Have you had a blog for a few months now and are starting to run out of topic ideas for your future editorial calendars? If so, there is no need to fret—this happens to everyone and is something that can be remedied with the right tricks and tools.
Below is a list of ways to generate a plethora of great blog posts—without ripping your hair out:
Search Google News: Not only will Google News give you some blog topic ideas, but it will also show you a list of top trending stories, as well as the top stories in your industry. If you choose to write a post around one of the highest searched news topics, your post has a good chance of appearing on search engine results pages.
For example, if you run a travel blog, it would be smart of you to write a blog post around visiting England during the royal wedding, mentioning Prince William and Kate Middleton because those keywords are currently some of the highest searched terms.
Utilize Your Facebook Page and Twitter Feed: Ask questions on your Facebook page to get an idea for what readers want to learn about or discuss. You never know what responses will spark fresh blog post ideas. You could also send out a Tweet to your Twitter followers that asked a specific question related to your industry. Any type of feedback has the potential to inspire a blog post. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.
Scan Your Twitter Feed: One of the main reasons I visit Twitter is to search for trending topics, ideas, breaking news, and interesting articles. I actually have a customized list on my Twitter account that pulls up a handful of feeds from my favorite bloggers, peers, and industry professionals. I search this list to find industry news, opinions on controversial issues, and to see what people are interested in talking about. After five minutes on Twitter I already have a list of topics I’m ready to write about for my blog.
Expand on Past Posts or Create A Series: Visit your blog archives and dig for some of your most popular posts. What topics were discussed in these posts? Can you create a series out of this post by expanding on the subject?
For example, if you run a travel blog and one of your most popular posts was on wine tasting tours in Italy, you could develop a blog series that focused on various wine regions across the world. Your series could consist of five blog posts with each one focusing on a new wine country.
Generate Guest Bloggers: One day when I was racking my brain for fresh blog post ideas, I decided to go back to my archives and look at some of my most popular posts. I noticed that one of my articles on developing an effective customer retention strategy was a big hit among readers. I chose to expand on this topic by contacting several small business owners, asking if they would be interested in answering a Q & A for the blog, discussing their effective customer retention strategies. I received four new blog posts from reaching out to guest bloggers—and I didn’t even have to write the posts!
Do you have any tips for generating fresh blog post ideas? If so, we’d love to hear about them in our comments section.
