How to Never Run Out of Things to Blog About
By: Shaunta Grimes
Tags: Freelancing, Writing, Blogging, Creativity, Productivity

When I talk to people about whether or not they should be blogging one thing comes up over and over again.

What will I write about?

What if I run out of ideas?

I just don’t have that much to say.

I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve felt that panic when you’re staring at a blank page and you’re absolutely sure that there’s no way you can think of anything to write about that anyone will want to read.

I figured out how to never feel that again. I have a few exercises that have pretty much turned me into an idea machine.

Idea One: The Quora Method

Quora is a social media platform that focuses on questions and answers. People can ask questions and answer them.

That means that there are literally tens of thousands of questions on just about every topic under the sun. And when you look up a topic, not only can you see the questions people (people=readers) are interested in, you can see how many people have followed the question. So you have an indication about which questions are really burning.

I have a student who raises parrots. She’s pretty sure that no one wants to hear about that. Quora begs to differ.

It’s a very, very niche topic — but that can actually be okay. Because chances are good that not too many people are writing on the topic and the people who are interested are likely to be very, very interested. When they find someone writing on their topic, they’ll follow that writer.

To use the Quora method, follow these steps:

Make a list of topics. Think of things you’re good at, things you want to be good at, things that are interesting about you, and things that interest you.

Go to Quora.com and search for one of the topics.

Look at the ‘questions’ view.

Search through the questions, paying attention to how many people are following them.

Make a list of possible blog posts, based on the questions.

Idea Two: The Book Method

This is a relatively simple technique.

Take a look at the books in your library (or go to the public library) about the topic you want to write about.

Open one to any page. Just any page at all.

I like to write about productivity. I have a copy of Seth Godin’s book The Dip on my desk. When I flipped it open, randomly, I got pages 18 and 19.

Looking at those pages, I see the Dip (the subject of the book) described as “artificial screens set up to keep people like you out.” Like an organic chemistry class for pre-med students — a really difficult class that weeds out the people who just aren’t going to make it through medical school. I also see a suggestion that successful people “don’t just ride outthe Dip. They don’t just buckle down adn survive it. No, hey lean into the Dip.”

It took me two minutes to check out those pages and now I can add these blog post ideas to my list:

What are the ‘artificial screens’ set up to keep most people out of being successful writers?

What does the Dip look like for fiction writers? How about for bloggers? What does leaning into that Dip look like?

How have I experienced the Dip in my writing career and how did I lean into it? Did I come across any artificial screens?

It’s easy to think that you’re competing against every single person who ever thought about writing a book. But are you really? What if all you have to do is make sure that you’re not caught by those artificial screens?

How to decide if it’s time to pack your writing dreams in and move on to something else.

Try to think outside the box, as you pull ideas from books. You don’t want to just regurgitate what you’re reading.

If you use both of these methods, you should have no problem coming up with a month’s worth of blog post ideas in an hour.

Do that once a month, and you’ll never run out of things to write about.

Idea Three: The Ubersuggest Method

Neil Patel’s site, Ubersuggest, is a great resource. And best of all, it’s completely free.

All you do is type a keyword, in this case a topic you’d like to write about, into the search bar. And Ubersuggest will spit out all kinds of goodies. Like the related searches that people have been making on Google. And other blog posts on the same topic.