Now and again, the unthinkable happens. I wake up, settle into my morning blogging routine, and there it is – writer’s block! I’d like to share with you exactly how I overcome writer’s block and come up with amazing blog topic ideas, video topics, and more.
I should probably call it creator’s block vs. writer’s block. Many of us are creating videos, blogs, social posts, podcasts, newsletters, and so much more.
This article will take you through the steps I take to combat writer’s block and generate great ideas for my blogs and videos.
Facebook Group Conversations
Joining Facebook groups with the audience you wish to create content for can be incredibly helpful.
Questions and conversations that happen in these groups can be used for inspiration to create content.
If I were a “mom-blogger” or creating content for young parents, I would be joining all of the ‘mom groups’ on Facebook. They don’t have to be local groups unless you specifically work on hyperlocal strategies.
An example: A post published in the Mom group asks: “Hey, Mama’s. Where can I take my baby to get her ears pierced?”.
If your blog is for the locals, creating a listicle of the best places to take your baby to get their ears pierced could be a great piece of content. If it’s a more general blog for moms, not focused on locals, then the post might inspire you to create a blog about baby ear piercing.
In that blog, I would include:
Using my favorite SEO Keyword and Topic Tool called Semrush, I can see questions and subtopics related to the topic.
- When can you pierce a baby’s ears?
- Baby boy ear piercing.
- Piercing baby ears at three months.
- Baby ear piercing infection.
- Baby ear piercing pediatrician.
- How to clean a baby ear piercing.
- How long do the baby’s ears hurt after piercing?
- Uneven baby ear piercing.
You might include images or diagrams. To make money from the blog post, you might consist of affiliate links or amazon affiliate links for baby earrings.Â
Google Autosuggest
When you want to keep it easy and free, Google autosuggest can inspire you with topic ideas for your blog.
Here’s to use Google Autosuggest.
- Open Google
- Type in a phrase like “How To” or “Best.”
- Use an * as a place holder and finish your sentence.
- Play around with the letters of the alphabet to see various suggestions.
For example, let’s say you have a travel blog. You might feel that you want to write a blog post about cruises but are looking for more specific subtopics of cruising.
Open google and type in: ‘best cruise’ and then tap the space bar. In my case, the first suggestion is ‘best cruise lines.’
I could take that idea and begin my post on best cruise lines, or I could now use ‘best cruise lines’ in autosuggest and add a space to see what else it suggests.
Google is suggesting phrases that people are typing in. When I type in ‘best cruise lines’ and space, I now get this impressive list:
- Best cruise lines for couples
- Best cruise lines for families
- Best cruise lines for adults
- Best cruise lines for young adults
- Best cruise lines to work for
- Best cruise lines for kids
- Best cruise lines for Alaska
- Best cruise lines for a honeymoon
- Best cruise lines for singles
Now, I could create one pillar post following Brian Dean’s Skyscraper technique or create a series of smaller blogs based on each subtopic. In some cases, I might even do both.
What’s more, I could take one of those subtopics of cruising and start the autosuggest tool with that phrase and add the space.
Taking ‘best cruise lines for couples, we now get this great list of subtopics we can include in a blog.
- Best cruise lines for couples in their 30’s
- Best cruise lines for couples in 2021 [or current year]
- Best cruise lines for couples in their 20’s
- Best Royal Caribbean cruise for couples
- Best cruise lines for couples that are affordable
The ideas here are endless and free.
Questions People Ask
One of my favorite places to go for creating informational content is to questions people ask.
Similar to the Facebook posts example where we used a question about baby ear piercing, we can use other websites to find questions.
Here are some of the websites I use to find questions related to any topic.
- Semrush
- Quora.com
- AnswerThePublic.com
- Any social media network
- Google Autosuggest
- Current clients or customers
- Youtube video comments
- Blog comments on other similar blogs
AnswerthePublic.com
Another great resource for questions we can use for blog topic ideas is AnswerThePublic.com.
For example: let’s take my Keto blog, for example. It’s primarily a food blog with low-card recipes for people doing the Keto Diet.
I also include informational blog posts about the keto diet. Using the free version of AnswerThePublic.com, I type in keto diet into the search bar.
Next, I click the DATA tab to see suggestions in a visible list format.
Just like with Google Autosuggest, we are provided with an expansive list of questions.
- Are Keto Diet Pills Safe?
- Can the Keto Diet cause Diabetes?
- When does the Keto Diet start Working?
And so forth.
Quora.com
Now, let’s use Quora.com to find topics related to blog that caters to the midlife women.
My lifestyle blog, Midlifemonarch.com, is a new blog I’m publishing. It covers travel, beauty, fitness, mindset, hobbies, and so forth for women over 40.
I open quora and type in the phrase ‘over 40’.
Here are some of the recent questions:
- Being a woman over 40, what advice would you give to a 20-year-old. (Or you could rephrase it to ask what advice you would give to 20-year old you).
- What are some warnings that should come with being over 40?
- Should Men over 40 wear speedos? [I had to laugh on that one. Even though my blog is for women, I think they would enjoy a piece like this – with pics!]
- What’s the latest fashion for women over 40?
- Are women over 40 invisible?
- Who is the most attractive woman over 40?
- Should you wear a short mini-skirt over 40?
I think you get the idea.
Semrush
If you use my favorite SEO tool, Semrush, you can type in a keyword and then choose the questions tab in the results.
Semrush is an excellent tool for the more advanced blogger that wants to research the search volume for a keyword or subtopic and the keyword competitiveness and average CPC [cost per click].
I also use the SEO Content Template in the Semrush tool that suggests total word count, semantically related keywords, and backlink suggestions.
It’s a pretty geeky tool, and I recommend it to more advanced bloggers.
For this example, we will use my Las Vegas real estate website: Ballenvegas.com.
If I’m looking for topics related to buying a house, I can type in ‘buy a house in the keyword magic tool.
When I click on the questions tab, Semrush provides me with this comprehensive list.
- Is it a good time to buy a house?
- What credit score is needed to buy a house?
- How long does it take to buy a house?
- How much money do I need to buy a house?
- Is it cheaper to build or buy a house?
Next, let’s assume I want to write a blog for each subtopic or create a comprehensive section of a Skyscraper-style blog.
(A pillar-post or skyscraper blog is a long-form content piece with several subtopics to form one blog with potentially thousands of words).
Now, I would click on the SEO content template in Semrush. The report shows a section of semantically related keywords.
To simplify the term ‘semantically related’, it’s phrase most often used when covering this topic in-depth. Therefore Google would expect you to use them in your blog post.
A section of backlinks gives you an idea of which websites to pitch your content to if you are building backlinks for search engine rankings.
The text length suggested by the Semrush SEO content template provides you with the average text length of the blogs ranking on page one of Google.
It’s an indicator of just how deep you want to dive into that topic.
If the average text length is 1200 words, you would expect to see at least that many words on your blog post. It’s not that Google ranks web pages based on word count, but it indicates how deep that writer went into that topic.
To compete, you need to be in that general ballpark or go deeper!
And conversely, if the top 10 results show an average text length of 500 words, creating a blog post with 2000 words could be overshooting and not help you rank.
Remember, it’s about creating content for the user that BEST answers their question, provides the BEST solution to their problem, or is the BEST page for the searcher’s intent.
Pinterest is a playground for creatives. Search any keyword and take a look at the results for ideas. Use the filters at the top to see subtopics of the main topics and keep drilling down until you find your topic.
Youtube
Youtube is a search engine. Type any keyword into the search bar and get ideas for your next blog from the list of videos appearing in the results.
Consider downloading Tubebuddy, the free chrome extension for more in-depth Youtube topic ideas and keyword research.
