Brainstorming Blog Ideas

Erika Dickstein

Ever notice how some people just seem to have a knack for coming up with good ideas for their website blog posts? They seem to be overflowing with relevant content and know just how to turn a phrase. Sure, some people are born with the ‘gift of gab’, but most of us are successful because we are constantly on the lookout for ideas (and saving the ideas when we find them). The key to creating good content is having lots of ideas to choose from and filtering out the not-so-good ones.

Here are some of my go-to sources for getting my creative juices flowing:

1. Talk with people in your field: Is there some buzz going around among industry leaders that you want to weigh-in on? What have been the biggest changes in your industry in the past month? Last week, I mentioned how much I love going to Conferences are another a great place to chat with people in your field and get blog ideas. You could write a post about the general theme of a conference or about one of the specific talks or panel discussions you attended. Discuss what you found most useful and why. Explain how you will apply something you learned to your business.
   
2. Talk to clients: What kinds of questions do your customers have and how would you answer them in a blog post? Chances are, you get asked many of the same questions repeatedly. Think about the most common questions you hear from clients and use them as a springboard to write a blog post. (Bonus: when a different client asks you the same question in the future, you can direct them to the blog.) If you don’t know what questions clients have, solicit some actual questions. I had some great fun with this during my birthday month!
   
3. Look at Google Analytics: If you don’t regularly use Google Analytics to study the traffic to your website, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to increase business performance. See what search terms generate the most traffic to your site, then use those search terms to drive blog content. For example, a few months ago I found that a number of people had found my website because of a cursory mention I had made to the Google “Mobilegeddon” changes. Based on that finding, I decided I should write a full blog post and it has been one of my most widely read posts.
   
4. Current events/news/everyday life: In addition to regular content, don’t be afraid to get creative with something inspired by a news story you hear during your commute. The purpose of having a blog is to provide “fresh” content that brings your business to life in the minds of your target audience. There are two ways to accomplish this: some posts stay relevant for a long time (these are known as Evergreen posts because the wisdom in them is sustainable and everlasting). I am currently working on an Evergreen post on how most effectively to rearrange your site. Other posts have an “expiration date” (kind of like the presidential candidacy of Lindsey Graham, who’s currently polling at .2% (15^th) in the GOP field). Stay tuned for more of my wry political humor when I post about the marketing lessons we can learn from the Republican primary.

Happy Blog-storming!

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