I LOVE generating ideas for blog posts. My content idea bank can usually get me through three to four months, two to three posts a week, without having to sit down and brainstorm new ideas. Is that what you want. When it’s time to write, you want to sit down and write. You don’t want to waste time trying to figure out what to write about.

So how do you come up with these great blog post ideas?

oh my friend You have so many fun options! And that’s why I’m going to sit down and spend an entire afternoon coming up with new post ideas. You may get lost in the brainstorming process. That’s why it’s best to block time from this exercise and not try to squeeze it into your writing time. A couple of hours every two months is all you need.

Brainstorm Option 1: Respond to the public

respond to the public it’s a fun place to play. This site pulls questions that people have asked on various topics from all over the web. As an expert in your field, you can get started by answering these questions in your next blog post. If it’s a popular question, your regular readers probably have it too!

You can use this site for free, although you can no longer choose your preferred country without a premium account. Alright. You should still have plenty of questions to draw from.

First, enter your desired topic or keyword. On the next page, you’ll have more questions to answer than you know what to do.

Take these and make them your own. Maybe there’s a good chance your readers know the basics for beginners on your topic, in which case you could change “when should you save money” to “clothing: when should you save money and when should you spend.” Much of the traffic generation simply entices people to click. Making them curious enough that they can’t resist. Get a little creative and think outside the box. There are 4 million “how to save money” posts. Give yours a unique twist. Focus on one area instead of trying to cover everything in one generic post. That will give you more blog posts to write too.

Brainstorm Option #2: Survey your readers

I love polling my readers. So much so that I have to limit myself to twice a year to keep us all from getting distracted. But if your audience is large enough, an annual survey could give you several months of post ideas simply by asking them about their current struggles within your niche.

However, for a survey to be successful, you need a dedicated following, preferably email subscribers, and they need to trust you enough to share their deepest secrets. You need that personal connection for this to work. You can always do it later if you’re not there now.

This doesn’t have to be complicated. If you don’t know how to create a fancy survey with Google Drive, don’t worry! Send an email to let your subscribers know that you’re looking to give them the best information possible, and to get back to you with their top current struggle related to your niche.

Also in this regard, think about the emails from readers and the comments you have received lately. Can you address any other of those concerns?

Brainstorm Option #3: KWFinder

KWF Finder is another tool I use regularly. This tool helps you identify the best keywords to target your posts. It not only tells you how many searches there are on average for a keyword, it also shows you what the competition is like. A keyword like “save money” might get 22,000 searches a month, but the competition is tough. To get a good chunk of traffic for a keyword, you want to rank in the top three results. (About 35% of search traffic goes to result #1, 15% to result #2, 11% to result #3. After that, things slow down substantially.) The current top two results for “saving money” are America Saves and Dave Ramsey. As a small potato blogger, you’re not likely to knock those two off their pedestals.

If I dig further, I might find that “grocery shopping on a budget” is a much better option. Search volume is still decent, but the competition is much more comparable to where I am.

One thing I want to emphasize here is that you won’t always find the perfect keyword for every post. Some niches are extremely competitive and there may be many sites that have been around for a long time. Old sites tend to rank better than new sites. But that’s okay! Your site will also get old one day. And the more Google starts to see that you are someone in your industry that people can trust and come to for valuable insights, the more naturally you’ll start to rank higher.

If you have a great idea for a post but feel discouraged because you can’t find a low-competition keyword, write it anyway. Write it now. Never try to shove some random keyword in there that is really stretching you just because you think you can rank for that one when you can’t rank for the right one. You’re going to end up with super bad traffic that isn’t happy with the page they’ve landed on. When they immediately scroll away from your page to find what they were really looking for, that sends a signal to Google that the page is no good. You may have ranked well at first, but you won’t be for long.

SEO is a waiting game. Alright. Social media can get you traffic in the short term, while search engines give it in the long term.

Brainstorming Option #4: Autocomplete

Have you ever noticed that when you start typing something into Google, it tries to read your mind?

Or maybe you’ve seen those “related searches” listings at the bottom of search results meant to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Both of these things can be used to generate blog post ideas.

Bonus: You already have some keywords integrated with these options. Google offers what other people are looking for!

Brainstorm Option #5: What’s missing?

So maybe you don’t have your own audience to survey. What if you could survey your competitors’ audience to find out what information people in your niche are dying to know?

Visit some of the great blogs in your industry and look at their comments. If they have a “most popular posts” list in their sidebar, this might be a good place to start. What questions do these people ask themselves? What concerns are they sharing? What things can you address in a future post?

Brainstorm Option #6: Go Sideways

Create some blogs in parallel niches. These are not direct competitors. Instead, they are a step or two outside. For example, you are a crochet blogger. These could be sewing or other handmade blogs. Take these popular parallel blogs and place them in buzzsumo.com. This tool will let you know what content has been shared most frequently on that site.

Now think about how these parallel themes can be transformed into ones that you can use. If one of the most popular posts on that sewing blog is about using scraps, how can you write something similar for your crochet blog? What if hand-sewn holiday gifts were on that list? Can you think of some gift ideas for crocheters? I bet you can!

And these are ideas that you are complementing from other industries without directly copying your competitors.

Brainstorm Option #7: Google Trends

These days, I try to limit my time on social media. I am more at peace and productive when I take care of my own business instead of other people’s. 😉 When I jumped on my newsfeed recently, I saw a bunch of posts about an organizing show on Netflix. My friends were talking about it. People in Facebook groups were talking about it.

I had no idea what they were talking about. I don’t have Netflix. I also have no passion for organizing. But it really got me thinking about how we can take advantage of these trends and fads as bloggers.

About every week, Google sends me an email to update me on trends in the world of remote work. I look forward to receiving these emails as I don’t always have time in my day to keep up with the latest rumors. Google trends it lets me know what things people are looking for suddenly. Not so surprisingly, at the same time I saw these discussions on Facebook, I also saw “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” there.

Trendy topics can be great inspiration for blog posts. Thought I’d share a little summary of my blog’s brainstorming process on this topic.

1. Obviously, people will be all the rage to organize and clean up clutter right now. Share how the program is changing your life. Or maybe you hate it. Tell your readers why.
2. Also within those trending search terms, I found “Marie Kondo boxes.” Those fancy KonMari boxes are out of stock and expensive, but maybe you could provide a list of the top 10 cheaper alternatives and include your affiliate link to those products.
3. What else is out there that can help with this process? Everyone loves printables. Create your own that you can offer as an optional gift. or promote one of these I found on Etsy. (Etsy’s affiliate program is available through Awin.)
4. Then I jumped to Answer the Public. There, I found that people were searching for things like “Konmari for crafters” and “Konmari with kids.” Good titles for blog posts, if I do say so myself!
5. So I consider how this topic relates to my niche. Check out my Marie Kondo post here.

You already know that people are accessing search engines for more information. You already know that people are sharing and discussing on social media. Trends may not be long-lasting, but they can give you a little boost. They can help you generate some engagement within your own community.

final thoughts

Remember, every piece of content should count. A post full of GIFs or your current to-do list doesn’t hold much value in the long run, if any. You should be proud and confident that any post that a new visitor lands on shows what you are all about and what you have to offer. That’s what keeps them coming back for more!