It’s one of the most challenging things about blogging – getting started. If you ever get stumped on what to write about, here are 42 ideas to help get the creative juices flowing.
- Comment on a news event and on how it relates to your field.
- Write a How To post. Walkthroughs, tutorials and how to’s tend to do very well online.
- Bust a Myth. What are common beliefs people hold in your industry that simply aren’t true?
- Tell an entertaining and educational story. What were some turning point moments in your career?
- Create a Q&A post. What are common questions people have and what are their answers?
- Examine a Problem. Take an issue that people often get stuck on and go in depth into its causes and solutions.
- Write a Top X List. For example, “Top 50 ways to get blog traffic” or “Top 12 hip hop dance moves.”
- Ramble. Just talk aimlessly and passionately about a subject. Be sure to set it aside and read it a day or two later to make sure it’s relevant before you post it.
- Write about common pitfalls. What are mistakes that beginners might make without knowing it?
- Interview an expert. Post it in audio or video form on your blog.
- Review a product. What are its benefits and its drawbacks? What sets it apart? Would you recommend it?
- Comment on state of the industry. What’s going well and what isn’t’ going well?
- Ask your audience a question. What do they think about Topic X?
- Post the top resources for someone in your industry. Give links, downloads, videos, etc that might help them in what they’re trying to do.
- Make a prediction on the future. What do you think is going to happen in the next 12 months?
- Write about an in person event. For example, “What I learned at Affiliate Summit X this year.
- Share a provocative opinion. What’s an opinion you have that just isn’t politically correct? [be careful!]
- Why someone is right or wrong. Write a post about why you think someone is right or wrong about a certain subject.
- Make something complex simple. Break a hard process down into its parts and make it easy to do or follow.
- Share a thought process. How do you get from point A to point B in your thought process?
- Blog about a personal experiment. What’s something you tried? Did it work or did it not work? What would you do differently and what would you recommend?
- Write a sarcastic post. It shouldn’t be aggressive, but be a little satirical post that contradicts popular opinion.
- Analyze someone else’s success. Why did they make it? What did they do differently than other people?
- Analyze someone else’s failure. Why did company X or project X fail? What was the key mistake?
- Write about the pros and cons of X. What are the benefits and drawbacks?
- Take the alternate position. What does everyone else think? What do you typically stand for? Try taking the other side.
- Write about a book in your industry. Review it or write a synopsis.
- Write a post designed to be inspirational. Not a how to, but something that gives people a sense that they can do it too.
- Write an Update post – How it used to be, how it is today. For example, “X used to work in the past, but with the recent changes in the market, you really need to do Y to get the same effects.”
- Write a post for experts. Give specific how-to’s and little known industry knowledge.
- Write a post for newbies. Make it easy and answer questions that beginners often ask.
- Share a secret in your industry. What are things that people on the inside know but tend not to share?
- Do a multi-part post with cliffhangers in between. Write a great post #1, then leave people wanting for more before part 2.
- Write a followup on your most popular posts. Take your top 3 articles and expand on those topics.
- Host a poll and then post the results. Analyze why you think the poll turned out the way it did.
- Write an open letter to someone well known in your industry. For example, “An Open Letter to Steve Jobs” went viral when the iPhone 3GS came out.
- Show off! What you did and the results you got.
- A “What I wish I did differently” post. Use what you know now to analyze your successes and failures.
- Address common frustrations in the industry. Where do people generally get frustrated and not know how to move forward? Let them know they’re not alone.
- Around the world view. How is X done similarly or differently around the world?
- Creative ways to do X. How can you do things differently than other people?
- How to speed up X. How to do a process faster than it’s normally done.
These are 42 things to blog about. Anytime you get stuck, just come back to this list to help inspire new blogging ideas.
Alison Rothwell
Alison is the Director and Founder of WP Fiddly Bits, the WordPress Website Maintenance experts, and contributes to the WP Fiddly Bits WordPress blog. She also uses her background in marketing to help clients get found everywhere online.
