10 Ways To Find Content For Your Blog
We've all heard that content is king, but what do you do if sit down to start writing that next awesome post and your mind blanks out? Even if content ideas are coming to you with ease right now, it might not always be that way. Brain lapses and writer's block can happen to anyone, at any time for a number of reasons.
Stress, fear of failure, overthinking your “competition”, and perfectionism are some of the most common issues a writer can face. Remember why you are blogging, ignore how your “competition” is doing, and remember there is no such thing as perfect. Then utilize these 10 ways to find content for your blog to spark your mind and get those creative juices flowing again!
I'm a born writer. I've been an avid reader and writer since before I can remember, so when I started my blog I was sure I'd never run out of things to write about and would be publishing every day forever without a struggle. Then the universe decided to laugh at me.
Between homeschooling the boys, keeping my house clean and organized, and managing my Pinterest clients, I found myself stressed out and writer's block set in. It was like all the words that have always just flown through my fingertips dried up.
I had no ideas for new content and realized my fly by the seats of my pants blogging style was no longer going to work. I needed to create an idea bank and start scheduling posts instead of hitting publish as soon as I wrote something. Here are some of the ideas that helped me defeat writer's block and find content ideas for my blog again!
10 Ways To Find Content For Your Blog
When writers block hits, there are a multitude of ways to find something to write about. I'm not a fan of being a copycat, but you can easily find inspiration all over the Internet, through other blogs or even in your friend groups. I keep a spreadsheet for post ideas, with tabs for each category on my blog, open at all times, so I can quickly add ideas as they come to me. These are some of my best places to find content for your blog.
1) Trending topics on social media
Social media is a great resource for so many aspects of your blog. It is one of the number one ways to find content for your blog. Watch the trending topics for the day and take advantage to put a personal spin on the subject on your own blog. From politics and religion to fashion or health, there is always a trending topic to write about and bring traffic to your blog.
2) Facebook groups
I belong to many different types of Facebook groups; parenting, healthy living, gardening, blogging, political, large family parenting, etc. Sometimes I will see someone ask a question in a group and it will inspire a blog post. Sometimes I will see a comment that gets me thinking about a different way of solving that issue that worked for my family. I'll add those ideas to my post ideas spreadsheet or type up a quick draft to flesh out later.
3) Conversations with friends
We married and had children young, so my friends often come to me for advice about different stages and the issues that go with each. Each of these areas where I'm able to help is a potential blog post! Because we live in a small community and I've been working hard on getting healthy, I answer questions on Paleo, food allergies/intolerance, working out with 4 kids and no time to go to the gym, etc. Those are all problems other people are searching for answers to and I can write a blog post to use my experiences to help others find the right answer for them.
4) Suggested Search
Have you noticed that when you start typing in Google, similar things start popping up? From just the search results below, you could do a post on when to transition to a toddler bed, how to keep your toddler in their own bed, fun games to play with toddlers, a roundup of toddler games from Amazon, cute toddler shoes, how to keep a toddler in their car seat, if you should switch your toddler to forward facing (the answer there is most likely not), the best car seat for your toddler and your car, and so many other post ideas.
Pinterest Guided & Suggested Search: Pinterest is a goldmine for both traffic and content ideas. They have suggested search, similar to Google, which quickly gave me a dozen ideas on toddler related posts – Indoor activities for toddlers, sensory activities for toddlers, spring activities for toddlers, fun crafts to do with your toddler, meal ideas for picky toddlers, and more.
Pinterest also has guided search. The closer to the left, the more frequently that term is combined with your search term. In this example, I stuck with toddler as my search. I can generate some ideas just from those combinations. Once I've brainstormed all I can from those terms, I can click another term for more ideas.
Since I'm a homeschooling blogger, I choose to click learning. That gives me ideas for both my parenting and my homeschool categories. Printables for toddlers, creating a schedule for your toddler, getting your toddler on a healthy sleeping schedule, learning apps for toddlers, educational activities for toddlers, how to teach your toddler the alphabet, fun alphabet activities for toddlers, etc. You can easily come up with hundreds of post ideas in just a few short hours this way!
5) Holiday or seasonal themes
There is truly a holiday for every day of the year. From the traditional well known national holidays, to the fun coffee holidays or even chocolate holidays. Create blog posts around a holiday or seasonal themes. Recipes, tips or hacks, or simply a blog post about the history of the holiday can all be great choices. Roundups, like my Irish Coffee Day recipes, do very well too. National Raspberry Day is August 1st. Every year you could do a different roundup, linking to the old ones, with delicious things to do with Raspberries. 15 Raspberry Breakfast Ideas, 15 Raspberry Desserts, 15 Raspberry Sauces – the possibilities are truly endless! And you can use Pinterest and Google search to help you come up with more ideas here. A quick search on Pinterest for Raspberry gave me desserts, sauce, crumble, cake for related search terms!
6) Personal passions & struggles
We all have something we are specifically personally passionate about. For some, it is education or health related. For others, it is religion or politics. Consider those things that get you riled up and excited and focus on writing about them. Make sure that it fits the audience you want to attract, though. If you are strictly a parenting blog, a political post probably won't go over well and may alienate your loyal readers.
Sharing your story of how you overcame something is another great way to find content for your blog. From learning your way to better health to paying off debt, or even struggling past a learning disability, you most likely have a personal struggle you can share with your readers.
Write about what gets you riled up and excited!
7) Health topics
Health is always a hot topic, and you can easily focus on current health trends. You can even share things about your own health journey. If you have dietary restrictions, autoimmune disorders, or simply a journey to better overall health, this is a great topic to cover. You don't have to be a fitness trainer or nutritionist to share what worked for you! You can focus on tricks that help you stay on your diet, frugal workout ideas, your favorite workout clothes, products that help remove toxins from your home, how you keep track of medical, dental, and vision appointments for a large family, etc
8) Other blog posts
Sometimes responding to a controversial blog post in the community is a great way to find content for your own blog. Perhaps you are in agreement and want to offer support, or maybe you disagree and want to share your side and opinion. Regardless of what side of the post you are on, it is a great way to bring in traffic. Make sure it's something you feel strongly about and that fits your niche. Don't be controversial just for the sake of traffic. Your readers and other bloggers will see through it, hurting your credibility in the long run.
There is nothing better than going back to your most popular posts from months or years past and creating new content to link to through it. Perhaps you wrote about a blogging tip that gets lots of traffic? Do an update post with new information and remember to link to it from the original post. Maybe your potty training tips are viral? Write about how you maintained that with your child and moved on to other childhood challenges.
Turn your old blog posts into brand new content ideas!
9) Tutorials
If you are great at doing something why not share that information? Videos, photographs, tutorials, or infographics on all kinds of topics are great ways to add content to your blog. This works especially well if its something other people often struggle with (which is why the videos and tutorials on folding a fitted sheet go viral) and there aren't hundreds of posts out there that solve it. Don't copy what someone else has already done, but share your unique way of doing something!
10) Purchase content
Need to fill some gaps in your writing? You've got a few options that don't require you write everything yourself. PLR, purchasing prewritten content from a freelance author, or hiring a content creator are all viable options.
PLR content: The term PLR means, “private label rights”. This content is often available very inexpensively and a great addition to your blog to fill in gaps when you can't think of something to write about. These articles are written by other bloggers or freelancers and often sold at very low rates. You can share as is, or add to them to create a full-length blog post that is more your style. For many bloggers like myself, these simply serve as a starter post they can then personalize. Make sure you put your own spin on it and run it through Copyscape to ensure you put enough of YOU into it that it won't get dinged as duplicate content.
There is no shame in using PLR as a starting point for your next blog post!
Content for sale by freelance authors: There is a multitude of content groups, websites, and resources where you can pay a freelance author to write for you. They may have a list of topics to choose from, or you can share specific ideas with them. You can buy prewritten content that you need to edit for your site, purchase posts from a contributing author (I have a contributing writer, Jody, that does homeschool content for me sometimes), or connect with ghostwriters. Either way, you are given great content for your site that will help you to share information with your readers.
These ways to find content for your blog are some of the best resources to help you keep a steady stream of quality content going all the time. However you choose to find ideas for your site, please be respectful of the time & energy people put into their work. Do not copy/paste anything (that's illegal) and when you are inspired by someone else, it's best to give credit to them in your post. I have several recipes where it says “inspired by ….” and links to them for the original recipe. These are typically recipes I loved but had to make changes to for dietary reasons or I didn't have something on hand and my substitution turned out amazing! However you find content ideas, make sure you stay true to your niche, post quality content your readers will enjoy, and respect the work of others!
