Remember these days?
Sorry they’re long gone! Keyword stuffing and content stealing are as dead as Elvis folks!
Let’s all be honest for a minute. Finding ideas for blogposts is no fun. Very few will disagree and for all of you who do, all the power to you.
One of the most difficult aspects of topic choice is looking for something that’s truly original in a wide wide web (yes, I punned) of content that’s been recirculated, regurgitated, rehashed and recycled for the better part of the last 15 years.
Visitors to your blog or vlog really are looking for new insights though, not just rewritten content that’s appeared on all the major headline sites and received tons of views and shares already. Creating your own viral posts, like this one I recently did on BizEpic, requires a lot of originality.
So how does one go about finding and creating original content?
It’s not easy, we all know that.
1. Quora
Quora is to 2015 what Yahoo Answers was to the first decade of the modern interwebs. That is, before marketers destroyed it with all their hacking and mindless trickery! Quora’s a great site though, and there’s plenty to be found within her walls, including insightful answers to both common and complex answers to user questions from Previso Media owner and successful webpreneur, Ivan Widjaya and TONS of great potential blog topics.
Why?
Because a good blogpost is only good when other people read it. A good vlog only becomes good when people watch it. Neither will come to fruition without adding value in the form of you actually answering a burning question people have, or sharing breaking news, or flat out entertaining the heck out of them so they’ll come back time and again. I can’t think of a single industry that I wouldn’t recommend Quora for when it comes to finding good blog and vlog topics.
2. Magazines (online and off)
Magazine publications have millions of dollars worth of journalists and advisers on their side to find the latest and greatest content for their readership. I’m not suggesting that you just run out and buy every magazine in your niche and start rewriting the content within as your own, though. Magazines are full of headlines. Headlines are meant to inspire people to read the content and have their brains manipulated by all the advertisements to be found on each and every page. Flipboard is a great online magazine resource for your phone or tablet.
That inspiration doesn’t just have to inspire consumers to buy products though. Your blogging, vlogging brain can also be inspired to write the best post you’ve ever written or film the most entertaining or insightful vlog post ever recorded. I love writing about online and offline business because it helps me learn along the way. My real passion is health and fitness though.
Let’s say I need some inspiration for a health and fitness style blogpost. I happen to have a Women’s Health magazine right here on my desk (no, it’s not mine, I swear!) and I’m now going to thumb through it until I’m inspired by a headline I can write an article on about a current trending topic.
Here’s one: How to Avoid “Winter Thighs”
And the inspiration born from that headline:
- 8 Exercises That’ll Actually Shrink Your Thighs This Fall
- 10 Healthy Foods That Actually Make Your Butt Bigger!
- How to Psyche Yourself Out of Packing on Those Holiday Pounds This Year
Hey, maybe they sound cheesy, but those 3 headlines are more than enough to make an epic, original post using the skills and knowledge I’ve developed through years of study, exercise and proper diet.
3. Watch TV
I’ll admit to taking this one to the extreme over the years. So much so, I rarely do it anymore. Though #’s 1 and 2 are still paramount to my strategy. The trick here, to avoid wasting precious hours of your time on old Seinfeld reruns, is to actually watch channels that offer tons of content related to your niche industry, in as short a period of time as possible. The trick is to keep a pen handy so you don’t forget any ideas. Write down everything that might be relevant, then head back to the drawing board after 20 or 30 minutes and get to work!
CNN and MSNBC have given me tons of great ideas over the years. Jim Cramer’s Mad Money is awesome for generating unique, up-to-the-minute posts about everything finance. Check out the WB if you’re looking for what’s turning the cogs of the teenage drama wheel these days. Heck, watch KK and her fam on E! Television and you’ll get lots of juicy celeb gossip and may well get ahead of whatever trends or rumors they’re trying to invoke at the moment.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Do share…
