I was reading an article on how to create an emergency chain of command for your business and while it’s only a brief overview, I thought it had some good points. I realized that not only is this something I can use in my business, it’s something attorneys (and their business clients) need to know and I should post it on this blog.

When you find something you find interesting and useful, why not share it with your clients and subscribers? It’s a great way to create content for a blog or newsletter with very little effort. You can deliver value to your readers by leveraging what you’re already doing.

If you represent businesses and you find an article that shows you how to do something better or faster or cheaper, how to get more clients or customers, how to avoid trouble with the IRS, or how to create an emergency chain of command for your business, your clients will want to know this, too.

If you represent consumers, are you not also a consumer? If you find some tips on buying insurance or protecting your credit or refinancing your home loan and you think it’s good information, you can be sure your clients will, too.

So, finding content is as simple as doing what you’re already doing (reading, listening to what others recommend via social media, basically, paying attention) and sharing it. If it’s good enough to tweet, it should be good enough to post on your blog or in your newsletter.

But you can’t just copy and paste the article or a link. Well, you can, and that’s better than not sharing at all, but what your subscribers want is your take on that information. That’s what search engines want, too. (If your blog is perceived as having little or no original content, it will not rank well and could be penalized.)

Fortunately, you don’t have to do much to take someone else’s content and turn it into an article that will keep people and search engines “Liking” it.

Follow these guidelines for creating original content:

• Change the title. It can be almost the same but not exactly the same.
• Link to the original article. Don’t take credit for someone else’s work, write about what they wrote and send readers to their article to read the original.
• Write something about the article: what you like about it, agree with, what you would add, results you got as a result of the information, or what misses the point.
• Write something about the site and/or the author. If you’re linking to a post by someone you read often or to a site that consistently delivers good value, say something about that.
• Link to and comment on other articles: contrasting viewpoints, additional facts, a more niched angle. This will give your article contour and your readers more value.
• You only need a few paragraphs. 100-150 words is enough and should take you no more than a few minutes.

Creating original content can be as simple as sharing information you find interesting and useful and adding a few comments to validate, augment, or distinguish that information.

Yesterday, I wrote about blogging; I got the idea from a few articles I read over the weekend. The articles validated the results I am experiencing from blogging regularly again and I wanted to share that with you because it could help you decide whether or not you want to start (or re-start) a blog. I shared with you something I found interesting and useful and I got a blog post out of it.

And I’m doing it again today.