I know that it’s not always easy to come up with ideas for blog content, especially if you’re committed to a regular blogging schedule. That’s one of the reasons why I did my “29 Blog Topic Ideas for Roofers” post.
However, you have to keep right on writing. So when you get stuck, it pays to have some good tricks up your sleeve.
1. See What Others are Doing
Sometimes it pays to lift up your head and look around. Read some other blogs in your industry. Take a look around your social media accounts to see what people are talking about.
Obviously you don’t want to copy anything, but you can certainly put your own take on whatever people are talking about. This also gives you the opportunity to curate great content.
2.Answer Customer Questions
Your customers are an awesome source of blog posts. They are handing you topic ideas every time they ask a question.
You can turn to unusual questions. You can turn to those same, tired 30 questions that your staff answers every week. Each is an awesome opportunity to build a blog post that customers really care about.
You know they care about it, cause they keep asking about it. Talk about a winner!
Try to jot down customer questions as they arrive for a week or two. This will give you a handy topic list that you can consult later.
3. Look for Unanswered Questions in Blog Comments
As you look around at other people’s blogs you’ll start to see some unanswered questions. This usually happens with comments that appear after the first 10 or 20 comments.
By this point, the blog owner has usually moved on to answering comments about other posts, which means he or she will probably not get around to answering the question. This means you can answer it yourself, both in the comments in short form and on your blog in long form.
Again, you’ll know it’s content customers care about because someone actually took the time to ask the question in the first place.
4. Check Your Analytics
Google Analytics is a great place to pick up content ideas. You just have to know where to look.
First, look at the search terms that people are using to get to your site. Many will be typed in the form of questions.
Often, you won’t have a post that specifically answers those questions. Craft one!
Second, look at your most popular posts. If people really liked certain posts that tells you that they’d like to see more of the same. There may even be more to say about the topics that you addressed in the original post, which means you can do a follow-up post which gives readers even more information.
5. Recap Your Greatest Hits
Sooner or later a bunch of new people are going to show up on your blog that have no idea what’s come before. Every once and awhile it doesn’t hurt to put together a post which shows them some of the posts you’d like them to see.
Obviously you don’t want to do this every single month, but it’s a great strategy if you’re really hard up for content.
6. Review a Product
Obviously you’re not an affiliate marketing blog, so you don’t necessarily need to make the post a “review” at all. Just talk about a product that matters to your industry.
For example. Plumber. What’s your opinion on that Liquid Plumber stuff? Are there hidden pitfalls to using it? Is it pretty good for simple problems that don’t require your specialized attention? Is there a cheaper alternative?
This kind of thing makes for very popular posts in my experience. People buy stuff all the time. They want to know whether or not they’re getting ripped off or making a mistake.
7. Take Some Photographs
Most people are visual. They think in pictures and they’d rather not look at a big wall of text.
As a writer by vocation this is not a trait I particularly share. But I’ve learned to bow to the inevitable. 😉
It’s really easy to generate content this way.
8. Offer a Survey
Sometimes you just need to know what your customers are thinking. Put together a survey on something like Survey Monkey and post a link to it on your blog.
Share information about why you are doing the survey.
Later, you can share the results, what you thought about those results, and what, if anything, you plan on doing in response to the results.
9. Do a Blog Round-Up
I have to say that the blog round-up posts that I’ve been doing are more fun for me than just about any other post I do all week.
Once upon a time I didn’t like sharing other people’s content. I thought that they’d go read that other person’s blog and leave me to eat my lunch all by myself.
That hasn’t been the case. People appreciate useful content and they appreciate anyone who provides it.
Besides, I’m not an expert on everything. I’m never going to be able to run Local SEO experiments like a Mike Blumenthal or a Phil Rozek. That’s just not even the way that I think. The only way that I can help you benefit from those sorts of things is to share their work with you.
You’re not an expert on everything either.
10. Comment on Recent News
I absolutely adore Google News and Feed.ly. Why? Because sometimes the most interesting stuff out there is the brand new stuff, and this is how I figure out what the heck’s going on.
Sometimes you can just curate what’s new. And sometimes, you’ll have an entire opinion on what’s new.
For example. Electrician. There are scientists developing lamps made out of glowing algae to save energy. Is this technology feasible? Are there better solutions? What can homeowners get their hands on right now to save energy, since space age algae lamps aren’t available on the open market?
The Possibilities Are Endless
If you can talk about your business all day then you can blog about your business all week. While I certainly understand writer’s block (I actually had writer’s block for a good week before coming up with this very post) I also know that there are always more gems in the Idea Mine.
How do you come up with new content? Let me know in the comments below!
