Are you stuck trying to generate new ideas for your blog? Even when you find ideas, are they the right ones, i.e., ones that people will actually read? Use this guide for brilliant ideas for your next blog post (and ones to follow as well).
It's all about giving readers what they want. I have researched the following topics which represents what people are looking for:
- Storytelling
- Remind people why they matter
- People like to be surprised
- Reveal a secret or tip they probably have never seen before
- Challenge assumptions but in a respectful way
- Give readers a fresh point of view
- Take them on some kind of fun journey (this can be especially effective using video)
- Make them smile and laugh without offending them
- Encouragement is always a great topic
- Teaching is a good way to engage but do it in an entertaining fashion
- Remind them that they don't have all the time in the world, i.e., life is short, etc.
- Controversial information is always engaging but can backfire on you if not careful
- Get them to discover that dreams can come true
- David Beats Goliath is always effective
- Faith and beliefs
- Show them how to get back to the basics
- Showing people ways to take action is always a hit - also never giving up is big too.
- Take a Stand about something important - you could get challenged on this, but that's okay.
The above topics should give you plenty to work with for creating lots of brilliant blog posts. The best part is they tend to be evergreen so that you can use them again (just change the wording a bit). You could stop here and get started with your content generation. Or, you can continue where I describe each of these ideas in more detail (click on each arrow below to get details).
Storytelling
There's no question storytelling is (or should become) your content creation ally. Everyone loves a good story. In most cases it doesn't make a difference if you are writing stories of fiction or if you are trying to convey a message within a non fiction post on your blog. Translating your message into a story is going to sit well with your visitors.
Remind People Why They Matter
It helps if you are more of an authority figure (or you have a blog that holds that esteem). Nonetheless, making people feel like they matter in your writing is going to go a long way no matter who you are. When visitors see that you genuinely care, they will develop a trust for you and will want to come back to see what else you have to say.
Give Them a Surprise
People love surprises so if you can find ways to do that, they are going to appreciate it. You want to focus on good surprises whenever possible. If it's something bad, that could bite you in the you-know-what. Of course, sometimes that could be exactly what is needed to get your point across. Overall good surprises = good engagement.
Reveal a Never-Before-Seen Secret or Tip
It is probably impossible for you to know secrets that absolutely no one else knows. But you will know (or learn) tips and secrets that many people including most of your readers will not know. If you can create your content based on these, people will share these tips with their friends and social circles.
Challenge Assumptions but in a Respectful Way
Many people accept whatever is written or produced on the internet. They assume that every blogger or website owner has fact checked their information. That is simply not true and opens up a huge opportunity for you to challenge those assumptions. But as the heading suggests, you need to do so respectfully. Otherwise you risk alienated the very audience you were trying to entice.
Give Readers a Fresh Point of View
This could go hand-in-hand with the Challenge Assumptions item but a point of view does not always have to be based on assumptions. For example, if someone is an investor of stocks you could offer them information on alternative investments like bonds or even options.
Get Them to "Go On a Journey" with you
If you can somehow take your readers on a journey or an adventure, you are certain to captivate them. Travel related content is the easiest to do this with but it certainly can apply to other topics as well. Perhaps you have overcome something recently and you share that experience with your audience. Note this ties in well with storytelling.
Make them Smile and/or Laugh
We all love to be amused. If you can make people smile or laugh with your content you will certainly get them into your corner. You do have to use this with caution as people may not find everything as funny as you do. Unless you are going for controversy, try to keep topics on the safe side when presenting humor.
Encouragement Makes for a Great Topic
People can never seem to get enough of posts that encourage them or inspire them in some way. It sometimes can be the push we need to get something done or break through certain barriers that we set up for ourselves. It also elicits confidence that you are someone that can help break through those barriers.
Teach Your Audience Something and Do it in an Entertaining Way
Type in the words "How To" in a search engine and notice the number of results that are returned. Also, notice just how many different categories will be in the results as well. Whether people want to learn how to play guitar or they want to know how to grow juicier tomatoes, there is a vast wealth of content that teaches people how to do various tasks.
You may think that everything that is known to man exists as a tutorial on the internet but that simply is not the case. Many people that create tutorials online don't do a good job at teaching the particular topic. This gives you a tremendous opportunity to step in and do a better job. At the very least, you can enhance the training that others have provided.
Another possibility is that there are training modules in a particular topic that aren't bad as far as the information provided, they just are rather boring in how they were presented. Again, this is a golden opportunity to step in and create a module that is much more entertaining. If you aren't good at doing that, you can easily find someone that you can pay that is.
Remind Your Audience that Life is Short
We all know this saying is true. And yet, there are plenty of us (yours truly included) that act as if we have all the time in the world. We don't. Creating content based on this premise is another motivational type of theme but it works. And it can be repeated multiple times throughout the course of your blog.
Controversy is a Great Way to Get People to Engage
I state this with a caveat that the type of engagement that may occur as a result of posting a controversial topic may be adverse to what you were expecting. Or, it could be exactly the type of engagement factor you were looking for. Just be aware that you will get both sides of an argument to chime in with strong emotion. Topics that offer the most potential are politics and religion.
I had a professor in one of my graduate classes that always took on controversial subjects to speak about. None of us could figure out what side of the political fence he was on and that is exactly the type of tone he wanted. He played the role of mediator in most discussions and often discussed points from both sides. That is a great angle to play on your blog as well.
Who Doesn't Want their Dreams to come True?
I think it's safe to say that most of us want our dreams to come true, whatever they happen to be. You could create content about this at a very general level or you could get specific about how to do it for a particular topic. It could be inspirational or simply steps to take to achieve the particular dream.
David Triumphs over Goliath
Who doesn't like a great tale about how a single person overcame the oppression of a large and powerful entity? Perhaps a giant corporation was found bullying an employee and the employee went onto create a business capable of putting that corporation out of business. Sometimes you could even approach this from the perspective of disbelievers that kept trying to knock someone down by saying it can't be done only to have the person do exactly what the naysayers told were impossible. This is a very powerful type of content creation tool!
Faiths and Beliefs
Not all faith related topics (or beliefs for that matter) have to be about religion. You could hold the faith that someone who works for you will improve their performance and this does not have to do with anything religious. Some would argue that it's the same thing but I believe it's all in the presentation. You could also choose to incorporate more of a religious spin in this type of post but then the lines are blurred as to whether it becomes more of a controversial topic, depending on just how your present it.
Get Them Back to the Basics
Humans love to over complicate everything we do. Sometimes we need a little reminder that what we are trying to accomplish is not as complicated as we make it. This makes for great "Ah Ha!" moments along with a little bit of embarrassment that we didn't see this for ourselves. But no matter. As long as we get our problem solved and you were the one to help us find that simple solution.
Motivate Your Audience to Take Action or Never Give Up (or Both)
How many times have you read online about the need to take action? Often, this is all you need to go for it. Yet, we never seem to tire of this type of message. This, along with the message of never giving up makes for some great content creation that never gets old.
Take a Stand
You may have recently remembered the hot topic going around the internet about net neutrality. The idea is that large entities such as Comcast and others would give faster based access paths to those who paid more (much like a toll on a highway). The battle is still being fought back and forth as of this writing. The FCC ruled in favor of keeping the internet neutral but apparently Comcast is suing them.
Writing about such topics and giving your opinion can be a great way to get your audience to comment on the topic. Once that happens, your content has the potential to go viral because people tend to share these types of posts.
Do you have an idea that you like to use as part of your content generation? Share it with us in the comment section below. We'd love to hear it! Also, please feel free to share this post using the social buttons below. Your followers could use the information for their benefit.
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