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Are you a professional blogger? Do you enjoy communicating ideas for a living? Have you managed to beat the system and its 9-5 jobs? However, things are going slowly recently. As the ideas get fewer and fewer, you dread the possibility of losing your audience and, above all, your livelihood. Ah, writer’s block – the abysmal glare of the blank page.
“No matter how creative of a person you are, every content creator runs out of ideas every once in a while. And, more often than not, it is the idea of losing inspiration for good that gets you stuck even further.”– shares Tom Young, an assignment writing expert.
Fear not – the proverbial “great artists don’t wait for motivation” exists for a reason. Instead of waiting for inspiration to come, take action and “force” your way towards it.
Stay with us and find out the 3 most effective ways to find great topics for your blog.
Social media is not just a distraction at the workplace. Quite on the contrary, it might be the greatest source of inspiration among them all. And the best part about it is that you do not need to stick to blogging. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit and whatnot – they can all serve the same purpose.
Are you on Facebook? Follow both your competitors and idols and analyze what they are working on. See how their audience reacts to their current projects. Think about your opinion on the topic. Or is Twitter your poison? Even better – use those hefty hashtags and follow the buzz.
What do the people you follow have to say about popular news? Do you agree or disagree? Do not be afraid to jump into the discussion – a simple interaction with a random person might instigate great emotions and a topic for your next blogpost. YouTube?
You would be surprised how much original content YouTubers generate by simply reacting to current events and to each other – someone does something, someone else reacts to what the first person did, then someone else reacts to the reaction, etc.
There is not a special secret in finding ideas for topics on social media. It is simple, really – go online and read. And, most importantly, do not burden yourself with the notion of originality. Chances are that other content creators have already tackled a topic you find alluring.
Rather, look for authenticity. The Internet is a vast marketplace of ideas and, let’s face it, everyone has opinion about everything. Ultimately, originality per se is futile if you fail to provide your own, personal perspective on a topic.
Who would have thought that a tool created for statistical analysis of traffic on the Internet could be used in such a creative way and inspire thousands of bloggers around the world? Google Trends is a neat tool that shows what is trending online.
Namely, you can use this Google Trends to search and analyze what are the most talked-about topics on the Internet. The greatest perk of this tool is that the data comes directly from Google, so the information gathered is reliable. Moreover, Google Trends offers the possibility to search trends by region, language, over time, etc.
First and foremost, you need to make sure what your actual style is. Do you blog only about specific topics? How big is your audience? Do you write in a certain language or do you use a “lingua franca”? Do you tend to write about current events or topics which are rather timeless?
Once you’ve dealt with these issues, the rest is pretty much straight forward. If you struggle with finding ideas for topics in general, try looking up what’s trending in your area of interest in general, or what’s trending in your region, or even what the most searched for items are in your language of writing.
After all, the Internet is a vast universe of information and chances are that you’ve overlooked some interesting topic or you haven’t paid too much attention to it.
And for those of you who are willing to walk the extra mile, you could always analyze trends over time. Namely, Google Trends offers the possibility to search for topics which are gaining (or losing) popularity over a period of time. Based on that invaluable data, not only will you find inspiration for the time being, but you can also make sure your next blogposts will reach a wider audience.
So, if you struggle with finding a topic for your next blogpost, make sure to see what Google Trends has to offer.
Last but not least, there are the old comments on your blogposts. Some call it rehashing, but they fail to realize that history is a great teacher and, above all, a great source of inspiration.
Assuming that you already have a few blogposts under your belt, once that pesky writer’s block kicks in, probably the best way to overcome it is to go through your old blogposts and, more importantly, see what others had to say about them. Do not forget that inspiration breeds inspiration, so the comment section of your posts might be a goldmine.
Consider this – your blogposts have attracted certain audience so far. And despite the fact that some people might agree and others disagree with your ideas, their opinions will surely spur some emotion inside of you. Maybe someone has asked a question and your answer might turn into a whole blogpost instead of a simple reply.
Maybe some aspects of a topic have changed. Maybe even you have changed in the meantime and now you have something else to say. The possibilities are endless. Worse comes to worst, you could always use the good old “Then and Now” and render an old topic from a different point of view.
So, next time you hit a wall and don’t know how to recover from it, make sure to try out our tips and experience inspiration in a new light.