When Mark Hermann, an excellent corporate blogger, bid farewell to his blog, he pulled back the curtain. Among the frank observations he made, one in particular stuck with me: you’ll run out of topics faster than you think. I’ve been there, and it’s awful.

You get started thinking about how much there is to say about your company and your industry, and soon enough, you’re flipping through trade magazines for inspiration. Well, it isn’t always that bad, but the reality is that you’ll soon find yourself struggling to find an insight to provide. Why is that? With rich marketplaces and unique developments in every market around the world, you’d think there’s no shortage of fodder.

Stop thinking about potential for a moment, and turn yourself over to the cold clutches of reality. Most of what you’re thinking you’d never put on a corporate blog.

Make a list of 10 ideas for your company’s blog — you probably have more than that in mind already, but stay disciplined. Then, read them over. How many of them can you use? Now, come up with another ten topics and repeat the exercise. It’s getting harder. But, if you’re committing to daily posts, 10 ideas only buys you two weeks. You’ll need 20 to get through the month, 60 for the quarter.

Why do so many ideas hit the cutting room floor? Well, it’s just a side-effect of being in the business world.

Independent blogs can cover anything they want in the niches they choose. You can’t. You aren’t going to reblog positive stories about your competitors, and you certainly aren’t going to run their press releases! You also shouldn’t write about your clients, and you’ll probably want to steer clear of topics that would portray your company, your industry or your clients in a negative light.

If you ran a company-independent blog, you wouldn’t have these restrictions. You’re effectively limited to keen insights that will help your clients while not tipping your hand to competitors. Now, turn that into daily blog posts: it’s not easy.

Instead of trying to change the market with every blog post, try to come up with one great piece every week. For the other days (and you don’t have to commit to daily), you can cover what you see in the industry news (as long as it helps your company and your clients) and provide shorter pieces that may not be as compelling as your “big feature.” Most important, plan your editorial calendar far in advance. I always like to have topics for 90 days in the hopper.

However large you feel the array of choices before you is, you’ll probably find yourself scrambling for corporate blog topics at some point. This problem may be daunting, but it doesn’t have to stop you. Plan ahead, set priorities and spread out your best ideas over time. This will keep you in control of your blog — not the other way around!

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[Originally published on Technorati]