What do you do when inspiration for your umpteenth blog post is low? What’s the solution to a writer’s block or a general lack of ideas? Every writer will encounter a lack of inspiration every now and then. You’ll be staring at your screen, not knowing what to write about. Nevertheless, you are determined to write those blog posts on a regular basis. Luckily, there are many ways to get inspired!
Getting new blog post ideas on your site
1. Inspiration from your audience
If your blog has a comment section for your audience to leave comments, you probably receive feedback. While most of the reactions you get will just be positive (or negative) statements, you might receive questions as well. Perhaps some of these questions are easy to answer in a reply, but other questions will be off-topic or need elaboration. Those kinds of questions are excellent starting points for your next post. You could try keeping a list of relevant questions whenever you come across them, so you have a place to look when inspiration is low.
Read more: How to handle comments on your blog »
2. Performance report in Google Search Console
Google Search Console shows you more than just your crawl errors. Have a look at the Performance report in GSC. The Performance report shows you the search queries people use that your site ranks on. There could be queries on the list that you have never even considered to write about.
Say you have a mom-blog and notice someone ended up on your site after searching for [milkshake during pregnancy]. Perhaps you’ve already written about pregnancy and milkshakes, but not in that combination yet. That could inspire you to write an article on milkshake recipes to make at home and are safe during pregnancy, for example.
3. Consult your keyword research
Everyone who has a solid SEO strategy will have executed proper keyword research. So, you should have a document containing hundreds of words and phrases you want to rank for. Of course, a keyword isn’t a topic for a post yet, but it can be a start.
Pick one of your long tail keywords. What do people actually find if they search for that specific term? Google it. See what turns up. That’ll be the competition. Is it any good? Could you do better? Maybe the results inspire you to write something similar, something that fits in with the present results. But, trying to write something that stands out could also be a strategy, if you’re confident it still matches user intent.
Finding ideas for blog posts on the internet
4. Pinterest
Pinterest is a beautiful source of inspiration, especially for bloggers! It can help you find enough input for your next topics. Search for keywords such as [blog post ideas], [blog ideas], or [what to blog about]. To get even more inspiration fast, include your niche in the search results. For example: [blog post ideas for moms], or [blog post ideas for lifestyle bloggers].
It’s a good idea to be cautious as well. In my opinion, Pinterest is clickbait heaven. Falling into the trap of quantity over quality is easy. Keep your focus or you’ll lose track of time.
5. Content Idea Generator
To be clear, the Content Idea Generator won’t give you ready-to-go article ideas. At best, it will point you in the right direction, at worst it will provide you with a few good laughs to clear your head. For example, you can enter the term [house plant]. Content Idea Generator could give you the following title: ‘The 15 biggest house plant blunders’. A content idea about [wine]: ’17 unexpected uses for wine’. Enter [baby] and a suggestion that might come up: ‘20 ideas you can steal from babies’.
So, while the Content Idea Generator won’t give you immediately what you want, it’s sure to get your creativity flowing. Taking the previous examples, you could expand on that and get the following blog ideas:
- ‘The 15 biggest house plant blunders’: a post about common mistakes people make when caring for the plants in their homes
- ‘17 unexpected uses for wine’: a post about using wine for cooking, cleaning, baking, etc.
- ‘20 ideas you can steal from babies’ : could inspire a blog post about babies’ habits adults should adopt, such as getting enough sleep, dressing up warmly, expressing your emotions, etc…
6. Days Of The Year
Days Of The Year is a website that has some inspiration to offer for all kinds of blogs. This website collects all the funny, bizarre and nice holidays the world has. You can easily lose a couple of hours while scrolling through that site. Keep your pen and notepad at hand, though, because it is bound to give you tons of inspiration. There are days available for every niche. Are you a fan of mythical creatures? April 9th is ‘unicorn day’. There’s also a ‘leprechaun day’ and a ‘howl at the moon day’. May 25th is ‘towel day’, which can give travel bloggers and lifestyle bloggers ideas for posts. Think of blog posts such as: ‘How to keep your towels soft’ or ‘With this information you will never buy the wrong towel again’.
7. Other blogs and fellow bloggers
The internet is full of inspiration for blog ideas, and there are many places to look. Perhaps you follow other bloggers that inspire you. A great way to come up with ideas for blogposts is to read other posts or even just scroll through post feeds. Similarly, you can join Facebook groups that are related to your niche or Facebook groups for bloggers. Discussing ideas with fellow bloggers will surely get your creative juices flowing! Make sure you do not copy people’s ideas, though. And give credit where credit is due.
Get blog post inspiration from your life
8. Current events
Another way to come up with ideas for posts is by thinking about current events from the viewpoint of your niche. To do so, stay tuned on different news sites, or install an alert on specific topics. For your blog, you should translate these news messages to relate to the mission of your blog.
An incredibly relevant example of this is the current outbreak of COVID-19. It affects everyone, so it makes sense to write about it (without taking advantage of the situation or reverting to tired cliches). If you have a mom blog, you could write about ways to spend quarantine with your children, whereas those with a marketing blog could discuss ways to stay visible to customers, and people with food blogs might cover healthy recipes to cook with canned ingredients, to give just a few examples.
9. Your daily activities
Situations from your own work could also be great inspiration for blog posts. You can write about things that happen in your day to day life, and how you go about them. Or even about what you do if your clients or colleagues are faced with a certain problem. It could well be that other people encounter the same problem and are looking for input.
If you write about real-life situations, you should always make sure that you respect the privacy of your client, friends or colleagues and ask for permission to use their case on your blog. For example: a therapist with a blog to give people mental health tips, might want to use examples from their practice. In that case, it’s of vital importance to change names and details in order to protect the privacy of clients – and the future of the practice!
10. Clear your head
Sitting behind a desk and staring at your screen for too long might be the cause of your lack of inspiration. So, change your surroundings. Take a little walk outside, if you can. And if going outside is not an option at the moment, try to find another way to clear your head. You know what works best for you, whether it’s meditation, knitting, exercising or playing with your dog. Relax and think about something else for a while: Once you get back to your computer, you’ll probably feel way more inspired than before.
11. Keep a list of ideas
The solution can be very simple: some days, you have plenty of blog post ideas, some days you don’t. So, prepare for the days you have no inspiration and keep a list of ideas for your blog. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a list on your mobile phone or on paper. Every time you think of a good idea, write or type that idea down. You can use these ideas on days you’re feeling uninspired.
Conclusion
Don’t despair when you’re finding it hard to think of blog ideas. Inspiration is all around you! On your site, on the internet and out there in the real world. Sometimes it just takes a different perspective or approach, and you’ll be good to start writing again! What do you do when your inspiration is running low? Let us know in the comments!
Keep reading: SEO copywriting: the ultimate guide »
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