By Nancy Young, Photodoto.com

As a photographer, you know that your clients are trusting you to shoot their most important moments. That’s why a blog is the perfect tool to help your potential clients get to know you better.

It’s a great opportunity to show who you are, your values and how you treat your existing clients. Blogs are also better for getting traffic from Google than portfolio sites. And, without a doubt, it’s the best way to establish your personal brand as a photographer.

There are tons of reasons to start blogging today. If you already have a blog, you know that it requires constant inspiration. You need to publish high-quality content which people want to share and discuss.

Finding new content ideas is one of the most challenging tasks which both professionals and newbies face.

However, generating better blog post ideas is a skill which can be improved through research.

These tips will be helpful whether you’re looking for fresh ideas for your existing photography blog, or if you’re just starting a blog and need inspiration.

Analyze Your Followers On Social Media

Social media is where your followers and potential clients spend their time. It’s also the best way to find out what they need.

Twitter is like a litmus test for the world’s biggest trends. You can monitor it for keywords, questions and topics related to photography.

Would you like to know your followers better? @MagicRecs will help you. Just follow their official account and they will send you a DM containing the latest news within your Twitter circle.

Another way to learn the needs of your followers on Twitter and Instagram is SocialRank. This service allows you to sort and filter your followers, search among followers by word and location, compare accounts and create lists.

This way you can find influencers and their interests, and simply get to know your target audience better.

Find Other Successful Blogs

One of the easiest ways to find inspiration is to use ideas that are working for other photography blogs. Because these posts and pages have successfully brought traffic and attention to a certain brand, you can be sure these can bring organic, referral, and social traffic to your website, too.

So, how can find out what posts are popular on other blogs?

Use the popular marketing toolset called Ahrefs. This SEO tool allows you to analyze any website or blog. Just insert a link to the website you would like to research and go to Site Explorer.

Site Explorer has three great reports which can identify trending content: Best by Links, Best by Shares and Top Pages.

Use these reports to find blog posts that are the most shareable via social media. These posts contain content that gets links. The top pages tab shows which content brings organic traffic.

Use what you learn to choose the keywords and titles for your own blog.

Ahrefs is actually a paid service, but they have a free two week trial which is more than enough to plan a whole year’s worth of content ideas.

Check Out Online Photography Communities

Your target audience can also be found on various online communities. One of the most popular communities is Reddit.

Reddit’s Ask Me Anything is great for generating content ideas because you can find tons of potential ideas and questions to answer on your photography blog.

Just search for “photography AMA”:

Also, you can check out Photography subreddit to find out what’s hot in your area. Upvotes define the most interesting and engaging topics.

Help Me Write is an online community of writers from all over the world. It allows writers to share their post ideas and receive upvotes if the topic is interesting to the audience.

This is a simple way to test out your ideas before you spend time writing something that’s not worth it. After publishing, you can also share your new post there.

Ask Your Clients

As a business owner you should be constantly building a relationship with your audience and asking them what they want.

Your existing and potential clients won’t give you specific titles, like “10 Ways to Use Camera Flash.” But at least you’ll get to know which topics they like and which they don’t.

There are two ways to ask your target audience about the content they would like to see on your blog:

– Directly
– Indirectly

The direct way is to email your clients, ask a question on social media, or create a survey.

The indirect way answers the questions your potential clients are asking all over the web, for example, on Quora.

Here’s an email template which would be useful for almost any niche, not only photography.

Hey [Name]

I’m looking for even more useful topics to write for you on [name of your blog].

I was just wondering, what kind of content you would like to see on my blog in future?

Is there anything you would like to know more about?

Best regards,
[Your Name]

If you’re not into emails, you can go short and sweet on social media.

Or you can make a survey on your website asking your readers for new content ideas.

Don’t be shy about asking your followers and potential clients what they want. People will either answer your question or skip it — you lose nothing.

7 Easy Things to Blog About

If you don’t have time to research your target audience’s needs (I suggest you to do that, in any case), I have put together a few things a photographer can blog about.

Once you get started, you’ll find yourself coming up with new topics.

Here are just a few quick ideas that come to mind, but the sky is the limit:

1. Personal experience. Share your own experience of trying new equipment, photography tricks and even your life. Tara Whitney’s blog is a perfect example.
2. Recent photos. Share recent work such as wedding, portrait, or boudoir photo sessions, with examples and tips. Don’t just post photos — you have portfolio page for that — make it an exciting story.
3. Adventures. Share your personal photos and videos to become a blogger people follow.
4. FAQs. Answer the most interesting questions, for example, what to wear for a family photo shoot in the studio or some outdoor location.
5. Your story. Share how you became a photographer, what pitfalls you faced and how you overcame your fears. Be completely honest and people will love that. Your story will help you gain trust with your clients.
6. Photography business. Share your strategies, techniques, and tricks on how to promote a photography business and, once again, your own experience.
7. Behind the scenes. Who doesn’t want to see how the magic happens? Give your readers the chance to see how you work. You can also share some photo editing tips.

Over to You

Now it’s your turn to brainstorm your own content ideas!

Think of your audience and what they would like to read on your blog.

What are your tactics for finding new blog post ideas? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment field below.

About the Author:

Nancy is a passionate freelance writer and blogger. She writes tons of inspirational articles on photography and web design, despite the fact that she is an economist by education. She enjoys reading, learning SEO and also losing her mind to French movies. You can check out her photography blog Photodoto and follow her on Twitter.