Vinay’s note: Hey my name is Vinay and I am taking over from Kyle as the new WP Curve Content Manager. Having worked in a SaaS and the digital agency environment, I know a lot of companies face challenges coming up with content ideas. I trust that this post helps you get started with creating winning blog posts.
It felt overwhelming.
I was staring at a blank screen, and all I could hear was the whir of my desktop’s fan and the sound of crickets. The space between my ears seemed to be a black hole. Yes, I had run out of blog post ideas.
If you are reading this, then perhaps you can relate.
According to a recent report by Kapost, half of all marketers surveyed said they do not have enough ideas to fuel their content operations. 39% of them said coming up with content ideas is difficult. They also estimated needing 67 content ideas per quarter, on average, to be successful.
Half of all marketers surveyed said they do not have enough ideas to fuel their content operations.
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So to beat this challenge, I put together this post. A post that I hope will serve as a resource that would help you never run out of winning blog post ideas again. Use the table of contents on the right to explore ideas that appeal to you.
Use frameworks
ReferralCandy was able to grow their traffic by 2000% in 2 years by using content frameworks. Content frameworks are models that guide the overall content creation process and content marketing strategy.
Content frameworks enable you to put your audience first and create value for them. It is how many successful bloggers like Danny Iny, Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan and Seth Godin have grown their audience and authority. You can use the first 20 topics framework to get you started.
Get your free download: Tools for scaling content marketing
Get ideas from the competition
Why not get ideas and inspiration from your competitors? Consider connecting, monitoring, learning and questioning others in your industry.
Learning from others is a great way to shortcut the process of creating winning content. Here are few ideas to get you started.
1. Monitor backlinks
An excellent way to get ideas from competitors is to use tools like Monitor Backlinks, Ahrefs or SEMrush. The Monitor Backlinks tool alerts you when your competitors gain new links. So let’s say a competitor gained backlinks via a guest post; you could get alerted to it. Take inspiration from the topics or use it to promote yourself and your business.
Need more traffic? Then use SEMrush or Ahrefs to find posts that rank well in the search engines, their keywords, etc. Use that information to build out your ideas.
2. Copy what’s worked for others
Tools like Buzzsumo and Impactana provide a heap of insights into what has worked well for others regarding shares, links, and views.
Take Buzzsumo for example. Enter a domain name, and it’ll show you what has been the most shared URLs from that domain.
Let’s say you are interested in paleo recipes. Then by entering the URL of popular food blogging site nom nom paleo, you get:
Now we know what recipes resonate with the audience. A question to ask yourself is: what can you offer that has an interesting, unique or useful take on any of the topics?
3. Browse through comments
Consider perusing through the comments of posts that receive a lot of comments to get ideas for blog posts. You can often find people asking questions in the comments that could be used to form a post of your own.
Take for example this post on Budgets Are Sexy.
I could potentially write a post on how to deal with personal finances when unexpected market crashes occur.
4. Check out Disqus communities
Disqus communities in your industry can also serve to provide ideas. Use a Google search to find relevant communities.
5. Go through social media pages
Peruse through comments on Facebook pages, or search on Twitter for appropriate hashtags or usernames to find questions that people may be asking in your industry.
Get ideas from publications
Publications aren’t dead yet. Consider this.
According to the FIPP World Magazine Trends report, global digital magazine circulation revenue will rise at 43.4% year-on-year reaching $5.2bn in 2016. Since the release of iOS 8, Apple was acquiring a million new iBook customers each week.
These publications can be a useful source of ideas for bloggers.
Even if you don’t buy or subscribe to newspapers, digital publication platforms like Flipboard and Issuu contain hundreds of magazines and publications.
1. Study headlines for ideas
As you seek inspiration from different publications and blogs with a lot of engagement, study the headlines they use. Use them as models for your blog post ideas. According to David Ogilvy, 5 times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.
Also, notice the emotions that headlines evoke as they motivate people to act.
Headlines with a large font are ones that are engineered to capture attention, while the other headlines help reinforce the attention and curiosity that readers experience.
2. Study national newspapers and magazine stories
As you read the papers or magazines, think how a story affects your audience. Current news events naturally have people’s attention. You could use a newsjacking strategy based on recent events to get additional attention and coverage.
For example, how would news of a recession affect your audience? Talk about how trends can possibly impact them and provide solutions. Chances are your audience will look to you to tailor news stories that address their concerns.
3. Look for what’s missing
What’s missing in the stories that are published in magazines and newspapers? What’s next? In other words, address what the publications didn’t. Your audience will feel that you help them gain a wider perspective and competitive edge.
Get ideas from your industry
The industry you work in can provide a wealth of information and ideas for your content. Here are a few places and content formats you could investigate.
1. Look through magazines and trade journals
Magazine headlines are created from proven techniques that ensure a high volume of sales. Check out magazines in your niche or industry. Pay attention especially to their headlines and table of contents for ideas. Online subscriptions through Magzter or Zinio also allow you to check out magazines on a wide variety of topics.
2. Browse through the best
Bestselling books can serve as inspiration too. Be sure to check Amazon for a list.
Yes, you can get ideas from their titles but also from their table of contents. With bestsellers, you can be sure the author has put together a collection of topics that resonate with readers. So use the “Look Inside” feature for books on Amazon to get ideas.
3. Browse through FAQ’s
Use the FAQ pages of other sites and blogs in your industry to find inspiration. A simple Google search on your topic will produce results like the ones below.
4. Check out this great resource
AllTop is an RSS reader of sorts that lists top blogs in a whole range of categories.
Pick a topic like personal finance and it shows you the latest 5 posts from each blog listed on that topic.
This is a quick and easy way to find inspiration. You can also subscribe to some of the blogs to get inspiration directly in your Feedly account.
5. Tune into the chatter
Listen into social media chatter about your industry. Events, news items and conferences are among many occasions when there is likely to be a burst of social media chatter. Use tools like Mention on the Nexalogy app available via Hootsuite to track some of these conversations. Ideas can arise from topics that are being discussed.
6. Read small/local publications
Check out experts’ columns in local papers or business weeklies. It can give you ideas on topics that few outside of your local area would have read.
7. Read your competitors’ content
Subscribe to competitor blogs via Feedly and scan through their headlines for ideas.
8. Subscribe to email lists
Industry influencers and bloggers often send email updates, newsletters and case studies that are not shared via their blog. So subscribe to their email lists. Often the subject lines and content can be repurposed or serve as the basis for your blog posts.
9. Investigate podcasts
According to the Pew Research Center –
The percentage of Americans who have listened to a podcast in the past month has almost doubled since 2008, from 9% to 17% by January of 2015. The percentage listening in 2015 was up 2 points over 2014 levels (15%).
iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud all allow you to browse podcasts from your industry. Narrow your search to those that are popular and leverage them for inspiration.
10. Check out some videos
YouTube has over a billion users. According to them:
The number of hours people spend watching videos on YouTube is up 60% year on year.
The number of people watching YouTube per day is up 40% year on year since March 2014.
Use YouTube’s filters to get ideas on topics people are watching. You can sort the results by the most viewed or highest rated.
11. Search through slide shows
With 70 million users and growing, SlideShare is the top network for presentation sharing. Search for popular presentations in your industry. The titles, main points and comments can all serve as a springboard for inspiring your blog content.
The Future of the Internet of Things from Stanford Graduate School of Business
12. Stay abreast of industry happenings and goings on
To stay up to date with the latest news, trends and technologies, you need to tune into all that is happening in the industry. A simple way of doing this is to subscribe to the RSS feeds of competitors and the top blogs in the industry. A tool for this purpose is Feedly. Just find specific sites via the search box and subscribe to them.
13. Tap into curation
Sites like paper.li and Scoop.it make content curation a breeze. They allow you to sift through content around your industry and make the process of curation a lot easier. Ideas can easily be found through resources like these.
14. Get a broader perspective
Need a to fill your Feedly account with even more inspiration? Then popurls is the tool to use to get the top posts from popular publications on the one page. Pick a category like business to view the top headlines and topics that are trending.
Get ideas from Q&A’s
Consider investigating some of the questions that are being asked online that concern your industry or brand. There a number of Q&A networks, social media groups and events that you could look into. Here are some sites worth investigating to get some ideas for your posts.
1. Quora
Quora is a Q&A network that covers a variety of topics. Just search for topics of interest. You can even follow topics and individuals.
2. Yahoo answers
Ask or search for questions around your industry on Yahoo Answers. You can also subscribe to new answers via RSS.
3. Reddit
There are subreddits on a huge variety of topics and industries on Reddit. You can search for active subreddits and keep up to date via their RSS feeds if available.
4. FAQ fox
FAQ fox is a tool that allows you to search popular Q&A sites in one go.
5. Check out AMA’s
Often great questions are asked during Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions. These sessions are usually hosted by experts or authority figures in an industry or niche. While Reddit is a popular location for AMAs, they are also conducted at other sites and forums as well.
A Google search on a person’s name will often bring up results worth checking out.
6. Monitor forums
Forums, discussion boards or communities are similar in some ways to Q&A sites in that they also field questions around your industry or niche.
A search for forums with keywords relating to your industry will usually provide a list of potential forums to investigate. Discussions and questions in these forums could serve as fodder for blog post ideas.
7. Social media groups
Social media groups are another variation on forums and can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.
The key to finding good social media groups is to find ones that are well moderated.
Some groups on Facebook may be closed groups, so you will have to join before determining whether it is worth your while.
Run searches on Facebook to find groups around your industry. Use keywords in the groups search box to find relevant results.
For LinkedIn, look for groups that influencers have joined. Alternatively use the search box to look up groups that have active discussions.
8. Tweet chats
A tweet chat is a live Twitter event usually focused around a particular topic. There is a lot of chatter on Twitter. To help filter that and focus on the conversation that makes sense to all attending, a hashtag is used. These events are held at set times so a moderator, guest or host is available to moderate the discussion.
For example, Wisebread runs a tweet chat with the hashtag #wbchat every Thursday at 12 PM PST.
Generate topic ideas from keywords
At times, keywords can be a source of inspiration apart from the fact that it helps with your overall SEO strategy. Here are a few tools that can help get you started.
1. Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Let’s assume that you have integrated Google Analytics and Google Search Console to your site. You can now track content that is receiving engagement as well as traffic. Use that as the basis for additional content around those core ideas.
2. Google AdWords Keyword Planner
The Google AdWords Keyword Planner is a free tool that allows you to search for any keyword related to your industry. It provides ideas for ad groups as well as keyword ideas. The image below shows a search result of personal finance. Using the “Keyword ideas” tab, we find 800 results that can be downloaded into a spreadsheet. These can now serve as ideas for blog posts.
3. Google Alerts
Google Alerts are another great way of staying on top of current events and news in your industry. It also helps with keeping tabs on your competitors. You can get inspiration sent to your inbox as it happens, every day or every week.
4. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a free keyword tool to use. It shows you the top 10 suggested key phrases when a person starts typing the keyword you use into Google’s search box. It generates variations on the keywords with numbers and for each alphabet. You can even download key phrases you are interested for use later.
The key to developing a comprehensive list of ideas or titles is to use keyphrases that suit your audience. For example, personal finance for seniors and other groups reveals 672 suggestions.
If you wanted to compare personal finance tools, you could run a comparison between MYOB and QuickBooks. This reveals 32 suggestions.
5. Keywordtool.io
Keywordtool is an alternative to Ubersuggest and provides up to 750 keywords for free. The tool also allows you to analyze YouTube, Bing and the App Store for keyphrases.
A YouTube search for personal finance reveals 125 unique keywords. The “Questions” tab lists questions that are often typed into the search box.
Go with the Pro version, and you can access more keywords along with the search volume data, CPC, and AdWords competition data for keywords.
6. Inbound Writer
According to Inbound Writer, over 80% of the content published on a given website drives little to no organic traffic. This tool can analyze your analytics and predict which keyphrases are more likely to draw traffic and lead to greater audience engagement.
Three Girls Media used the tool to gain a 43% increase in blog page views, reduce bounce rate by 8.58% and increase average time on page by 24.69%.
7. Hittail
Hittail uses your Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools data to find promising organic keywords. It also suggests related keywords that you could be targeting to drive traffic to your site.
Each week, you get an update with new keyword suggestions that you can use to optimize your website or to create posts. The tool promises to reveal keywords that Google has stopped providing with their “not provided” section.
While you could use Google Search Console to find search queries and then use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to find related keywords, Hittail makes the process a lot quicker and simpler.
8. Topic generators
Topic generators are tools that provide headline ideas based on keywords you enter into it. Some use specific formulas. Others use headlines from popular sites as the basis for the results they generate.
HubSpot’s blog topic generator, Portent’s content idea generator, Wriber’s idea generator and the Tweak Your Biz title generator are few that you could use to gain ideas.
Cas McCullough’s post on the best and worst blog topic generators on the web also provides a few more options.
Seek some feedback
A key part of any conversation is listening. So consider listening to people on your team and your audience to get some feedback.
1. Talk to your customers
We create content for our audience and customers. So why not talk to them? Whether they are conversations around service, onboarding or development – you’ll probably hear a lot about different problems and challenges they’re facing.
For example, Alex Turnbull intentionally made a point of talking to his customers. They mentioned that the homepage video on his site got them interested in trying Groove out. They wanted to know how they could create a good explainer video, so Alex wrote about it.
2. Topics email subscribers want you to cover
Like the above idea, ask your email subscribers what they would like help with or want to hear from you about.
3. Grab website visitors’ opinions
As visitors read through your blog post or browse through your blog archives, they may have some ideas of what topics they would like you to cover.
A simple survey tool like Queryz can help you ask and capture their responses. Other alternative tools you could use include Qualaroo and Google Consumer Insights.
4. Topics your social media audience wants you to cover
Do you have an engaged social media audience? If so, ask them what they’d like to see you write about next.
5. Tackle controversy
Copyblogger made what was seen to be a controversial move in shutting down comments on its posts. It did however provide fodder for quite a few blogs who offered their opinions on the move.
Get out and about
A change of scene or a change in the environment you usually are in, can help a great deal. Here are a few ways you might consider doing it.
1. Take a day off
Sometimes the best thing to do is take a day off. Shut down your computer and do something else altogether.
2. Take a walk
Take a walk. It is likely to stimulate your thoughts as you do something different. You might even come back with a handful of topics to consider.
3. Attend a community event
Attend a community breakfast, volunteer, or attend a fair. While you are there, give yourself permission to relax and just enjoy yourself.
Get personal
At times, ideas lie closer than you think. All you need to do is reflect on the things close to your heart or on activities you engage in. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices going.
1. Keep a journal
Try writing on a daily basis on anything that comes to mind. Try doing it first thing in the morning or as the last thing in the evening.
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. - Ernest Hemingway
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2. Create a mind map
Mind mapping is a technique that helps visualize how topics are related to one another. It can help you get a clearer picture of where new topics can sprout up from your core themes.
3. Do a book review
Is there conversation around a new book in your industry? Tell your readers what you think of it.
4. Do a podcast review
Do you listen to a podcast or 2? Review the podcast for your readers. Let them know why it is on your playlist.
5. Do a product review
This is like the book review only around a product.
6. Do an interview
Have an influencer or author that you admire in your industry? Get in touch. You might find that a lot of them are open to the idea of an interview or Q&A.
Get some input
Sometimes it helps to get someone to help you out, be it with feedback or opinions. Here are some ways to do this.
1. Use someone to bounce ideas off
Talk to a friend or someone whose opinion you trust. Getting a critique or even just talking about it can help let ideas bubble up.
2. Learn from comedians and improv
Take in a stand-up comedy show or attend improv classes. It will put you in a creative state of mind.
3. Take the 30-minute challenge
This is an idea that comes from a post by Neil Patel. Set a timer for 30 minutes. During that time, put down at least 50 topic ideas. The focus is on quantity, not quality. You can edit and sift through them later. Just write for 30 mins.
4. Share your challenge on social media
Let people know of your challenge on social media and ask for their help to come up with topics.
5. Run a contest
Run a contest around a controversial fill in the blank question. Or provide a prize to the best question asked.
6. Run a poll
Ask your readers what they would like you to cover.
7. Attend an industry event
As you meet people, mention your blog and ask what sort of topics they like to be informed about.
8. Make a prediction
A lot of people want to know how to prepare for the future or what’s going to happen next. Provide a perspective on the future of your industry.
9. Write about anything else
Try writing on something entirely different. Something that can put you in a different mental space for a while. It could be a letter to a friend or relative, a novel, etc.
10. Review the past
Point out milestones that your industry has reached as it evolved over the past decade or more.
11. Lookup a weekly news wrap up
Search for posts that provide a weekly news wrap. What ideas can you draw from the news? What trends can you spot that could affect your industry?
12. Write an update
Has there been a change or update in your industry that puts new light on content you had covered before? Write a sequel and link back to the old post.
13. Recruit a guest writer
You don’t need to do it all yourself. Sometimes bringing on a little help can take the pressure off and help you come up with good ideas.
Get creating
You can find additional content marketing resources for your inspiration here:
Content Machine resources
How to generate post ideas, understand your readership and build community on your blog
Content marketing tools
Owning the racecourse and being a problem solving machine with James Schramko (podcast)
The best of content marketing
How to optimize for the hidden ROI of content marketing
WP Curve marketing guides
WPSummit checklist to doubling traffic in less than two months
The WP Curve content strategy, and how to build your own
How to build your business with Content Marketing: a BS-free guide to Content Marketing Strategy
As you can see there are a number of ways to generate blog post ideas. You won’t need to tap into all of them. Use a couple that you feel comfortable with and add others as you feel the need. You should easily be able to plan out a year’s worth of content ideas to keep your readers engaged.
Most importantly though, track your results. Keep an eye out to discover ways in which to speak to your audience in a relevant yet meaningful manner.
If you are looking at doing content marketing be sure to check out the tools for scaling your content marketing below.
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What methods do you use to find winning blog post ideas?
The post How to never run out of winning blog post ideas (66+ ideas here) appeared first on WP Curve.