotions, excitement and then you also get to add words for your readers to help explain why the picture has been included. Our client, Erica Ross-Krieger at WellnessCoach.com, does a fantastic job of including photos in her posts.

See how you instantly get a feeling for what this post is about without even reading it?

You want to do the same thing on your blog… give your visitors a feeling for what you’re talking about before they even start.

So where do you get the photos? The internet has plenty of photo sites where you can purchase photos (and some are even free)! Just make sure you read the terms of use on each site to make sure you have the copyright/permission to use a photo on your blog. You may need to pay for the right to use a photo, and sometimes you pay royalties based on how many times it is used.

Two of my favorite places to get budget-friendly images are iStockPhoto and Big Stock Photo.

I was going to recommend a popular site for free images but after checking their terms, I couldn’t….they don’t get model releases for the photos and you could inadvertently post a photo without the proper permission.

Another thing to keep in mind with your blogsite is “How busy is my site?” You’ll notice we don’t have a lot a photos on YourBlogTeam.com…. mainly because the site has lots of places for your eye to land the way it is. Because of the unique design with the offset header, the rolling headlines at the top, and the text fully justified, adding too much more could be overwhelming to the visitor.

So do you use photos on your blog? Why or why not?