You are in the correct place if you are looking for some tips on how to generate blog post ideas when you are in an ideas slump!
You have started a blog and are working hard at it and getting your posts up and doing the things you need to do (and sleeping in between), and then one sunny day you sit down to right and ….. nothing.
You can literally hear the crickets. And then you start to freak out a bit and think ‘oh, what’s the point’.
This has happened to me. I am sure at some stage or another it has happened to most.
But then I started reading and trying out things; testing things that I haven’t done in a while. Most bloggers if not all suffer from writer’s block at one point or another. Remember, I am not a blogging guru but I am sharing my starting-off points that have worked for me.
And perhaps some of them, or even one, will work for you.
What do you do when you run out of ideas?
When you think you have written about everything you possibly can to help people, you might need to start looking elsewhere for some ideas. Or something to get you thinking along a different pathway. And when you do, so much becomes clear and you can then think of 20 new related posts to write about.
I have found that quite often I hit a bit of a ‘brain fog’ and can’t think further than my last post. Robert Kiyosaki, from Rich Dad, Poor Dad, talks about how we are trained at school to listen and obey and we forget how to think creatively. Once you are put into that proverbial box it can be quite difficult to get out.
Look at magazines
I find that sometimes when I am online and trying to look for ideas, I end up going down that awful (I actually mean awesome!) Youtube blackhole. I am also new on Facebook believe it or not so I can get a bit lost there too.
Picking up an actual magazine is good for you and you will most likely avoid distractions. So looking at magazines and It doesn’t have to be magazines within your niche, although that would help. Just pick up one and look at the cover. What do you see? Is there anything relatable to your market?
For example – here is a magazine cover from the Ideas Magazine. Let me see if I can use any of these to spark some ideas for my own travel posts:
* Beach House Makeover packed with DIY projects | becomes: 10 Best Beach Villas to stay at in Hawaai
* Make Your Own Trophy Light | becomes: How to Build a Firepit in Your Back Garden Over a Weekend
*4 trendy ways with a coffee table | becomes: Ten Best Coffee Houses in Cape Town
* Take Your Guests Down Memory Lane with our Food Game | becomes: Create Your Own Memory Album of Your Last Holiday
Then of course you can flip through the magazines and look at the headings for inspiration.
KEEP A NOTEBOOK WITH YOU
Whether you use an actual notebook or an app, keep a look out and a listen for ideas of things happening around you.
Can you build on it? Can you add your own unique twist?
When you are busy with your research for a blog post, or even when you are busy writing, what interesting or contradictive information do you come across? What ideas scream out at you while you are writing but just doesn’t fit well with your current post. Jot those down.
Then when you create that post, cross-link the two together. SEO likes that.
CREATE A THEME
Set yourself a theme goal: picture of the day, word of the day, housecleaning hack of the week
Use this to create an ideas board and build around that. Look at the images and words that you have collected and see if you can create a series, or weekly blog post, or even a round-up post from it.
USE WRITING PROMPTS
This is a good source for ideas http://thinkwritten.com/365-creative-writing-prompts/
These won’t all be suitable to you but take what you need and leave the rest.
TAKE A CLASS
Sign up for a class either online or offline.
Online can usually be done at your own convenience but you are limited to you, yourself and you.
If you physically get into your car and drive to the class and sit with other human-beings, there are many benefits to this.
* Take the class and learn something new that you can blog about
* Meet people who could become part of your audience
* Build your network and keep a look out for contacts
SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
Look for some blogs, businesses, websites that are in your industry, or are related to your industry. Even if you only sign up for a couple of months and then unsubscribe.
Be kept updated with news, what is trending, what are the ‘wow’factors that are happening. Can you collaborate with anyone?
Look for ones that actually interest you though otherwise you will just be deleting them from your inbox and that is simply pointless.
ASK PEOPLE
If you have an audience already centred around your blog, then you can ask them.
You can do this by asking them to leave comments on your social media platform or on your blog posts. You can also send out a survey but remember these short tips to help you create a great survey:
1. Try to keep it to around 10 questions
2. Don’t ask double barreled questions such as “do you want to learn about nail art and nail health care?” If they can only choose yes/ no then how do they answer two things with one answer. Perhaps they are not interested in nail art but definitely want to know about nail health care.
3. Ask open-ended questions. Instead of giving people the option to say yes or no, rather give them space to elaborate on their answer. It will most definitely give you more insight.
4. And never use industry lingo or acronyms that people don’t know what you are talking about.
If not, then ask ‘real-live’ people. Go into the streets or ask your friends and family.
Did you know that when Richard Branson was starting out, he would get on a train with his pen and notebook and ask commuters for their opinions and ideas? After all, where else were they going to go?
OPEN A TWITTER ACCOUNT
See what’s trending and what would fit your niche. This is the place to get the latest ideas. Use it!
HEAD OVER TO BUZZSUMO
This is an amazing site where you can enter in a blog name or a topic and it spits out what your competition is doing – and you can organize it by the most popular means of sharing.
Go to Buzzsumo and enter the blog name, topic or keyword there.
You will then see the article or blog post title and you can arrange this in most shares on Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, Twitter. Just click on the social media platform to arrange this in order from the most popular by platform.
Here are a couple of other posts you might be interested in:
– There are different ways that you can make money with your blog
– How to drive traffic to your blog with Pinterest
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