Coming up with new blog post ideas can be difficult. While at one point you probably had hundreds of ideas you could’ve written about, those ideas are all gone and now you’re left with nothing. Don’t worry – it happens to all of us at one point or another.
However, it’s extremely important to have a reservoir of great blog topics, so you can spend more time writing and less time brainstorming. Here is the ultimate guide to coming up with great blog post ideas, so you’ll never be without an article topic ever again.
1. Find Out What Your Audience Wants
Make a habit of writing down every single question that you get asked by someone in your audience. Dig through your old emails. Look for the common topics people are asking about.
Before I started this website, I ran an offline business helping other people start their own websites. I gave each client my email address, letting them know that I’d answer any questions they had about making money online. Eventually, I got so many questions that I decided to launch this site and write about them. These questions became the topics of my earliest blog posts, and it was a lot easier to simply send a link to a post I’ve written than answer the same question 30 times.
Why not adopt the same strategy? If people are asking you about something, they’re probably doing so because they can’t find the answer they’re looking for on your website.
Of course, you can certainly go beyond the questions you’ve been asked personally and dive into some of the questions people are asking others.
One great place to look for blog post ideas is on Yahoo Answers. On Yahoo Answers, people ask specific questions about specific topics and get answers from the community. Because it takes longer to type the question into Yahoo Answers than it does to type it into Google, you can bet that most people asking questions can’t easily find the answer they’re looking for and the topic is relatively untapped. If you decide to write an article based around answering the question, chances are you’ll be ranking for search terms that nobody else is competing for.
After you finish writing your blog post on the topic, you can come back to the original question, answer it briefly, and leave a link to your new blog post in the “sources” section of Yahoo Answers. This is a great way to get quick, targeted traffic to your new article.
2. Tell A Story
No matter how saturated your niche is, the one thing that will always make your blog unique is you. There is nobody in the world like you. You have your own story, and you should make a habit of sharing pieces of it on your blog when applicable.
Stories are an incredible way to build a connection with your readers. They allow your visitors to get to know you on a more personal level, and they engage your reader more than usual. This boosts the relationship between you and your reader, encouraging them to go out of their way to connect with you further.
3. Refresh One Of Your Old Blog Posts
Blog posts you write today may not be relevant forever. Even if they are based around evergreen topics, that does not guarantee the information will always be relevant. Industries change. More efficient ways of doing things replace old ones. The world today isn’t the same as it was even just last year.
Instead of coming up with a completely new blog topic to write about, it may be a better use of your time to refresh an old piece of content, especially if that old piece of content is still ranking well in Google.
Remember that it’s your job to provide a helpful and up-to-date resource for your readers. Search engines will still send visitors to your old content, and if that content is no longer relevant, it will do nothing but frustrate your new visitors.
If you want to maintain your rankings, you can always redirect the old blog article to the newer one, or simply leave the old one in-tact and simply make the reader aware that an updated version is available.
Taking this idea further, you could even compare and contrast the old piece of content, making your readers aware of how things have changed over the years!
4. Steal Ideas From Your Competitors
One of the easiest ways to come up with new blog post topics is to simply visit one of your competitor’s websites, find some of their old articles, and write about the same exact topic.
Here’s the thing: You’ve got to do it better. You can’t just paraphrase what they have already written. That is plagiarism, and the content will come out horrible. Instead, you’ve got to add your own spin to it and make your article unique.
Ideally you’ll only actually use ideas that you actually have a thorough knowledge of. This allows you to take the content in an entirely new direction, allowing you to add your own voice, your own thoughts, your own ideas, and your own story.
Be honest with yourself. If you can’t create a post better than your competitor did, than you should probably move onto a different idea until you can.
Of course, you could also use your competitor’s blog posts to inspire a completely different article topic. For example, if I ran an iPhone blog and my competitor was writing about “5 Ways To Market Your Mobile App,” I could take that, spin it, and write an article called “5 Ways NOT To Market Your Mobile App – Common Mistakes You Must Avoid.”
While you should always be looking to come up with unique blog post ideas, stealing a few from your competitors is never a bad idea. Competition is great for the consumer.
5. Write An Opinion Piece
Opinion pieces work wonders for building the relationship you have with your existing audience.
Every one of us has unique opinions about any given topic, and opinion pieces are some of the quickest articles you can write. They engage your audience, allow them to get to know you better, and allow you to brand yourself a certain way.
Best of all, opinion articles tend to go viral far more often than information articles. I don’t know about you, but if I’m browsing Facebook I’m far more likely to click on a rant than an article teaching me how to craft good blog headlines.
Remember, people use Google primarily to search for information, and social networks primarily for entertainment. As bloggers we may use social media for business, but that does not mean our audience also does.
6. Read News Related To Your Niche
One good way to find ideas for opinion pieces is to read news related to your niche. Even if your blog does not cover news, reading news sites can be a very good way to spark related ideas.
For example, a few years back when I was working on my iPhone blog, there was a news article that leaked Apple’s plans for a gold colored iPhone. I took that and instantly came up with a wide variety of potential articles to write about:
- Why Would Apple Make A Gold iPhone?
- 10 Best Gold iPhone Mockups From Around The Web
- Will The Gold iPhone Become The Most Popular Choice?
3 separate articles from just one headline. New news articles were out daily, and this alone was enough to come up with a limitless supply of new blog article ideas.
7. Invite Guest Bloggers
If you’re having a hard time coming up with articles to write about, consider bringing a guest blogger on-board. Guest bloggers will write and publish an article on your site, granting them exposure and you a much needed-break from writing. You both win!
If you’ve been networking with other bloggers in your niche, I’m willing to bet that there are a few people who would love to have the opportunity to write on your site. Why not ask? The worst thing that can happen is they say no, in which case you simply ask somebody else.
8. Utilize Proven Post Formats
There are some types of posts that are universally loved by readers. You can’t go wrong using one of these:
How To Posts
How to posts teach the reader how to do something. These types of posts are great for attracting organic traffic and solving your reader’s problems, along with portraying as you as a knowledgeable authority in your niche. This article is an example of a How To post.
List Posts
List posts are everywhere, and that’s because they work. They’re well-organized, easy to read, and readers love them. Best of all, they’re extremely flexible, allowing you to cover a wide variety of topics.
- 6 Ways To…
- 4 Reasons Why…
- Here Are 7 Reasons Why X is Y.
Interviews 
Conducting an interview with an authority figure in your niche is a great way to build your audience and build your brand. By associating yourself with an authority, you portray yourself as authority as well. It’s also worth mentioning that whoever you interview will also likely end up sharing the interview with their audience, bringing you new visitors!
Expert Roundups
The same sort of thing happens with expert round-ups. Expert roundups are simply where you contact the greatest experts in your niche and feature them in some way. This can be anything from asking them all a specific question to simply featuring all of their blogs within your article.
- 10 Dog Training Bloggers You Should Check Out
- 20 Blogging Experts Share Their #1 Secret For Success
- 7 X Bloggers Give Their Best Advice On Y
Infographics
Infographics are pleasant to look at, quick to create, and get shared extremely frequently. If you do not want to come up with your own infographics, you may find people who are willing to let you use theirs. You can expand upon the infographic further by writing a bit about the information within the infographic.
Ultimate Guides
Ultimate guides cover one topic in an extreme amount of detail. These types of articles go above and beyond your regular blog posts and aim to become the best resource on the given topic. This article is an example of an ultimate guide.
Bear in mind that ultimate guides really need to go above and beyond the normal quality of content you put out, and should only be published every so often. If you saturate the title, it will have less of an impact in the future.
9. Take A Break
Sometimes it’s best if you do not write at all. Let me explain.
As bloggers, we know that it’s extremely important to put out the highest quality content possible. Putting out junk will frustrate your readers, and prevent new readers from returning. Junk content does not engage your readers and they will not take any further action to connect with you.
Here’s the problem. It’s hard to create good content when you have to force yourself to write. You lose the emotion behind your writing. It becomes boring and sounds forced. As a result, your article’s quality suffers.
If you’re not in the mood to write, that’s fine. Take a break, and come back to it later when you’re in a creative mood.
Ideally, you’ll have a good number of blog posts written in advance, preventing you from having to immediately come up with a topic to write about.
10. Once You’ve Got Ideas, Make Sure You Keep Them!
Coming up with blog post ideas is pointless if you are not able to turn them into fully developed articles. If you forget your article ideas before you have the time to make something out of them, than you’ve done nothing but wasted your time.
Blog post ideas can pop up at the strangest times. Unless you spend most of the day at your computer, chances are you won’t be able to instantly turn them into articles. That’s fine, and the solution is simple: write them down!
Write down every single blog idea that you think of, whether you think you’ll use it or not. If you do not have a smartphone you can write them on, carry a notepad and pen with you. Whenever an idea pops into your head, write it down then and there. It is estimated that our short-term memory lasts only 30 seconds, so do not procrastinate and tell yourself that you’ll “write it down later.” You won’t. You’ll forget it, and what could have turned into a fantastic blog post is now just a lost memory.
A Few Other Tips…
Dedicate Time To Come Up With Ideas
It may be beneficial to dedicate a set amount of time solely to coming up with new blog ideas. This will get you into a creative mood, allowing you to come up with many ideas quite quickly. Be sure to write all of them down!
Look For Common Topics
If there are a ton of other bloggers writing about a certain topic right now, that is probably a sign that there is a lot of interest. Why not hop on board and add your own article to the mix?
Run A Survey
Ask your readers exactly what they want to read about by running a survey. Making your readers feel like their voice matters is a great way to connect with them further.
Consider Cutting Back Your Posting Schedule
If you feel that you’re spending too much time writing, consider cutting back your schedule. This allows you to focus more time on marketing your content, as well as building up other areas of your business such as your email newsletter. (See: 25 Guaranteed Ways To Increase Your Email Opt-ins!)
Conclusion
If you take the time to make use of the information within this article, you should never have a problem coming up with blog post ideas ever again.
Of course, the methods mentioned here aren’t the ONLY ways to come up with great ideas – there are many others as well that we have yet to discover.
We all handle things differently and come up with our own ways of doing things as we gain more experience. If you have a method you use to come up with ideas for your blog posts, it would be awesome if you would share it with all of us!
We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Hi James
Great ideas, thanks.
At first I used to wonder what to write about, but now as I am more attuned to the idea of having to come up with a weekly blog post, things just seem to present themselves – usually!
Perhaps if people are struggling to come up with topics (especially after reading your excellent ideas) it’s a sign they’re posting too often? I once decided I was going to post every day for 3 months – because I was taught it would “improve my rankings”. Well, I managed it (on an old blog), but I was exhausted at the end of it and I don’t think the articles were my best work. The fact that I now refer to it as an “old blog” gives some indication of how little good it did for me.
Personally I’ve settled down to once a week now, and I try to use a mix of your suggestions above to vary my style of article and keep the blog fresh.
Closely related to your “answer questions” idea is the theme that started my blog off….
I wrote about “mistakes I made”, documented so that I remember how NOT to do it next time, and in the hope of helping anyone else avoid my mistakes!
Probably my favorite types of post to write are “opinion pieces” (rants) and I agree, they’re the quickest and most fun to dash off.
Have a great week, Joy
Joy Healey(Quote)
Hi Joy!
I was the same way for a long time, good blog topics used to be hard to come up with. Looking over my list now I have at least 100 that I want to write about, and more are popping up all the time. I did up my posting schedule for a few weeks but now I’m not sure if I want to continue that – not because I don’t have time to write more often, but I lose a lot of the benefits of posting once a week (such as the incredible amount of comments I get on my posts!)
Funny, I used to publish once a day on my old blogs as well. I kept it up for a while but we all have days where we just don’t feel like writing, and my content quality suffered when I had to force myself to come up with something for that day.
Looks like we had a lot in common haha. Appreciate you stopping by Joy, talk soon!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hi James,
You sure covered just about everything one can do to come up with blog post ideas. And I like the term “Ultimate Guide” used in the headline.
My problem is I have too many ideas lol. But the one thing I do is carry around a small notebook to jot down ideas because they hit me all the time, especially when I’m out. And I do use those questions people ask me as a blog topic. (more to jot down)
Sometimes if I’m reading a blog post that I think I would have a different edge on the topic, I jot that down too and that becomes a blog post. I think I have two or three posts in my back office ready to roll.
I do find that telling a story, or putting in an analogy works well with my readers. I like to mix things up. Sometimes I’ll put in a one minute video for the KLT factor when I see new eyeballs on my blog.
Indeed, these are the Ultimate ways to write a post. From our own stuff, to guest posting, reviews, and so on, one will never be stuck again after reading this post.
Thanks for always providing good value,
-Donna
P.S. I just downloaded your latest book and had to tear myself away because it is fantastic! I wanted to stop everything today to read it, but I’ll pick it up later after my DMO. Great job!
Donna Merrill(Quote)
Hi Donna!
I’m the same way, my list of blog topics has got to be at least 100 articles long and more are being added almost every day. Sometimes if I come up with an interesting idea I have to write the entire post out then and there because I know if I come back to it later it won’t have the same energy behind it.
I really appreciate you adding your valuable ideas to this post. I think it goes without saying, but the methods you use are fantastic. Your blog is one of few that I rarely miss a post on because the content is not only informative, but unique, fun to read, and engaging.
I appreciate you reading my book, but I hope you didn’t pay for it! I’ve actually been trying to send you a free copy for about a week now. I’m not sure if the contact form on your site isn’t working or if you just missed my email, but for all you’ve done for me there’s no way I’d ask you to buy it.
Thanks Donna for your awesome comment, always nice seeing you here!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hi James.
Great advice here my friend.
Biggest (and easiest) one for me? Basing it on your audiences needs (glad you listed it as number 1). A lot of my stuff is based on what questions I get asked through my comments, Twitter and even email. I have even had emails where I have written a post directly about it and then email the person and say ‘your answer is on this post here’.
Another little trick is to look at questions asked on other people’s blogs. yep, steal the questions and turn it into an answer!
Nice tip on Yahoo James, the last time I looked at that it looked like a spam fest. Has much changed?
Richard Martin(Quote)
Hi Richard! Good to see you again.
Funny, I did the same thing when I was launching this site because I was just so sick of answering the same question 30 times. A lot easier to just send them a link to a blog post right?
Last time I checked Yahoo was relatively spam free. I know that they were having spam issues for a while not so long ago but as far as I know they cleared most of it up. Fortunately when it comes to ideas the question is more important than the answers, and Yahoo Answers still has a very large user base.
Great ideas, and I appreciate you sharing them with us. Better not slack off or I may just steal your readers questions and answer them before you can get around to it haha. 😉 I’m joking. At this point I have way too many ideas and not enough time to get to all of them!
Thanks for stopping by Richard!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hi James,
I must say that this is one excellent post about ideas and content.
You are right. Old content will still help folks if it is good.
Keep up the good work,
James
James Savage(Quote)
Hey James!
Appreciate you taking the time to add your insight. I do think it’s important to update posts periodically but if the content is still relevant and it’s still helping people out than that’s great!
Thanks for stopping by!
James McAllister(Quote)
I was tipped off, James, by a certain top blogger, that this site would knock my socks off.
So, I’m here and yea, my socks have been knocked off!
This post is filled with just about everything you need to know about posting great, current, edgy and entertaining articles.
This is the cornerstone to building a blogging business, so you really need to keep focused on it.
I personally find your first point to be the most critical… Find out what your audience wants.
This is not only key to blogging well, but key to your entire internet marketing enterprise.
I know far too many bloggers who write for themselves, not their audience. In fact, many of them don’t even know who their audience is, nor do they care. They’re writing for themselves, primarily… or for Google to get rankings. They take their audience for granted.
When you really know your audience, and really pay attention to what they’re telling you in comments, surveys, social media sites, forum and elsewhere… then you only need to write content that they want. It gets simple if you really know your audience, and really work to give them value and solve their problems.
Very cool post, James… thanks!
David Merrill 101(Quote)
Hey, look who it is! Great to see you David!
It’s strange, because I’ve been watching the videos you do with Donna for months now so it feels like I already know you well, but I believe this is the first time we’ve actually talked.
I agree that the first point is the most important one. Other than providing a better experience for your existing readers, I’ve found that writing for your audience attracts and retains more people similar to them, making it easier to build an engaged community as the reader base tends to have similar ideas and interests. As bloggers we will never be able to please everyone so we shouldn’t waste our time trying right? Instead I think it’s better to write for the type of people who are going to connect with us, and our existing audience is a good indicator of who those people are.
I too have taken note of what I call the “nowhere bloggers.” I’m not sure where they think they’re going and I don’t think they know either. They write for Google thinking it will get them more traffic… but for what purpose? You could have all of the traffic in the world but if those people aren’t engaged with you or your content they’ll never return and they’ll never do anything for you (except run up your hosting costs haha.)
Great to finally meet you David, I’ll be heading on over to your site very soon!
James McAllister(Quote)
hey James,
excellent tips, very detailed and comprehensive
I do keep an off line diary with me to note down the ideas. Sometimes i do it on my cell phone but eventually copy those down on the off line notebook.
I even keep some half started or just the points kind of articles – that can be quickly finished and published at times of need.
Expert round ups are excellent. It is working out really well for us. We got some major tweets from experts and influencers too from these round ups. We have done plenty of infographics and looking foreword to do atleast one every month in the future.
thanks,
Uttoran Sen,
Uttoran Sen(Quote)
Hi Uttoran!
Sounds like you’re going about things the right way huh? Can’t tell you how many great ideas I’ve lost because I didn’t have anything with me to write them down on. These days I carry my phone with me almost everywhere I go so it’s no longer as big of a problem as it used to be.
Good idea to keep half-written articles as well. I personally have a reservoir of completed posts done in case of an emergency where I am unable to write. I was really sick this past weekso I was very thankful I took the time to create those haha.
Appreciate you taking the time to comment here on my site, hope to see you again soon!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hi James,
Tell me the truth here, ‘you’re really a 43 year-old marketer with a background in TV advertising and selling info products’, right?
There aint’ no way an 18 year-old is experienced enough for the level of logic and insight you revealed in this post! Excellent post, btw.
Digging you, uh… ‘kid’. 😉
Edward
Edward Thorpe(Quote)
Hahaha hey Edward!
I have sold quite a few info products over the years but TV is one thing I haven’t gotten into yet. 😉 As for the future… who knows right? I never thought I’d be where I’m at now when I started four years ago so I couldn’t even imagine how my life will be at the age of 43. Strange to think that this blog may still be around 25 years from now. I’ll have to remember to come back to this comment and see how things have changed.
Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for stopping by Edward!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hi James,
One of the raw material for blogging is idea. No matter how tech savy you are or what tools you use, at the end of the day you create a post based on the idea you have.
And ideas are very moody to come by. Sometime they’ll just flood you and sometime they are nowhere to be found. I prefer to grab an idea by its collar when it comes near me.
I carry an old school notepad and a pen with me all the time and jot down any passing idea that crosses my mind. Then I can sit back with time to see what to do with them. Works for me every time.
Keeping oneself updated about the niche you work in, all the time helps me a lot for idea generation.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful guide. Have a good day!
Nisha Pandey(Quote)
Hi Nisha!
That’s the way to do it. Even if you’re able to come up with great ideas, they aren’t too valuable if you forget them before you can make something out of them right? I try to make it a habit of writing down ideas the moment I think of them, because I know if I don’t I’ll forget them. Sometimes I’ll think about them in a bit more depth and add a few more details as well. If I’m really feeling good about the idea, sometimes I write out the entire post then and there, because I know the post won’t have the same energy behind it if I put it off for later.
Like you said, everything stems from the idea. Without the idea, you have nothing to work with at all.
Thanks for visiting Nisha, hope to see you again soon!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hey James!
This is a very detailed post so GREAT JOB!
I’ve really been racking my brain on how to further separate what I write. I really don’t want to be another list post or the next how to post, but dang it, those work pretty damn well lol.
Hope you are having a great weekend. Keep up the great work!
Dennis Seymour(Quote)
Hi Dennis!
Yeah, I think it’s a good idea to mix up the informational how to / list posts alongside more personal or opinionated pieces but there’s no doubt that those two post formats work extremely well. Whenever I write an informative piece I always try to add a bit of myself into it, be it my own unique ideas, stories etc. or just writing in my voice. Makes it a more enjoyable read for my readers that may already know the bulk of the information.
You have a great week too Dennis, thanks for stopping by and commenting!
James McAllister(Quote)
Finally i have found the post that i have been looking for ! whooo This is the most post that no one writes about. When ever i login to my blog i keep thinking what to write even after deciding the topics to write have few confusion whether to write or not ? You have mentioned the great points for blog post ideas. I really like the way you presented. Thanks for the great post.
Shreya(Quote)
Hey Shreya, great to meet you!
Coming up with blog post ideas can be pretty difficult and I was in a very similar situation for a long time. Sometimes I’d think of an idea for a few minutes, and when I couldn’t I would just not write that day. Needless to say, I was much more productive when I was able to build up a list of good topics so it’s no longer an issue.
I’m glad this post helped you, hope to see you again soon!
James McAllister(Quote)
Hey James,
One of the problems I had was remembering the blog ideas I came up with. I use to hate forgetting some of those great topics, until I got smart and started writing them down 😉 And i definitely appreciate the advent of Evernote! Now I can just jot the ideas down from the convenience of my smart phone.
Now i like the idea of reading stealing ideas of your competitors and putting a spin on it. As you mentioned, the idea is to make their content better. To do this, you can go more into detail, or maybe you want to use more images so that your readers can get a good visual of the topic. It’s all about your audience and giving them the more extra, detailed value that they may want or may not know they want.
Also it doesn’t hurt to take some time to brainstorm. As I’ve been getting better at blogging and writing headlines, it can take me between 30min to an hour to write an engaging headline. I was thinking about just the headline itself the night before, and it took me an hour to come up with an attractive headline (yes it was way past my bedtime). So brainstorming would be a great time saver!
Thanks James for the tips here! I might just take on the tip of brainstorming now since I have limited time! Have a great rest of the week!
sherman smith(Quote)
Hey Sherman!
I had the same issue for a long time. There is nothing more frustrating than realizing you had a great idea but not being able to remember it. For the longest time I told myself that I’d remember the ideas as they came to me, but it never ended up happening. If I didn’t write them down then and there, then I’d forget them later on. It was guaranteed. Extremely frustrating.
Your ideas on improving others content is a good one. You have to ask yourself – what makes your work unique? What does your audience like about you? How can you apply those traits to this idea to make it great for your audience?
When you figure that out, there is almost no idea you can’t work with!
Nice seeing you here again Sherman, I really appreciate the value you’ve added to this post with your comment!
James McAllister(Quote)
What a ton of incredibly practical ideas James!
Armed just a handful of these ideas, you can easily, consistently
come up with a ton of useful content.
And that would definitely include, “how to” videos, podcasts
and Slideshare presentations as well.
Strategy # 8 alone, will supply us with tons of useful content ideas,
that we should be able to draw it for quite a while!
Thanks, reading your excellent posts, which I will do a few more times,
really has my creative wheels turning!
Mark(Quote)
Being a Blogger is one of the toughest tasks because coming with new ideas is one of the most Difficult work to do.
Thank you for sharing this amazing Article.
Trupti Patel(Quote)
Hi Trupti, and thank you for stopping by!
You’re right, coming up with blog post ideas is difficult, especially when you’re starting out and you already have so many other things to think about. Fortunately, as you practice brainstorming, it does get easier over time!
James McAllister(Quote)