If you’re doing any type of content marketing you likely spend a good amount of time brainstorming new ideas. Whether it’s articles, images, videos, or something else, coming up with good content ideas is not easy. Each week I generate multiple pieces of content across a variety of blogs, so it’s important that I can do so quickly and efficiently. To help, I’ve put together a list of 10 ways I generate content ideas, and today we’ll look at each one and why I like using it.
Keep in mind though that this isn't an exhaustive list. There are hundreds of different ways to generate content ideas. Use this as a starting point, but always be on the lookout for new ways that can make your work more efficient.
Google Search Autocomplete
A super simple way to start generating ideas is simply to use the autocomplete functionality Google provides. As you start typing in a search it will automatically try to suggest popular completions to what you’re currently typing. These recommendations are a goldmine as they show what actual users are looking for and are based on popular queries.
It’s best to start with a few of your keywords and phrases, and see what comes up. You can even keep going and use the recommendations it provides to generate even more. Overall, it’s not a very technical way to generate new ideas, but it’s very effective and you get the added benefit of knowing there is some traffic for each idea generated. I like to start off with this when I have a decent idea of where I’m going, and then use the keywords generated here to use with some of the other techniques.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is another popular and powerful tool I use to generate keyword ideas. Basically, it takes a seed keyword or URL, and then can provide a ton of new keywords and details surrounding it.
In addition to keywords it also provides a lot of useful information on search volume, ranking difficult, and more. If you’re looking for a more rounded SEO tool Ubersuggest is a solid choice. It does offer paid features, but the free version is more than enough to get started with, especially if you’re only concerned with generating new content ideas.
Competitor Research
Another great way to get ideas is to simply run through your competitors sites and see what types of content they’re posting. I find a lot of great ideas I never would have considered doing this. Then, I’m able to create similar (not outright copying) content for my own site. One trick is to take the content they made and provide even more value. For example, if they create “10 Ways To Build Backlinks” then you can go out and create “15 Ways To Build Backlinks”. This is often referred to as the “Skyscraper Method” and is a powerful way to create valuable content.
If you’re really savvy you can also use tools like Ubersuggest above that estimate traffic to a given page. You can then run your competitors sites to see what types of content on their site seems to perform well. It’s not a perfect science, but it can help steer your overall content strategy towards content likely to perform well.
Quora Questions
Another big source of content generation I use is the question/answer site Quora. For those unfamiliar, Quora is a site community Q&A site where users post questions and other users answer them. Topics on it range from quantum physics to celebrity gossip, so there’s a wide range likely to hit every niche.
How I use this is to start by searching for questions related to my niche. Then, I can use the questions I find here as inspiration to create new content. What’s great about this is you know someone out there asked about this, so the information is at least somewhat valuable. The more people interested in the questions the better, but even a fairly obscure question might make for some good content or help supplement a larger piece. There are a ton of questions on this site, and more are added everyday, so it has a lot of potential ideas waiting to be found.
Social Media
Much like Quora, I also look over social media for people talking about my niche. In particular, I find Twitter great for this as I can search for related hashtags or mentions of competitors. Any tweet can potentially be a source of inspiration, from simple content tweets to people asking targeted questions. Instagram is another great one if I’m looking for more visual inspiration or Youtube for video ideas.
You can also combine this with watching your competitors and follow them on social media. That way, you can be alerted whenever they post something new and hopefully use that to inspire your own content.
Check Amazon Books
Another great tip is to look through popular Amazon Kindle books in your niche and see what type they’re about. Amazon provides a way to read the first few pages, which means you can scroll over the table of contents which is a goldmine for content ideas.
The great thing here is when you’re looking at well received books you know this content is valuable and what people in your niche are not only looking for it but in many cases also paying for. While you won’t get specifics on content unless you actually buy the book, having the table of contents is often enough to get started with.
You can also do the same thing with magazines. Take a look at popular ones and see what types of articles they have. The great thing about these two sources is that you know people are paying for this type of content which means it has some value to it. This helps avoid spending time on content that no one wants.
Read Through Reader/User Comments and Questions
If you’ve already got a blog with traffic read through the comments to inspire you. Oftentimes readers will have questions or comments that can be spun off into their own content or used to improve current ones.
If not, take a look at your competitors comments and see what trends popup. Listening to commenters is important as these people are invested enough in the content to take time to respond to it. Reward these loyal readers with answers to their questions or content on their thoughts. This is not only an effective content generation technique, but also great for driving engagement with your followers which is valuable in of itself.
Let Old Content Inspire You
Building off the last point, I’ll often find myself looking at old content and notice something that warrants further exploration. Maybe I glossed over something, or only briefly explained it, or perhaps I missed a point completely. These are all good places where I can do a more in-depth article and link back to it. Or maybe I can create a new image/video that complements an existing article.
The point is that often there are many ways to expand on old content, and it can often breath new life into it. While reading comments can oftentimes help with this, sometimes you can come up with new ideas on your own by just re-reading your old posts or looking at old visual content.
As an example, while re-working this article I realized I could create graphics that go for each of these points. That gives me 10 great pieces of content to share on Instagram and other social media.
Follow The Rabbit Hole Of Wikipedia
Another technique I often use is what I call the rabbit hole of Wikipedia. Wikepdia has, on any given page, numerous links to related articles on their site. By starting on something related to your niche you can easily spend hours following links from page to page.
Once you get far enough these pages are likely to be unrelated, but the first couple of links are likely to be very much related. I often find myself creating a similar link structure on my site and create related content I discovered searching through Wikipedia. Wikipedia is great as I can often find obscure details I never would have come up with on my own.
Wikepdia also has a section of sources at the end of most articles. These are great ways to find more, related content, as well as add proper sources to your own content.
Watch Current Events
I end off with this tip as it is much more niche dependent but very powerful when used correctly. Current events are a great way to get lots of readers quickly, and can help boost a blog. I always pair this up with some sort of retention technique like a newsletter as oftentimes current event content is only relevant for a short time. Unless you’re a dedicated news site, it’s difficult to keep up with events consistently.
There are a lot of sites out there that aggregate this type of content, and there may even be ones in your niche specifically. I tend to check these sites out every couple of days to see if there’s anything interesting. Like I mentioned though, the effectiveness of this is likely to depend on your niche.
Remember to Keep a Log!
Lastly, I wanted to touch on this even if it’s not a content generation technique. While you go through the above make sure you’re recording your ideas in some ways, even the ones that you don’t have 100% fleshed out as you can come back to them later.
There’s been dozens of times I’ll come up with a great idea and think “I’ll just remember it”. I don’t think I have to tell you that never works out. Whether you’re using an app, pen and paper, or whatever, make sure you’re recording your ideas or you might as well not do content research at all.