My clients often wonder how they're going to come up with something to write on their blogs.  It's not that they lack creativity, talent, or experience - it's that if they were professional writers, they'd be paid to write, and not to do their jobs.

Business blogging is especially problematic, as anyone caught writing exclusively about how their company is the premier company in the space (please can we kill that phrase!) is prone to a quick unsuscribe from our RSS reader.  So what's a new blogger to do?  The answer is simple - find other people to write about and celebrate their work.  While it seems counterintuitive to start a business blog and write about other people, the smart blogger realizes that readers want information, not copywriting. Writing (and linking) on the content of other bloggers helps brand you as informative, inquisitive, and connected. In fact, that's the purpose of your blogroll.

Did you know that people decide what kind of blogger you are based on who you have linked to your blogroll?  Think about that.  If  you link business blogs, or social blogs, or local blogs - you're easy to identify. If you link your own company's website and all your products - you're easy to identify, but in a good way.  The same goes for if you don't have a blogroll. 

Celebrate and promote your audience.  It's the first rule in blogging.

Speaking of better writers - if you're intimidated, think how I feel, having a wife who writes as well as this.  She's covering some design stories about our office over at 3rings, an architecture and design blog.  Read through that, and you'll see what I'm saying. It's clear from traffic patterns that you folks would much rather be reading her than me - so there you go!  From theory to action, I walk the walk.