How To Come Up With Blog Ideas Again And Again

One of the most common questions people ask me in regards to my job is how I’m able to write about the same topic over and over again. While there are certainly a few days where I ask myself the same thing, I always tell them that there are two reasons why it’s possible.

First, there’s plenty to write about if you think journalistically and dig into the details at the same time (think Red Bull and their extreme sports focus). Second, you just find something to write about – sometimes, that’s part of the journalist’s job, too.

Although there isn’t an exact approach for dealing with this extremely common problem, there are some tried-and-true ways to work around the issue. Sure, you might not always discover the best blog topic ever, but it does allow you to maintain the momentum of content creation. At the same time, however, stay away from lowering your standards and creating crap—quality is always important.

So, what do I do when I’m struggling with a topic? I look to the following for inspiration:

Google Search: A great way to discover content ideas (that has the added benefit of being awesome for SEO) is by typing your topic into the Google search bar (without pressing Enter or Search) to see what people are most commonly searching for. If I’m writing about diets for dogs for example, I’ll begin typing “What foods can dogs” and see what autocomplete predictions appear. For additional insights, change the phrase so you can get other content ideas. If I want other topic ideas related to doggy diets, I might type in “How much food to feed a dog” to find what people are interested in. 

Google News: If you know the topic you’d like to cover, perform a search under the News tab in Google to see if there’s any recent information about it. If you find something you like, then all is right in the world. 

Social Media (Specifically Twitter): Similar to Google, I often use Twitter as a search engine to see what people are saying about my topic. It’s a great way to get the most recent information that may not be as easily discoverable on Google, such as state of the industry reports. Or, I might find other blog posts that cover the topic or questions people are asking about it. You can also use Facebook, Google+, or other social media platforms.

Other Blogs: There’s nothing wrong with checking out what the Jones’ are creating for a little inspiration, especially if you know they do it really really well. Look to bloggers and organizations that create quality content to see what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. Discover topics and pieces of content that are popular for them and use it to inspire a post of your own. Just make sure you don’t copy it verbatim (or even big chunks of it) and claim it as your own; that’s plagiarism, and it’s highly frowned upon. 

News Organizations: Industry-specific media outlets are great sources for content topics, as they’re ahead of the curve and breaking important news. For the latest in marketing, I often look to media outlets such as Mashable, Digiday, and Ad Age. Larger news organizations, such as The New York Times are also good resources, as long as they cover your industry.

Events: Whether it’s a lecture or a webinar, attending events related to your industry or topic of interest is a great way to find inspiration for your blog. Chances are, you’ll learn something new, so why not share that insight with others?

New Products: Depending on the industry, trying out something new and reviewing it in a blog post is a great way to add content to your blog. I love exploring new apps or checking out a new content-driven website and discussing the pros and cons of each. 

Curated Content: If you’re really stuck or in a time crunch, content curation is good to fall back on. You can easily do this by linking to articles that are relevant to your organization and including a brief synopsis of what it is and why it’s important.

Comments Sections: You can find a lot of inspiration for content ideas just by reading comments people have made to your previous posts or even posts by other bloggers. Look for questions or new thoughts that people share that are not addressed within the original blog. 

Existing Content: Identify your successful blog posts and see if you can update it or re-purpose it as something else, such as a slideshow, infographic, podcast, etc.

Additionally, consider creating an editorial calendar so you’re not on the spot every time you need to write something. Use the methods above to help you brainstorm a list of ideas from which to choose. Trust me, it can make a HUGE difference!

Have any other ideas for creating content? Share in the comments below!