It’s no small feat coming up with fresh and exciting blog topics five to seven days a week. Getting and retaining readers depends largely on providing them with new and interesting things to read every day. Recent studies have shown that fresh and original blog content helps our SEO ranking and website traffic, too. But where do we come up with blogging ideas and how are we supposed to keep talking about the same topics without sounding like broken records?
The prospect of churning out original content is exhausting enough to thwart off potential bloggers altogether. But it shouldn’t. The first way to keep those creative fires burning is to make lists. Right, you think… When I think about creativity, the first thing that comes to mind is making a list. But having a list of topics on your desktop or in hard-copy form in a trusted notebook is a good way to remember what you want to blog about. I have a list of timeless topics, ones that are era- and date-specific, that I routinely return to in times of creative drought. Other bloggers I know use a digital recorder or small bedside book to keep a record of those blog ideas that appear out of nowhere.
In cases of blogging about up-to-the-minute topics, Google Reader is a blogger’s best friend. Newly redesigned and streamlined, the tool has never been more vital for bloggers. You can now add tags to articles and blogs that you want to come back to or cite as a resource. Bloggers have to keep up on the latest trends, so a reader or RSS feed is the best way to fish for ideas to blog about.
Lastly, my favorite place to look for blog ideas is in my own life and business. Blogging about what happens daily in your trade and life is something only you can do, and it makes your blog infinitely more readable. Forget about what other blogs look like or talk about and draw from your own experiences.
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