9 Ways to Come up With Content Ideas for Your Blog

As any blogger knows, whether they’re new to blogging or not, it’s important to create content consistently. Yet, so many bloggers find themselves in the same spot time and time again: they have no idea what to write about.

Coming up with new and interesting content ideas for your blog can be challenging and time-consuming. Which is why there are nine ways to come up with content ideas for your blog listed below to help get you started.

Reader Survey

If you already have loyal readers, you can send out a reader survey to ask them what it is they’re most interested in reading on your blog.

Reader surveys are an excellent way to gather information on the topics your readers enjoy the most, and which ones they don’t. To do this just create a survey using something like Google Forms and send it out either on your blog, newsletter or social media.

You can ask multiple choice questions like what topics they prefer, or an open-ended question like what their biggest struggle is in your niche.

Even if you only get as little as 10 responses, that’s enough to start coming up with some content ideas for your blog. If you’re lucky, you could get 100 or more responses, resulting in even more ideas!

Google Autocomplete

While Google Autocomplete is a great tool to find keywords for your blog, it’s also a really great way to come up with content ideas.

Even better, consider adding wildcards to your Google search. A wildcard character can be either an underscore like (_) or asterisk (*).

For example, you can type in “how to _ freelance writing”, which comes up with these:

• how to start freelancing writing
• how to find freelance writing jobs
• how to do freelance writing
• how to make money freelance writing

All of these are great content ideas for someone who blogs about freelance writing.

This is a great way to find blog post ideas whether you have an established blog, or are looking to start one.

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups have really grown in popularity over the last few years. Which is a huge benefit to any blogger looking to connect, learn and grow their blog.

Another benefit to Facebook groups is that they are the perfect place to track down new content ideas.

A lot of people turn to Facebook groups to ask questions on all topics from gardening, to graphic design, or even pet care. No matter what your blog niche is there should be a Facebook group you can join and scour for blog post ideas.

Once you’re in the group, scroll through the questions people have asked in the group and write them down for future blog post ideas.

Brainstorm Session

Sometimes the best way to come up with content ideas is to just set some time aside and think about it.

To get started you can choose to either sit by yourself or gather up a small group of other bloggers to bounce ideas off of. Then, grab a piece of paper or whiteboard and start by writing down your blog’s main categories. You can do this in columns, or as a mind-map.

Set a timer for 10 minutes or so and just write down everything that you think of. At this point it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad. Don’t think about that, just write it all down. Once your timer goes off you can sift through it.

Blog Comments

Chances are you might have answered the same question over and over again in your blog comments without even realizing it. Which is why you should scroll through your comments and see if any themes pop up.

A lot of the time your blog posts might leave readers with more questions. And while you can’t always include every piece of information in one blog post, this is a great way to think of new content ideas for future blog posts.

So if you do find that you’re answering the same question again and again, that’s a clear sign you need to elaborate. That way the next time someone asks you can point them in the direction of your new blog post. It’s a win-win situation.

Google Keywords

Google’s Keyword Planner is an amazing tool to come up with new content ideas. Just start by typing in your blog’s niche and the Keyword Planner will research keywords and ideas related to it.

This list could be several pages long, full of ideas on everything even remotely related to your niche, along with additional data, like the number of people who have searched the term. This data is a great way to brainstorm content ideas.

Competition

No matter what your blog’s niche is you have competition, and your competition is a great place to look for new content ideas. That’s not to say you should copy their work, but instead find inspiration from them. You can do this in a number of ways.

First, you might read a post of theirs and notice they didn’t include something that you feel is important. Or, you might read their blog comments and see people have similar questions you know you can answer. From their blog you can get an idea of what works and what doesn’t, what people are interested in, and what’s trending.

In any case, your competition should just be a starting point to help form ideas. From there your content should be completely original.

Newsletter

Every blog should have a newsletter to accompany it. Not only is it a great way to stay connected with your audience, it’s also a great way to learn from them.

One way to do this is to set up an introductory email that goes out automatically when someone signs up. You can use lead generation software to do this which will allow you to build forms for your visitors to put their details into. One example through which you can do this is with OptinMonster, which is a great tool for marketers looking to build their email lists and send regular content out to subscribers, such as newsletters.  

As well as introducing yourself and your business, the email you send might include an enticing freebie, a link to your Facebook Group, or even a list of your top blog posts.

It should also include a question at the end asking them what it is they are most struggling with or most want to learn in your niche.

Although a lot of people probably won’t reply, some will, and those few responses are a great way to come up with content ideas for your blog.

Remember to reply back to any responses you get with a quick solution and offer to send them a more detailed post once it’s live.

Old Content

There are a few different ways you can use old content to come up with new ideas.

First of all, you can take a look at what posts received the most views, comments and social shares using a Google Analytics plugin. That will give you an idea of what people are looking for. Knowing that, you can brainstorm that specific topic and try to figure out new ideas around it.

Next, you can update old content with new ideas. Chances are you’ve learned a lot since you first published a lot of your pieces. Once it’s updated, make sure to update the published date to the present so it comes up to the top of your recent blog posts.