Since adding content to your site/blog is one of the if not the most important factor in it’s success, the biggest issue people encounter is how to find content ideas for it.
As much as I preach about the importance of content, in this post, I’d like to talk about my personal methods that I use to solve this problem.
First however, I want to clarify something: People don’t always understand what it means to add content to your website so whenever they see myself or someone else talking about it, while it makes sense, they don’t actually know what it means so here’s the quick explanation:
What is content?
Content is basically anything you add to your website. Any form of text/ you add to your site is content. It could be articles, any form of multimedia (videos).
There are a lot of people who have tons of ideas ranging in different subjects that want to compile it all into 1 website. While this isn’t exactly bad, if you’re looking to monetize or eventually have the website get a lot of visitors, it is much better to focus on a single topic than multiple ones which aren’t related. Then build out content specifically related to that subject.
Let’s say I have interests in subjects like:
Dieting, fitness, fighting and sports, painting.
If I were to make a website, it would be better to pick 1 of those subjects and write entirely about that. If I made a blog about fitness, I could add in other things such as dieting because it’s related to it, but a subject like painting would not be a good idea.
Long story short: Stick to 1 topic. More specifically pick a niche and create content based on that niche.
Quick “rules” of content creation: You should always make your own content and never copy or use someone else’s without their consent. I personally prefer this route.
How to find content ideas:
I always recommend creating content based on a subject you have personal interest in. This will help in the short/long run as most of the ideas you get will come about automatically and you won’t struggle as much. People who choose topics they know little about encounter the content plateau (writers block) rather quickly and end up quitting. Stick to something you like.
If I were looking for content ideas, here are some things I would personally do:
- Search forums.
- Find news reports on my subject.
- Look up other websites that deal with my website’s interest and get content ideas from there.
These 3 methods alone are enough to help you generate an endless supply of content ideas.
Let’s apply these 3 methods to say a blog talking about dieting.
Explore dieting forums: There is SO much incredible information that people share over forums. They can mention diets, methods to losing weight and other types of related subjects which you can then write about on your blog/site.
New reports. Head to places like Google news, type in the word diet, health, weight loss, exercise and whatever subject related to your site. News reports on this site are constantly being updated and there’s so many interesting things you can pick up.
You can also sign up for what’s known as Google alerts where you enter a word/term related to your site’s topic and will receive updates in your email regarding them. This alone provides an INCREDIBLE list of possibilities.
Looking up other dieting websites. There are PLENTY (to say the least) websites that talk about dieting and other subjects related to it and they are NOT hard to find either. Use these places, see what they’re talking about. I once did have a dieting website up and got a lot of my content ideas from popular dieting websites. I would then take information I found interesting and talk about my own views on it.
What about other topics? What about the ever popular make money online (MMO) niche? Well you can also apply these 3 things there.
Forums: One of the best places to find out about new topics related to this market is the Warrior Forum. Though I would personally take the opinions of people there with a grain of salt, there’s still a lot of interesting sub-topics talked about there that deal with the main subject of MMO.
There’s people constantly asking about various new products being released into the MMO world. You can look into those products and write blog posts reviewing them. Just a quick idea. I personally use it and you can too.
In my personal opinion, forums are probably one of the best places to get great content ideas for your MMO site.
News reports: Also a good source of ideas.
Websites dealing with MMO. Aside from the Warrior forum which you can also use in this case, there’s plenty of other websites and blogs which all talk about this subject.
Other ways to find content:
Find a product/service and break it down into what it’s composed of. Let’s take a fitness program as an example and break it down:
- You could talk about the creator of the program.
- You could find what the program is made up of (tools, diet approach, method of exercise, ect…)
- You could write about your own personal views on it and if it’s good/bad in your view.
- You could find other programs related to the main fitness program and do a comparison.
- You could utilize keyword searching and find other queries people type into search engines and use that for even more content ideas.
What to do if you don’t have anymore ideas.
No matter how many endless content ideas there are out there, eventually you will hit a wall in the sense that you’ll be confused about what to write. This happens to everyone sooner or later and it’s not something you should panic about.
However it gives more leverage to my argument that you should always build a site/blog based on a personal interest as it will better help you brainstorm and find tons of ideas. It will also help you generate high quality content which is just as important for your site.
But if you do hit a wall, don’t worry about it. Take a break from blogging, focus on something else in life and then get back it. You’ll be refreshed and better able to find more ideas.
Do you have any personal content gathering ideas you’d like to share? If so, I’d love to hear about it :)]
Update: Read this updated article on finding content ideas…
I liked the article and tips I gave you here guys, but I wrote an even better one which will really help you push forward with finding tons of new ideas, constantly. Here it is, enjoy.
Another thing you can do is to go through your existing content. Are there any points you can expand on or is there something that needs explaining?
I once had a site about shaving, and had an article talking about how many times someone should strop the blade before each shave. Later, I looked back and realized I should do an article on exactly what a strop is and how to use one, so I could link to it from the first article.
Stuff like this is great, because it makes your content link together more, makes it easier for Google to navigate, makes your visitors click around your site more, and most importantly, increases their experience and demonstrates your authority.
Actually existing content is something I completely forgot about Dom but thanks for pointing this out. That example you mentioned was a perfect illustration 🙂