Today, King Sidharth breaks down multiple ways to create more unique and interesting content. Want to write for us too?
Do you ever run out of ideas to post about? Are your readers screaming, “We’ve heard that before!”? Do you want new fresh things? Well then here it is.
I run a teen bimonthly e-magazine, a blog on meditation, a blog of my own and I am planning to launch another one. So where do I get all those Ideas from (someone mailed me with this question recently)? Well here I am going to share 5 of best my secrets to unlimited fresh quality content with you.
Make It To Headlines
You’ve read magazines right? Duh! So remember those catchy headlines “Unleash Your Muscular Super Power”, “Pick Pocket at 17, Millionaire at 30: Mr. XYZ”, “365 Christmas Ideas” yeah sounds like magazine. Well these are major source of ideas. Thanks to Brian Clark for the original idea, he used it for Headlines I use them for whole content.
Go pick a magazine, preferably out of your niche and write all the catchy headlines. Then scan the magazine, briefly, and write all the good posts ideas. Now turn them into your niche specific ideas. Like Gift Ideas Become Post Ideas. Here is an example:
I picked up Teen Vogue (I was in public library! Everyone was staring.) So here is what I got and what I made them into:
- 5 Ways to Dress-up Like Megan Fox -> 5 Ways to Blog Like Alex Fraiser
- Hot Chick Gifts Ideas for Christmas Season -> Hot Chick Posts Ideas for Christmas Season
- Save Money, Steal Your Boyfriend’s Jeans -> Save Time, Steal Your Competitors Post
Now here are some examples of post ideas:
- Article: Jeans Makeover: Paint it!
- Article: Camel Coats – Hottest Trend This Season?
This article had step by step visual guide to paint a jeans. So can I write a step-by-step visual guide to something that my readers will enjoy?
So this article was discussing how major fashion brands used Camel Coats this season and why they are hot. Can I discuss some trends that leaders in my industry are doing? Affiliate Marketing? Email Marketing? Speaking Events?
Magazines are not alone. You can use Newsletters, Newspapers, Blog Posts, Tweets, Facebook Status Updates and even Spam! – try to go off niche in your selection of source. This will ensure the freshness of idea.
Comments & Emails
I love hearing from people who love (or hate my blog) and are kind enough to drop a mail or comment (so I Love you all!). Go and check your inbox and your comment section. You will get many ideas for new posts. Here are some examples:
- Do most of your readers believe in a myth? Bust it! Write ‘7 Myths About Lipsticks Busted’
- Are your readers asking same questions again and again? Answer them all in ‘7 FAQs About Girls Answered!’
In case you are not receiving emails or comments saying more than just ‘Great Post’, you might want to evaluate the quality of your content and make some changes to your writing style.
You must have seen Q&A types post. Where people, usually your readers, ask you questions directly and then you reply them personally and later write a Q&A Post about it. This works very well for most of the blogs as this encourages other readers to drop a mail to you and communicate with you.
And all those other post where we bust myths, answer FAQs find their origin in comments. The ideas for this very post you are reading were inspired by awesome communication between Alex and his awesome friends (us readers).
Idea Mapping & Post Expansion
One point I would like to include here is ‘think on paper’. Pen your ideas, this will ensure that you don’t loose them. Secondly, it starts the natural process which our brains love – Brainstorming.
Write the post title and write 1-2 lines describing the whole idea. Write sub headings and what are the possible questions readers could ask? Write! Draw! Paint! If you can – the ideas will grow like a tree. Important point to remember here is that a tree doesn’t grow faster if you water harder or stress yourself. Its natural process and will take time – feel the ease of it.
Here is a bit of warning, sometimes an idea grows too wide for a post, in this case consider writing a series of articles instead. And if it outgrows possibility of 6 posts, I am sure that it’s not addressed to your nice directly or your niche isn’t well defined. What to do? – Write a book or start a new blog.
Let Your Competition Help You
First thing first – there are no competitors in blogging, only friends with common passion. Competition is where people are striving for one prize. But is there a competition in making friends? I follow worship Blogussion and I love devour ProBlogger. But there is no competition. Blogussion and ProBlogger are talking about same thing in their own unique style and with their own unique perspective. One has awesomeness, the other has experience.
So let your friends help you. Are they talking about ‘Free Music’? Take the idea, make it yours and publish it (don’t forget to credit them for idea). It will be lots of fun.
Here is another idea which I haven’t tried but I think it will work. Ask your fellow bloggers to blog about same topic, presenting their unique views and ideas. Try same date and different date. Remember to notify your readers about it so they can benefit from so much advice on same topic and you can have closer friends and new readers!
Here is another idea which I recently tested and it turned out to be quiet well. I combine with a Blog-Buddy and we, together, wrote a guest for another friend’s blog. How cool is that? Build relations, not links.
You might say, well then they are profiting from my hard work. Yes, for the time being but you will see the favour return – multiplied. That’s the most exciting thing about blogging.
Hot Coffee and News
Go to Google News Feed or Twitter’s Trending Topics, there you will see what our ancestors could only dream of – What’s the Whole World Talking About.
If people are searching for ‘Free Pancakes’ think how it could affect your readers? ‘Free Pancakes for Bloggers’ perhaps? Which can be actually free downloads or ebooks or anything!
They need not to be so lost. You can write about ‘Christmas: To Post or Not To Post –That’s the question. Think and brainstorm how this news is affecting your niche. If it’s not affecting –use it for catchy headline. If it is then go write a post!
Let me know what do you think about these ideas? Did they work for you? Can you add something to the list of ideas or to an idea itself? Go on be talkative.
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?Great ideas, Alex. Especially the first one. Those magazine writers are being paid quite a bit of money with those articles, so you best believe there’s a reason they’re made. It’s the format. A good article in one niche can easily adapt to a good article in another.
Ahem! Thank you Alex. Yes indeed, why not use all the research they did for some more good? All those copywriters they employed can be really useful.
Sure it can be, 5 Best Ways to Blogging can become 5 Best Ways to Meditate.
Thanks for contributing to the post Matt
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
I’ve been stunned with a head cold last couple of days… so I’m not going to do it the following… but it wouldn’t be that difficult.
It would be pretty easy to write an article for each section in this blog post. Just take the current text of each section and expand it into a full article.
I’ve done this in the past. It can work well. In one example, I pulled a paragraph from copyblogger and wrote a post on 3 ways to fail at blogging. Then turned it around and wrote another article on 3 ways to succeed.
Ideas are easy. Execution is what’s hard.
.-= Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..Static Versus Dynamic Websites – Operational, Informational, Interactional =-.
Hey Dave,
I am honored to have a comment on my post.
It’s a great idea to expand your own content into full blown posts. I usually do that with my most read/ most popular posts.
Wow, so taking ideas from top bloggers can be nice too.
Yes execution is not easy and I’ll be honest with you – it’s not supposed to be, or else every Tom, Dick and Harry would be Brian Clark. That is where the passion comes in, if you are passionate enough then it never feels like work -Never
And yes, listening is another good skill. It gives a lot of ideas and sense to human beings.
Cheers!
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Great ideas for getting past writers block. One thing I do is set up Google alerts for keyword phrases that I blog about and get the RSS feed and put it in Google Reader. If I can’t think of anything I head over to my Reader account and scan for ideas until I get one. It helps me out all the time.
.-= Mical Johnson´s last blog ..Fortune 500 company or Online Scammer? =-.
Oh man! That’s a superb idea!! Really! What could be better than being tuned in to the latest buzz on google. Thanks for adding vaule to the post.
That’s a practical tip, thanks. We do have to keep your eyes open for ideas and do a lot of browsing to make sure that you have enough new, interesting content for our blogs.
Your welcome Mia. Keeping it fresh and renewed is very important and is one of the basic principles of blogging.
Let’s be awesome.
nice update dude. I try to find out posts in my problems for my computer gives me. then write up solution is a great Idea Thanks for sharing this one
.-= Gurpreet Singh´s last blog ..Top 6 Free/Paid alternative software and programs for Microsoft Office =-.
Hey Gurpreet,
That is awesome idea dude! Taking real life problems, finding a solution and sharing it with others. Now that’s what I call entrepreneurship. Cheers to the awesome idea, thanks for adding value to the post.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Unique content is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to blogging – and it’s no surprise! Most bloggers are just in the business to make money and couldn’t care less about the content, which turns out to be really upsetting.
.-= Blogger Den´s last blog ..Designing with the User in Mind =-.
I know! right? All they wanna do is make money and I just wanna say to them that If you wanna make money go and sell a product or go and start a business but for God’s sake don’t pollute blogshpere with crappy content.
Unique content can be really daunting, my freinds usually complained about it so I thought of writing this post. Cheers!
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Wow king, you seems cover all idea source available here. For me, the best idea for posting is other blog article and comment form. I usually get many unique theme for my next post there.
.-= Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Web Hosting Type =-.
Hey Dana,
Thank you, I tried to share all that I could.
Yes that is true, comment forms gives targeted ideas and tell us what our audience would like to hear more about.
And I also use comments on Blogussion to write for BLogussion.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Seth yes getting content from magazine or newspaper are some nice idea. But my niche is work at home and I do not get information within my niche from newspaper or magazine. But I can take idea of writing article from there.
When I have to write article on my niche I sometime go to Ezine and take idea on writing article from there.
.-= chandan´s last blog ..Update from google work at home affiliate network-December 11, 2009 =-.
Hey Chandan,
Actually this is me – Sidharth. That’s exactly what I said. Yo are not looking for information – you are looking for ideas. Yes that’s a good idea too.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
These are great tips, King. I love them all especially the one about using the headlines from magazines, it is just awesome
. I even submitted this post to StumbleUpon. Great post 
.
.-= Shirley´s last blog ..12 Reasons Why Contests/Promos Are Necessary For Your Blog Or Business =-.
Hey Shirley,
I am glad you liked them, don’t forget to try them out and lemme know how they worked for you. Wow! Thank you for stumbling the post. You made my day!
I knew it. All loyal fans of blogussion always ends up writing a post
great job King. As for me, idea mapping works. In fact, it’s my best method and it made creating the 50 ideas for your next 50 posts possible. Oh, that’s my contribution tip too. If you’re out of ideas, simply check that post.
Again, superb content King!
.-= Liane´s last blog ..There’s A Place In Twitter Where You Can Go Beyond 140 Characters =-.
LOL, Yea this is my second one. Thanks for appreciation. I’d love to read that post but you missed the link, can you please link us again? Thanks for contributing.
It’s my honor to write for superb readers like you.
Let’s be Awesome
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Your headlines idea is definitely thinking outside the box; good job.
Currently I have nearly 200 drafts sitting in my admin waiting to be completed, so no shortage here. I definitely use your #2 the most; comments and emails, but will give the others a try one day as well.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10! =-.
Thanks dude!
200 eh?! Nice ,man nice. You should be writing this post. LOL Do give it a head and lemme know how they work for you. I am really interested to know how these ideas turn out for you guys.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Yea, I’m a huge fan of keeping a “post arsenal”. I haven’t touched them in months, lol, the ideas just keep coming and I just keep adding them to my list.
Most are “timeless” but I’m sure a few will get tossed when I go through them.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10! =-.
Yea man, I totally agree. So many post ideas seem superb at first and when I get down to write them.. they end up in thrash can. Which I think is good… quality control
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Nice post, catchy headlines are important, it’s should be simple and clear, a captivating and intriguing headlines and draw visitors into reading your article every time
.-= cPanel We Hosting´s last blog ..Features of cPanel web hosting =-.
Yes catchy headlines are important. They do create an interest. But, I think, fresh and unique content is equally important if not more important because after reading headline if your audience see a bad repetitive copy – I bet- they are not going to like it.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Really impressed with the content of the article…thanks for sharing,
.-= career executive coaching´s last blog ..CNN- 10 Tips for Getting a Pay Raise in a Recession =-.
Thank you. I am glad you liked it.
Wow, tons of ideas here!
I usually get tons of emails and I get instant ideas from going through them. Just as you had suggested going through magazines, I work the same way with my emails. Sometimes you get a lot of forwarded emails giving solutions to life’s problems. I just give them a new twist to suit my niche and voila – a new idea, a new post!
Hey! Thanks for appreciation!
I am really happy that to know that I could help you by sharing some ideas. That’s a cool idea! Writing the old content of email with new twist and perspective
Thanks for adding value to the post Nezine.
I also like taking old content and finding things that are still relevant today and expand them into posts with new perspective.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
No Sidharth I am not at all agree with you that in blog world there is no competition. Here is more competition and is competition is for invisible prize which you can not define.
Don’t you want that your blog should rank well in your keywords and beat others to get at top rankings … so here top ranking is prize.
Don’t you want that you should sell maximum number of copies of any hot ebook compare to other blogger so here number is prize.
Hey ZK (or whatever your name is)
You might see me wrong. You have every right too. The only difference b/w your point of view and mine is.
I am glad to find a reader who disagrees.
No I do not want that my blog should rank high for keywords. I want it to rank high in heart of people – if it does it will be found even when the google is down.
No I don’t want my ebook should sell, I want my readers should learn.
Now you might ask will that fetch you more readers? More money? All that every blogger strives for?
And I will confidently answer, Yes it does! Yes it does! Yes it does!
And there is no competition my reader can LOVE 500 other blogs and still read mine for I am unique – people may steal my content no one can steal my perspective and that settles all. When everyone is unique there is no competition. Don’t you agree?
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Dear Sidharth
What you have mentioned is not with the perspective of professional blogger. For me professional blogger means those person whose profession is blogging and earning by them.
Winning heart and similar kind of thing sound good in romantic world not in profession. Just add 5 bad posts or lack of posting and those winning heart people will rest in other blogger trees.
Any way … be happy with your winning heart kind of philosophy.
.-= ZK @ Web Marketing Blog´s last blog ..Top 50 SEO Blog Posts of 2009 =-.
Oh Dear me
Indeed, professionals are supposed to be earning money. Oh! Yes we walk pro we talk pro we sell pro and we make pro money -BUT we don’t win hearts…. no we don’t! We win cash – that’s pro yo!
Adding 5 BAD blog post in pro world = end of the story. they leave
Adding 5 Blog Post in my Romantic world = my readers ask me “Are you alright? You need any help?” and yes
somemany leave too!I am not pro, not at all. And I really hope that I have some luck with my l’il philosophy.
I see it as that anything is GREAT if it works. So let’s enjoy what works for us.
Expressing eternal gratitude for the interesting new perspective that you are letting me see. – Sidharth.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Nice tips on Headlines there. I spend lots of time thinking about headlines. Thanks for the tips.
I like the myth idea too.
.-= Agent Deepak´s last blog ..Why did I change my Domain Name? – Its about Personal Branding =-.
I know, right? I used to write dumb headlines and wonder why my better content doesn’t work and not so good content on other blogs did work. Well now I know = first impression!
Thanks, I am happy to be helpful.
I always read the comments that I receive on my blog and answer most of them. I have gotten many times post ideas from the comments and they are extremely valuable.
Every comment is golden.
.-= Blogging Handbook´s last blog ..The Silver Bullet for Blogging Success =-.
That’s the best thing about comment. You know what information your targeted and active audience wants and they are more than happy to be the part of it.
I usually credit those commentator from whom the idea came.
I love that phrase! “Every comment is golden.”
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Thanks friend.
I love your idea on how to find a fresh unique content.
Maybe will try some of it on my blog.
Really love the sound of blogging buddy, never though my competitor as a tools for my new unique post idea before.
See you around.
You are welcome!
I am glad you liked it and do try and lemme know how they work for you. Honestly, I want to hear how you find them.
Yea, blogging buddies are great. You might think of a competitor as a tool but when you think of them as friends than it gives it much more value.
See ya!
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
My problem is having too many things to write, and no energy to write so much. I think if I analyze the advertisements in the newspaper today, I can generate 100 articles!
.-= scheng1´s last blog ..High Paying Google ad sense Keywords =-.
So true! It happens – we have list of 1000s of ideas but no time to write. I recommend you read this post by Alex and this one.
Best thing is to just sit on a weekend and write 5-6 posts in advance. So you can research and develop those other ideas.
Lemme know if that helps.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Yes! You are right! I always go to the related forum to find some hottest topics and write in my own blog. This is the best way for me to keep my blog fresh with content. Thanks for sharing!
.-= Kok Siong Chen´s last blog ..Say No to Cancer! – 3 Approaches to Prevent Cancer =-.
Another great idea from readers! Superb man! Relevant forms are really the best place to find hot topics.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Upgrade Your Mind: 5 Free Upgrades =-.
Great ideas for headlines! Also I love your analogy on competion, too many see blogging as a competition and we should see it as a community!
.-= Keith @ Business3.0´s last blog ..Free or Self Hosted Blog? =-.
Thanks for appriciation. I am glad you liked it. Yup man, why not? Afterall the aim of the bloggers is common – giving out the best on a particluar niche, so why not have fun and collborate. As a human I know I’d rather have buddies then enemies.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..World Aids Day – I Will Be Human =-.
Sidharth these are really very useful tips for a newbie blogger like me.Now i’ll try to experiment something on my blog from the ideas u presented over here.I’m looking forward to learn more from u..
-Krish
.-= Krish´s last blog ..Three Important things to Increase your Affiliate Earnings =-.
Hey Krish,
Sorry for late reply. Maybe I missed the notification mail. I am glad to be of some help. Let me know if you need any help.
Happy Blogging.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Ego v/s Self – War of the Worlds =-.
Interesting thought how you could translate all the article headlines to a blog. It’s always great to take things from “reality” and apply them to blogging.
.-= Julius Kuhn-Regnier´s last blog ..How to Make a Great First Impression Through Guest Posts =-.
Yes we cannot – one needs a creative genius to do that, but there is this thing called ‘inspiration’ – i prefer that over ideas.
Yea, it’s best thing to do. And even better, create it – the reality.
Cheers, and thanks a ton for commenting. I love comments.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Ego v/s Self – War of the Worlds =-.
Very nice ideas for fresh content, but you still need to make the body of the post by yourself.
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