5 ways to generate ideas for your next blog post

Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

Have you ever known you needed to do a blog post and sit in front of the computer and draw a total blank?

You start getting frustrated because you know you need fresh content for your blog but….

You don’t have any ideas at all and your mind has gone on strike. Here are 5 ways to generate a topic and get the creative juices flowing. They will also help you in many other ways.

1. Google Reader – (or any feed reader you prefer) You should be following other blogs on your topic already and adding them to a reader makes it very easy to check them quickly. A quick spin through there lets you see what is new. (It also can be useful for commenting for back links.)

I like to pull a news feed on my topic in to the reader too. Most news feeds have an rss feed so add that to your reader of choice.

2. Google Insight For Search – Stop there and add your keyword. I prefer to use a 7 day time frame to start and expand out to 30 days if I don’t get enough results. You will see the latest news stories but what I really like is the area on the bottom right that shows the topics with increasing searches.

A great chance to get in on new interest.

3. Technorati – Do a search for your topic and use the newest option. Older out of date posts may have more authority but this will show you the newest topics. (Another great way to find blogs to comment on too.)

4. Stumble Upon – Another great place to see what is hot in your area. Search by topic and you will see the latest and can rank them by number of reviews or ratings to sort the wheat from the chaff.

5. Digg – Use again to sort for your topic and by newest. If you don’t you will see by diggs which may or may not give you current hot topics.

Now there are plenty of other social sites and some may be more popular for your topic than these. Each niche would be different.

So the next time you get that writer’s block take a few minutes and stop at these sites to trigger the creative juices.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold