If you’re doing any content marketing at the moment, there’s a good chance that you’re writing a lot of content.
For many content creators, coming up with blog post ideas can be a real challenge – a challenge that stops most people from writing blog posts in the first place.
If that’s the case for you – there’s no need for concern!
In this post, we’re going to take a look at how you can create content ideas for your blog posts.
We’ll take a look at the tools and certain websites that you can use to come up with blog post ideas.
By the end of this post, you’ll have all of the knowledge that you need, in order to become a leading content creator with some brilliant blog post ideas of your own.
Let’s begin!
Google Keyword Tool
There are over 100 billion searches per month on Google – a number that is still on the rise.
The Google Keyword tool collects data on all of the searches made on Google and provides you with access to this data for free!
The google keyword tool can be very useful, when trying to come up with content creation ideas. Using it, you can work out what people within your small business niche are searching for.
Remember, when you create content that you’re designing solutions to the problems of your target audience. You want to inform people within your small business niche how they can achieve a certain goal.
Using the Google Keyword tool, you can figure out what problems people within your target audience are looking to solve.
Once you uncover these topics, you can create content that will cater to their concerns.
By design, this type of content will be highly relevant to a large number of people within your niche – because a lot of people are using search engines to uncover details on how to solve this problem within Google already.
So…Let’s take a look at how you can use this tool as a winning content marketer.
First, head over to https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner
Select the option called ‘Search for new keywords using a phrase,website or category,’ and then type in a keyword related to your niche.
Keep your keyword or phrase broad for now.
For the sake of this post, let’s imagine that I want to come up with high quality content ideas for a ‘Paleo’ blog.
Then, click on ‘Get Ideas.’
You’ll then be presented with a list of ‘Ad group ideas.’ For this post, you don’t need to really worry about what Ad group ideas are.
But, what you do need to understand is that these ‘groups,’ represent broad topics that we can use to inspire the ideas of great content.
For example, for the topic of Paleo, I’m presented with the potential topics of ‘Paleo Snacks,’ and ‘Paleo Breakfast.’
Next to the Ad Group Ideas, you’ll also notice that there is some data about how many people, per month, are searching keywords that are related to those Ad Groups.
If I click on these Ad Group Ideas, I’ll be presented with more precise information in the form of keywords.
If you look above, you’ll see the different keywords that people are typing into search engines, when searching on the topic of ‘Paleo Breakfast Ideas.’
Looking at the groups can be a good idea, when you’re just looking for something that you should be writing about.
Looking at ‘keywords,’ however, can be a good idea, when you need some inspiration, in terms of what the actual post title should be and how you should be phrasing the title.
So, that’s how you can use the Google Keyword planner to come up with valuable content ideas.
Now, let’s move on to the next method.
Google Suggestions
This is very similar to the section above, but it does deserve a mention of its own if you want to become the best possible content marketer you can be.
You’ve probably noticed that when you’re using Google, you’re provided with suggestions as you’re typing.
These suggestions are based on what people have been typing already.
As a result, you know that the suggestions relate to what people want, and can therefore inform you as to what you should be writing about.
All you then need to do is to type in a keyword related to your topic and keep selecting an extra keyword until you have a topic that looks good.
Below, you’ll see the process that I went through to uncover what my target audience is interested in when searching around the topic of Paleo breakfasts.
Having gone through that sequence, I could then create content on ‘paleo breakfast muesli.’
You can also use this method for YouTube.
Now, let’s take a look at another way you can go about finding content creation ideas.
Take a look at Forums/Reddit/Quora
Browsing through sites where a lot of public discussion takes place can also uncover some brilliant ideas for you to create content.
The main sites you’ll want to look at are ‘relevant forums,’ Reddit and Quora.
Finding relevant forums is not too hard.
All that you have to do is to search a broad keyword related to niche, paired with the word ‘forum.’
So, for Paleo, I’d search ‘Paleo forum.’
If I pick one of the sites above, I’ll be able to see some topics that people want to learn about.
You’ll want to browse through all of the relevant forums, so that you can collect a large list of ideas.
The next location worth checking out is Reddit.
Reddit achieved 227,549,237 unique visits in March of 2016 alone– so there’s a good chance you’ll find some relevant discussions to your small business niche on the site.
Once again, search a keyword related to the niche of your target audience and see if there is a ‘Subreddit,’ related to your topic.
That’s what happened when I searched for a Paleo Subreddit.
You’ll also notice that there are some Subreddits below that are dedicated to Paleo recipes, too.
When you click through to a Subreddit, you might want to click on the ‘top,’ section.
This will let you see some of the top discussions that have been taking place within this particular subreddit.
Note: You can change the time frame, when viewing the top discussions.
Another place that you can find content creation ideas is Quora.
Once on Quora, simply type in a broad keyword related to your niche.
You’ll then see some popular discussions, related to your topic of choice, that are taking place.
Sometimes, there will be a topic on Quora that’s dedicated to your niche.
If that is the case, click through to it.
In doing so, you’ll see even more popular discussions that are taking place.
If you want to become a successful content marketer then it makes sense to use all of these discussions as inspiration when trying to develop a content creation idea.
Ask your audience for ideas
You can also ask your audience to suggest topics with which to create content around.
Now, the way you can do this will tend to vary, depending on how you have set things up.
For example, if you have an email list, then you can ask them what they’d like to see more of.. I have done this myself, in the past.
Alternatively, if you have a popular Facebook Fan Page or Facebook Group, you can just leave a post, in which you ask people what types of content they’d like to see more of.
If you have a Facebook Group, you might even want to put things up to a vote by posting a poll.
You can do that by clicking on ‘Create poll,’ when you’re logged into your Facebook Group.
When you ask your audience for topic ideas, you can also ask them how you should phrase the title, too.
This can be a good way to come up with a title that is going to last for a long time, making your post appealing in the long term.
Look at the books selling in the kindle store
You can also take a look at what books are selling within your small business niche in the Kindle Store.
This is a good option, because it will show what information is so highly demanded that people are willing to pay for it.
To find content creation ideas using the Kindle Store, first head over to https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/.
Once there, search using a keyword related to your niche.
So, in this case, I’m going to search ‘Paleo.’
After doing so, I’m presented with a long list of Kindle books that are related to the Paleo topic.
In some cases, doing this is enough to come up with ideas with which to effectively create content.
However, it’s often a good idea to click through to the sales pages of some of these books. In doing so, you’ll be exposed to even more ideas for great content.
For example, if you take a look at the description for one of the Kindle books below, you’ll notice that there are plenty of topics there that can be used to inspire evergreen content.
If you decide that you’re going to write on a certain subtopic within your small business niche, using this method can still be a good idea.
Say I was looking to create content dedicated to ‘Paleo on a Budget.’
If I search the kindle store for ‘Paleo Budget,’ I’m presented with Kindle books that are dedicated to this topic.
Once again I can read the book description to find out what I should be covering, when writing about eating the paleo diet on a budget.
However, I can also check out the reviews, as this will also help me find out what it is that the target audience want from a piece of content creation related to this topic – and what was not covered by a certain book.
Look at products/courses that your competitors are selling
There’s also the option of taking a look at some of the courses that are being sold, within your niche, as a way to help inspire evergreen content ideas.
You can do that by visiting Udemy and typing in a Keyword related to your niche.
There are 40,000 plus courses on Udemy, so there’s a good chance you’ll find something relevant.
This is what appears, when I type in ‘Paleo.’
There are many courses related to the topic of Paleo. What I need to do is to click on one of them and then check out what the course covers.
Below is an example of one of the courses.
As you can see, there are many ideas here that can be used to help me write a comprehensive piece of great content that covers an issue that your target audience would like to find out about.
Look at what is working for other people in your space
You can also take a look at what great content other content marketers are doing within your space, to find out what’s already working and what people want to learn about.
To do that, use Buzzsumo.
Using Buzzsumo, you can quickly find popular pieces of great content that have worked well in the past.
Once you’ve found a popular type of evergreen content, all you need to do is take that piece of content and make something that’s ten times better.
To get started, head to Buzzsumo and type in a keyword related to the niche of your small business in the keyword box.
Buzzsumo will then return some relevant, quality content that has been widely shared.
Here’s what came up when I typed in Paleo.
As you can see, a lot of this content is recipe related. The issue, however, is that I’m not always going to be writing about recipes.
Therefore, when searching in relation to large, popular topic, it might be a good idea to be a bit more specific when typing in a keyword.
This will help return more relevant results.
So, in this case, I might type in ‘Paleo on a budget.’
By doing this, I am presented with an improved list of results that I can use to develop a more specific piece of evergreen content.
Though this takes a little bit of knowledge ahead of time, in terms of what I want to write about, searching with specificity is important if you want to come up with quality content ideas that you haven’t covered already.
Conclusion
If you want a popular blog, you need to figure out how you’re going to come up with great content.
Hopefully, as a result of reading this article, you now know what needs to be done, in order to come up with winning evergreen content ideas and progress your small business as a successful content marketer.
Whether you use the Google Keyword tool or you look at some popular books in the Kindle Store, coming up with ideas should no longer be a challenge for you.
Experiment with what you’ve learned in this post and see how well these ideas work out for you.
Good luck!
What has worked out for you when trying to come up with better blog post ideas?
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