One of the most challenging aspects of creating content consistently is coming up with new ideas and topics to write about.
At first, creating content is easy. Topics seem to flow, but what happens after you have created a bunch of blog posts? What happens when you have been writing articles for years? How do you consistently come up with new topics?
More importantly, how do you create content around topics that you know your audience will be interested in reading?
Here are 7 Techniques to Generate New Content Ideas.
1) Idea a Day
Each day I jot down a topic or idea that can become a piece of content.
To keep all of your ideas in one place, create a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet needs 3 columns, the date, the day of the week, and the idea of the day.
The purpose of the spreadsheet is two-fold.
- It gets you in the habit of generating an idea and a day.
- It gives you a list of ideas to create content. These ideas can inspire a thought or a topic for an article. Or you can combine several ideas to create a finished piece of content.
2) Google topic and letter search-
This is a fun way to generate ideas that you know people are searching. For this idea, we use Google’s search algorithm and tap into what topics people are searching for.
Type in your keyword in Google.
For this example, I will use the keyword Recreational Vehicle.
In Google, I typed in Recreational Vehicle a. Google returns a list of keywords based on people’s search. Here is what that search returns.
For this exercise, I create a separate spreadsheet because the number of topics can be extensive. Write each of these keywords on your spreadsheet. Next, type in Recreational Vehicle b, and repeat the process for the rest of the alphabet.
Poof! Almost instantly, you now have a plethora of topics to write on.
3) Facebook Group Posts & Comments
This method helps you get involved and engage with people in your community. First, search Facebook groups for potential groups in your niche and become a member of the group. Next, scroll through the post and look for questions people asked. Look for the posts with the most engagement. The more engagement a post has, then the more the topic resonates with your audience. Next, add the topic to your spreadsheet. Plus, you can comment on the Facebook post to provide value to the group members.
4) Google Alerts
This is an easy way to have Google do the work for you. Go to google.com/alerts and type in your keyword. Essentially, you tell Google to send you articles with the best results. Each day you will get an email with content related to your keyword.
Vavoom! Peruse the articles and see if a topic resonates with you. Once you find an article that you like, click on the link and read the article. Next, write an original blog post on the topic with your perspective.
5) Google Trends
Google trends are another way to tap into Google’s search data to find more content ideas. Visit Google.com/trends and then type in your keyword. Google shares a lot of search data about that particular topic. Google will show you search trends, related topics and related queries. After perusing through this keyword email marketing, I found this keyword ‘email marketing course’ and search demand is up 50%. Right now, I’m working on my email marketing course, let’s see how fast I can finish it.
6) Quora Questions
Quora Questions are similar to Facebook groups. You search quora for keywords, and Quora returns questions people are asking based on the keyword. Look for the questions with the most engagement. These topics are ripe for generating content for your site.
7) Buzz Sumo
BuzzSumo shares the results of the most shared content on social media. Type in your keywords, and you will see the most shared articles on social media for your topic. It also shows the number of shares of each piece of content. If people are sharing the content on social media, there is interest in the topic. Click on the links to each piece of content to get an idea of the content being shared. Also, the headlines can give you insight on specific topics. The free version of BuzzSumo returns the top 10 results based on your keyword. The paid version returns a lot more results, and if you have the budget, it is well worth it.
Bonus Method to Generate New Ideas – Survey Your Email List
Finally, one of the best ways to generate ideas and topics is to survey your list about their problems and challenges. Today creating online surveys are easy with SurveyMonkey and Google docs. Plus, some email providers even provide survey tools to engage your list.
There you have several ways to always generate ideas for your next blog post, podcast, video, or any other content you create. Hopefully, with these methods and your content idea spreadsheet, you will never run out of new ideas to write about, and you will always be able to create unique content.
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