Unlocking the Power of Creative Sourcing for Content Ideas
Tags: webdev, codenewbie, programming, beginners
Published: 2023-02-05 11:10:07


Developing engaging and relevant content is essential for building a solid brand and establishing thought leadership in your industry. However, finding content ideas that engage and inform your audience can be challenging as a technical writer. It takes a variety of approaches to identify the technology-related problem, find content ideas surrounding it, attempt to write, examine client feedback, and keep up with industry trends.

This guide will examine various practical methods for sourcing content ideas, helping you consistently create content your audience will enjoy. If you're just getting started or looking to expand your content marketing strategy, this guide will help you get there. Using these tactics, you can consistently generate content ideas that align with your brand goals and connect with your target audience.


## Keep a list of ideas 
Keeping a list of content ideas can help you to organize and prioritize your content creation efforts. You can create this list using a [Notion](https://www.notion.so/), a [Trello board](https://trello.com/en) or a notepad. When searching for content ideas, add fresh ones to your list regularly and sort them by topic, format, and audience. This will help you quickly identify the most relevant ideas for your next piece of content.

Additionally, keeping a list of ideas allows you to track the success of each piece of content, making it easier to refine your strategy over time. So, start building your list of content ideas today and watch your content marketing efforts grow and succeed.

## Blog about something you think you can solve
Writing a blog post on a problem you can solve is a great way to strengthen your problem-solving skills and knowledge retention while also assisting others who might experience the same difficulties.
If you see people discussing something they find challenging, and you think you can solve it, add it to your list of ideas and blog about it.

## Identify the most talked-about technology problem
Joining online developer communities and participating in discussion forums is an excellent way to remain informed on current difficulties and trends in the tech sector. This will expose you to technical concerns, problems individuals confront, and the most-talked-about technical issues in the tech space. Researching and blogging about the answers may benefit you and others while honing your technical skills and writing abilities.

Some of the online developer communities to join as a software developer are Stack Overflow, [Freecodecamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/), and Reddit, and you can follow subreddits like r/AskProgramming, r/LearnProgramming, and r/Coding.

## Blog about the challenges you faced while building a project
One of the experiences of being a developer who builds solutions is encountering obstacles when developing a solution to a problem. You overcome impediments, find solutions to problems, and make the application work. You can turn the challenges you face into blog posts to write about, and sharing those experiences can be valuable for others in the tech community.

By outlining your difficulties and the solutions you came up with, you might offer guidance to those dealing with the same problems. Writing a blog post is a great opportunity to reflect on your growth as a developer and track your advancement over time.

## Turn relevant StackOverflow answers into blog posts
[Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/) is a question-and-answer website for professional and enthusiast programmers. It helps people discover answers to technical problems. Other popular platforms include [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/), [Quora](https://www.quora.com/), etc. but Stack Overflow caters specifically to developers.

Writing your findings as blog posts is a great chance to communicate your knowledge and perspectives with a larger audience.

By doing this, you assist those struggling with a similar problem, establish your expertise, and build your brand. Just be sure to give due credit to Stack Overflow and any other sources you used to discover the answer and indicate that the information is based on your experience and understanding. Writing blog posts allows you to elaborate on the answer, offer more context and examples, clarify any trade-offs or limitations, and more.

## Social media
Developers frequently use social media, particularly Twitter, to discuss their experiences and request help with technical issues. Observing these chats and spotting significant problems might help you develop blog post ideas that will benefit others going through similar issues. It also helps you to become more proficient at problem-solving and writing.

Sharing your blog entries on social media may also help your content get more exposure and reach. It can also be a fantastic opportunity to interact with other tech community members.

## Google Trends and Google Search
It might be useful to use Google Trends and Google Search to find prominent topics for which there may be a shortage of information. You can tell whether or not people are having trouble understanding a certain concept or type of technology by looking at the number of search results for a given query or term. If you discover few clear and detailed resources on the topic, creating a blog post on it might be a great way to fill that gap and assist others who might be dealing with related difficulties.

Make sure to conduct thorough research and provide accurate and up-to-date information in your blog post. Consider sharing your blog post on relevant online communities and forums to reach a wider audience and engage with others in the tech industry.

## Conclusion
Every blog entry is unique. Your viewpoint may be all someone needs to learn something new. Even if a blog post has the same content as an older one, Google will always favor the most current version.

If you intend to grow and develop your technical writing skills, you can join the [Hackmamba community](https://hackmamba.io/). They are currently running a bi-weekly technical writing challenge.

## Resources
[How to Source Content Titles and Write Consistency](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJzx-oUpxaA&t=4990s) 
[Creative Tips for Sourcing Fresh Content Ideas](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/creative-tips-sourcing-fresh-content-ideas-ingrid-griffin/?trk=mp-reader-card)