How to Dig Deep for Meaningful Blog Post Ideas
You don’t find gold without getting through a lot of dirt first.
It’s the same in the world of blogging and publishing. For every good idea you have, you first write down two cliché posts or book ideas. For every topic you think that’s new, you’ll find five of them in Google listings.
How do you dig deep for meaningful blog post (and book) ideas that are unique and engaging—without rehashing what’s been done before?
Write the Posts You Wish You Could Read
It doesn’t happen often. But when it does, something inside your brain should go, “Red alert! Red alert! Untapped niche here!”
What am I talking about? It’s when you search online for some content—some piece of advice or solution to a problem—and you can’t find it. You’d be surprised at how many businesses start out simply because a person was looking for a solution to a problem, and the market hadn’t found it yet. So, they create the solution.
The same is true of blog posts. What’s the post you wish you could read?
Stop searching for the post and start researching for the post. Be the one who writes it.
Find Power in Vulnerability
Problems, challenges, struggles. For some reason, we all think they’re unique to us—but they might just be the most universal topics of all. You’ll find more meaning in a blog post if you start with a problem you have and use the content of the post to search for the solution.
There’s a lot of power in being vulnerable. Though you don’t want to whine and complain, you shouldn’t be afraid to shine a light on what it is that’s keeping you insecure lately. You’ll likely find that it opens up a new range of post topics and ideas while earning you a completely new audience.
Ask for Feedback
You’re not blogging in a vacuum. If you have an audience that leaves you blog comments, here are a few ways to make your content a two-way street:
- Ask for their suggestions in the comments.
- Host a poll to see which topics they come to read.
- Research your own analytics to find which topics did the best.
Once you get a sense for what works, try to go one level deeper than you have in the past. If you had success in writing about how to keep a home garden, for example, what’s “one level deeper”? Should you write another post about seeds and cultivation, or can you think about gardening from a fresh perspective?
Burn Your Ships
As legend has it, Hernan Cortez—a conquistador of the Age of Exploration—burned his ships so that his men would be forced to focus on the task at hand.
Do the same with your posts. Give this current topic everything you have. Write everything you could possibly write, and publish it.
Rather than content drying up, you’ll likely find that you’re forced to move forward into new territory you hadn’t even thought of before. Comedian Louis CK once said that he found success by using his best “closing bit” as his new “opener.” That way, he was forced to find great new material to follow it.
Put yourself in a position where you must dig deep. Burn your ships, and you might just be surprised which topics suddenly appear over the horizon.
How do you dig deep to find new and interesting blog post topics?
About the Author
Dan Kenitz is a freelance writer and ghostwriter from Wisconsin who helps individuals and companies build their brands through valuable content. www.empirewriter.com
Image copyright: yupiramos / 123RF Stock Photo
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