Also for content for facebook fan pages as well.
- Recipes: recipes you use, recipes you’ve come across that sounded good that the inn is going to try at some point, recipes given to you by guests or friends (including other innkeepers).*caveat: No poaching of Google images, take the photos yourself or buy from a stock photo source or guests may have pictures to share with you (always credit them) Good images can be obtained for around a buck from stock photo sources. If the recipe is something you serve on a regular basis, highly recommended you take an actual photo or use stock that comes very very close to the real thing. I hope I don’t have to explain why 🙂
- Recipe failures with a funny story.
- Guest Comments.
- Your Inn in the News.
- Area attractions in the news.
- A frequent and Loyal Guest in the News.
- Specials and Packages at your inn.
- Area Attractions with contact information about the attraction, a weblink, directions and why its interesting.
- Area attractions reviews (including dining).*caveat: especially if its dining, make sure it’s a review that a recent guest or guests had and not your personal point of view, i.e. don’t piss off the locals that might refer you.
- Trip Itineraries for Guests, make a custom Google map pined with locations (this is free by the way and easy to use)
- Pictures of the inn: if it’s food give a title to it if it’s not accompanied by a recipe, if it’s a particular location in or around the inn, describe it.
- Pictures of happy guests, with their permission and preferably in writing. Customizable Model Releases in MS word.
- Area Events going on, you can also tie this into area restaurants having specialty diners or wine tastings.
- A brief, “we get frequent questions “about” and put in answers.
- What does your inn do to differentiate itself from the others.
- You just found a new product you are using it and love, be it food or a new fabric softener, describe it and explain why you love it.
- Funny guest stories. *caveat: make them funny and only funny, proof heavily to make sure they are not negative in any way. While a wife may go into the wrong room by mistake in the middle of the night may have very amusing consequences, it raises things like don’t they have locks on the doors? (even if you do and point out they didn’t lock them) etc. etc.
- Do some food specific reviews. You have a couple of apple orchards nearby. Do some write-ups on the apples, do some research on types of apples, link to sources.
- Research and write about area birds that come to and hang around the inns, pictures are always a plus.
- Research and do some write-ups about the area plants and trees in the area. You have a historic stand of black birches in the area, some history, background (and pictures) you grow opal basil in your inn garden, tie it into some recipes you use and write about the difference in taste and appearance between that and regular basil.
- Ask for feedback, from blog readers and from prior guests. You just went from goose down pillows to memory foam pillows. Ask for some thoughts from people; don’t forget to include the link to this blog article when you do your next email blast.
- A bio of yourselves and/or your staff.
- A book review or commentary about a local author.
- Suggestions for weather/time of year guests. i.e. August is prime season for ticks in New England, add tick repellent tips, wear white, use a good repellent (which we also keep extra of the at inn by the way) etc. etc. On hot muggy days our guests like to go to a cool shaded out of the way place to dip and bring a picnic (provided by the inn as an amenity of course).
- Targeted things to do, coming with an elder relative, they might like…. Coming with young children, they might like….Bringing your dog, you and your pup might like……
Some great additional ideas from Sarah at Adobe Nido B&B http://www.adobenido.com
- Never leave the house without your cell phone (with camera) or keep a digital camera with you at all times. Even a trip to Costco can provide you an opportunity to blog. Unusual things like a line out the door at a store nearby, a beautiful cloud formation, a particularly weird vehicle going down the road…you name it! You may see a billboard with a cool upcoming event. You may get stuck in traffic because the president is in town, (yep-happened).
- Blog about controversial stuff happening in your area…you don’t have to take sides, just be interesting. Watch the local news. Pick up the local paper.
- When making a favorite meal, take pics while you prep and blog about it.
- Many people get off on knowing the intimate things that a local would know about an area before they get there. Feed that.
Chefforfeng's Weblog 
Having read your informative Blogging Tips I have decided that with so many of the B & B Advertising Websites being affiliated to the Big Online Booking Agencies, Blogging is the way to go. Would you recommend starting with the free package and then moving up. Or is it better to take the plunge in order to avoid the possibility of adverts appearing on my blogs?
Hi Jane, I personally like both blogger.com and wordpress.com, both free, you can convert both to wordpress.org (the installed pay for hosting model) at any point, most inns and business I know of and work with get equal amounts of traffic from either (free) platform, the same as the installed, as long as they are posting good content. I know there are marketers out there that swear you need the installed version of wordpress (org), but if statistics tracking from more then 50+ blogs is any indication, it doesn’t matter a wit.
I would suggest blogger to start with as it’s easier, it can also integrate with a website at some point if you would like it too, as can wordpress (both versions). You can switch over to wordpress and vice versa if you decide to change as well down the road. If you are unsure of which to use, I recommend starting an account with both blogger and wordpress.com, playing around with it and with the options and see which one you like better, then go ahead and delete the other one.