You have just finished working on your blogging plan and selected great category topics, but you still do not know exactly what to blog about. It happens, and this does not mean that you have deviated from the right track. All that you need is a way to access blogging ideas around you. This blog discusses How to Generate New Ideas for Your Blog Posts:
Take Notes
Great bloggers always take notes on almost anything they come across on the web. Different bloggers have different systems, right from Evernote to simpler text documents. Create a Trello card every time you get a post idea.
When you stumble on something on the web that is relevant to a post idea you have been thinking about, a note will be added to the card. This will eventually help you think about different ways and perspectives to come up with new and better blog ideas, and it may even change the ideas completely.
Use Google Alerts
Read and read. By reading more contents, you get more ideas to write about. For example, sometimes back, I read an article on the benefits of using captivating headlines for content which immediately sparked off an idea to do a blog post on formula for creating catchy headlines. For inspiration purpose, you may set up Google Alerts to send into your mail brand new topics that interest you in. This can be done by simply logging into Google alerts and setting alerts. It is super simple. When you happen to hit a blogger’s block or you need new ideas, you can access the content sent to your inbox by Google to trigger off new ideas.
Renovation
Generally, recycling is known to reduce over reliance on natural resource. Similarly, recycling used posts is a great way to save you from the nightmare of generating new ideas from square zero.
Carefully go over your blog archives to see what can be put into good use. Obviously, you can’t just cut and paste an old post, but there are several ways you can generate new contents from the previous material and make it look original. Here is how:
Updating an old post - if you had earlier posted on web content like, “online marketing trends that will dominate in 2018," consider rewriting a new unique version of the original post for 2019(when the right time comes).
Writing a sequel - if you have just covered a section of a topic, you may want to consider rewording the next piece; for instance, if you had written about on-site SEO, you can extend the coverage to off-site SEO.
Adding a new perspective - did you write a blog targeting one audience? Can you apply it another?
Check in - if you have made announcement or predictions about your organization, writing a follow-up will help you evaluate how things are moving or how wrong or right you were. You can even create some reinvention strategies of your own.
Read through what others are saying on social media
Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are an oasis of information. Do a thorough search of the topics you target and see what other people are saying about their needs, problems and wants. Convert these into blog post ideas at this point.
Turn reader/client queries into topics
This is a super easy method of finding new ideas for your blog post. What common questions do your readers ask you? Turn this into an interesting blog post. Do you always receive mails from clients asking for your advice on something? If you do, then you are lucky because you are deemed as an expert in that specific topic. It may also suggest that there are more readers out there who have the same questions for you and want to know your opinion on a given topic. Collect your answers in blogs-your clients will get answers they need without necessarily having to mail you and get new topic to share about- it is a win-win situation. I have been maintaining a notebook in Evernote to keep an eye on the questions I’m asked about and use it to write articles, it works like a miracle!
Check your comment section
One great piece of advice I ever came across was, “always hang out in your comment segment". Although this advice was meant to help grow readership, it is however much more useful than that. What kind of stories do your readers share with you? What questions have they asked? Do they have bogs? If so, what type of contents do they write about? Do you find them interesting, and do you get inspiration from what they do?
Copy what has worked for others
I’m not telling you to plagiarize other people’s work. That’s unprofessional. However, you can borrow a lot from other people’s blogs, add your own spin and create a unique piece.
Write the post that scares you
If you have been a blogger for a while, I’m sure there must be a blog you’ve really wanted to write, but you’ve note been able to get around it. You feel like it is floating in the back of your mind, but you can’t just think about creating it because every time you try, it feels uneasy. Probably the subject matter is a little controversial or perhaps it is a post that requires a little bit of more research than what you are used to. Whatever the case, I still encourage you to go ahead and write the damn thing. According to experts, ideas that seem to give you hard time are always the ones that truly represent who you really are. Go ahead and write it even if it make you sweat.
Conclusion
Since I started using these tips, I’ve been able to keep my blog running without hitches. Furthermore, I have also been able to develop a much better content because everything is carefully planned beforehand and I have plenty of ample time for conducting researches on the various topics. This is How to Generate New Ideas for Your Blog Posts.
