15 Ways to Come Up with New Content Ideas
Being a content creator means every once in a while, writer’s block hits you real hard. You might feel like your topics are redundant or that the ones you noted down aren’t captivating enough. And fighting this feeling off isn’t easy either!
However, there are some excellent ways to come up with a stream of fresh content. To help you out, we’ve made a list of the best and most effective ones down below.
Check Out Forums
A great idea to find inspiration is checking out forums. General forums like Quora, Reddit, and so on allow you to type in a keyword that leads to millions of suggestions.
Quora is a question/answer website, meaning you can pick up any question and craft it into a topic. For example, if someone asks ‘what are the best video creating software,’ you can turn it into ‘the best video creating software for designers.’
Reddit, on the other hand, has a ‘Reddit Keyword Research Tool.’ Here once you search your selected keyword, Reddit tells you the top topics among users. Plus, they even show you monthly search volume data.
Apart from general forums, you can also look for forums targeted at a specific niche. Open google, type in your niche alongside ‘forum,’ and you’ll find a plethora of options to go through.
Read Blog Comments
Reading blog comments is another spectacular way to come up with new topic ideas. Since it’s impossible to cover everything in one blog, your readers may ask questions about it. Or they might request you to expand on something. Either of them helps you come up with a fresh topic your audience will love.
Besides this, you can look through popular blogs of your industry. Reading their comment sections will provide you with topics your competitor has not covered.
Let Google Decide Your Topic
If you have a specific key phrase in your mind but can’t come up with a concrete idea, go to Google. When you insert a word in the search bar, several suggestions start appearing underneath.
These suggestions are top searches by users, whereas those on the bottom of the page are related. All you have to do is pick searches you like and then combine them to produce a new, fantastic topic idea!
Your Social Media Profile
First, make sure you’re following people that fit your ‘ideal audience’ profile. Next, analyze their activity on social media. See who they’re following, what they like and share, and what their replies are. It will provide you with a good idea of what your audience wants to read.
Not just your following list, but you can seek new topics from followers too. Check out their profiles to find out who and how they interact with others.
If this gets you nowhere, you can directly ask your followers a question as well. Asking on your Instagram story or posting a poll on Twitter are both popular ways to start your newest blog.
Find Popular Hashtags
One easy way of finding new content is looking through popular hashtags on social media. Following your niche’s hashtags will lead you to related articles or questions.
The top searches of a hashtag will provide you with a good idea of what your target audience reads most.
Make A Popular Hashtag
An alternative to the above point is searching for new topics! When you brainstorm ideas around a new, relatively less discussed topic, the chances of you getting more clicks are higher.
Tools like exploding topics, muck rack trends, etc., help you look for new topics on their way to popularity.
Analyzing Competitor Websites
Competing websites are full of new content ideas. Click on their profiles and scroll around for a bit. Open a notebook and note down topics you’ve missed.
This way, you can take inspiration from your competitor’s blogs and come up with fresh content. To ensure your target audience will love the blog, you can analyze their blog traction as well.
Interview Your Followers
Asking your audience questions is another great way to start on a new topic. Interviewing your audience gives you a better idea of what they expect or want from you.
Besides, interviewing a person provides you with a unique insight into things. It helps you craft interesting topics. Plus, you can carry out your interview with ease on interview platforms like emailing, speaking on the phone, video calling, etc.
Carry Out A Survey
Let your audience decide what you should cover up next. Conduct a survey asking a question or two from your viewers. See what they answer and form a topic accordingly.
Follow Newsletters
One amazing way to develop fresh content ideas that people often miss is by signing up for newsletters. Often people hesitate to sign up in fear of being at the receiving end of spam.
However, getting emails from your niche newsletters means you get a front-row seat to all the top trends, news, and events.
Looking Through YouTube
Just like Google gives a list of suggested searches, YouTube also offers you the same. You can type in your keyword and wait to see what the top related searches are.
Moreover, you can visit some competitors’ YouTube channel as well. Change the viewing option to ‘most popular,’ and you’ll be able to scoop out what kind of videos are popular among your audience.
Study Your Analytics
Your social media analytics are the best tools to find out what catches the attention of readers.
Facebook offers users a ‘page insight’ option. Click on it, and you’ll find an in-depth report of which topics had the most engagement. On the other hand, Instagram allows business accounts to track their engagement, reaches, time, countries, and so on.
YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others also create extensive reports for users to view. After you find out what topics are doing well, you can craft new content around it. Or you can review old content and update it.
Write a Product Review
If you’ve recently bought something related to your website, write about it. If you’re a fashion brand, reviewing a brush you bought will captivate first-time readers.
You don’t have to target what you own. What you can do is search for top products from your industry. Next, write an in-depth review; talk about the ups and downs of using it and whether you’d recommend it to others.
Sharing a Personal Experience
Writing or narrating your story is a remarkable way to connect with your audience. You can talk about an experience or something that assisted you on your journey to success.
A bonus of storytelling is you can count on it being unique. Plus, your audience might even relate to your story, which compels them to check out more of your work.
Talk about A Controversy
A controversy is, without doubt, a splendid way to capture the reader’s attention. Discover what discussion from your industry is on everyone’s mind and write your opinion on it.
You don’t have to choose the most controversial topics necessarily; you can compare two top brands as well. Here make sure you choose a side and explain why you went for it.