Blogging, or creating text-based content that search engines can find and index, continues to be an extremely important tool for freelance photographers. We believe that a blog is actually central to a freelancer’s online promotional strategy.

This week, we released “The Freelancer’s Online Marketing Blueprint“, created by the PhotoShelter Research Department. It’s a monster 53-page free report loaded up with essential information and advice for any freelancer.

On page 28, we talk about “Your Blog’s Role in the Marketing Mix” – and list 11 different ideas that you can use to come up with new blog post ideas. I thought I would expand on this a bit, and give a few good example links for each point made.

11 Content Ideas for Your Photo Blog

1) Top 10 lists
This works really well for a few reasons (and it doesn’t have to be exactly 10 things in a list.) First, it forces you to organize your content in a way that is very easy to understand. It helps to create a sense of clarity throughout, and keeps you on topic. We write lists all the time on the PhotoShelter blog (in fact, you’re reading one right now), and we tend to see more traffic to those posts.

Second, I think it causes you to write a headline that clearly describes what the post is about. Because of this, people are more likely to click on it (assuming that the topic is something they care about in the first place.)

A few good examples:

• 7 Signs You’ve Outgrown Flickr by Todd Owyoung
• 10 Principles of Beautiful Photography by Trey Ratcliff

2) Controversial statements
Everyone like a good controversy to stir things up. So why not create one yourself? If you’re brave enough to opine about what’s on your mind, even if it may piss some people off, you just may have a traffic driver/link builder on your hands.

Otherwise, why not write about some of the controversial things that other people have said?

A few good examples:

• “Jay Maisel Is A Dick”: Freetard Mob Savages Octogenarian Photographer Over Copyright by Jeremy Nicholl
• Cheap Photographers Only Kill Themselves, Not The Industry by Zack Arias
• Four Reasons to Consider Working for Free by David Hobby

3) “How To” Tutorials
People are always trying to figure out how to do things, so consider writing a blog post that teaches people to do something that you know how to do well. What’s your specialty? Talk about how you do what you do best, and you may find that quite a few people are interested.

A few good examples:

• How to Photograph Grizzly Bears by Robert Berdan
• How to Photograph Motorsports by John Thawley

4) Reviews
There’s a never-ending amount of products being pushed at us constantly, so here’s your way to take advantage of that. Write a review! You can review anything, really. Cameras, lenses, strobes, printers, computers, monitors, even entire companies can be reviewed. So pull something out of your camera bag an start crafting the reviews!

A few good examples:

• Review: Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G – The Best Wide-Angle Lens by Todd Owyoung
• “Heaven, Earth, Tequila” by Doug Menuez by Miguel Garcia-Guzman

5) Resource lists
People appreciate a handy list. If you’re willing to do a little research, you could but together a list of links to resources on the web that are important for a specific person, industry, task, or function. It really doesn’t require that you write anything – just come up with the topic, collect your links, and share it with the world.

A few good examples:

• Taiwan Photographers – Resources by Craig Ferguson
• 13 Resources for DSLR beginners by Mandy Jones

6) Infographics
If you have some chart/graph skills, why not create an infographic that explains a topic, concept, or issue? My favorite infographic was created by Jessica Hische, titled “Should I Work For Free?”. She obviously has some design skills, but even if you don’t, you can still use charts/graphs to get your point across in a post. (See the link to John Dunne’s blog below.)

A few good examples:

• Should I Work for Free? by Jessica Hische
• 2010 in numbers (or Stats, Stats and more Stats) by John Dunne
• 40 Useful and Creative Infographics by Jacob Gube

7) Debate/attack something
Consider writing a post that asks people to debate sides of a popular or newsworthy issue. (No, I am not talking about Canon vs. Nikon, or Mac vs. Windows.)

A few good examples:

• Google+ may carry dangers for photographers by Elizabeth Flock
• Photographers-Ditch the Flash Website Andrew Davis

8) Comedy
When you hear about something “going viral,” it’s almost always because it’s funny. If you’ve got a good sense of humor, why not make people laugh via your blog?

I’ve seen some really clever/funny photographer-related videos lately – and I know each of the examples below did well based on the huge number of photographers who sent me these links.

A few good examples:

• Video: Nikon Girl by Joey Lawrence
• The Battle at F-Stop Ridge by The Camera Store

9) Crowdsource input or commentary
I wrote a blog story about digital point and shoot cameras that ended up being the most viewed post of the year. Actually, I didn’t really write most of it — other photographers did.

I just asked a lot of photographers a simple question – which point and shoot camera do they use? When the responses came in, I compiled them all into one big post.

Crowdsourcing means using the internet to solicit content contributions, so others are helping you write the story.

A few good examples:

• 15 Digital Point-and-Shoot Cameras Used By Pro Photographers by Grover Sanschagrin
• Portfolio Updates and Crowdsourcing by Craig Ferguson

10) Interview people smarter than you
There are a lot of smart people in the world, so why not interview some of them for your blog. Their experienced viewpoint can add depth to an issue, and links to your blog.

A few good examples:

• Future of Photojournalism Interviews by Gerald Holubowicz
• In The Bag with Photographer David Burnett by Grover Sanschagrin

11) Go behind the scenes
Photographers (just like everyone else) love to see how things are made, and behind-the-scenes type of content usually resonates well with an audience. Just about any photo assignment you get is a potential behind-the-scenes opportunity.

A few good examples:

• The Making Of A Modern Wedding Video by Visual Masterpiece
• How we photographed the Edamame Soybean Soup shot by Todd Porter and Diane Cu
• Behind The Scenes Part 2 – Time Lapse/Live Action & Sliders by Vincent Laforet
• Behind the Scenes: The Threadless Photo Department by Grover Sanschagrin

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