I know each year can be full of challenges so if you’re still smiling, you did just fine. Anyway, my content is usually pretty long so I decided to put together this quick reference guide on how you can cut down your “thinking†time when thinking of blog content ideas.
For those of you who write content regularly, you’ll be surprised that many ideas are floating around right underneath your nose. Here’s a quick reference list you can follow the next time you are writing content.
Take a Look Back
That’s right! One of the best ways to find content that has done very well is look at previous years and analyze the data. If you notice some content topics did very well, then you might want to consider circulating around them the next time you write content. First, it’s important you have a solid tool in place that will provide you with the statistics you need. Next, you need to use a little creativity, which will take you a long way. For example,
Find content that has performed exceptionally well and add an update, making it more relevant. If my content on â€How SEO Is Changing†has done very well, then I can create “How SEO Is Changing In 2015†and add some of my own knowledge. It’s obviously important to do some research so you can add more substance to older content.
Check FAQs
Don’t be left behind because your competitors are making use of this simple but effective technique. F.A.Q stands for Frequently Asked Questions and a majority of them come from visitors online. They’ll submit them to blogs or within forums and can provide you insight into what’s trending. Look for common questions and because they are submitted by users from all over the world, they’ll be trending topics a majority of the time.
As times change online, so does the information people are looking for. They rely on authority bloggers to provide insight on these changing trends so take advantage of this opportunity. Visit relevant blogs within your niche, or set up a question form on your blog, where people can submit questions they have. Here’s something that works:
If you have a large email subscribers list, then shoot an email and ask them what new content they would like to see on your blog in 2015. It’s has worked very well in the past and will continue to perform well as your tapping into the readers’ minds.
Sift Through Social
Browse social networks to find what’s trending and use tools like Hashtagify.me to find popular hashtags. If you see a spike in the amount of times a hashtag has been used, you know people are using it to promote relevant content. Visit these hashtags to find a common trend in the content being shared. If you have specific keywords in mind, use the following strategy:
Visit Buzzsumo.com and type in the “keywordâ€. Next, customize the date and type of results you are searching for. This tool will provide a list of content that receives the highest social activity. Use the list as your starting point and create content around the social engagement of previously published content.
Open The Toolbox
This is an option but it can become expensive having these tools at your disposal. There are tools like Inboundwriter and Contently, which forecast a content’s performance by taking certain things into consideration like target audience, proposed subject matter, and tap into social media tools to check previous engagement. If you have some cool content ideas in mind and would like to check previous performance before dedicating your time and effort, then utilize some of these tools. Again,
They are expensive and I personally can think of a handful of other better ways to generate content ideas J
Brainstorming
When there weren’t computers or mobile devices, people relied on brainstorming to come up with brilliant ideas that changed the world. It was a brainstorming session that sparked the idea for computers. J
Anyway, you need to understand “brainstorming†is still the most active way to generate epic content ideas. It’s not going away and will be valuable even in 2015+. The only difference is you have tools that can help, like SimpleMind and MindNode Pro, which you can leverage to organize your ideas. It’s known as mind mapping and these tools provide a visual aid for your ideas. They streamline the content generation process by combining things together that otherwise wouldn’t have made sense to you. You have many apps available so take advantage of them!