Blogging is easy. Yes, really. And it’s even easy to get search engines to find you so they can share your thoughts with others.

Stop thinking about this as writing and start realizing blogs are all about having a conversation with the world.

Before I launch into my ideas and research results about how to get the most SEO benefit from your blog, I must share a couple things — one primary purpose of a blog is to establish your expertise in a particular field, second is for search engine benefit (though I acknowledge that’s WHY most do it). But what a blog is not is a place to directly market products or services. All posts should be helpful and/or educational, never “markety”.

OK, that said, now just Start a Conversation. Posts that result in ongoing conversations stay at the top of search results.

Clients come to me amazed by how much traffic they get for some of their blog posts, and how they begin to rise to the top for keywords they’ve been working to achieve visibility. Then these same happy clients are crushed when a month later their article has disappeared from sight, or site as the case may be.

It’s been my observation, and pretty well known that there’s a “news cycle” for posts, news articles, and all things published. That cycle lasts about 28 days. Consider that every comment on a post is “new” content others are adding to your site. You continue extending that news cycle without having to write a word.

So, what makes some posts easier to talk about than others? Having a pulse on your passion. A conversation is started when you are passionately and knowledgeably talking about a topic others want to know about. Staying current about the issues going on in your field is the easiest way to keep that pulse.

To unearth underserved content needs in your profession do regular, brief keyword research. It’s kind of like going on a fishing expedition. Start at www.seobook.com and use their keyword tool.  Brainstorm for 10 minutes or so and then plug in 25 or 30 root keywords and see what phrases people are looking for and use them in your post titles.

Passion + Expertise + Hot Topic = CONVERSATION!

Then, after you write your post, it’s time to leverage your social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. Enhance your channels of distribution by adding audio, video and images to your post and distribute them via Flickr, YouTube, iTunes and every place else.

If, like me, you have a blog that is underutilized (in other words I haven’t written a blog post in a LONG time because of client priorities), it is all the more necessary to do a little research before you sitting down to write.

But remember, it’s the observations, epiphanies and credible rumors that will generate enthusiasm and curiosity for readers – who in turn will want to start that conversation.