SEO Hosting Blog

Written by: Eric Brantner on September 7, 2010 – 7:43 am

No matter how much passion you have for the topic you blog about, there’s going to come a time when you just run out of ideas. After blogging day in and day out for several months or years, it can feel like you’ve said it all. What else is there to write about? You’ve hit a wall, and you officially have blogger’s block.

So how do you overcome it? How do you keep coming up with fresh blog ideas so you can continue to build your blog and reach your goals?

Here are 11 proven tips I use to generate ideas for my blogs.

1. Respond to the critics—If you’re a blogger, you’re going to have to deal with negative people from time to time. Of course, there’s a right way and a wrong way to respond to them. The wrong way is to get overly defensive and sensitive, because you’ll come off as unprofessional and petty. The right way is to turn that negativity into some really great content by addressing their points and clarifying your positions.
2. Tie a major current event into your topic—Being relevant is the key to running a fresh, popular blog. Is there a way to tie some current event into your topic? For example, when the BP oil spill disaster was happening earlier this year, many bloggers in the SEO field wisely noted that BP had launched a PPC campaign to buy certain keywords and do some damage control.
3. Search Twitter hash tags—See what other people are talking about by searching Twitter hash tags related to your niche. For example, if you write a blog about basketball, you could search for “#nba” and other hash tags.
4. Keep a journal of the things you hate—There’s something about a good rant that makes for compelling blog material. Whenever you talk about the things that annoy you, it really resonates with readers because many of them will feel the same way. More importantly, it shows a bit more of your personality, allowing readers to get to know you better.
5. Criticize someone more popular than you—Personally, I’m not a huge fan of this one, but there have been many bloggers who’ve made a name for themselves by “calling out” someone way more popular than they are. Some advice here: Only do this if you have a legitimate point to make, and never make a habit of trying to build your reputation by trashing others.
6. Create a glossary for industry jargon—The other day, I came across a post titled 92 Online Marketing Terms and Metrics You Should Know. It was a glossary for those in the online marketing industry. The terms are all pretty basic, but it’s a great idea for a post because it serves as a much-needed resource.
7. Go back to the basics—Fellow SEO Hosting blogger Tyler just started a new series called Back to the Basics, and I think it’s a brilliant idea. As a blogger, it can be easy to get so deep into a subject that you overlook the basics that not everyone might know. Sometimes, you have to focus on simplicity.
8. Make a list of posts you really like—Not only is this an easy way to come up with a blog post, but if done effectively, it can serve as a remarkable piece of linkbait. There’s a reason you see bloggers doing top 100 lists at the end of the year with links to their favorite posts from around the web. They know they’re creating a resource people will link to and talk about. Not to mention, when you link out to all these other posts, you’re getting the attention of the other bloggers, helping to spread your message.
9. Extend old posts—Take a look at the last 10 or so posts you’ve written. Is there something you can add to them? Is there a related topic you didn’t get to cover? Did a reader leave a comment that’s worth following up on in-depth?
10. Look at search terms that bring visitors to your blog—Hopefully, you have some sort of analytics installed on your blog, and if you do, you already know that people will arrive to your blog from some of the most random search queries. Take a look at these queries and see if any of them relate to topics you could cover in a post.
11. Track what readers enter into your search box—Do you have a search box on your blog? This can be a goldmine for blog ideas, because it lets you see exactly what your readers want. Take a look at their search queries so you can get a better idea of the topics they’re interested in.

What are some of your best tactics for coming up with blog ideas?

Related posts:

• 5 Tips for Overcoming Web Designer’s Block
• Do You Suffer From Search Engine Marketer’s Writers Block?

Also Try Searching: coming up with blog ideas, Writers Block