Reading a series of blogs recently, I found a gem piece of advice. It’s the type of thing that any industry blogger should be doing, and is often overlooked.

Here it is:

You need to be taking in more information than you’re putting out.

Why?

The minute that you begin blogging, or writing articles, or publishing an eBook about your company, your readers depend on you.

They trust you.

You’re now a resource. And with that comes responsibility.

I’ve added “Read a lot” as a tip on a number of my list posts, but until coming across this piece of advice myself, it’s one of those things I’ve never attempted to really quantify.

It’s kind of like needing enough gas in the car to make the trip, or exercising enough to stay in shape.

With your reading, you should be able to identify:

  • Industry trends
  • Well laid out arguments
  • Who the thought leaders really are
  • Some good “Outside the box” ideas for your industry

If you write three blogs in a week, read six. If six somehow doesn’t satisfy your appetite, read 10. Comment where you can add to the conversation.

But you shouldn’t stop there. Keep reading. Keep soaking in as much info as you can. Try something like accelareader to improve your reading speed.

Read outside your industry as well. What can we learn about your industry based on your other passions? It’s a good way to improve your thinking and increase your knowledge base.

If you’re feeling ambitious, try something like Julien Smith’s 52 book challenge. I did it last year, and read a lot of great books because of it.

The bottom line is this:

You never know where your next idea will come from.

Reading creates those moments like the ones on House. You know the ones. He’s doing something, anything, after work and suddenly the epiphany strikes.

Those are created by allowing your brain some down time, and also reading enough to gather the “book smarts” for the solution.

Reading Allows Us To Be Better Content Producers.

We get so fixated on output. Everybody wants to write enough quality blog posts. We want to continue to do more.

There’s a lot of pressure to keep the quality high. This is how.