For content creators, coming up with ideas on the regular is not always the easiest things. We’ve been at this blogging thing for a while, and these are some of the ways that help us come up with ideas and generate post ideas.
1- Follow Blogs Both In and Outside of Our Niche
Some blogs I follow because the content is similar to ours and some just because I’m inspired by the blogger’s sense of style or how they do things. I use Feedly to follow blogs and have them categorized – Books, Lifestyle, Decor, Fitness, Food, Travel and Personal. These blog posts both inspire me, and can lead to me doing blog posts of my own. For example, this post on How We Get Inspiration and Keep Our Creative Juices Going, was inspired by this blog post on How I Keep My Creative Fuel Tank Topped Up Throughout The Year.
[In The Bloggers Toolbox – Feedly Tips and Tweaks]
2-Re-visit Old Posts
After having a blog for a couple of years, old posts will be a gold mine. Usually, we look up past posts for the upcoming month or 2 and then brainstorm. Some ideas …
- Update old content, with images or better wording for example and re-publish. For example, The Master List of Book Blogging Memes gets updated with any new memes, and defunct ones removed, and is re-published each year.
- Create follow up posts with more ideas on the older post if possible. e.g. 4 Reading Recommendations To Add Diversity to Your Book Club Reads (Jan. 2017) and 5 More Fiction Recommendations To Add Diversity To Your Book Club Reads (Nov. 2017)
- Create a theme week and re-publish / re-schedule older content for that week. For example, following the above theme of book club reads, in another year or 2, we could run a series of posts related to choosing books for your book club and re-run the above posts, and any other that we’ve written related to the topic, such as 5 Young Adult (B)ooks Your Adult (B)ook Club Will Love. TIP. Use the search feature on your blog to see related posts. An added bonus is that it will give you a break from creating fresh content for that week – so you can brainstorm or work on future posts. This works better when your “URL” (blog post address) is not in a date format – so it doesn’t change when it’s re-published.
- create a new version for the current year if the post is dated. e.g. The Master List of 2018 Reading Challenges and The Master List of 2019 Reading Challenges.
3- Keep a List of Posts Where It’s Accessible Anytime
We keep our blog calendar in Evernote, which is accessible online, or as a program to download or as a phone app. Personally – I use the online version and the app on my phone. Both are usually close by and when an idea for a blog post hits, I’m able to capture it by adding it in an empty slot on the calendar. When it’s time to write the actual post – sometimes, we keep the idea, sometimes it gets tossed – and sometimes it may morph into a different topic.
Some people prefer to keep their lists in a bullet journal, others use different digital platforms.
[3 Digital Blog Editorial (C)alendar Ideas]
4- Holidays and Seasons
Holidays and seasons can provide the biggest inspiration. There are fun, funky holidays that you may be able to incorporate into your blog and of course, there are the 4 seasons and other major holidays. My biggest tip would be to write out the holidays for the upcoming year that you’d like to have content for – and then plan the content for these holidays so you know wayin advance what you need to do. This is something I’m working on – as they always seem to sneak up on me – but it’s a wasted opportunity not to do it.
[10 Books on Our Fall (R)eading List]
6 – Planning Ahead
This may not sound like something that would provide inspiration – but … hear me out. When you allow yourself the time to get inspiration – instead of trying to do it last minute – it provides opportunity for your mind to wander and reflect – and ultimately come up with ideas. So try it! No matter where you are write now (whether you’re ahead or behind) – start thinking about 2 to 3 months ahead … and start planning for that. It’s November at the time of writing this post – so start thinking about blog post ideas for January and Winter (or whatever season it is in your neck of the woods).
Are any of the ideas above similar to what you do? Which one(s)? Or where do you get inspiration from for your blog posts?
// Comments //
Lauren
without planning ahead im not sure i could blog efficiently any more, its such a life saver
Tanya Patrice
@Lauren Amen!
Aj @ Read All The Things!
Thanks for the tips! I keep a list of post ideas, but it’s a small list. I’ve been blogging for 5 years. It’s getting really hard to come up with stuff I haven’t done already.
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