Blog Post Ideas – Never Run Out Again!

If you’re struggling to come up blog post ideas, I can help.

Blogging is one of the most effective marketing tools around and it’s clear every business should be doing it. What’s not always so clear is what you should be blogging about.

Fortunately, there is a bottomless pit of ideas just waiting for you to dive in. It doesn’t matter what industry you belong to. Once you’re finished reading this guide, you’ll never be afraid to feed the content machine again—I promise!

6 Places to Blog Post Ideas

  1. Your Audience

You’d be surprised at the number of blog post ideas right under your nose. Your audience is full of questions that you can answer in a blog post. What’s obvious to you might not be so obvious to them.

Think about conversions you’ve had with friends, customers, and colleagues about your product or industry. They could happen in person, on the phone, by email, or even on social media. Is there something that came up that you can teach or explain in blog post? Chances are, if one person asked a question, other people are wondering the same thing.

  1. Your Competitors

Have you ever read an awesome blog post by one of your competitors and thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t matter who thought of it first. It only matters who does it best.

Use Topsy to search for the most popular articles in your niche. The topics with the most shares are proven and you should be writing about them too. Your audience may not have read the other articles, but it doesn’t matter if they did. Use your expertise to go more in-depth or present the topic in a new way.

  1. Quora

Quora is a goldmine of blog ideas. Every day thousands of questions get asked on the platform—on every topic under the sun. Just like Topsy, you can search Quora by keyword to narrow down your results.

Questions that have a lot of activity will perform better as a blog post because there’s proven interest in the topic. But don’t shy away from less popular questions. They can present a great idea opportunity to fill a content void.

  1. Twitter

Using Twitter is kind of like eavesdropping—except it’s socially acceptable. What I mean is, you can use Twitter to find out exactly what people are saying about you or your industry whenever you want. Those conversations will probably spark some good contents ideas!

To do this, use Twitter’s search function and look for keyword related to your business. You’ll likely find tons of conversations that can help you brainstorm. Whether people are asking questions, sharing their opinion, or making a joke, there will be something you can use on your blog.

  1. The News

What’s topical right now? You don’t need to be a news junkie to use this tactic. You’re bound to hear about what’s in the news from friends and colleagues in conversation or on social media. If you are a news junkie, even better!

The news is a surprisingly great source of inspiration. Sometimes it’s related to your business, but even if it’s not, you may make interesting connections and want to write about them. The news is constantly changing so there’s always an opportunity to discover a new idea or trend.

  1. Your Blog

Your own blog is a great source of new content ideas. Every time I read one of my old articles, I come of with a bunch of new posts to write. This is because I quickly become aware of knowledge gaps, as well as areas where my opinion has changed.

There are two simple approaches here.The first is to find a section in a blog post where you can go deeper. Take that section and expand it into a new blog post. The second is to help people find your old content by creating content roundups. Create a list post that introduces a bunch of ideas and links to old posts that cover those ideas in-depth.

How to Not Waste Time Looking for Ideas

If you’re going to be successful online, you need to learn how to be efficient with your time. This means, you can’t spend hours on every single blog post you write.

The key to writing faster is to make sure you know what you’re writing about. Instead of looking for new ideas every time you’re ready to write a blog post, you should keeping an idea log. Having a pile of ideas waiting for you saves time and takes away the stress of blogging.

Use the sources above to find ideas in batches. Don’t just stop at one. Write down as many as you can think of. If an ideas suddenly pops in your head when you’re not looking, write it down too.

It doesn’t matter if you use a notebook, a pile of sticky notes, a Google document, or a spreadsheet, just make sure you have a place to idea dump. It’s needs to be easy to use and accessible from anywhere. If you don’t get your ideas down when they come to you, you’ll forget about them.

When you combine the six strategies in this blog post with an idea log, you’ll always have something to write about!

Casandra Campbell
 

Casandra Campbell is a professional blogger and growth expert. She helps businesses and entrepreneurs leverage digital marketing to increase profits and grow their businesses. Read more by Casandra on her blog: Minimalist Marketing.