A huge challenge for bloggers is finding ideas on what to blog about. You know you need to publish a new post but your mind is blank, creativity eludes you and you just don’t know how to come up with blog post ideas that will fit your audience – and your blog’s content pillars.
Running out of blog post ideas can feel like writer’s block. Sitting in front of a blank page without knowing what to write about on a blog is a huge roadblock. Sometimes it is harder to find a good blog topic than creating the content.
Finding blog post topics that speak to you (and your audience) is the first step toward filling that blank page with meaningful content.
Write down your ideas as you have them
The best advice I can give you for never running out of blog post ideas is to have a file, folder, or notebook where you write down all your blog topic ideas the minute you have them.
I have had so many times when I had an awesome blog post idea, and told myself, I will write it down later – and later I totally lost the idea. No amount of poking my brain could give it back to me. The idea was gone for good.
On the other hand, writing down your ideas will give you something to turn to whenever you are in need of a blog post topic and don’t have a clear thought of what you are going to write.
You can check the list of places and ideas to come up with blog post ideas in this post to fill your idea file.
Why are new blog posts crucial?
Publishing new blog posts regularly is important for the success of your blog for several reasons.
- Engaging Your Audience: Most people check how “old” a piece of content is. Older content is just that: old. By providing fresh and valuable information, you can keep your readers coming back for more and inspire them to engage with your content.
- Building Authority: Consistently publishing new blog posts can help establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. By sharing your expertise and insights, you can build credibility and trust with your audience. Old and outdated blog content can decrease the potential to build trust and credibility with your blog.
- Attracting Traffic: Blogging regularly and posting new content on your website can help attract new visitors to your website. As you publish new posts, you create more opportunities for people to find your site through search engines, social media, or other channels.
- Improving SEO: Search engines favor websites that regularly update their content. By publishing new blog posts on a regular basis, you can improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
- Increasing Social Shares: When you publish new content, you create new opportunities for people to share your content on social media. This can help increase your social media reach and drive more traffic back to your website.
The challenge of creating enough content
Creating a blog post takes time – especially if your goal is to create content that is better or at least as good as what people can already find on the web. But one of the most frustrating and time-consuming tasks for me is not the content creation but the decision of what blog post topics I want to cover.
This post is to help you fill in the blank and find blog post topics that have the potential to attract an audience, build your brand and drive traffic to your blog.
Here are 36 ideas to help you come up with new blog post ideas:
Social media listening
Social media is one of my favorite channels to find new blog post topics.
Naturally, I follow many people from my niche. They are sharing ideas and their content, they are also talking about questions and concepts. This gives me the best inspiration for my blog content and a huge opportunity to discover new ideas and angles.
Here are some more targeted ways to find blog topics from your social media activities:
#1 Ask your audience:
If you are communicating on social media and have an audience, why not ask them what they would like to learn or know? This is a simple way to find out what currently interests your audience.
#2 Consider what others post
Just listen, and keep your mind open for topic ideas. Don’t copy exactly what others do. Make your own take, use a twist or your personal unique angle.
#3 Keep your mind open in conversations
Many questions that you can turn into content arise in conversations. Join the conversations in your niche and you will be surprised how many blog topic ideas cross your path.
Reddit works a little differently from other social networks. But you can find a ton of inspiration for topics on it. You don’t even have to become part of it to use it for inspiration
I assume that you know the basics of how Reddit works – otherwise, you can find out here.
#4 Find interesting Reddit threads
To find topic ideas you can go to a relevant subreddit and browse the threads. These threads can be an endless inspiration for blog topic ideas: If it is interesting enough to discuss in a Reddit thread, it is interesting enough to write a blog post about it.
#5 Search for questions in a subreddit
If people are asking it on Reddit in a targeted subreddit thread, it could be relevant for your target audience. Again, you want to start your search in a relevant subreddit to make your results on target.
Here are some question or keyword templates you can use to find interesting problems in a subreddit
- “How can I”
- “How do you”
- “Can someone help”
- “Biggest Challenge”
- “Suggestions”
- “Tips”
Your choice of the subreddit already specifies the topic or niche.
Quora
#6 Search for relevant questions
You can search on Quora for questions related to a keyword or phrase. The questions that you get in the search results can be great blog post topic ideas.
When you browse the search results for blog post topic ideas, you should consider how many answers a question gets and how many upvotes answers to that question get. Both are indicators that this topic is relevant to many people.
On a side note: you can also use the answers to some Quora questions to get inspiration for your arguments within your blog post content.
#7 Curate answers to interesting questions
You can use the answers that already are on Quora to put together your content. Choose questions that have several answers – possibly with controversial or different answer angles. Make sure that you check the facts before you just copy the arguments.
Content ideas from your community
Your community is the best place or way to find topics for your blog posts. These are the people you want to write for and they are the people who consume your blog content.
Here are some ideas on how you can use your existing community to come up with new blog post ideas:
#7 Listen to your customers
Your existing customers often give you feedback. They write you an email thanking you for something or asking you questions. Listen close, this feedback is a treasure trove for blog content ideas.
#8 Ask your customers
If you already have customers they are the ones you want to ask for their needs and questions. Some of these questions and needs may be big enough to create ebooks or courses for – but some will be great ideas for your blog posts.
#9 Ask your email subscribers
I do this from time to time and use a Google form to make it easier for my subscribers to submit their questions and interests.
I simply send an email and ask for current questions, problems, and topics my subscribers are interested in. If they don’t want to answer with an email, they can use the form and submit their questions anonymously.
#10 Check your blog comments
If you have an audience for your blog posts and get comments from your audience you have a good chance of finding some blog content ideas in the comments on your blog posts.
There may be additions to your post, remarks, or questions from your audience. Some of these topics may be big enough to create a blog post for it.
Your competitors and bloggers from your niche
Content creators in your niche are a great source of ideas. Just keep in mind that copying is not only a bad style but will also not bring you huge success. If the content already exists why should people read yours? Use the content for inspiration, add your unique perspective, add what is missing, or contradict what exists.
#11 Check blogs regularly
Read other blogs from your niche for inspiration. Don’t copy, but use them for ideas and add your own twist and arguments. Add what is missing to their content or contradict what they say.
#12 What are they NOT covering?
What topics do your competitors not cover? Combine this with asking your audience and you will have the full attention and no competition for your content.
#13 Check comments on their blog
You cannot only find blog post ideas in the comments on your blog post. Also, check the comments on other blogs. The posts with the most comments are often topics that need more coverage and that still leave some arguments and angles open for your new blog content.
#14 Check their social media
What do content creators from your niche share on their social media channels? What are they talking about? I often find blog post ideas there.
Utilize experts
#15 Interviews
If you know some experts from your niche, you can ask them for an interview. This way you may be able to bring topics to your blog posts that you would not cover otherwise. If you don’t know experts, you can just contact them – either by email or on social media and ask.
We had a lot of success getting experts to answer interview questions in the past. This is a great way to get in touch and build blogging connections.
#16 Expert roundups
A special way of interviews are expert roundups. One (or a couple of) question(s) asked many different experts from your niche. Put the answers in one blog post. Write a short introduction. And you are done.
Tell your story
Your unique perspective is what makes your blog content stand out. That makes your stories highly valuable as blog content.
#17 What you learned
Your learnings make awesome blog posts. There are always some people a little behind you in their blogging journey. What you learned can make great blog posts for them.
#18 How you failed
Some failures make great blog post ideas. People love to read what could go wrong. Yes, there are always some learnings in failures.
#19 Where you found the advice
Where did you find the tips ad tricks you used to get where you are now? Resources make great blog content. Put together a list of blogs, magazines, social media accounts, or other sources of knowledge.
#20 Who helped you
It is not always the source of advice but sometimes it is also the people behind it. Lists of people that give great advice or provide answers can be a huge help to your audience.
#21 Share behind the scenes
Your blog is not a dictionary. It is a personal space that should also include some takes and angles that only you can provide. Add your personal stories and show who you are. our audience will trust you more easily if they know the person behind your blog.
#22 Create a case study from your experience
Your experience with your numbers and your results is one of the most interesting case studies you can present to your audience on your blog. These case studies have tremendous power for building trust and branding.
Your existing content
You have a huge amount of blogging power sitting on your blog: your existing blog posts. But if you have been blogging for some time, some of them lose some of their power. By taking a closer look at your existing content you can find targeted new blog post ideas.
#23 Update existing blog posts
Blog content can grow old. Although most blog posts need some time to build up their SEO power they will lose it again as they grow older. You can ignite new power and use these old blog posts as if they were completely new if you update them.
#24 Check your pillar pages: what cluster content is missing?
My blog is still new, I am still working on cluster pages. I always find some new ideas for additional blog posts ideas that will contribute to the power of my pillar pages.
#25 Create the opposite of what you already have
Take a look at your content and write a piece that looks at a similar topic to one you already covered but from the opposite point of view.
For example, if you have a best practices post, write a worst mistakes blog post.
The advantage of this blog post creation tactic is that you have already done the research.
If you don’t want to publish this new piece of content on your blog since you already have the first piece, you can always submit it as a guest post to another blog.
Google search
Yes, Google Search is a great place to look for inspiration for new blog content ideas. Here are some ways how to use it:
#26 Autocomplete
When you type a main keyword or phrase into Google, it gives you autocomplete suggestions. Check them out to find blog post ideas.
#27 Keyword suggestions
Below the search results, Google gives you some keyword suggestions. Often these make great blog post topics.
#28 Search results
When you search for a keyword or phrase on Google you get various results. Often they are not just for this keyword or topic but also some related topics show up in the search results. You can use these for blog post inspiration.
#29 Recent news from your niche
This may be more relevant in one niche than in others but Google search results often also display some news related to the search. You can consider adding some regular news updates to your blog content. For a while, I created news content for Twitter or social media marketing. These usually inspire some comments for a while but you need to consider that the content may turn old fast.
Keyword tools
Some keyword research tools are also great for finding inspiration for blog content ideas. Especially when you already decided on the pillar content and want to fill the cluster content with more related content pieces, keyword tools can be a good source for ideas.
#30 Answer the public
This tool has a unique approach to keywords. Instead of listing keywords they list questions around topics that people ask – together with data on how popular this question is.
#31 Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool that has a free version. You can use it to get information about how often a keyword is searched and how competitive it is.
What you also get are related keywords – and a list of articles related to these keywords. Both can be used for new blog post ideas.
There are other tools you can use in a similar way to find blog post ideas like Adwords Keyword Planner or Buzzsumo.
Quick collections
Sometimes you just need a quick solution for new content. Then the following concepts may just be what you are looking for.
#32 Roundup posts
Roundup posts are a collection of posts from your or other blogs on related topics. You write a quick introduction to each of the posts in your roundup and link to them.
This type of list post is quick to create but can provide a great deal of information and value for your audience.
#33 Tools lists
Lists of tools are easy to research and easy to put together. Simply choose a topic, make a Google search and you will find enough information to create a tools list.
Keep in mind that a post that you could quickly Google, everybody else can also Google. Add something more. A unique perspective. Why did you choose these tools?
#34 Ressources lists
Resource lists work similarly to roundup posts. But a resource post will be infinitely better if you present resources that YOU have been using with the information about why you chose them.
#35 Facts and data collections
This is another type of post where a little Google search will often provide you with the information you need for your post.
Make sure you check the sources for the data you use in the post: often numbers are old or sources unclear.
Data posts have an advantage: you can create images for the numbers and will usually earn may social shares and even backlinks for people quoting your images.
Bonus
#36 Blog post ideas generator
Sometimes tools can help. There are several tools that aim to provide you with blog post ideas. Here are some examples:
- Blog Ideas Generator
- Content Idea Generator
- ChatGPT or other AI tools
I am not a huge fan of tools to solve your blog ideation process. I would always rather turn to your audience instead of tools – I trust in finding topics from your audience much more than in tools giving me the best ideas.
The challenge of coming up with enough blog post ideas
For me the challenge of choosing the right blog post topics is real. Once I decide on a blog topic, I have enough blog writing routine to research and write a blog post.
But choosing great blog topics that are of value for my audience, have the power to stand out between the already existing masse of content, and topics that allow me to add my own story or point of view can be daunting.
I have a collection of blog ideas. Still, whenever I plan to create a new blog post, I check some of my favorite places like social media and emails from my subscribers for the best post ideas.
Knowing where to look for the best blog post ideas makes blogging a lot more targeted and efficient for me!
