5 Easy Ways to Brainstorm Ideas for Your Blog

Creating content is hard, especially when you’re doing it on a regular basis. Eventually you’ll find yourself staring at a blank page (or blank screen!), hands poised to write but nothing comes out. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but as someone that does this for a living I can tell you it happens to all of us.

But generating new content doesn’t have to be terrible or time-consuming. There are ways to create unique and value-adding content in just a few minutes… without making yourself crazy.

Here are 5 ways:

Keywords

I’m sure you’re incredibly tired of hearing about keywords, SEO, Google algorithms and the like (to be honest, I am too), but don’t give up on me yet. All that work that you’ve been doing to optimise your website, that is more than just something you have to do to keep Google happy. That is literally what your audience wants to know about.

If you’re a copywriter (like me), and you need an idea for a blog post (like me), and one of your top keyword search phrases is ‘ideas for blog post’ (like me) you might think about writing a blog post on ‘5 Easy Ways to Brainstorm Ideas for Your Blog’ (like me).

Another example: if you’re a website designer, and you know one of your top searches is ‘how to pick a website theme’ and you have a lot of clients that sell products online but aren’t super tech savvy you might want to write a blog post on ‘The 10 Most User Friendly E-commerce Websites’.

There are hundreds of keywords for you to use to generate ideas regardless of your industry. And if you don’t have a keyword report, or it’s old, you can easily build one quickly yourself. Just sit down with a pen and paper and think, ‘what would I type in if I wanted to find me’. Then use those keyword strings to inspire you.

What’s Trending

Writing about what’s trending in your field is a great way to add value. Check out industry news, international and local media, and any other sources of content that apply to your particular field.

And don’t forget social media. In fact, one of the best ways to see what’s trending is to follow hashtags on Instagram.  For example, I follow #copywriter and #freelancer, and because these collate posts from all over the world they help me to get an idea of what’s going on in those industries.

I’m not saying steal someone’s post or idea! Don’t do that. I’m just saying keep an eye on what people are talking about. It pays to see patterns and stay informed.

Recycling

Recycling is all the rage these days, and you should be making sure you recycle not just your milk cartons and kombucha bottles, but your old blog posts as well. This doesn’t mean just reposting an old article (although I have seen that done quite well on one or two occasions), but using your old posts to inspire new versions that take into account updated information or data.

If you’ve come to have a new perspective on a situation, write about it. Or simply check in – have things turned out the way you thought?

Campaigns

Sometimes it helps to think of your blog posts like campaigns. Once you come up with an idea, mine that for two, three, even five different blog posts. Write them as Parts 1 through 5 even.

For example, I could have written this post in five parts. My first post could have been a more in-depth discussion of using keywords to create content. My second, on how to search out what’s trending in your industry, my third on recycling old content for new content… and so on.

How Tos

‘How To’ posts are one of the greatest blog content ‘tricks’ of all time. That’s because you are giving your audience value – they are learning something from you and it doesn’t cost them anything. 

If you are a business owner, you are probably an expert of some kind. Share this with your audience. If you’re in a trade, safety guides are great, such as ‘How to Stay Safe at Heights’. If you are social media strategist, you might write, ‘How to Create Facebook Ads that Get You Noticed’.

This post is essentially a ‘how to’ as well – instead of ‘5 Easy Ways to Brainstorm Ideas for Your Blog’ it could just have easily been called ‘ How to Brainstorm Ideas for Your Blog’.

Creating content can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Use these five tricks to help you produce value adding, original blog posts without breaking a sweat. Remember, as long as it is something that your audience wants to know, then it’s going to add value for them. That’s the key!

 

Kristen creates killer blog posts for her clients every day. Reach out here if you’d like to chat more. If you’d like to hear her speak IRL, check out her guest appearance on The Busy Mum Podcast, here.