A Detailed Guide On Finding Your Next Blog Post Ideas
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In order not to have writer’s bloc you have to be quick to come up with ideas for your next blog post if you are starting a blog or already have a blog.
I see a lot of blogs giving you a list of blog posts to write about but unless you actually have a blog in the niche or you know what to write on the subject, I don’t see how that’s going to help you moving forward.
If you stay to the end I will share with you the tools I use to help me with blog post ideas when I’m stuck, but before I get there I want to break down how to actually come up with ideas on what to write about so you don’t have to study other people’s blog about blog post ideas.
The purpose of this post is to teach you how to know what people want so you can write relevant topics. Hopefully by doing that, you will know how to do the research and come up with your own topics in whatever niche you’re in.
Here’s What You Will Learn:
- Understanding your audience
- How to use Google for blog post ideas
- How to use Quora for blog post ideas
- How to use Amazon for blog post ideas
- How to copy other people’s ideas ethically
- How to use an audience for blog post ideas
- How to use Google Trends for blog post ideas
- Tools to use for blog post ideas
Understanding Your Audience
The one thing that you need to remember when writing a blog post is that you are not writing for yourself.
Rather you are writing for an audience to help them solve a problem that they may have.
Most blogs therefore answer people’s questions and is an information resource to assist people in finding a solution to their pain points.
Therefore when you are writing a blog, don’t write 4000 words about your life. What happens in your life does not matter unless you are writing for your mom, dad or significant other.
What you want to do however is write about a certain topic that people can take value away from and possibly put some steps in place to get results.
How exactly do you find topics that your audience wants to read? There are many places that you can go to, that literally tell you what your audience wants to know and in the next few paragraphs I am going to break them all down so you can start using each of them to come up with great blog post ideas.
How To Use Google To Get Blog Post ideas
Inspiration for your next blog post can be found on Google’s massive database.
An insane number of people use Google everyday to search for answers to their questions. The reason why you want to use Google and not YouTube (although YouTube is owned by Google) is because when people go to YouTube they are searching for a video.
They’re not searching for a blog. Sometimes, if not most of the times, when they go on YouTube they’re looking for a visual demonstration of how to do something, which a written blog post cannot provide.
So starting with Google here’s what I would recommend you do when looking for your next blog post.
Start with your niche idea.
Plug in that keyword into the Google search bar. In this example I have used black pug dogs as my keyword and my niche idea is black pug dogs.
When I enter this keyword into Google these are the results I have.
As you can see Google has given me four topics that most people are searching for. So if I was in the dog niche and wanted to write about these topics, here’s what I would come up with:
- 10 Mistakes Not To Make When Buying A Black Pug
- What Are Black Pugs Like And How To Take Care Of Them
- How To Include A Black Pug As Part Of Your Family
- All You Need To Know About Black Pugs And Gaming
Next if you scroll down to the bottom of the search page Google gives you more topics that you can write about – topics that people are actually searching for.
Using these ideas, here are a few topics that I think are useful:
- Black Pug v Fawn Pug: The Pros And Cons
- Top 10 Facts About Black Pugs
- How To Raise And Groom Pug Puppies
- The Best Places In India (or whatever country) To Buy A Pug Dog
- How To Choose A Pug Dog And What Their Color Means
So far, using Google and this method I have already thought of nine blog post ideas.
How To Use Quora For Blog Post Ideas
One of the best resources for content ideas is Quora.
Quora is a website where people who want answers go to either ask questions or find answers to their questions.
So the logic is, if people are asking questions here and more than one person asks the same question, it means that there is a potential gap that can be filled with a blog post that answers the question.
So let’s see how this works in practice.
Start at Quora.com.
In the search bar I will enter my keyword related to my niche Travel.
Quora gives five topics that I can narrow down my search. These topics are what you will call your sub niche.
This is useful because if you have a travel related blog that is divided into sub-niches, you can see what type of questions people are asking on Quora in each sub-niche making it easier for you to plan your content strategy.
For the purposes of this post I will select International Travel.
Now I am going to look through the questions and see which one question keeps getting asked most of the time.
I see that three people have already asked “what should I know before travelling to [name of country]”.
Therefore a blog post series that covers several countries can be a great start if you are in the travel niche.
Remember that we chose International Travel as a sub-niche. If you want more ideas then visit each sub topic to find more questions that can be answered in a blog post.
How To Use Amazon For Blog Post Ideas
Using Amazon to find blog posts is unconventional but it does provide valuable insight into what people want to read when it comes to particular topics.
How exactly is that done?
We are going to use Amazon Books to help us find blog post ideas in the niche of your choice.
First start at Amazon and select their Books section.
Now type in your niche keyword in the search bar.
In this example I will use the keyword Wine.
Once the search results come up look for books where there are high customer reviews.
Click on the book that you want to choose then look for the Look Inside symbol to take a look inside the book.
Review the chapters of the book and you will get ideas for your next blog posts.
From this book I have gotten the following blog post ideas in the wine niche
- What Makes Great Wine Great
- What It Takes To Make Wine
- How Is Wine Made
- Making Wine From Grapes
- How To Taste Wine Like A Professional
- How To Pair Foods With Wine
- Top Ten Questions Wine Drinkers Ask And What You Need To Know
The Amazon Book method makes it easy for you to know what your audience wants to read as the writer of the book would have done all the research for you.
Furthermore the number of customer reviews tells you how popular the topics are and is a surefire sign that these are the type of topics that your audience in the related niche wants to read.
To get more ideas simply repeat the steps.
How To Copy Other People’s Ideas Ethically
The internet is full of blog posts that have been recycled and rehashed. But you can always take content that has been written elsewhere and improve upon it to create your own.
One way to do this is by taking pieces of other people’s content and stacking them up to create a better post.
For example if I am writing a blog post about how to make money online, I can do a Google search and see what’s already on the internet.
So far I see a bunch of list articles with the biggest list article being the top 40 ways to make money online.
When I go to the website I see that the categories are short and to the point.
If I wanted to copy this idea, I would create a blog post that gives a lot more value, is more detailed and includes more ways to make money online.
So my blog post would be something like The Ultimate Top 100 Ways To Make Money Online.
When I take a post that has already been written by someone and improve upon it, I am creating a more valuable resource that gives the reader more information and a greater insight into what they’re looking for.
If my page is attractive and the reader is drawn into what I have written they will stay on my website longer helping me improve the SEO value of my website.
Whilst this method takes a bit more time as it involves research and reading what is already on the internet, it is a useful way for providing long form content which Google wants to see from website owners.
How To Use An Audience For Blog Post Ideas
If you already have an audience or are part of a group where people in your niche congregate, then you can leverage that audience to find your next blog post idea.
So for example, you may be part of a Facebook group for moms or a Linked In group with SEO enthusiasts.
The easiest way to find out what people want to read about is to ask them.
The answer comes straight from the horse’s mouth.
To make this work you will start by finding a group that has a high number of active members. Then ask a question like “What is the biggest challenge you have with [your niche]?”
Once you have sufficient answers tally up the most repeated answer and write a blog post about it that solves the challenge.
You can do this with social media groups.
You can also do this with an email list if you have one.
The great thing about using this method with your own email list is that you are speaking to an audience that already knows you.
So by providing more value to them in this way, makes you more of an authoritative figure.
Plus by answering to the questions in a blog post, you are more than likely to get instant traffic to that blog post once you have delivered it.
How To Use Google Trends For Blog Post Ideas
Google Trends offers important insights into a topic that is trending and that tons of people are interested. You can therefore use Google Trends to find ideas for blog posts that are timely and which is likely to help generate a stream load of traffic to your site that engages your audience.
The only pitfall with this however is that trending topics are not evergreen and so do lose their appeal after sometime.
For example if you are in a niche that is seasonal and trending during the summer, expect that you will have high volume traffic during the summer and very low traffic outside of the summer periods.
This can impact on income streams so always be sure to have other material that is relevant to help keep cash flow running.
To start using Google Trends go here.
On the home page you will find a list of topics that are already trending over the past 24 hours.
You can also use the search bar at the top of the page to find topics that are trending in your niche.
Or you can use the All Categories menu to find topics trending in a certain interest.
Let’s see how this works.
To start we will enter a keyword of our choice in the niche we are writing in.
For this example I have used smartphones for the Technology niche.
When I scroll down to Related Topics and Queries I see other useful information that tells me what topics are currently popular.
It is from here that I can think of blog post ideas to write about.
So a blog post about the Top 10 Best Smart Phones of 2018 could be a great commercial blog post monetised using Amazon Affiliates.
I could also do a blog post titled Nokia 3310 Review or a comparison review between the Nokia 3310 and a competitor.
Google Trends always offers fresh new ideas for all types of content. It’s a great way of finding topics that you would not ordinarily think about and helpful to show you what the audience is looking for right now.
Tools To Use For Blog Post Ideas
So there you have it. Some great ways to find endless content for your blog.
If you don’t like doing all the hard work and want things a little bit easier there are tools on the internet that can help you generate blog post ideas.
These tools may not always provide the best ideas that make sense but they do give you something to work with.
SEO Pressor Connect
With the SEO Pressor Connect blog post idea generator all you need to do is enter your keyword and describe your keyword then click on the green button to generate blog post ideas.
Whilst this automatic generator comes up with interesting blog titles, some of them don’t particularly make sense. Do not worry as you can always get inspiration from what titles do come up and create your own.
Fat Joe Blog Title Generator
Just like the blog title generator above, you simply enter a keyword into the Fat Joe blog title generator and you are fired back with ten blog post ideas which you can either use or tweak to create headlines which are more relevant to you.
Also pay attention to the friendly disclaimer.
Tweak Your Biz Title Generator
This title generator offers a lot more than just titles.
It breaks down the results into list ideas, question ideas, how to ideas, celebrities, motivation, business and gerund type article ideas.
So if you have used list articles in the past and want a change, you have a wide selection of How To articles that you can choose from.
Blog About by Impact
Whilst I do not consider this the best way to come up with blog post ideas, it is useful for helping you figure out what you can blog about.
Simply use the recycle button and it returns to you randomly generated words that you can blog about.
Click on the Next button and it generates blog titles that whilst it may not make sense you can use it to stimulate ideas for blog titles.
Time To Wrap Up
Ok folks so that is pretty much it. Trying to figure out what to write for your blog does not have to be a mind boggling task.
The internet is full of useful resources that you can use to find your next blog post idea so whenever you ask yourself, “what should I write about?” remember the tools and steps here that you can use to generate your next blog post idea.
If you have any other ways that you find ideas for blog posts leave them in the comments section below.
This was a long one so I hope this helps and you get some value out of it.
Cheers,