21 Ways to get Post Ideas for your Blog
[su_dropcap style=”default” size=”3″ class=””]H[/su_dropcap]ave you ever faced the writer’s block, or even the blogger’s block? Every writer/blogger faces them at some point or the other. What do you do when you’re just out of ideas to write about? You read tons of blogs and yet you can’t seem to think of what to write about. Well, this post will help you get some ideas for your next post. Read on.
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1. Ideas Hover in the Shower
I’m sure you knew this one already, but didn’t remember you could get ideas when in the shower. Some people even use this water-proof notepad to jot down these ideas, before they forget.
2. Leave Your House
Another way to get more ideas for your blog posts is to go out in the open. When you’re in the open, your mind thinks freely and your brain gets more oxygen to add to this creative thinking.
3. A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed
You can ask some of your friends about any problem they’re facing right now, or one which they faced recently. Everyone faces problems and they can be any kind of problems. If you can solve the problem, you have a great idea for a blog post.
4. Get Ideas from Amazon E-books
Go to Amazon and do a search in the books section for your niche. When you get a list of e-books, sort them by bestselling. You’ll have to do the advanced search for this. Once you find the bestselling book(s) in your niche, on the right hand side, you see “Try it free”. I have Kindle for PC installed so it sent it directly to that app. You may see a different message depending on whether you have a Kindle device or not.
5. Review a Gadget or Device
You surely bought a new gadget or device on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, didn’t you? You can write a review of that device. You’ve used it for some time and surely can write the pros and cons about it. Even if you can’t write a detailed review, you can write a short one and then add to it or update it later someday.
6. Get Ideas from the Idiot Box
I don’t watch TV myself, but this could be a good way to get some ideas for news posts. If you watch the news, or even if you listen to the news on the radio, you can get some blog post ideas from the news, depending on what interests you.
7. Google to the Rescue
This is the father of all post ideas. Just by typing some words into Google can get you many ideas. You should have Google instant searches enabled for this to work. As you do this, you should note down the ideas on paper or in a text file/Word document.
8. Take Out That Mag From Your Bag
Do you have an old bag or drawer, filled with magazines? Take them out and just scan their index for topics or ideas you can use for your blog posts. You’d surely get a few ideas.
9. Get Spiritual
Not just me, but many top writers and bloggers say they get better ideas after doing some meditation. Try it.
10. Did You Forget That List?
If you have an e-mail list, ask one or more questions to your list. Then type their responses into a blog post
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11. If You Can’t Loot Them, Just Shoot Them
Go out with your camera or smartphone, take pics of anything which interests you. Then, write about it on your blog. When you go out with your camera in hand, you’ll start getting more and more opportunities to click your camera at.
12. That’s Just My View
Write a review of anything which you use regularly. That includes your smartphone, camera, laptop, computer, iPod, iPad, anything in the kitchen, and what not.
13. The Best Services I Use
Write a review of any service you use. You surely use services, don’t you? If you’re using a self-hosted WordPress.org for your blog, you’re surely using a domain registrar, a webhost, and probably a few other services. You can blog about them, or any other online or offline service you use.
14. This Tube Can Help Too
Search your niche on YouTube and then search for highly rated or viewed videos. You can get some great ideas from videos, you hadn’t thought about. Even if you don’t get ideas, you can even write a short post about some of the highly rated videos and embed the video into your blog post.
15. Old is Gold
I’m talking about Internet Forums here. Sure, forums are old, but they contain loads of information, and are searchable. You can search old posts from other users in your niche forums, and can even ask for post ideas, or questions. Many people ask questions on forums and reading through such question-posts on forums is a great way to get post ideas for your blog.
16. On Yahoo Answers
If you go to Yahoo Answers, you’ll find many people asking questions related to your niche. Read some questions and answers and you’ll soon get ideas for a new blog post.
17. Chirp Chirp, Tweet Tweet
Twitter can be a good source for getting blog post ideas too. Whenever I use twitter, I mark favorite posts to view them later. These are the posts which interest me, or can give me ideas about blog posts. Later, when I read these posts, I get many ideas. You can do the same to get ideas for your next blog posts.
18. Dig Your Blog
You don’t need to take a shovel for digging here. Just read your old posts and keep a notebook/pen handy. As you keep reading your old posts, you’ll see new ideas come to you. Jot them down.
19. Brainstorm Using Old Post Topics
I read about this in Problogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. What you do is, just write down the last 5 or so post topics you posted recently. Then, take each one and brainstorm around it for a few minutes. You’ll come with many topics this way. I tried this and came with nearly 25 topics with just two of my old posts.
20. Zzzzzzzz
Don’t ask why I’m snoring! I too need a good night’s sleep, to be able to get blog post ideas. No, I’m not kidding here. A good night’s sleep is needed for the brain and the mind to work creatively. You can’t think of new ideas if you’re sleep-deprived! Try it and see. So, the best time go generate your own new post ideas is early in the morning when you get up from bed.
21. Get Ideas from This Idea Generating Machine
Do you know there’s an idea generating machine? So, you want to buy it, don’t you? Now, where do you get such a machine? And, how much does it cost? Well, this is a human idea generating machine, so you can’t buy the man behind it. 🙂 But, you can certainly get the ideas from this guy in e-mail. It does cost a little, but this is the best way to get ideas, if you can’t generate on your own. The guy behind this is Chris Brogan, and you can subscribe to his idea list. He’ll send you 10 ideas each and every week for one year.
22. Bonus
You can get tons of ideas for blog posts from this list post I created for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. It’s a list of list posts and contains links to blog ideas’ posts on other blogs. The ideas total to over 2,500. You can easily get more than 365 from these for an entire year, I’m sure.
What methods do you use to get ideas for your blog posts? Do you use any which aren’t mentioned in this post? Let me know in the comments below.
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Image Credit: Drew Coffman (via Flickr)
January 18, 2014 @ 8:35 pm
I usually take notes right away (and usually when I’m about to fall asleep!). That generally fills up my blogging schedule. Great ideas, Raspal!
January 22, 2014 @ 2:50 pm
Hi Alicia,
It’s a good idea to take notes right away, or you forget. If there’a no book or paper available and you got a great idea and wish to jot down, write on your hand. Later, put them where you generally put those ideas. Every body may not like this, though.
I don’t think I can write when I’m about to fall asleep, though it may be a good time for some people, as that’s one time when your brain and mind are in the alpha stage. I’ve tried doing this early morning and I’m able to get better ideas at that time.
January 22, 2014 @ 12:28 am
Hi! Raspal you write nice but your blog theme is too bold. (positive critics please).
Can you try some thing more typographically soothing like stargazer theme from hybrid frame work.
Any ways nice reading your blog.
January 22, 2014 @ 3:01 pm
Hi Paresh,
What do you mean by the blog theme
being too bold? Do you mean the font size is large? I wanted feedback on this but got no replies when I asked on twitter.
I’ll decrease the font size a bit, if that’s what you meant to say. Bigger sized font is easier on the eyes. Will check out the stargazer theme, later.
Thanks for reading.
January 22, 2014 @ 8:56 am
About #1, I remember reading a comment somewhere about a lady who would run out of the shower naked and with water dripping all over just to write something that suddenly popped into her mind on a notepad. Somebody suggested waterproof markers.
Most of the items in your list I’ve already done at one point or another. Tip #21 is new to me. Thanks for that.
January 22, 2014 @ 3:08 pm
LoL Maricel,
She must have thought she discovered something great like Archimedes.
As I mentioned in the link in #1, the AquaNotes are very good for jotting down when ideas come in the shower. Just 5 bucks a piece at Amazon. It’s also rated high by people who buy and use it.
Thanks for dropping by.
January 27, 2014 @ 11:16 pm
Hello, it was really amazing when I was reviewing your tips. Very praiseworthy ideas to write. Actually which we see regularly, all are the topics to write. Especially what are happening in technology world, they are best to write for blog. Hope, you will be also agree with me.
February 20, 2014 @ 4:09 pm
Hi Nahid,
You can surely write about technology, if you like. It’s surely nice to know and write about the new things happening in the technology world. Depends on the topic of the blog you select, though. I agree, what you see daily, can all make you get more ideas for new posts. New ideas are everywhere around you!
January 28, 2014 @ 9:17 am
Lot of good tips here, a good nights sleep is very important, I can always tell when my lack of sleep hurts my writing. Going over old posts is another tip that I forget about from time to time. Thanks for the reminder.
February 20, 2014 @ 4:05 pm
Surely, sleep is the first thing you need for clear thinking, which is essential for getting ideas and focused writing. You may do some physical work with less sleep, but mental work needs a good night’s sleep.
Thanks for reading.
February 5, 2014 @ 12:25 pm
Hi Raspal,
Great ideas you have here. I am always out of ideas on what to write on my blog Salon Furnish Blog, because it is about one topic only and writing posts for my blog is really hard for me. My ideas will often go to my first post I write then following it with others is really hard.
Good thing I read this and I realized that going through those sites you suggested will give me lots of new things that I can incorporate with my writing.
Thanks for this post. It really made my life easier. 🙂
February 20, 2014 @ 4:01 pm
Hi Charice,
Thanks for visiting. Though not related to your blog topic, you can find this post I wrote last October, having links to blog post ideas’ posts, which total to about 2500 ideas.
Even though these aren’t related to your blog topic, if you start reading the ideas, your mind will give you a lot of new ideas for your blog topic too. Try it and see, it works!
February 7, 2014 @ 4:41 pm
Hi Raspal,
Does Directory Submission is stop after update of Penguin 2.1 update, please update me via email.
February 9, 2014 @ 7:38 pm
Hi Raspal,
I love the forums suggestion. I get a lot of post ideas, or ideas to add to a specific post from IMDB. It can be irritating to browse through the immature or rude stuff, but there are some interesting arguments going on. Once I had an idea for my dating blog because some people were complaining about the age difference between a potential onscreen couple, so I wrote about dating older people for both genders, gave my opinions and asked what difference was acceptable according to the readers. I also had some examples from real life and TV.
Another favourite of mine is solving/discussing problems of friends (as you mentioned) or my own.
February 12, 2014 @ 11:38 pm
Yes, forums are a surely a nice place to get future post ideas. I had a client who, along with writing blog posts, wanted me to answer and solve problems at Yahoo answers. That was where I used to get ideas about my next posts. I was new to blogging at that time. If you do some research, you’d get some great forums, Q/A sites related to just any topic on the planet.
Thanks for visiting.
July 2, 2014 @ 2:45 am
Your Points are spot on Raspel, best way, I use to ask my friends for topics related to the niche I am working on.
I was unaware of few though, like you mentioned by amazon e books. Gotta try..
Thanks for helping, its good to read this useful post early in the morning.. 🙂
July 6, 2014 @ 8:21 pm
Hi Raspal Seni, Your writing style is great. Anyway, The Idea no 1 is really interesting to me. because, Before I reach this page, I thought, The #1 idea is just useful for me and no other people using it.
February 10, 2015 @ 7:21 pm
Hello Raspal, I am first time on your blog and came from one comment you made on another blog. I am quite amazed with the articles you shared here on this blog and would love to read more from here.
I have just jotted down couple of ideas you added in this post. I follow many of these but being an entrepreneur of a startup company, I always find it difficult to be consistent with blogging. I have just started to be engaged on different social media Q&A communities actively to come up with new blog ideas and to build relationship and trust. It is helping me a lot to get real time ideas about what people are asking on my niches which can be further explored to help the communities and build a brand.
Regards
Soumya Roy
February 18, 2015 @ 11:51 pm
Hey Raspal,
People are always eager to read posts like this because there comes a time where they hit a wall and they are just out of ideas. Even though I’ve been blogging for about seven years now, I rarely run out of ideas. I’ve had my moments where I wasn’t motivated to write or the ideas I had that I had intended to write about just weren’t speaking to me at that moment. That’s different than not having any ideas at all.
I usually get them from my own readers, other comments, other posts and then of course while I’m out walking they’ll just pop in my head. I have my phone with me so I record myself a reminder so I don’t forget.
Glad you did this list though, very helpful indeed.
~Adrienne