Blog topic ideas: nine ways to beat blogger’s block

Stuck in a rut when trying to find blog topics? Once you’ve been doing this content marketing thing for a while, you may feel like you’re running out of things to talk about. Much like writer’s block, blogger’s block is a real epidemic. There’s a time and place for repurposing, but where do you turn when you want to churn out new topics? Here are nine sources of inspiration:

1. LinkedIn groups – what are your prospects discussing with their peers? How can you help? 

2. Drill down – according to HubSpot, one way to generate a ton of topics is to come up with a broad topic, like “7 Social Media Best Practices” and then use this model to find 7 tips for Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn. You get the idea.

3. Use case studies and examples – See a company doing an awesome job at social media? They don’t have to be your client in order for you to dissect what they did well. As long as you don’t mislead readers into believing this was your brainchild, you’re good to go.

4. Turn industry trends into lessons for prospects – if you market to law firms, stay current with the Bar and other rulings that could impact the way they do business. Then provide actionable steps they can take to comply.

5. Geek out – new technologies come out every single day it seems. Subscribe to technophile blogs like TechCrunch to ensure you’re among the first to know what’s out there. Analyze how each technology could help your prospects and draft a post or series of posts accordingly.

6. Mimic your most popular posts – use the analytics on your site to see which topics your readers find interesting. Use this data as a springboard for brainstorming related topics.

7. Tap into your own questions and areas of improvement – want to learn more about a new social media platform or marketing tactic? Research the hell out of it for your own benefit, then share your insights with your readers.

8. Play the opposite game with your previous posts – if you covered “Five best practices for email marketing” in a previous post, draft a complementary post that shares the “5 biggest no-nos in email marketing.”

9. Channel your inner fashionista – Copyblogger founder Brian Clark’s blog topic generator idea is more fun than all those mentioned above. Twist actual headlines pulled straight out of Cosmopolitan magazine into provocative titles (and topics) for your posts.

The best way to stay inspired when it comes to topics is to be in tune with what your current customers want to know and what’s going on in your industry that could impact your prospects and customers.

When all else fails (and even if it doesn’t), you can also try HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator.