Idea Source 1: Other Blogs
You’re doing your readers a big favor by summarizing the most useful content from a few of your top favorite blogs they don’t have time to read themselves.
Idea Source 2: Your Library, The Bookstore
You need to keep your skills fresh, your information up-to-date, (and your body caffeinated). A trip to the bookstore coffee shop can do all that and result in a great blog post idea.
Idea Source 3: Your “Idea Journal”
My journal is actually a database. I know people who use programs like One Note. Others use actual pen and ink! Whatever your medium, having a specific place to write down random thoughts and kernels for future blogs is a great way to capture inspiration in the moment. You don’t always have inspiration when it is convenient to sit down and write the entry, right?
Idea Source 4: Your Daily Life
We do a whole teleseminar on this topic and invariably our clients are thrilled to learn a way to turn everyday events into instant, valuable blog entries.
Idea Source 5: Lateral Thinking
Check out one of our favorite books for more on this: Lateral Thinking by Edward De Bono.
And the Bonus Idea…
Idea Source 6: Re-purposed Materials
How many people who have joined your mailing list in the last year do you think have dug through your site, found and read the third page of that newsletter you published two years? Is that material any less good or true? Is it any less important for new prospects than it was 24 months ago?
I’m not advocating lazy blogging, and I’m not advocating simply re-posting an identical post from a previous year. But under certain circumstances it is actually a smart and useful idea to cull your archives and pull out your best ideas that may be getting a bit dusty. Re-purposing involves some tweaking, rearranging and mix/matching.
This is especially true if, like many of our clients, your first attempt at a blog and website did not draw a ton of traffic, but now you have a new plan, perhaps a new design, and new, fresh traffic.
For example:
- Maybe you ended up writing five blogs on a certain topic over a period of 18 months. Why not write a new single entry where you combine the wisdom from those five into one, more succinct, updated post?
- Or, maybe you had an email-only newsletter with some great articles that readers of your blog have never seen if they did not subscribe to your newsletter. Why not pull out the 3-5 best articles most relevant to your current audience and boil them down into new blog posts?
- Perhaps, you wrote a blog entry on a topic that has changed a lot since you wrote it. Maybe the technology has changed, or even your opinion had changed. Pull it out, update it and add some new material about what is new and different now.
