One thing people often ask me is how do you find content for all of your blogs? Writers and bloggers are now looking for unique and interesting topics to post on their sites that has not been written about in other sites. If the only place you are looking for content is inside your own head… well I guess you need to look further. Having your own blog can be fun and simple but what happens when you run out of things to write? We all need some type of inspiration to keep your blog fresh. One thing you need to know when writing a blog is that creating lots of great content will bring substantial amount of traffic. People don’t want to read the same thing they just read at CNN or the New York Times, they want to hear your personal experiences, they want comedy and edge and how do you create these topics? To help your creative inspirational motor running I created some techniques for generating great blog content and topics.
1. Google Alerts: Set your alerts with a few industry key words depending on what type of blog you are writing for, such as if you are in the fashion industry your key words should be fashion, trends, designers, fashion week. If you are in the food industry use key words like, chefs, restaurants, wines, hotels ect.. You will receive at least 20 stories a day of headlines with interesting links. When you get several related stories save them onto your file and use them in the future.
2. Browse through national newspapers and magazine stories. Talk about national trends but use your personal opinion and experience to make it unique. Your audience will begin to rely on you to comment and address their concerns.
3. Ask yourself what will happen next? What do you think will be the next big trend? Point it out let your readers know you are ahead of the curve.
4. Read small publication. Check the experts columns in local papers, see what type of topics they are blogging about.
5. Read your competitors. Subscribe to several competing blogs depending on what your blog is about. If you write on a similar topic, you can give the other blog link love.
6. Try a new medium. Burned out of writing? Look at YouTube videos, listen to podcasts, watch TV shows or radio broadcasts.
7. Become a problem solver. What are the biggest problems your readers face and how can you help them?
8. Find a Mentor, have them look at your blog and point out what’s missing.
9. Do an interview. Do you have a favorite thinker in your space? Get in touch with highly successful entrepreneurs you will be surprised how helpful they can be.
10. Review your greatest hits. Read your most popular blogs, look for ways to take a slightly different approach and further illuminate the same topic.
11. Have a debate, people love conflict and they love drama. Invite someone you strongly disagree with on for a point/counterpoint blog post.
12. Make a prediction, everybody wants to know what’s going to happen next. Grab attention with your thoughts on the future of your sector.
13. Review you the past. How has your industry changed in the past 5 to 10 years? Look for milestones for reflection.
14. Where are they now? If you know of an industry bigwig who’s been out of the spotlight but now they’re back,
15. Do a product review. Is it a ripoff or valuable? Does it work?
Again, these are a few tips just to get you started, what other techniques do you use to create content for your blog?
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xo
Loren
