Today, I want to share some of my best tips on how to get ideas for blog posts. I’ll cover my top 10 ways to do it.
As a blogger, one of the biggest struggles you will face is figuring out what keywords or topics to write about. If you’re brand new to blogging, it’s pretty easy to come up with ideas, but once you’ve written hundreds, even thousands of blog posts, it’s easy to get writer’s block.
What I want to do in the paragraphs below is share some of the most common ways I come up with ideas for new blog posts. These are some of my best tips and secrets to work smart and get creative. I hope you find the information helpful.
10 Ways to Get ideas for Blog Posts
# 1: Books
One of my favorite places to get ideas for blog posts is books. I try to read at least one to two books each week geared around my niche. I underline any passages and quotes in the book that really resonate with me.
Once I’ve finished reading the book, I transcribe all the sentences and quotes that I have underlined or highlighted into a Microsoft Word Document. From there, I take the sentences that really stand out to me, and turn the main theme of the sentence into a blog post title. I then write my own thoughts about that subject. It’s pretty simple.
To clarify, I am not copying or plagiarizing the content in the book. I’m just taking the main point of the sentence and using it for the TITLE of my post.
Whether you write things for work or just for fun, heavy reading can improve your writing skills and abilities. There are several ways in which reading can help strengthen your writing skills, and each of these ways happens without you even realizing it.
Source: Self Development Secrets
# 2: YouTube
YouTube is a great way to get ideas for blog posts.
Videos are a great way to get ideas for blog posts. You can search for popular videos in your niche on YouTube. Write down the titles of the videos with more than 10,000 views. Look at the videos that are trending. Look for videos that have gone viral.
Many of those titles would make great blog post topics, because they are popular. You can also watch a popular video, take notes and then write about any of the key points that really stand out to you.
YouTube has a wide variety of videos & the infomercials , Expressing your creativity through YouTube is a major benefit and you can get a good deal of information to many people in a short amount of time .
Source: Online Science
# 3: Amazon
Like YouTube, Amazon is a great way to get ideas for blog posts. On Amazon, you can search for the best-selling books in your niche. Look at the key points in the book summary, the product description, the reviews, and the title. This should get your brain thinking about different ideas and topics you could write about.
# 4: Online Forums
Online forums are still quite popular. Find a few popular online forums geared around your niche. Spend a few hours on the website and study all the “most popular” threads.
Read what other people have to say about a certain topic. Study the title. Look at what questions people are asking about the topic. This should get your brain spinning.
I visited Warrior Forum the other day for about 20-minutes and came up with around 20 topics I thought would make interesting blog posts.
# 5: Check Out Your Competition
Visit some popular blogs in your niche. Determine which posts on their blog are the most popular. Read those articles and take notes.
Do not spin, copy or rewrite their content, but create articles around similar topics, but with your own perspective. Chances are, if people are searching for those topics on your competitor’s blog, a similar topic on your blog would also be popular.
Whatever you do, do not steal their content or put their article in an article spinner. Write out your own version and make sure it is unique content.
# 6: Poll Your Audience
If your website has a loyal following, you could survey your audience. You could create a poll. Ask people what topics would be of interest to learn more about. You’ll be amazed at how many people contribute and give you some great ideas for blog post topics.
You can also share your poll on your social media accounts and email it to your list. The last time I did this, I came up with more than 100 different ideas for future blog posts.
# 7: Hire a Virtual Assistant
Hear me out on this one. You could hire a virtual assistant in a different country for $3 to $5 per hour and have them come up with a list of potential blog topics for you.
Give them a time limit of say, 4-hours, and tell them you want them to come up with 100 potential ideas for you to write about on your blog. Have them look at your blog first, along with a few of your competitor’s blogs.
Tell them you want a list and then let them do their thing. For the $15 to $20 you spend to hire someone to do this for you, you will come up with some great ideas for future blog posts.
Your virtual assistant excels at both qualitative and quantitative research such that you have a complete picture of the research subject. They will also organize this information for you, making sure only updated and accurate information reaches you.
Source: Wishup Blog
# 8: Twitter
I have a love hate relationship with Twitter. I am by no means a Twitter authority, but what I do know is that you can study trends on Twitter. Check out the influencers in your niche and see which Tweets are getting the most shares, retweets, likes, etc.
Read the comments. Spend a couple of hours on Twitter and just write down everything that comes to mind. You can come back and edit your list at a future date.
# 9: Keyword Tool
There are many keyword tools online. Some are free, others cost money. You can type in a keyword and it will give you a list of potentially hundreds of other keywords (long-tail keywords). For example, you could type in the words:
- lose weight
- weight loss
Once you type those keywords in, hit search. You should get back hundreds of results.
You can pick the keywords with enough demand, but with little competition and then write blog posts about it. You could then use these keywords in your title and throughout your blog post.
Make sure you keep a working copy of potential keywords for future blog posts. This will save you time in the future.
To begin producing content that is relevant to your audience you must understand what keywords are bringing traffic to your site. Figure out what interests your audience, then writing content around that.
Source: Kathode Ray Media Inc.
# 10: Google Analytics
Google Analytics offers a wealth of information. You can look at the stats of your own blog and see which keywords are most popular in the search phrases from your organic traffic. You can also see your most visited pages. Read through those pages and see if you can create additional articles around sub-topics from that post.
Look at your top 200-500 keywords that people search for online to find your blog. Put each one of those words in a keyword tool to come up with additional long-tail keywords you can use in future posts.
What Others are Saying
Here are what a few other bloggers had to say about where they come up with ideas to write about. Up first we have Neil Patel.
Top writers keep their minds filled with ideas their readers care about.
They rely on their systems to give them a never-ending stream of ideas, which gives them the tools and resources they need to create compelling blog posts.
Source: Neil Patel
Next, the legend himself, Jeff Bullas, shares some of his best ideas for blog posts.
When a couple of people started asking the same questions and running into the same problems over and over again, I decided to write a blog post about it.
At the start, it was only to help the struggling bloggers find solutions to their respective problems. Then I started scavenging for queries and problems related to my niche.
It quickly gave me a ton of ideas and topics to write about, and I made a whole list of titles based on just the queries and problems people faced in this Facebook group.
Source: Jeff Bullas
Finally, we have some great advice from Mention.com.
How do you keep the ideas and creativity flowing constantly to ensure consistent traffic, leads, and conversions?
It’s a little different for everyone. I usually get most of my blog post ideas while reading other posts. My coworkers write about their own experiences more frequently.
But to create great content week after week after week, you need a lot of ways to come up with new content topics.
Eventually, one method won’t bring you the ideas you need that day. And the more alternative methods you have to turn to, the better shape you (and your content marketing strategy) will be in.
Source: Mention.com
Final Thoughts
There you have it folks. These are 10 simple ways you can get ideas for blog posts. I hope you found the information helpful. What are your thoughts? Where do you get ideas for your blog posts? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
I am so glad that you spoke about writer’s block. Whenever I have writer’s block, I get upset, assuming that I ran out of creative juice. But the truth is every writer faces writer’s block, and it’s sometimes hard not to blame ourselves. However, it’s not easy to get rid of it unless you have suggestions like the above list.
It’s so great that you wrote the above list. You did it differently, thank you! These suggestions are explained clearly with examples so I can actually use them without worrying about how to use them. Suggestions are usually just thrown around without examples, so it’s hard to implement them.
Also, I appreciate your humble writing style.
Writer’s block is normal. However, if you simply sit down and make yourself write for an hour or two each day, you will eventually find new ideas to write about. It works for me.