When You Don't Know What To Write: 10 ways to get and keep those blog post ideas flowing
We all go through it. That dull, horrible pain of not knowing what else we could possibly write a blog about. You're in a drought with no sign of that hidden oasis of ideas.
And what's that term? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink? Or better yet, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
With that, I don't want to give you specific blog ideas, I want to teach you how you can develop your own blog post ideas for a lifetime.
So, here's my top ten list of how to stay current and resources to continue to help you be inspired for blog post after blog post.
1. Subscribe to blogs. Learn from others creativity and ideas. These can be blogs that your competitors write, blogs from an industry expert or even blogs that have nothing to do with what you write about but they are just fun to read! Some of my favorites include: Seattle P-I's The Big Blog, Duct Tape Marketing and PR Squared.
2. Stay current with your events...and write about them! Read the newspaper, watch the morning news before beginning your day or even subscribe to CNN Breaking News alerts to your email. By keeping up with what's going on, you'll get more ideas on what's current and relevant that you can write about.
3. Listen to podcasts. These are great for when you're making dinner, taking the dog for a walk or riding the bus into town. Pop in the headphones and get more ideas blasted into your ears! Some of my can't miss podcasts are: NPR: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, The Moth Podcast and Social Media Edge.
4. Check your Facebook. What are people putting as their status? What comments are people writing? Evaluate the common trends. That can be a blog post....or ten.
5. Check your Twitter. Pretend like I copy and pasted #4 here, but substituted "Facebook" for "Twitter". Same thing. Same good stuff.
6. Subscribe to email newsletters. This might be my favorite item of all. You get so many ideas on a daily basis from topics that directly motivate you. Make sure to subscribe to some of my best bests: PR Daily, HR Communicator, of course, ActiveRain Daily Drop.
7. Set up Google Alerts. These are great to be in the know about everything that's being said about any given topic on the whole, entire, big world of the world wide web. Know when something is said about houses for sale in Seattle, the new park going in down the road, or even you! Go to google.com/alerts to get started.
8. Ask your friends. Sometimes we get in our own bubble of knowledge and assume that everyone knows what we know. Your friends will have an unbiase opinion on what people might want to know about. What have they always wondered about? What questions do they not have answers to?
9. Be conscious. Be always on your toes thinking and coming up with fun ideas. Most of my ideas come to me while laying in bed trying so hard to sleep, but obviously failing because my brain won't stop. Let the ideas come and make sure to write them down!
10. Make a list and keep it handy. You can come up with a million unique and creative blog ideas, but it's not going to be worth a darn thing if you can't remember it! Keep a list with all of the ideas that pop into your head and check items off as you write about them.
Bottom line: keep up to date and don't let your mind shut off. Good luck blogging!
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