Starting a blog is easy enough, but keeping it updated with fresh and engaging content is a whole other matter. The sheer number of abandoned blogs out there on the web speaks volumes about how difficult it is to keep those creative juices flowing and to keep writing quality content. If you are beginning to run out of steam then here are five ways you can find new topics to write about.
1. Captions
Blogs should be timely so a great source of inspiration should be the day’s news items. Look at newspaper and website headlines and captions that could spark an idea. Write about a news story and give your thoughts on it. Use an article for a springboard to a list post or a how to post.
A great way to stay up to date with news in your niche is to sign up for the free Google Alerts service.
2. Comments
If you have readers who comment on your blog then their messages can be a great source of inspiration. Let’s say that you write a blog post about keyword research and someone posts a comment asking for help with using those keywords for article marketing. Right away you have the topic for your next blog post. Read through your comments and identify topics that you can write about simply by answering the questions people are asking on your blog.
3. Companions
It’s unlikely that you are the only website in your niche so another great theme for a blog post is a list or resource post. Gather a list of resources from other blogs and compile them into a list with links to the relevant blog posts that the other authors have published.
4. Community
Spend some time reading other blog posts and hang out in the forums for your niche. What topics are people talking about? What problems do people have that need solving?
You should find a whole wealth of ideas here that you can then turn into blog posts. Write some how to articles to solve the problems you unearthed, or write a post in response to something that another blogger wrote about that you don’t agree with, or that you want to shed new light on.
5. Calendar
Start collecting ideas for posts so that you always have something available when you get stuck for ideas. Keep a notebook where you can write down ideas as they come to you. Better still create an editorial calendar and write down topics that fit best at different times of the year. Try and make sure you have a blog post ideas listed every week so that you can just open your calendar and start writing without even having to worry about what to write about.
