Content is an important part of your blog.
There are always arguments online, SEO is more important, Content is king, etc. But regardless of the debate, when talking about a blog, content is important. Without content nobody has a reason to visit.
But do you ever get stumped trying to write new blog content. You run out of ideas. Can’t decide what to write?
How can you brainstorm for content ideas?
It’s highly important if you own a blog that you constantly come up with new content for your blog. And it can’t be just anything. I doubt if I was writing in this blog about what I ate yesterday that anyone would find it beneficial.
So naturally, the content you write must be in context to the subject at hand. A great article that can further explain content is Why Content is No Longer King (and who’s taking his place)
So let’s see if I can help by providing some methods of brainstorming ideas.
It’s not as easy as it looks. Have you ever tried to just sit down and write out a list of ideas? Sometimes for me it seems the harder I try the fewer ideas I have.
So, sometimes the first thing I do is go hit up a keyword research tool.
Same thing you would do when trying to create some SEO on your site, but in this case we are just looking around for relevant ideas.
I pulled up a search for “golf” using the Google Adwords Tool.
At first glance I don’t really see anything special, but I click the “add” for “golf courses”, “golf clubs” and “golf putters”. Next I hit the Get more related keywords buttons, since these are more specific to what I’m interested in today.
So now I get a more centered listing of keywords that might be good to use. Scrolling down the list I see a few that I’ve never written on, so I figure maybe that would make for an interesting change of content for my blog.
I take a piece of paper and in a spread out fashion I write down all my new ideas or potential interests.
Now I head over to the regular Google Search. I start plugging my new ideas into the box, and off we go. Sometimes if I get a lot of results focused on eCommerce or something I might add in “articles” or “forums” or “blog” to the end of my search.
I’ll look through the list, scanning quickly. Pick a couple topics and scan those. I want to be careful not to waste an entire day on playing, I want to push myself to scan for my goal, content ideas.
For each batch of keywords I’ll write down different ideas that I’ve never thought of as I come across them in my searching. Now don’t go stealing content, just look for ideas and topics.
Within an hour I can usually come up with 10-40 pretty decent ideas. Occasionally I’ll take the time to fully read an article, and sometimes I’ll find something I completely disagree with. I have to say, nothing sparks my typing fingers like writing about something I read that I disagree with.
What if I’m still stuck actually writing my blog content?
This happens to me from time to time as well. I might have a whole list of ideas in front of me but can’t seem to write anything down.
Sometimes, I believe it’s because I’m stuck in the wrong side of my brain. I’m a very logical person. I like to plan things out, step by step. It is difficult for me to think creatively sometimes.
If that’s the case I found it’s helpful to do something that forces me to use my spatial brain. I’ll read over all my ideas. Grab my voice recorder, and maybe jump in my car for a ride. Or possibly even go for a walk, fresh air can help.
But the key here is that your brain can’t think okay that car is traveling approximately 32 mph and it will hit the intersection in 2.4 seconds so I need to slow down to avoid a collision.
Nope, that’s thinking logically you’d end up in a wreck if you spent that much time thinking about one car. Instead your brain will switch over to the spatial side of your brain, and just judge it, or guess it if you will.
Now that you are using the other side of your brain, and thinking spatially and creatively turn that voice recorder on and start talking about your thoughts (in regards to your content ideas of course).
If you are like me sometimes your best ideas come to you in the car or taking a walk, and it’s all because you switched out of “logic” mode and started using that creativity to your benefit.
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