How To Find A Topic For Your Next Article Or Blog Post
One of the hardest parts of writing online is finding ideas, but there are ways to make it easier
So you’re sitting there, staring at the incessant blinking of the cursor on a blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike. Tomorrow you need to post on your blog, or on Medium, but you have absolutely no idea what to write about.
We’ve all been there. One of the hardest things about online writing is its ongoing nature, and consistently having to come up with new and exciting content ideas. So what do you do when you just can’t think of anything to write about? How do you go about choosing a topic for your next article or blog post when the muse just won’t cooperate? Well, here are a few things you can try:
Keep A Running List Of Ideas
This is no good when you’re already sitting there staring at the blank page, but it’s worth picking up the habit of using your more inspired moments carefully.
When you’re going through a creative period where you feel as if you have a never ending supply of ideas, make sure you’re writing them all down in one specific place for future reference. That way, when you’re struck by writer’s block, you can simply consult your running list, pick an idea, and get to work.
A great way I’ve found of capturing my ideas on the go is using Evernote, and I imagine this is a common app used by many bloggers and writers. Most of us have our phones on us all the time, and so it’s much easier to whip out your phone and jot down a few notes in a note taking app than to keep a notebook and pen on you all the time.
I’ve been struck with great article ideas in places as random as the supermarket and in the park whilst walking the dog, so it’s great to have somewhere easily accessible to jot down a few notes before the idea escapes.
Check Out Other Blogs, Websites And Articles In Your Field
No, I’m not saying take other people’s ideas or plagiarise their work: that’s not cool. But you can certainly take inspiration from reading other articles in the same field as yours, to see what people are talking about, and what is currently proving popular. If you feel as if you have something valuable to add to the conversation, you could put your own spin on a commonly discussed topic, or even write a reply to someone else’s article (citing the original, obviously).
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting inspiration from other people’s work, as long as you know the line between being inspired by something and straight-out copying. The beauty of online writing is that we’re all in conversation with each other, but you need to make sure that anything you write on a topic comes from you, and is your own opinion, or based on your own research.
Think Carefully About What Your Audience Really Wants To Know
We write online to communicate and to share our knowledge and thoughts. So one of the best ways to come up with your next idea is to have a good hard think about your audience and exactly what they’d like to know. Take a look at the people who are commenting on your previous posts, liking your articles and sharing your content on Twitter, and check out the other things they’re liking and sharing. What are their interests and likes, and how can you offer them valuable information in that field?
Look Back At Your Most Popular Posts
A great way to figure out what to write about in the future is to look back at your past posts and articles. Which ones had the most people clicking ‘read more’, or that inspired the most people to comment?
Your top posts reflect your audience’s interests, and so you could take one of those old topics and expand on it, whether that means going into further detail, adding further tips, or looking at it from a slightly different angle.
So, for example, if one of your most popular posts is ‘How To Promote Your Blog With Social Media’, you could go into further detail on specific sites, therefore spawning several more posts in the same vein. For example, ‘How To Promote Your Blog on Twitter’, and ‘How To Use Instagram to Promote Your Blog Posts.’
Consider What Excites You
For most of us writing online, our aim is to have our work read, and that means trying to write something that other people want to read.
But there’s also something to be said for just following your passion and writing about whatever excites you, especially when you feel blocked and are struggling to find a topic to write about.
So perhaps you’ve taken up a new hobby that few people are going to be interested in… Why not write about it anyway? You could either just appeal to a small set of people who are equally enthusiastic about that topic, or you could make your article more general by relating that interest to something broader. For example, ‘How Learning Crochet Taught Me Patience’, or ‘5 Ways Chess Broadened My Mind’.
Ultimately, the last thing you want to do when you don’t know what to write about is despair, and resort to procrastination. It can be tempting to put it off and wait until the muse strikes, but you can never guarantee when that will happen.
The best way to get inspired and find a topic for your next article is to be proactive, and go out looking for it, whether that’s by preparing in advance for the dry spells by noting down your ideas, or by analysing your past successes, or just by following you passions. Somewhere out there is your next idea, you just have to find it…and then the next one after that. And the one after that.
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