You probably know that other blogs are a great source of topics to write about–you may not be the first to write about whatever the topic of choice is, but you’ll bring something new to the table.  A new opinion, a new slant, something.  But if you really want to catch some interest, and you’re in a position to do it, try breaking news.

Granted, your ability to break news is pretty slim at any given opportunity–you’re competing with literally millions of blogs, and chances are somebody’s tipped somebody else off before they got to you.  But close does count, and one way to be the closest you can to the news in question is to check the press releases.

Most companies have a media section in which they disseminate information about their products and services.  New announcements, new releases, plans the company’s making, and so on.  By reading them, and quoting from them liberally, you can establish a quick, up to the minute article that anyone can read and enjoy.  Plus, it’ll be intensely useful–announcing a new product about the same time everyone else does puts you at (or at least near) the tip of the spear, ensuring you get the best chance at breaking through.

And being at the forefront of news (if not the front) gives you a huge advantage, one that’ll help build traffic and your bottom line.

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We’re all familiar with the fad, with the flash in the pan that’s here one day, inflates to catastrophic proportions the next and then is, almost as quickly, gone without a trace.  While it’s no small ambition to try and make your blog be the next Hannah Montana, there’s also something to be said for going after the long term.

Things like breaking news and hot button issues are great for short term traffic boosts, but in a week, or a month, or even six months, no one will care about these things any more.  If your posts can be useful not just today, but also years from now, you will do more to preserve your traffic flow than any hot interview.

Remember the old adage–give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.  It’s not always that cut-and-dried, but there’s a lot to be said for going after the long term.  Your readers–both today AND tomorrow–will thank you for it, and as we all know, the best thanks readers can provide is attention, loyalty, and clicking on ads.

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One thing all readers have in common, no matter what your niche, is the desire to have the inside scoop. If your blog provides them with that then you will have loyal readers. Using press releases is one way of doing that and I have discussed before using sources like PR Web to find the latest breaking news for your niche.

However, another great way to create this type of content is to do an interview with someone at the top of your niche. For example if you were writing a blog on pets, you might want to do an interview with Cesar Milan - The Dog Whisperer, if your niche is fashion perhaps you want to interview a top designer.

Of course that all sounds easy until you actually try to get a hold of those people. Why would they talk to you? Well quite probably if you go straight to the top without any kind of angle then they wouldn’t, they are very busy people and they get requests all the time. So why not do an ongoing series where you gradually build up to them. That can be your approach, “Hey, Celebrity person, I’ve been doing a whole series of interviews, and everyone so far has mentioned you as an inspiration, would you be the final interview ?”

When you construct your interview questions make sure that everyone else is asked a question about the celebrity that you want to actually interview. You can send a link to the other interviews along with your request.

Who would you interview for your blog?

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How do you give your blog authority? Well obviously you have to be well informed about your topic area and part of that means you need to be constantly reading about it from other sources and then passing that information on along with your opinion about it.

However, giving out information that is really new is a definite to building authority. Alongside popular blogs, one of my daily reads are press releases. These can be found at sites such as PRWeb. PRWeb has them nicely divided into categories so you can find what you are looking for quite easily. Of course there isn’t necessarily really interesting breaking news everyday but on those days that something interesting happens it is a great boost to your traffic to be one of the first sites to have that news.

If you can develop a reputation for consistently providing this type of post, you will have a better chance of approaching organizations connected with your niche and having them include you on their press release distribution which means you will get the news before anyone else.

Where do you get your news?

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How do A list bloggers get those posts out that are, in effect breaking news? A lot of them use, old media techniques, the most simple of which is to pre-write the post for a just in case moment. A classic story from the old media world of this happening is the case of Bob Hope’s obiturary, it was published the morning after he died.

Think about that for a moment, this is not a blog, but a print publication, how can a print publication hear the news of his death and get a well written, thoughtful and accurate obit out the next morning, unless they have a team of writers working through the night. Simple, the wrote it in advance, in fact, the writer of Bob Hope’s obit actually died three years before Mr Hope did.

So how does this help you? Think about your niche and then think about what is likely to happen in that niche in the next 6 months - for example if you write about computers, you might think it is fairly safe to predict that Apple is going to produce a “Netbook” type product. So write down the features you think it will have and also the features you are fairly certain it won’t have.  Wait for Steve Jobs to make his announcement, see how close you are and then publish a few posts like:

5 Things the Apple Netbook should have had

7 Things the Apple Netbook will do for you

You get the idea. Hit publish within an hour of Jobs making the announcement and you are suddenly the person with their finger on the pulse, an A list blogger for tomorrow, one to watch.

What blog posts can you pre-write?

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