What To Do When You Don't Have Clue… What to Blog About
I sat here thinking, 'Oh gosh. What am I going to write about?' After sitting for at least 15 minutes and not being any closer to an idea I started wondering what other people do when in such a situation. So, I went to the place of all knowledge – Google – and started searching. It would appear that this is a common problem, and as it is a common problem many people have written about the solution to it.
I read through a lot of these posts and picked out a couple that I especially liked and am sharing them with you here – as a resource, if you ever encounter what Darren Rowse (from ProBlogger) calls 'Bloggers Block'.
100 Ways to Find Ideas for Your Blog Posts
written by Steve Aitchison from Life Snips
He clearly has quite a comprehensive list of ideas – here is a small sampling. (This blog post has been taken down now, but I think the ideas listed here from it are great ideas)
2. Your Local Newsagent
Scan the magazines in your local newsagent, not just in your niche but in similar niches. Often ideas will come from reading an article from outside your niche.
5. Imagine Having Written A Great Article
This might sound a little strange. I sometimes imagine I have written a fantastic article and it’s gone viral, I try and hone in, in my minds eye, and see what the article was and what everyone is talking about. You’ll be surprised what comes up.
16. Visit Ted.com
Ted.com is an amazing site for keeping up to date with the latest trends in Technology, Entertainment and Design.
26. Check Out The Trending Hash Tags And Topics On Twitter
Twitter is one of the true phenomenon’s of the decade and there are thousands of uses for it. Gaining ideas by looking at the trending hashtags on the homepage is a great way to look for blog post ideas. You can also use another site such as HashTags.org for a more detailed look at hashtags.
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The next article I thought worth mentioning was written by Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.
Battling Bloggers Block
His entry is the size of an ebook and very comprehensive. He has 25 tips, but in each tip is a raft of other ideas.
Some of those include:
Blog Tip 1. Change your Blogging Environment
I often find that when I change my environment that inspiration comes. I walked down to the main street near our place and sat in the sun for half an hour and ‘people watched’. Somewhere along the way the ideas began to flow.
Blog Tip 9.Collaborate with other Bloggers
Run out of ideas? Find someone who hasn’t to work with.
Blog Tip 14. Comment on other Blogs
Have you ever started commenting on someone else’s blog and found that your comment turns into quite an epic!? You get to the end of it and you realize that you’ve been so inspired that you’ve virtually written a blog post? Maybe you have.
Blog Tip 19. Start writing the Middle of your Post
If you’re anything like me, one of the hardest parts of writing a post is starting it. Introductions can be easy to get stuck on and so I often simply skip them completely and write the meat of the post first before going back to write the introduction. In a sense your introduction then becomes a conclusion…. at the start of your post.
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Daily Blogging Ideas
The last resource I would like to bring to your attention to is a website called Daily Blogging Ideas. You can sign up to receive, by email, a daily blog idea – as well as find previous ideas on the website. This website is the creation of Michelle Shaeffer.
She gives such ideas as:
Commentator for the Day
On any given day there are *thousands* of topics in the news. Share what you think about one of them.
Create a Resource List
Brainstorm a topic your readers would be interested in and then offer a resource list
Overcoming Challenges
What challenges can you share in a blog post?
There are an extensive number of other websites that have posts on this very idea. So, if you cannot find any that you can use here (which I would find hard to believe) you can always do a Google search and see what you can come up with.
Happy Blogging!!
Thank you Stacey for sharing these great resources. Turned out into quite an interesting blog post 🙂 Classical music works well every time I write a blog post. It kind of boosts my creativity which equals connectivity according to Michael Schwartz.
Another technique I use it start with a list, like 7 things to do or 5 things you should avoid.
Keywords kind of help me too. Just today I wrote a post about Email Marketing. It’s based on an audio file by Brian Clark and Sonia Simone. While I was listening to their quite informative and very entertaining encounter of smart minds, I took notes which turned out to be a great list for Email Marketing.
Linkedin answers is also a great resource for inspiration.
Well, thanks again and hope these tips have any added value too.
Enjoy your weekend 🙂 Juan.
Juan,
Thank you for the comment and the ideas. The music one is definitely worth a try. I also like the 7 or 5 things to do.
If you want to read the post that Juan referred to you can find him at https://www.mirroryourself.nl
Thanks again,
Stacey
Stacey, an excellent post, as usual. I particularly like the tip about commenting on other blog posts. That happens a lot! I find going for a walk works wonders. Sometimes the answer to a client question can be turned into a blog post if it’s a problem that other people might encounter.
Thanks, Sue.
Thanks for the comments, Sue.
That is also a great tip, about the client questions being good fodder for blog posts.
Stacey,
Great post … more ideas for me! Ted.com is always helpful as well as reading & commenting on blogs (see I’ve already written down a couple of ideas!). I recently signed up for Chris Brogan’s Blog Topics and this is giving me lots of ideas. Now I just need to sit down and write!
Hi Julie,
Thanks for the comment and I am pleased you had some ideas. I was looking at Chris Brogan also – you can never have too many ideas.
Thanks again!
Stacey
Often I refer back to my books. I forget not everyone knows what I know about my business so in researching I find something interesting I haven’t written about.
Yes, that is a great tip. I think it is easy to forget that not everyone knows the same things.