A lot of people struggle with how to write a blog. Even though blogging and content marketing have been shown to be extremely effective marketing methods, most people tend to avoid doing things they don't like or aren't good at. However, no one knows your business better then you do, so while you can hire someone to write for you or coach you on how to be a better blogger, it really is up to you to learn how to blog for your business. Fortunately, it may not be as hard as you think. Here are a few tips to get your blog writing started.

How to Write a Blog - The Topic

First decide what your topic will be. Some ways to come up with topics include:

If you want to find out who one of the marketing leaders of the world is, look no further than the beverage company Coca-Cola. As little as 5 years ago, small to medium businesses might have been hesitant to pay any attention at all to what giant companies like Coca-Cola were doing, since the marketing budgets were so different as to be laughable. Coca-Cola would spend more on one TV ad than a smaller company might spend on their entire year's marketing. Now, however, things are changing. That's because the folks at Coca-Cola recognized that storytelling (content) through new technology (social media) are how society is changing (communicating).

Sheherezade was a Persian Queen and the main character and storyteller in One Thousand and One Nights. In the story, the King marries a new virgin each day. The following morning, he marries a new girl and has the old wife beheaded, allegedly for being unfaithful. Sheherezade, the daughter of a vizier, wants to marry the King and become Queen, but of course she doesn't want to get killed the next day, so she devises a clever strategy.

So, you've set up your Facebook Page, Twitter account and Google+ Page. You have a LinkedIn Company and you've joined a number of LinkedIn Groups and Google+ Communities. Perhaps you even have a weekly newsletter and a growing list of interested subscribers. How is it all tied together?

As 2012 comes to a close, the thought at the top of my mind is THANK YOU! Thank you to my clients for being great and supporting me throughout the past year. Thank you to my readers for enjoying, commenting and sharing my writing. And thank you to my friends and family for taking this journey with me. I appreciate everything that all of you do.

I already wrote at length about my content marketing plans for 2013, but I also wanted to show my appreciation to each of you by giving you a sneak preview. One of my marketing resolutions was to create more eBooks, and you're getting a free copy of the first one, "2013 Focus Series: Creating Great Content." 

We have all spent 2012 looking for value in our Internet marketing strategies. We have tweeted, liked, pinned and shared, and worked on creating a culture of content marketing within our own companies to encourage employee participation. As 2013 approaches, and we spend time evaluating and revising our marketing campaigns, here are some resolutions that I intend to adopt myself, and would suggest you do the same.