To write a blog, besides finding a really cool name for the website, its main topics need to cause an impact on people's life, be entertaining, something that I really enjoy and that I know a lot about, interesting, meaningful, hot, trendy… Oh my god! The list of requisites seems to be endless!! And, on top of that, it is crucial that there is still “space” to write about these blog topics, without simply repeating the same content already extensively covered by a number of other websites.

Many experts try to give some hope and affirm there is always market to talk about the three most popular blog topics: health, money and relationships. However, Google takes a few centiseconds to make all our hope go away, showing millions of really well positioned blog results for each one of these categories as well.

So, does it mean that nowadays we cannot create a brand new cool blog that generates a lot of traffic? Of course not! People come up with successful things to blog about everyday! It just means we will need to be somewhat more creative when defining what to write a blog about, leaving behind more standard recommendations.

To give you a hand with this challenge, I have put together 10 great blog ideas as a very good kickstarter to contribute to the success of your website. Each one of the headlines below also describes the concepts behind these ideas, so that you can try and adapt them to your own focus, level of knowledge or target market.

1. Blogging About Healthy Fast-Foods

Fast foods are usually related to unhealthy meals, normally consumed by people who do not have time to dedicate to a heathier life style. Indeed, all the environment surrounding fast foods supports quickly satiating craving without much health concerns (quickly prepared deep fried food combined with king size soft drinks). Today, the term fast-food is also used in other areas not directly related to food, when someone wants to give a negative connotation.

But, what about a blog that breaks this “quick and dirty” link and shows solutions for much healthier but still fast meals? Replacing hamburgers with avocado sandwiches, having an orange juice instead of a soft drink, substituting that chocolate cake by a fruit salad... so, easy and real world solutions for those who would like to give a first step towards a healthier life style, but have no time to waste.

Expanding its scope a little bit, what about articles showing how to exercise during regular daily activities? Or how to optimize the time at the office so that people have some time to go to the gym? Tips for a better posture while at the office? Posts with real stories of people who became healthier by using some of your hints would also reinforce your positioning and effectiveness.

The magic here is not really related to posts about exercises or meals (you know there are plenty of other blogs already covering these topics!), but mainly about combining two apparently contradictory terms: healthy and fast foods. That is what makes this blog idea really differential!

Likewise, there are almost endless other intriguing matches to be made to find really good blog topics, such as nerd and fitness, industrial and homemade, expert and dummies, sustainable and waste… that will not only attract a lot of attention to your website, but also reinforce the uniqueness of your blog content.        

2. Blogging About Crazy Fan Things

Spending all your savings to follow Rihanna all over her world tour, watching all Star Wars episodes 250 times each, writing a 10,000 page love letter to Justin Bieber, staying 5 days and 5 nights on the queue to watch Lady Gaga or buying all the Miley Cyrus DVDs available in the main Barnes & Noble store... It seems like fans are capable of doing anything to prove they are THE #1 FAN! The most extreme experience, the better to impress and call the attention of their idols!

Lots of people have this need to expose their adoration for the artists and celebrities they like, and would be eager to contribute to your blog with tons of detailed content about the challenges they had to overcome just to get closer to their idols.

It is also true that hardly this blog will have the same traffic as each one of the official artists' websites and social media; but, its differential is giving voice to the fans, as an open channel to tell the world about their achievements and craziest things ever done. And, how much traffic could a contest among different fan clubs generate? Or a session with the best selfies with idols?

It is important to note that this blog topic is actually much bigger than just celebrities' fans, as the same concept would also apply to several other enthusiastic social groups, such as football team supporters, film geeks and, more recently, even Pokemon chasers.

3. Blogging About Self-Defense for People who Work at Home

If the self defence market is already well covered by thousands of other blogs, what about segmenting and customising the content of your website for househusbands or housewives? Speaking their language, attending their specific needs and adapting your text and illustrations to the reality of your target market could be a huge differentiation factor for your website!

So, showing how to use regular objects that anyone has at home for self-defence, illustrating basic security measures to keep your kids safe in case of invaders and providing hints about how to let your neighbors know in case of an emergency could be good examples of very useful articles for any person who spend most of their time alone at home.

Similar concepts would apply for many other ideas for a blog, such as gardening for very limited time business people, first aid techniques for under 12 year old kids or public speaking for entrepreneurs. Any kind of segmentation that would allow you to get to a much more specific market would be really valid. And remember: it is much better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.

4. Narrating Your Own Challenges

Have you got any challenges in mind? Outstanding goals you would like to achieve? A long bucket list or simply a few life experiences you would like to have? So, why not having lots of people to cheer and support you in your journey?

Gaining muscles, finding a new boyfriend/girlfriend, becoming a professional skydiver, preparing your wedding, living a life without any debts, moving to a new job, becoming a professional singer, … The topics are infinite and depend pretty much on your personal will! So, if you have the courage to become the protagonist of your own reality show, this focus would be perfect for you, no matter which challenge(s) you choose.

Much more than a simple blog, this focus would convert each one of your articles into episodes of your odyssey! People would be eager to see how you advance, celebrating your victories and giving you comfort with some missteps you may have in your long way.

5. Blogging About the Next Episodes

Wondering about how the continuation of Lord of the Rings should be? How will the next episode of Star Wars reveal Rey's Jedi secret? What will happen in the next season of Grey's Anatomy? Who is the next one to be killed in Game of Thrones? What has happened to Harry Potter now that he has grown up? While there are millions of ideas for blogs about these great successes, none of them actually give people the opportunity to write their own version of the next episodes.

People simply love to take part in things they really enjoy, not only as a spectator, but also helping define the next steps in the plot! They spend hours speculating about the future of their favourite characters! They would like to either brag about being able to predict what would happen in the next season of their favourite TV series, or to be even more surprised by the author who was able to come up with a completely unexpected continuation.

Just these conjectures and discussions about the next episodes or chapters would already provide you content for hundreds and hundreds of articles. But, after getting some traction, this blog could also be the perfect place for many other initiatives, such as developing a contest among its readers to see who can come up with the best continuation for Back To The Future!

It is important to note that there is a very important aspect that would significantly contribute to the potential and growth of your blog: surfing in the wave of all the hype and huge marketing investments of these great productions. So, besides Netflix series, film production and best-selling books, to which other media channels, famous brands, social clubs, big corporations you could apply this same concept to help your blog getting significant traction?

6. Blogging About Paradoxical Hypothesis

With the sole purpose of attract traffic, some blogs normally make quite bold and disputable statements about polemical topics, believing that “a bad reputation is better than no reputation at all”. However, what could eventually have been a fair strategy some time ago, has been proved to be ineffective, antiquated and quite risky today, attracting much more haters than fans or frequent readers.

In a world so full of contradictions, a much more interesting way to foster discussion and bring a lot of traction to your blog is to challenge the current status quo and write about some hypothesis that would be completely paradoxical in the absurd world where we live.

So, articles about:

• A society in which physicians and teachers earn more than football players;
• Big corporations focused on preserving nature, while minor NGOs protesting for urban development;
• Rich people willing to pay higher taxes, and its consequences;
• Adults being taught about the world by their children's perspectives;
• Animals allowed to hunt down people during hunting seasons;

would be endless sources of fruitful discussions and philosophical insights, that would definitely bring a lot of traffic to your blog.

7. Blogging About Your Professional Networks

If you are part of any professional network, be it a doctors association, taxi drivers union or even the teachers board in your school, you could have an easy and invaluable source of what to write about in a blog.

Interviewing your own colleagues to get their first hand perspectives about their jobs, writing anecdotes related to your professions, reviewing tools to support your daily activities, career orientation tips for those teenagers who would like to follow your steps, discussing trends in the sector... there is such a significant number of topics that could be covered by your website! And, if done correctly, it is a question of time for having new professionals you do not know yet joining your blog, sending you content and asking you to have their comments and interviews posted as well.

The trick in this case is pure simplicity. Why looking for complex and challenging topics to talk about, when your own reality could be such a rich source of ideas? Which other aspects of your neighbors, family, school, lifestyle, mindset could unveil interest in spite of its simplicity? Who else do you believe share these aspects with you and would be willing to support you with your content?

8. Blogging About Experimenting New Things

How does it feel to be an amateur chef? Or to become a tango dancer? Or to stay in a luxury hotel? Or to be vegan for a month?

All these ideas and many others would be great posts for your blog about new experiences. In many cases, people are really curious about trying something completely new, but for whatever reason are just stuck and tied to their normal lives.

So, your blog would be the answer for all those people, explaining with texts, videos and photos your new experiences, motivating some of them to take action and pursuit a much more fulfilling life or simply entertaining them with the several episodes of your quite intense experiences.

9. Blogging About Pregnancy for Men

While pregnancy is something intrinsically related to women, it is also true that men play a fundamental part not only on the baby conception, but also on all the support that the mother-to-be may need during these 9 months. But how can a man get prepared for this important challenge of becoming a father (or behaving like a proper one) even before the baby is born?

While there are thousands of blogs for women about this topic, there are only a few examples of sources for men who would like to learn further about pregnancy. So, how can I support my wife during pregnancy? Is it normal she is so exhausted and in such a bad mood? What should I do when the baby seems to be about to come? How can I record the best moments of my wife's pregnancy? All these questions must be answered by a blog really focused on men's needs, doubts and anxieties.

Just like the example of pregnancy for men, many other untapped markets can be discovered by moving out of the usual focus given to some topics. So, what a blog with female product brand reviews focused on men, who have a hard time identifying the exact colour of the lipstick used by their wives, or understanding the utility of so many hair products?

10. Blogging About the 100-Year-Old Life

It is not a surprise that we are living each time longer; indeed, every 10 years, life expectancy increases by 3 years! But what many people have just realised is that we are living not only longer, but also much better!

Some time ago, elderly life used to be a synonym of sickness, loneliness, pills and intense care. Therefore, I am not surprised that most blogs dedicated to great ages are really focused on these topics. But what happens when this situation changes?

It is each time more common that people get to 90-95 (or even 100!!) years old with a very good mental health and lots of energy to spare, enjoying life with their friends in many kinds of activities like dancing, practicing sports, going out... So, what about giving a twist in the blogs focused on elderly people? Instead of talking about elderly care services and device to control blood pressure, it would be much better to focus on tailor-made trips for elderly people, hints for exercising and even suggestions of restaurants for a romantic dinner.

So, just like elderly life, which other subjects have passed by critical changes that may require repositioning their websites' content? That is where great ideas and big opportunities lie for your blog!

In Conclusion...

It seems there is no more struggle when trying to find what to blog about. No matter whether you are creating a personal blog or a business website, the ideas are endless!!! Besides analyzing these still to be explored ideas above, just try expanding their scope and concepts to get to an exponential number of other awesome things to blog about!

If I had to pick one single aspect of a new blog that can really make it or break it, I would choose its name. Indeed, cool blog names may mean much easier success by sticking to people's mind, while a bad choice might slow significantly its growth due to its lower Google search potential.

However, if you are reading this post, it is because you have already realised that coming up with a blog name is not really trivial. You may also have experimented some of the vague and meaningless blog name ideas suggested by automatic generators.

Indeed, it is not possible to automate, or to define specific rules that will ensure you will find the best name for your blog... in some cases, good blog names are the result of a long brainstorming and “forced” creativity; but, in quite a few cases, it is simply related to luck or to one of those “aha” moments you cannot really control.

So, instead of illustrating several processes about how to come up with a blog name (that may lead you to nowhere), I have preferred to bring you inspiration by listing and explaining 10 fantastic blog name ideas about currently trendy sectors:

1. Adventure – Losing Sight of The Shore

This blog name is already inspiring enough just by being based on the quote “You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”. At first sight, it also seems to be quite descriptive of a great website about adventures and life experiences; however, entering the website still unveils good surprises, as it documents the real story of four brave women who decided to row cross (!!) the Pacific Ocean, from California to Australia, for 6 months without any support.

2. Fashion - Fash n Chips

What could be a better name for a blog about fashion and the British culture? Even though its author is not a big fan of the British classic dish fish 'n' chips, she a big Anglophile; so she wanted her fashion blog name to sound as British as possible. Today, it is considered one of the biggest fashion blogs in the world.

3. Health - Heavy Girl to Healthy Girl

Besides sticking to your mind due to the combination of the similar sounds but opposite meanings of “heavy” and “healthy”, this blog name is also quite descriptive of the content of the blog. Indeed, it tells the inspiring and tough journey of Patti, who was able to lose 113 pounds in 14 months by exercising and eating sensibly.

4. Gap Year - Text Me Later XO

So creative blog names are not easy to find! And in this case it was created by two young girls, Deepika and Kasia, and reflect exactly their mindset when they decided to embark to Sri Lanka to spend their gap year in a volunteering project.

The most interesting aspect however is that the blog name “Text Me Later” was already taken; but, they bypassed this issue with a lot of style, including the termination “XO” (which means “hugs and kisses”). Their blog is currently open with the phrase “Text me later XO. I'm gone for a while”.

5. Personal Finance - Get Rich Slowly

How could someone possibly differentiate his/her blog in such a competitive environment as personal finance? This blog name plays a crucial role in this differentiation, by positioning the blog against the crowd. Indeed, when most personal finance blogs present strategies and techniques to get rich as quickly as possible, Get Rich Slowly really captures attention and makes its content stand out

6. Humour – Nanny Goats in Panties

The natural process of a new website is to come up with a really cool name after having at least a very good idea of what to blog about. 

However, this is the perfect example of a blog name idea that is so strong that the blog content has been defined by its name, rather than the other way around!

This blog was initially intended to be a humour column only; however, as described by its author, people began sending pictures of their own goats, some of them even wearing panties! As a consequence, today the website contains recipes for dishes with goat products, a weekly session about “goat things”, lots of pictures of goats and even an online store selling products branded by Nanny Goat in Panties!! So, its quite creative name converted a humour website into a profitable business blog idea.

7. Bargain Hunting – Centsational Girl

Instead of choosing the quite common “Sensational Girl”, Kate Riley decided to make a small tweak in the name of her blog and reinforce its positioning as a website about affordable home designs and smart home improvements, making it much easier to remember by including the clear reference to “Cents”.

8. Food Trucks - Forks on The Road

Joking with the expression “forks on the road”, which means a split in a road going two different directions, the Chef Noah Allen seems to have chosen a great name for the blog to promote his food truck.

It is interesting to note that the domain forksontheroad.com was already taken, however not by a big corporation or famous brand. So, the author decided to stick with “Forks on the Road” as the brand for his blog, even considering he had to choose a different domain.

9. Sustainability - Inhabitat

Even though you will not be able to find “inhabitat” in the dictionary, this blog name has a lot of meaning. Mixing the words “inhabitant” and “habitat”, it seems to be the perfect name for a website about architecture techniques and materials focused on building sustainable environments for living.

10. Diverse content - All The Good Blog Names Are Taken

If, even with these ideas, you are still stuck about how to name your blog, remember you can still make some fun out of this challenge. That is what Sandi decided to do after struggling for ages to find a cool name for her website. At the end, the clear blog name she has got, and the number of people who may empathize with her challenge to find a proper name for her blog, might eventually compensate part of the lower Google search potential of her website.

Conclusion

Well, I hope these cool blog names have given you ideas on how to name your blog. Remember, don't be boring! The best blog names have a lot of personality and they stand out from the crowd.

Are you trying to drum up website ideas for your business? When it comes to finding reasons not to write a business blog for your company, people can easily come up with quite a few excuses: lack of time, struggling to find the midpoint between a business conversation and more informal articles, fear of being too transparent with your customers and, mainly, the challenge to find good business blog ideas.

So, I have put together a creative list of five business website ideas with the aim to not only provide topics for your blog, but also to inspire you, so that no excuse would stop you from writing a great website for your company:

1. Blogging About Your Products

While many companies just post some information about their products or services, one of the best ways to sell is to establish an open conversation with your customers having your products as the central piece.

So, instead of long (and sometimes quite boring) posts describing the one million advantages of your product, why not illustrating your production process and supply chain with videos and images, so that people can understand that the quality of your products go much beyond a beautiful good in a shelf? Other business websites ideas would be to develop tutorials explaining how to prolong the life time of your products, how to make the most of them or even how two or more of your products combined could add even more value to your customers.

Still with the same focus, what about counting on your customers valuable insights and recommendations for your future products? Depending on your sector, customers could also be thrilled with the challenge to tell other customers about unexpected ways to use your product.

Go Pro, for example, has done it really well, creating a significant buzz around their products with its blog and creating a community of real fans (rather than simple customers).

2. Blogging About Your Industry

It may be clear that you understand every detail of your product, but are you also up to date with the latest trends in your industry? So, using your blog to keep your customers informed about the news and any future directions about your sector could be a really good website business idea to attest to the market your business is a trend-setter and is here to stay.

Indeed, the perception of a business focused on the long-term will provide your clients the peace of mind that your products will not get quickly obsolete, and that your customers will not be left behind without any customer support, even years after acquiring your products. Moreover, this may also be quite attractive for investors and strategic partners, willing to set up long-term alliances with your company.

For example, if you want to understand the latest global media trends, just go to Havas Media Blog, and you can find lots of information about mobile, social shopping and tech innovation; everything logically really well tied to Havas Media brand by an outstanding business idea website.

3. Blogging About Your Customers

At the end, your customers are the main target of your business and of your blog! But, what about having your customers also as the main stars of your website?

While many business websites simply post their customers testimonials (in many cases, without any identification or credibility), my suggestion is to go much beyond that. So, a much better website idea for your business would be to interview your customers, asking not only what they like about your products, but also any points of improvement (just make sure you ask their permission to post the video - or at least the transcript - of the interview in your blog, as you do not want to face any legal issues). Then, to add even more reliability to your interviews, do not reward your customers with money, but with an outstanding service level that will confirm you have listened to their requests and make sure their future comments will be even more positive about you and your business.

Salesforce even offers its customers the possibility to produce high quality promotional videos about their own businesses and stories of success, logically making some references to how Salesforce services have supported their growth.

4. Blogging About Your Business

Even considering your customers, products and industry trends should be the main protagonists of your business blog, the best small business blog idea is to write about your own business or company.

In this case, it is not about bragging about yourself and your many success stories or awards your business may have... It is actually more about using your blog to get closer to your customers and to let them know about your history, your intrinsic motivations to launch and develop your business, any challenges you may have faced during your first steps and even interesting anecdotes about your company.

Harley-Davidson, for example, has launched an online museum with loads of information about its brand, its story since 1901, special moments and a really interactive timeline.

Other brands even set challenges for themselves (growth, international expansion, etc), and invite their customers to follow their blogs to get informed about their achievements.

5. Blogging in a Personal Way

No matter whether your website business ideas are related to your products, your customers, your industry or your business; just do it in a quite personal way! It is not because it is a business website that it needs to be boringly formal and distant. Expand your view and adapt some broader website recommendations, or even some personal blog ideas, to your company.

So, why not interviewing the other owners of your business, or introducing your teams to your customers? What about a competition among your stores to recognise and reward the employee of the month, based on your customers' feedback?

How interesting could be to your customers to read how 1 day in life of your distribution centres looks like? Or to help selecting which social cause your company will contribute to as part of your CSR programme? Capital One for example, for more than 13 years, ran a contest among its customers to choose its National Mascot of the Year.  

So, in Conclusion...

Take one of these business blog ideas as yours and feel how your target react to your initial positioning. It doesn't matter what small business website ideas you develop; what is important is to just start something, or you may regret for missing out this chance! With these ideas, you will have plenty of opportunities to fine tune your focus to your readers' preferences afterwards.

If you believe that the most interesting personal blog topics have already been used, I have bad news for you: yes, they do. Just try googling “personal blog about” plus whatever idea you may have, and it will show hundreds (if not thousands) of personal blog examples covering well your chosen topic. Indeed, creating a differential personal blog does not seem to be a reasonable challenge in the middle of so much content, in some cases already with millions of followers and loyal readers.

However, new personal website examples arise everyday, with articles that are liked, shared and commented by a number of people! So, what do they do to create new online hits in such a competitive environment?

So, just check below 7 great personal blog ideas that will allow you to differentiate your content among so many other popular sites!

Two-Niche Combo

Instead of writing about a specific topic, why not specializing your blog in a mix of two niches that you enjoy? This is makes for the best personal blogs.

You can find zillions of personal blog examples about geeks content. There are also countless samples of websites about fitness. But Steve Kamb combined both topics to “turn life into one giant video game” and Nerd Fitness was born.

So, which are the two topics would you like to come together to make your blog one of the best personal websites? How can you combine them, to achieve a very specific, but quite loyal, target market?

New Experiences

Try something completely new and blog about it. A lot of the popular personal blog sites hinge on this idea.

Blogs are normally written by experts in a specific topic. A gardening expert will write about home gardens, an experienced entrepreneur may illustrate relevant information about how to to build a company and a senior driver posts about the experience of driving luxury cars.

But what about the fresh perspective of a newcomer? How am I going to feel the first time I try a new experience?

Indeed, a blog describing your new discoveries (either learning kickboxing, building your own company or having your first kid), besides getting much closer to your public, would bring a new (and probably funny) perspective about the new events in your life, and could probably be split into several episodes.

That's what Lesley found out when she decided to create her Bucket List Publications, including a number of entertainment experiences, trips all over the world and adventures in the air, land and water. Now she's got one of the best personal blog sites.

So, which new experiences would you be willing to try and tell everyone about?

For Dummies

Writing about a challenging topic in a simple way is a popular way to shoot your website among the top personal blog sites.

People have really got more than enough expert content about any topic you can imagine. Medicine new treatments, latest discoveries in quantum physics, software development techniques, ...

However, what if you could write about any topic you really know about, but in a very simple way, so that your text would be suitable for other target markets?

If the explanations and wording are well focused, your blog would be strategically positioned between the expert high level sources (not really achievable to most people) and the many basic (but also unreliable) websites. That's the main focus of a group of physician-mothers who created Mothers in Medicine.

Personal Challenges

Willing to overcome a big challenge? So, why not bringing the world to watch you?

Who else could bring a better perspective about how you are trying to overcome a personal challenge than you? So, just try a new challenge every month and write about it. Lots of people would be eager to read your blog and either celebrate your victories, or make fun with your inevitable failures (yes, people also love failure stories!).

Michelle Poler, for example, was a quite fearful girl, who decided to face her most terrifying fears and document it in 100DaysWithoutFear, so that she could serve as an example to other people who are missing their lifes due to extreme fears and phobias.

Unusual Perspective

Bring a completely new point of view to your blog.

If you are exhausted of regular blogs about sport competitions, what about trying to write with the unusual (and quite often forgotten) perspective of the referee?

The same concept may apply to many other topics. A blog about pregnancy in which the baby narrates his/her experience while in the womb, pet food reviews by the pets themselves, … the possibilities are endless and unexplored! While this style is much more common in popular films or best-selling books, just a few examples of personal website ideas can be found, such as It's a Dog's Life.

But, what about you? Which different perspectives can you bring to your blog?

Showing How To

Replace direct selling by detailed orientation.

Whilst countless blogs will show you reviews of each brand of shoes, The Sneaker Factory will illustrate and explain how they are produced, and the pros and cons of each production process, so that you can analyze and choose your future sneakers by yourself.

Healthier cosmetics components, lighter surfboards, more efficient machines, … Just think about any product you understand its production process, its advantages and its disadvantages. Each time more people would like to understand what is behind the products they buy, so that instead of reading other customer's reviews, they can decide by themselves which product is more suitable for their needs and preferences.

Other Differential Aspects

If not by the content itself, use other differentiators.

A successful blog may retain people's attention in several ways. Whilst the content plays a crucial role in differentiating a blog, don't limit yourself and start considering the many other aspects that may also significantly contribute to build your online hit, such as quite creative blog names or innovative website formats.

For example, to let people know about their CVs and areas of expertise, Gary Le Masson has chosen to emulate Google website, while John Fang has used his outstanding pictures from his trips.