Finding topics for blog posts on an ongoing basis can be intimidating for beginner bloggers. But there are actually many ways that bloggers and content writers can find a never ending supply of content ideas.
Creating great content is critical and becoming even more important, not just for bloggers, but all website owners. Great content will get you higher search engine rankings from more links, increased visitors and subscribers, and credibility. So in this post I tried to create the most comprehensive list of the best ideas for finding blog content topics. You don’t have to use them all, but find a few that work for you and be sure to bookmark this post in case you need more ideas in the future:
Inspiration from Other Content Sources
1. Other Blogs in Your Niche – Follow other blogs in your niche using an RSS reader like Feedly. This will give you an idea on topics that your target audience finds interesting.
2. Email Newsletters – Sign up for email newsletters in your niche and see what type of topics they cover.
3. Spinoff other posts in your niche – Find a post that is interesting to you that someone else has written. Link to it and then provide your own opinion about it or additional comments to expand the article’s scope.
4. Yahoo Answers & other Q&A sites – You can get ideas from searching Yahoo Answers, Quora, Askville, and similar sites and sometimes just looking at the questions that are being asked in the category of interest.
5. Content Sharing Sites – Sites like Hubpages and Squidoo have a community of writers posting interesting content. You can even see the level of commenting and engagement on these articles and browse by niche.
6. Blog Aggregators – Check out blog aggregators like AllTop.com and view topics in your niche.
7. Book excerpts – Publish and comment on excerpts from your own books and infoproducts.
8. Public Domain Content – Browse through public domain content for ideas.
9. Out of print books – Look at out of print books and the topics they cover for ideas.
10. Slideshare – Browse slideshare presentations slides for ideas for content
11. Evergreen content – Evergreen content is content that will always be useful and generally never change, like how to plan a wedding.
12. Article Sites – Browse topics on article sites like Constant Content or Ezine articles. Sites like Constant Content are likely to be better than free sites like Ezine Articles because the content is heavily moderated and they are extremely picky about the quality.
13. Amazon / Books – You can get a ton of ideas from books you read or just surfing Amazon. Create a wishlist of books you find interesting.
14. Book and infoproduct reviews – You can get ideas from reviews people have written on Amazon and other sites about your topic of interest. Sometimes these reviews contain unique ideas that are not even in the book.
15. Review something – Review a book or product in your niche and comment on the lessons learned from it.
Your Audience and Other People
16. Ask Your Audience – A simple way to get more ideas on what to write on is to simply ask your audience. You can do this in a blog post, by email, social media, or any other medium in which you can engage your audience. In fact, some blogs do posts with only Ask an Expert Q&A.
17. Ask a Friend – Asking your friends, relatives, co-workers, and other people around you can be a good way to brainstorm ideas, especially if they are interested and knowledgeable about the topic of your blog.
18. Blog Comments on Your Blog – Sometimes people’s blog comments and questions can be a good source for future blog posts.
19. Blog Comments on Other Blogs – You can also get ideas and inspiration from comments that people have posted on other blogs in your niche.
20. Experiences of others – Sometimes you can use other people’s stories and experiences and convey observations and lessons from their stories.
21. Contest – Hold a contest that will encourage reader participation. You can create several blog posts as your contest progresses.
22. Content Mastermind Groups – Form your own content mastermind group with a group of bloggers that you can share ideas with. Be sure to meet or talk regularly to keep the group active and share information and ideas.
23. Survey or Poll Your Audience – Surveying your audience can be a great way to create unique content for your site. Polls are another option and sometimes a simple poll on your site can provide some interesting info from site visitors.
24. Google Surveys – Google offers a way to survey people called Google surveys. You can even use demographic data to get specific about what type of audience you want to target. Here’s a quick walk-through of how to use Google surveys.
25. Outsourced Ideas – You can actually hire someone to think of ideas for you, especially if they are experienced or knowledgeable about your niche. It may take awhile to find the right person, but it is definitely worth it if you do.
26. Crowdsourced Ideas – There are ways that you can pay to get ideas from other people. Amazon Mechanical Turk can be used as a source of inexpensive ideas, although it will be helpful if you provide a little guidance on how to find these ideas in your job description.
27. Meetup – Host a meetup and share your experiences. Ask attendees for ideas or learn what topics they are interested in. Here’s an article about hosting an effective meetup.
28. Networking – Networking with people in real life can be a good source of ideas. Ask them questions and pay attention to what they talk about when you are discussing the topic of your niche.
29. Create an Interactive Experience – Sometimes you can increase engagement by creating an interactive experience or even a game for your readers. Like creating a quiz and asking them to guess which ideas are right or wrong.
30. Conference Agendas – See what top conferences in your industry are focusing on and blog about those topics. Most conferences will list their agendas on their websites, so you probably don’t even have to attend.
31. Events – Asides from Meetups, there may also be other events about your niche. You can often get ideas from talking to people at these events and watching presentations.
32. Guest Posting – Allow other experts to guest post on your site. This is good for both parties as it allows then to gain recognition while you get content created for your readers for free. Sites like My Blog Guest and Blogger Linkup can help you find prospects.
Your Content and Your Own Experiences
33. Update a Topic You Already Wrote About – Sometimes a topic you have previously written about is no longer up to date or you have some new insight to add to it. You can create a new blog post to share this information with your readers.
34. Repurpose Content – Take some of your existing content and present it in a different way or through a different medium. For example, you can take a podcast or video and create a text post.
35. Revisit or expand on a previous post – Remind visitors about a previous post and expand on it. Remember that some of your newer readers may not have seen your past popular posts, so create a new post that ties into the old one and link to it.
36. Personal Experiences – Keep a journal of your own experiences and talk about the lessons you have learned from them. Narrative blog posts can be a great way to engage your readers as well.
37. Practical Advice – Give practical and easy to follow advice that can help your readers. Sometimes simple easy to follow actionable advice is what helps people the most.
38. Your Own Interests & Ideas – Sometimes you can integrate some of your own interests with the core topic of your blog. Whenever you come up with a creative idea, be sure to write it down so that you don’t forget it later.
39. New product launches and announcements – Announce new products and services, both yours and other people’s. Talk about what the product will do and how it will help solve people’s problems.
40. Personal Thoughts and Feelings – Sharing your own personal thoughts and feelings can help you connect with your audience on a deeper level and create engaging content.
41. Your Own Email Newsletter – Pay attention to click through analytics for your email newsletter. This info will reveal what topics matter the most for your readers.
42. Google Analytics – Note which pages are most popular in Google Analytics. Also, look for keywords that people are searching for to find your site. Sometimes your site will rank for unexpected things and you can create topics around these keywords.
43. Try or Learn Something New – Living an interesting life and meeting people can create stories that can be useful for blogging. Try to regularly break out of your comfort zone and change your routine from time to time.
44. Make Announcements – Make announcements about your upcoming events regarding your blog and business.
45. Showcase your winnings – If you receive a reward, recognition, or media coverage, share this with your readership.
46. Failures – Talk about your failures and lessons learned. Although it can be difficult to share your failures, this will help your blog readers connect with you on a more personal level.
Types of Posts
47. Resource List – Make a list of useful resources and link to other web pages that your readers might find useful. This post can be updated regularly as your find new information.
48. List post – Create a top 10 list or top 100 list of resources and ideas. Lists are immensely popular and get shared a lot in social media.
49. Demonstration or Tutorial – Create instructions or a tutorial on how to use something or how to do something. Include detailed instructions, screenshots and possibly videos to supplement the instructions.
50. Comprehensive Guide – Create a complete guide on how to do something. This can involve several posts.
51. Weekly Roundup – Create a list of links that you find interesting and useful each week or month. These types of posts can also get a lot of shares and links.
52. Case Study – Do a case study of someone that has successfully used a method that you shared in a previous post. Case studies can be inspiring because they showcase a person’s real life success.
53. Tips or Tips list – Offer a useful tip or list of tips to your audience. Instead of just listing tips, expand on them a little so that your readers get the most out of it.
54. Comparison Posts – Compare products, services, or other ideas in your industry. Include details that will help your readers understand the pros and cons of the different products.
55. Curation Post – Comment on someone else’s post in your niche and add your own opinions and tips. You can also curate news articles in your niche.
56. Solve a problem – Think about the problems and challenges that your readers face and write a post on how to solve those problems.
Social Media Sources
57. Facebook Groups – Join Facebook groups in your niche or create your own. Engage in discussion in these groups and pay attention to what other people are talking about.
58. Facebook Feed – Your personal Facebook feed can sometimes provide ideas for content. Friends will sometimes post interesting ideas and links that can be used for content ideas.
59. Your Twitter Feed – Pay attention to what your followers are tweeting about. You can sometimes create posts around their general interests.
60. Retweets – Observer the type of content your followers are retweeting, from both your own posts and others. These can be great ideas for post content.
61. StumbleUpon & Social Bookmarking Sites – Surf around on StumbleUpon in your own niche and look for ideas for inspiring content as well as other social bookmarking sites like Digg.
62. YouTube and video sharing sites – Other people’s videos can be a good source of content inspiration. Sign up and follow other content producers in your niche.
63. LinkedIn Groups – Join LinkedIn Groups related to your niche. Follow discussions in these groups and pay attention to the types of questions people are asking.
64. Amex Open Forum – Look at questions and answers that people are posting on Amex Open Forum, which you can connect to from LinkedIn.
65. Forums – Participate in Forums and watch what people talk about. Look for frequently asked questions or new topics that you haven’t yet written about.
Content Formats
66. Podcasts – Follows podcasts in your niche to find out what people are podcasting about.
67. Webinars – Sign up for webinars in your niche as this can be a great source for ideas. See what topics people are hosting webinars about.
68. Tools and Widgets – Create useful tools and widgets for your readers. You may have to get a programmer for this, but useful tools can be a great source of traffic in the future.
69. Infographic – Create an infographic from existing data or search the web for interesting statistics and ideas.
70. Video Creation – Turn an existing blog post into a video and embed it in a new post. You can add some content to it as well.
71. Photos – Share interesting photos and graphics and add meaningful commentary to them.
72. Interview an Expert – Offer to interview experts and post the interview on your blog.
73. Get interviewed – Allows someone else to interview you and then post it on your blog. All you have to do is think of a good topic and maybe the interviewer can help with that as well.
Media Sources
74. Follow News in Your Niche – News can be a great source of endless content. For example, if you are blogging about SEO, then you would want to keep up with the latest news about Google and SEO.
75. Controversy – Disagree with a mainstream idea or widely held belief. Do it in a way that is diplomatic and analytical though, so that you don’t offend too many people.
76. Leverage Trends – Pay attention to what is currently hot or big news in your niche and create content around that topic. Some people have used this technique effectively to greatly increase exposure.
77. News Aggregators – Go to News aggregators like Smartbrief.com and view popular topics in your niche.
78. Trends and Predictions – Comment on trends in your niche and makes some predictions about the future.
79. Follow Press Releases – Subscribe to press release feeds to see what is new before it officially becomes news.
80. Magazines – Magazines can contain interesting content and editorials. These articles can give you ideas on what to write on your own blog.
81. Blog Directories – Technorati and Google Blog Search are a good way to find new blogs and topics.
82. HARO – HARO is helpareporter.com. This is where reporters can ask for help from experts for upcoming news stories. Signing up for this email list can also provide a great source of ideas.
83. Research Papers – Read research papers in your niche.
84. Radio Shows – Radio talk shows often talk about interesting topics that you can also discuss in your content.
85. TV Talk Shows and TV News Shows – TV talk shows are good at finding and expanding upon topics that people are interested in.
Research and Tools
86. Google Keyword Tool – Use the Google Keyword Tool to find keywords that people are searching for in Google. These can be great ideas for article topics. You might even be able to rank easily and get more traffic for keywords with lower search volume.
87. Brainstorming Sessions – Pick a time when you can be free of distractions and write down as many ideas as you can think of. Select the best ideas and use those for blog topics.
88. Google Alerts – Set up Google Alerts so you can be informed of new topics in your niche.
89. Google Keyword Suggestions – When typing into Google search, you will see some suggested keywords. These can provide a massive supply of easy content ideas.
90. Compile data – Compile statistics and data into one place to make it easy for your readers to access and analyze the information
91. Research a Topic – Think of a topic that you are interested in and that is related to your niche. Research it and share your findings with your readership.
92. Buzzsumo - Use Buzzsumo to find out what people are talking about regarding your topic. You can then curate or write your own commentary about what’s hot right now.
93. Ubersuggest – Use Ubersuggest to generate a list of keywords. These will make good topic ideas that can even get you search engine traffic.
Other Ideas
94. Inspiration – Create a post that inspires people on an emotional level. This will often involve a story about someone that overcame hardship or achieved success despite great odds.
95. Experiment results – Run and experiment or try something new and talk about the results
96. Myth Busting – Debunk a common myth or conception that people hold
97. Simplify – Take something that is complex to most people and simplify it
98. Dive into Detail – Take a topic that you (or someone else) wrote about and dive into greater detail
99. Share an Unusual Idea – If you think of an unusual idea or a unique thought, then consider sharing it with your readers.
100. Change Perspective – Present information from your blog posts or other from a different perspective.
101. Freebies and Coupons – Share freebies and coupons you find on the web that are relevant to your readers and share it with them.
102. Quotes – Discuss a popular quote or saying. You can either agree or disagree with it and give some examples and stories of how it is true or not true.
103. Topic Bridging – Finding an interesting or popular topic and connect it to the topic of your blog.
104. Entertain – Instead of focusing on creating valuable content within your niche, start off by just trying to entertain your readers and then tie the useful stuff into the content later.
105. Arouse Emotion – Try to think of a story or event that will arouse emotions in your audience. Emotional content can become very popular and tends to get shared more.
106. Post something fun – Every now and then, it is okay to post something fun and unrelated to connect with people. Don’t do this too often though, but consider trying it to see what happens.
107. Speculate – Try to write a “what if” post and speculate what might happen if you tried something or if someone else in power took a certain action.
No comments:
Post a Comment