Blogging and content marketing are great ways to build loyal readers and customers. However, one of the biggest challenges when using this approach is the constant need for great ideas for content, such as blog posts. Eventually, in every blogger’s life, there comes a point where they run out of ideas. It seems that there is no new angle or new idea that will generate good quality content for your readers.
If you find yourself in this situation you know that it can be very frustrating. This is especially true if you have set a fairly frequent posting schedule, say once a day. But you can reduce your frustration and get some great new content ideas by using the following tips, something we call the REAL method:
Re-use: Yes, you have probably repurposed your content in the past to create some new blog posts. But in this case we’re talking about taking your existing content and putting it in the light of a current event. Let’s say you have a blog about nutrition and healthy lifestyles. As of this writing, Apple has just announced the launch of its iPad 2. Can you take a previous post about healthy breakfasts and link it to an app on the Apple App Store? How about comparing the exercise to the Apple product launch (sure the iPad 2 looks good, but it’s all the exercises done behind the scenes that have come together to create a fit and lean product).
Evaluate: What can you evaluate? Going back to your nutrition and healthy lifestyle blog, are there any new products? New foods, new equipment, new supplements? What can you assess if it will provide value to your readers? Better yet, can you put together a tutorial on how to use the new equipment or how to cook the new foods? There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of products introduced annually; you can use them as an endless supply of blog posts.
Ask for: Yes, you can ask your readers. Twitter is a great way to do this. We’ve seen successful bloggers tweet their readers with a question like “Hey, writing a post about elliptical trainers, what do you want to know?” If you have a reasonable number of readers following you on Twitter, you should be getting responses within minutes. If it’s not Twitter, you can use your email list to find out what your readers might want to know about a certain topic.
Link: You can link to related posts on other blogs or news articles and provide your thoughts, comments and spins on them. This is a great way to develop blog posts. You can set up Google Alerts for your subject area and get ideas delivered to your inbox every day. Review the articles and posts, write your point of view or comments, and be sure to link to the source and give credit to the author and post.
So when you’re running out of ideas for your blog posts, try the REAL method. Reuse, evaluate, ask, and link your way to new content ideas.
