Blogging is a powerful way to share your knowledge, opinions, and insights with your audience. But with millions of blogs out there, how can you stand out from the crowd and attract more readers, subscribers, and customers?
One of the best ways to differentiate your blog and provide value to your audience is by using original data. Original data is any information that you collect, analyze, or present yourself, rather than relying on existing sources. It can be anything from surveys, experiments, case studies, interviews, testimonials, reviews, analytics, or even your own personal experiences.
Original data can help you create unique, engaging, and authoritative content that showcases your expertise, builds trust, and drives action. In this article, we’ll explore why original data matters for blogging, and how you can use it to create amazing content for your blog.
Why Original Data Matters for Blogging
Original data has many benefits for blogging, both for you and your audience. Here are some of the main reasons why you should consider using original data in your blog posts:
- It helps you stand out from the crowd. Original data is rare and valuable. According to a survey by Orbit Media1, only 9% of bloggers use original research in their posts. That means you have a huge opportunity to create content that no one else has, and attract more attention and traffic to your blog.
- It boosts your credibility and authority. Original data shows that you have done your homework, and that you have something new and interesting to say. It also demonstrates your expertise and knowledge in your niche, and positions you as a thought leader and a reliable source of information.
- It provides value to your audience. Original data can help your audience learn something new, solve a problem, make a decision, or take action. It can also inspire them, challenge them, or entertain them. By providing original data, you are giving your audience a reason to read your blog and come back for more.
- It generates more engagement and shares. Original data can spark curiosity, interest, and discussion among your audience. It can also encourage them to share your content with others who might find it useful or relevant. According to BuzzSumo, original research is one of the most shared types of content on social media.
- It attracts more links and mentions. Original data can also help you build your online reputation and authority by earning links and mentions from other websites and blogs. Other bloggers, journalists, researchers, or influencers might cite or reference your original data in their own content, which can drive more traffic and exposure to your blog.
How to Use Original Data in Your Blog Posts
Now that you know why original data matters for blogging, let’s look at how you can use it in your blog posts. Here are some steps to follow:
1. Choose a topic or question that interests you and your audience.
The first step is to decide what kind of original data you want to create and share with your audience. You need to choose a topic or question that is relevant to your niche, that interests you and your audience, and that has not been answered or explored before (or at least not in the way that you want to).
Some ways to find ideas for original data are:
- Look at your own blog analytics. You can use tools like Google Analytics or HubSpot to see what kind of content performs well on your blog, what keywords drive traffic to your blog, what questions or comments your audience leaves on your blog posts, etc. These insights can help you identify gaps or opportunities for creating original data.
- Conduct keyword research. You can use tools like Moz or SEMrush to find out what kind of topics or questions people are searching for online related to your niche. You can also use tools like AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked to discover what kind of subtopics or follow-up questions people have around a certain topic.
- Browse social media platforms. You can use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, etc. to see what kind of conversations or trends are happening in your niche. You can also use tools like BuzzSumo or Social Animal to see what kind of content gets the most engagement or shares on social media.
- Survey or interview your audience or experts. You can use tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, etc. to create and distribute surveys to your audience or experts in your niche. You can also use tools like Calendly or Zoom to schedule and conduct interviews with your audience or experts. These methods can help you collect valuable feedback, opinions, insights, or stories that you can use as original data.
2. Collect and analyze your data.
The next step is to collect and analyze your data. Depending on the type and source of your data, you might need to use different tools or methods to do this. For example, if you are using surveys, you might need to use tools like SurveyMonkey or Typeform to create and distribute your surveys, and tools like Google Sheets or Excel to store and analyze your responses. If you are using analytics, you might need to use tools like Google Analytics or HubSpot to track and measure your data.
The goal of this step is to find patterns, trends, correlations, outliers, or insights from your data that you can use to answer your question or support your argument. You might need to use different techniques or methods to do this, such as:
- Descriptive statistics. These are methods that help you summarize or describe your data using numbers or graphs, such as mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, frequency, distribution, etc.
- Inferential statistics. These are methods that help you draw conclusions or make predictions from your data using probability or hypothesis testing, such as confidence intervals, significance tests, regression analysis, etc.
- Qualitative analysis. These are methods that help you interpret or understand your data using words or themes, such as coding, categorizing, clustering, etc.
3. Present and visualize your data.
The final step is to present and visualize your data in a clear and compelling way. You need to choose the best way to communicate your data to your audience, depending on the type and purpose of your data. You might need to use different formats or tools to do this, such as:
- Text. This is the most common and basic way to present your data using words or sentences. You can use text to explain your data, provide context, highlight key findings, tell stories, etc.
- Tables. These are useful for presenting your data in a structured and organized way using rows and columns. You can use tables to compare or contrast different values, categories, or variables in your data.
- Charts. These are helpful for presenting your data in a visual and engaging way using shapes or colors. You can use charts to show trends, patterns, relationships, proportions, etc. in your data. Some common types of charts are line charts, bar charts, pie charts, scatter plots, etc.
- Infographics. These are powerful for presenting your data in a creative and attractive way using icons, images, or illustrations. You can use infographics to summarize or simplify complex or large amounts of data in a single image.
Some tools that can help you create tables, charts, or infographics are Google Sheets, Excel, Canva, Piktochart, etc.
Conclusion
Original data is a great way to create unique, engaging, and authoritative content for your blog. It can help you stand out from the crowd, boost your credibility and authority, provide value to your audience, generate more engagement and shares, and attract more links and mentions.
To use original data in your blog posts, you need to follow these steps:
- Choose a topic or question that interests you and your audience.
- Collect and analyze your data.
- Present and visualize your data.
By following these steps, you can create amazing content for your blog that showcases your original data and impresses your audience.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article on original data in blogging. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. Thank you for reading!
