The two easiest ways to generate blog post ideas

So last week we talked about categories and tags. If you took action, you made a list of categories and tags for your blog. That’s what I consider the first step to come up with blog post ideas. Use these categories and tags to brainstorm some more specific post topics and make a list of those as well.

But there are two more easy ways to come up with blog post ideas!

Remember:

• You want to write about topics related to what you do.
• You want to write in a way that is consistent with the rest of your site.
• You want to be writing about topics your readers want to hear about.

You can just wrack your brain and write about things you want to talk about, but you run the chance of missing the mark.

Or you can do a bit of research and come up with answers to questions people really have!

Have you heard of Answer the Public?

This is a great resource to discover questions people are searching for answers to. Pop in your keyword, click on Get Questions, and there you go! You’ll have all sorts of questions to spur your imagination. Here’s a great article about how you can use this site for blog post ideas: The Ultimate Guide to Answer the Public.

Another way you can find out what questions your readers are asking (other than just coming out and asking them) is to use Facebook. I’ve touched on this one before.

Are you in Facebook groups with your ideal client?

Great!

Do a search in groups where your ideal clients and audience hang out. Search for specific terms like “frustration” or “frustrated.” Write down what comes up related to what you do. Write down their specific words to use in your posts.

You’ll not only come up with a list of questions they want answers to, points of frustration (pain points) that you can address for them, but also the exact words they will connect with (and think you’re reading their minds!)

Take Action

These are only two easy ways to come up with blog post ideas. Now take action yourself and build out your list of ideas, topics and pain points based on your research. 

Go ahead and group like ideas. Are you seeing a way you can strategically organize your writing for your ideal audience?

Do you need help setting up your blog?