Coming up with blog topics regularly can be difficult. So when you need a little inspiration, here are 15 places to find blog topics
- Google Analytics https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/ You can use Google Analytics to see which pages of your website get the most traffic, and how people find them. You can also see what people are searching for using the search function on your website. If there is something that’s regularly cropping up, it’s a good idea to write more about it.
- Google Alerts https://www.google.com.au/alerts Use Google Alerts to set an alert for keywords of interest. You can set as many keywords as you like, and you will get separate emails for each. When Google comes across something that uses the keyword, you’ll get an email. There’s a lot you can customise, from frequency of emails to the sources that will be checked.
- Google Adwords Keyword Planner https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner Keyword Planner lets you search keywords, shows you how popular they are and gives you an idea of the competition for the keyword. Use it to find topics that are popular in your industry and boost your SEO at the same time. You need to log in, but just use your Google login, you don’t need to spend any money to research keywords.
Feedly
- Feedly https://feedly.com for blogs that regularly post on topics of interest and inspiration. You might see a post with something that you have a totally different viewpoint to. Alternatively, you might want to delve further into something you’ve seen mentioned in another post. You may want to share a piece of content with some additional commentary. Note that if you’re doing this, you need to link to the original content, not copy & paste it.
- Keyword alerts https://feedly.com/i/discover/keywordAlerts Feedly keyword alerts work in a similar way to the Google Alerts, but instead of getting an email, the post will appear in your Feedly feed. Just click on Add Content and select Keyword Alerts. You can select the keyword/s, restrict it to a specific site and a specific language.
- Sources https://feedly.com/i/discover/sources Sources helps you to find new sources of information. Just enter a hashtag for the topic you’re interested in and you’ll get a list of suggested blogs. Once you choose to follow a blog, you’re also offered a list of other similar blogs that people also subscribe to.
Social Media
- Trending – The “What’s trending” feed in your social media accounts can be a goldmine for inspiration. On Twitter, find it in the Search area. In Facebook, it’s on the right-hand side, below Stories and Request.
- Hashtags – Check the popular hashtags on your favourite social media platform/s. Using Instagram you can either search Tags or just type in the hashtag and it will give you an idea of how many times it’s been used. Otherwise you can use a service like Hashtag Picker or Keyword Tool to check the popularity of various hashtags on your selected platform.
- Twitter Lists – Twitter lists are a great way to find other people who are posting interesting content in your area of interest. You can find them on people’s profiles just above their tweets and near the Following and Followers numbers. If you’re still not sure, see mine here https://twitter.com/SharynMunro/lists You can see the lists I’ve Subscribed to, some curated by me, some by other people. If you click on the Member of link, you can see all the groups I’ve been added to.
Forums
- Quora https://www.quora.com/ – Quora is a goldmine of questions and answers. If you’re looking for inspiration, dive in and see what people are asking about in your area of interest. You can also find interesting people and topics to follow. The more you’re reading, the easier it will be to come up with things to write about.
- Reddit https://www.reddit.com/ – If you’re a B2B business, Reddit might not be super-useful for finding blog topics and inspiration. However, if you’re a B2C business it’s a great place to see what your audience is talking about. Just follow some Subreddits that are relevant to your audience and your home page will tell you what they’re interested in.
- Facebook Groups – Facebook Groups, and Pages to a certain extent are also a great source of blog topics. Active groups will allow you to find people in your industry as well as consumers of your products and/or services having conversations, sharing content, asking questions and posting reviews.
Special Days
- Wikipedia – just search for the date you’re interested in and you’ll be surprised at how many things will be noted on that day, week or month. You can also check out the Wikipedia List of Commemorative days https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commemorative_days
- Days of the Year https://www.daysoftheyear.com/ One of my favourite places to find things to celebrate. Pick a date and you’ll be able to find out what the day celebrates, as well as what month-long celebrations occur.
- Holiday Insights http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/ This not only shows special days, but also special weeks and months. I like this site because it not only has big lists, you can link through to find out more about the day