Today I’m happy to feature a guest post from Jock Purtle, managing partner and CEO of Digitalexits.com (the leader in the online business brokerage space, and the most efficient marketplace for buying and selling high-growth, online businesses).

Jock is a wealth of knowledge whenever it comes to blogging, and I know you'll gain a ton of value from this post. Take it away Jock!

When you start a blog, it’s common to have the idea that each time you sit down to write you’ll be brimming with inspiration, your creative juices pumping and helping you deliver amazing content that readers eat up with a spoon.

Let’s be brutally honest for a second, though. That’s just not going to happen. Even the most talented, engaging bloggers will have moments when they need to create content about a subject that is, well, just a little boring. And, unfortunately, if you make the mistake of thinking you’ll only write when you feel that rare spark of inspiration, it won’t be long before you realize three weeks have passed and you haven’t sat down to write a single post. There are times when you just need to power through.

One of the most important things you need to do as a blogger, especially in the beginning, is to find ways to churn out content even when you’re not head over heels about the topic. You need to post consistently, and this means that sometimes you’ll have to write about subjects you don’t consider particularly interesting.

However, just because the subject doesn’t have you jumping up and down, it doesn’t mean it’s not relevant or useful to your audience. But for readers to stay engaged and, most importantly, connected with you, you’ll need to work a little harder to make sure what you’re posting is still exciting. Here are some tips:

Communicate Relevance Immediately

The introduction of your blog post serves two purposes:

• To capture the reader’s attention and convince them to read on
• To set the context of the article and discuss what it is you’re going to talk about

When dealing with less than exciting topics, you really need to do both of these things at the same time. For any post, both mundane and exciting, you only have a few seconds to hook your reader, and since you’re writing about something that doesn’t jump off the screen, you need to convince the reader that the information they are going to get in the blog is relevant and helpful enough for them to want to keep reading.

So you need to be as concise as possible, conveying your main points right away. Consider using bold or underlined text for some key phrases to help direct readers to the sentences that will be most effective in convincing them to keep reading.

This is where your headline is also critical. Capture their attention with the headline, convince them to read on in the introduction and provide them with useful information throughout the post. But remember to be practical with headlines. Don’t use something like “read this to save your business” if the content doesn’t match. This is a good way to lose credibility, just like the boy who cried wolf.

Use Visuals

Presentations skills 101 tells us that a bunch of text on a screen is less interesting and less engaging than images and videos. Now we’re talking about blog posts, so obviously, there is going to be a text element, but for your less than exciting blog topics, including some images is a great way to help make the content jump off the screen and appear more exciting.

And there’s evidence that this works. Blog posts with images every 75-100 words are shared significantly more than posts with less images. Spend some time finding interesting, relevant images (even if they are graphs or charts), and you’ll find people engaging even with less interesting topics.

Another thing to consider is using Infographics, something that is becoming very popular these days. These concise yet information-rich images deliver the main message of your content in an easy to understand manner that is also highly visual. Plus, they are prone to sharing, which is an added bonus. Imagine getting high share numbers on even your boring and mundane content!

Present Lots of Examples

Do you remember ever sitting in a high school math class, listening to the teacher drone on, wondering to yourself “when am I ever going to use this?” This is a phrase students around the world utter when they are disconnecting from whatever it is the teaching is presenting. The best way to counteract this is to bring whatever it is you are talking about back to the real world as much as you can.

This is where it is so important to know your audience. If you are clear about why it is they are coming to you, and you understand who they are, you can come up with examples that connect directly to them. This once again reinforces the relevance of the subject you are discussing, and it can quickly turn a boring article into an exciting and engaging one that gets lots of attention from your readers.

Final Thoughts

In the world of blogging, content is everything. It’s what gets people to come to you in the first place and it’s what convinces them to return. If the quality of your content slacks even a little, there’s a decent chance people will start to disconnect, and you’ll quickly find yourself heading in the wrong direction.

However, if you’re content strategy is successful in the beginning, you’ll soon find yourself with a solid following, which opens the door for a whole new set of opportunities. You could turn your blog into a business selling either other people’s products through reviews and recommendations (affiliate marketing), or your own products. Either way, developing ways to produce great content even when the subject isn’t your favorite is a critical first step to becoming a successful blogger.