One of the most challenging parts of managing an active blog is finding new topics to write about day in and day out. You always want to make sure that every piece you publish is the best content you’re capable of creating, so you don’t want to resort to generic filler content or rehashed pieces.
Thankfully, there are these 20 easy tricks you can use to generate new blog topics.
1. Set Twitter Alerts for relevant keywords – The great thing about Twitter is that the conversation is always going 24/7, so there’s sure to be new things relevant to your niche that get brought up. Set alerts for a few keywords and follow the conversation.
2. Read trade publications – There are small trade publications on virtually every topic possible. Find the trade publications in your field and subscribe to them. Most of your readers won’t be reading these publications, so there’s room to recycle the topics.
3. Follow-up on an old post – Has one of your old posts become outdated or in need of a follow-up? This is a fast, simple way to create new, relevant content.
4. Check your comments – Your readers are often your best source for blog topics. Pay attention to the comments, and you’ll find topics that can be crafted into a whole new post.
5. Ask your readers for topic suggestions – Don’t want to sift through the comments? Ask your readers directly what topics they’d like to see you write about.
6. Talk to people in your industry – Simply chatting it up with coworkers, colleagues, and others in and around your industry on a regular basis is a good way to find new things to write about.
7. Find ways to tie your niche into a major current event – Pay attention to the news. You’re bound to find stories that you can somehow tie into a blog post.
8. Read other blogs – See what other bloggers in your field are writing about. If you write a post about a similar topic, you can give them a little link love too.
9. Write a roundup post of your favorites – While you’re out reading other blogs, make a list of some of your favorite posts you come across. Once you get a handful of good posts, write a roundup post with links to each.
10. Interview someone from your industry – Interviews always make for a good blog post. They provide readers with a fresh perspective, and they’re fairly easy to conduct.
11. Take inspiration from your daily life – There are things that happen to you every day (both at work and in your personal life) that can inspire a blog post. You just have to pay attention and recognize when an idea is there for the taking.
12. Write a “how to” about a task you commonly perform – “How to” content has a tendency to be evergreen, driving traffic for years to come. A simple guide to a daily task you perform can be helpful for your readers.
13. Listen to complaints – People love to complain – clients, readers, coworkers…everybody. Pay attention to these complaints. You may find a problem worth writing about.
14. Identify mistakes you’ve made – We all make mistakes. Sharing your mistakes with others so they can learn from them always makes for an interesting post.
15. Predict the future – People love to guess what’s to come in their industry. Make some predictions in a blog post.
16. Review a book in your niche – I love reading books about PR and marketing. If you read any books related to your blog’s niche, review them.
17. Take a look at your analytics – Look at the analytics for your blog to identify the search terms people use to find you. These keywords often inspire new blog topics.
18. Bounce around on StumbleUpon, Digg, and other social sites – Spend some time on the social networking sites to find new content and interesting ideas.
19. Keep an idea list – You can never predict when a new idea is going to strike. That’s why I keep a running list of ideas. Write them down as soon as you get them!
20. Attend networking events – Get out there in your city to professional networking events. Talking to others is a surefire way to stumble across new ideas.
What are some of your best tricks for coming up with new blog topics? Share them by leaving a comment below.
This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (https://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab three free ebooks, including the Big Press Release Book and Twitter Tactics, here: https://www.ereleases.com/free-offer/big-press-release-samples-book/