In order to remain in their audience's good graces, bloggers need great posts - and that means they need great ideas. SEOmoz has produced an average of more than 2 unique posts each day for the last couple years (~1500 posts over ~740 days) - but it's no easy task. Sometimes ideas for content come to you and it feels as though you can't write enough. Other days, you have to force yourself to find meaningful content. After you've built an audience, the responsibility becomes even heavier - you've created expectations that must be fulfilled.
Even the most experienced blogger can feel overwhelmed sometimes when sitting down to write a post. Personally, when I'm stuck in a rut for content ideas, the following web tools have helped me get the juices flowing:
- Usenet / GG Groups - https://groups.google.com/
The discussions that take place at Google Groups bring diverse perspectives and have a significant history to draw upon. On occassion, I'll search for a specific topic, but more often, I'm simply browsing through the SEO, search engines or Google specific groups. - Technorati
Among all the tools listed here, Technorati is possibly the best for researching the most current topics or thoughts on the web. Their rankings of blog posts by date means that even a basic search for SEO or AdSense or NFL will bring up highly relevant, timely posts. Sometimes, these posts spark debate or disagreement, other times, they open up a whole new idea for information to be shared. Their latest feature - hot tags this hour (on the tags page) - can also be a source of inspiration. - Craigslist
When I visit Craigslist for blog ideas, I almost always refer to three sections - jobs, services and the discussion section. You can see a sample search for SEO at all three - 1, 2, 3. Craigslist, like Technorati, is up-to-date, but it's a less tech-savvy and often more "average joe" crowd, which can make for an interesting dichotomy. Changing towns and search terms will get you even more material. (BTW - If you've ever wondered where the SEO spammers and scammers live, it's right here) - Del.icio.us
Del.icio.us' popular page has become so well read that it's no longer a great source for unique topics. The specific tag pages, however, function much like Technorati, in that they provide timely links to pages that people have bookmarked. Pages like those for SEO, Google, Web2.0, business and even economics frequently features blog-worthy material I can leverage. - StumbleUpon
The best way to use StumbleUpon is to follow their Discover page and use the "tag" option in the toolbar. Stumblers often have a preference for humor and the absurd, but nothing says that can't make for good blog inspiration. - Google / Yahoo! News
The news services from Google & Yahoo! provide access to tens of thousands of press releases and news articles every day. Search is the best way to go, although I've also been known to use the tech tab at Yahoo! and Google's Sci/Tech section, too. - Keyword Tools
If you're seeking a direct path to what users want to find on your blog, searching for potential topics broadly at tools like Overture, MSN AdCenter, SEOBook's & Digitalpoint's makes it easy. The insight you can achieve is invaluable - despite the inaccuracy of the numbers, the number of questions I've found that need answering by searching for "keyword" or "google ranking" or "search engine" suggests a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered. - Wikipedia
The obvious choice here is to look only at the articles, but I find that many times the discussion can be equally interesting. The search function is the best way to go, as the categorization structure isn't very user-friendly, yet. - Digg & Reddit
Both sites take user submissions and user votes, and both are best referenced using a search. You can sort by category at Digg (i.e. tech industry news or business & finance) and use several subreddits (though these are not great). The better option is to search. - Yahoo! Answers
Like Google Groups, but with a better interface, and oftentimes more mainstream questions, Yahoo! Answers is a feedbag for the content-hungry blogger. I like using the Internet category as well as searching (i.e. SEO, Google ranking, etc.)
Are there any tools or services you rely upon to inspire blog material?
There are few people in the industry who know right information and like to share it with other people. SEOmoz is one of them. Keep up the good work Rand.
Rand - considering how often I'm pitching blog ideas to you, I find this post personally insulting. If you only listened to me a bit more often, you wouldn't get 'stuck in a rut', and you'd have quality posts like:
- 10 Reasons Why Danny Sullivan Could Kick Kermit the Frog's Ass
- Mystery Date: Matt Cutts
- What My Girlfriend Really Meant When She Screamed, "Google Ad Words is the Other Woman"
- Why We Sometimes Hope Our Sites Crash: An Exploration of How Cute SeoMoz's Matt Inman is When He's Stressed
But nooooo...You keep saying things about how my blog ideas are "irrelevant to SEO" blah blah "Sophomoric and disrespectful to the field" blah blah blah "Ground for a a lawsuit" blah blah.
Blah.
You should write a top ten "rejected SEOmoz post ideas" MG. :)
I thought "Grounds for a lawsuit" was WL's area of expertise.
Back off, lady ... they already have one Geoffery. :)
Great tips for a new blogger like myself. It seems that generating ideas, and traffic are a lot harder then l was led to believe. Thanks again.
https://sixtyseven-days.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the awesome blog. It really helps people like myself. I have a new arts/design/graphics blog I set up and I am trying to give great resources. I can use all the advice and help I can get. I am good at communicating but blogging a lot is hard :)
Thanks for these ideas and resources I will look them up soon .
Lawton
Great resources, but who has enogh time:)) I have many ideas, but I still do not have time to share them.
Can't you halp me with ten sources of time?
I was struggling to find good topics for my real estate blog and after reading this I don't think that will be a problem anymore! Great Post
Years have past and these tips are still helpful. I recently starting blogging myself in Dutch.
As a professional blogger, I found many of these ideas helpful in helping to to keep the creative energy flowing for new articles. I learned about some new article resources I would never thought of using, like Craigslist. Thank you for sharing.
Carl E. Reid, CSI Developer of Career Management Swiss Army Knife
Idea: How to display your visitors country flags and latest X visitors information.
Every webmaster needs to have web stats tool to be able to monitor and track web traffic.
Web Stats offers a comprehensive web stat tool, a few features to list:*Option to display your X top countries flag visitors*Option to display your X top visitors*option to dispaly your latest X visitors information*Option to diplay your basic statics*Option to dispaly your online vistors* Powerful web statistics reporting engine* ALL stats features*Keywords*Analysis* Min/max stats* Custom period stats display* High priority email response from web support* Feature rich, account management control panel*Advanced Graphics for traffic analysis
e.t.c.
Another one is Total Fark. If you have a general interest blog, it has a seemingly never ending flow of stories. The site has a cost of 29 dollars, but the folks there get have a constant flow that is outside of the normal Digg world.
One word of warning though, if you have gentle sensibilities (ie are adverse to NSFW), it is probably a place to stay away from.
Rand,
Any chance you could add a print button and functionality to the site? I love your articles, but prefer to read items via hard copy. Keeping your blogs via hard copy also adds longevity to your insight. Thanks.
This is something that we'll have addressed in the new version of SEOmoz :)
Was this addressed in the new version, I find myself printing alot of your blog posts and the way they print is sometimes frustrating
Some great tips there Rand! Thanks =)
Hi Lisa,
I am working in outsourcing company as a SEO & web Developer. I am developing my website as per the Google Searching Structure. Can u tell me what is the exact theory for increasing PR of my website.
I will wait for you reply, thanks
Best regards,
Gunjan
Nice list. I'd add:
1) Very specific tags on del.icio.us can be more useful. Example: socialmediaoptimization 2) Squidoo - Using either browse (which includes tags) or looking at top 100 lists (note: there's more than one list) 3) NetVibes - Useful way to grab RSS feeds and skim blogs quickly. I have tabs for things like Web 2.0 (w/ TechCrunch, ProgrammableWeb, etc), SEM (w/ SEOmoz, SER, etc), Google blogs, Yahoo blogs
BTW, speaking of NetVibes and RSS feeds, do please keep your feeds full. Don't go partial. Readers will still go to your site to read the comments.
Regarding tags on Technorati, del.icio.us, Squidoo, Flickr, I got bored of browsing the popular tags and put together TagMan, a hangman game for browsing those tags. (You can get to the game from my profile). Think of it as a way to "stumble upon" new and interesting tags and, perhaps, blog topics. Maybe add that to your list. ;-)
Great post Rand. I've held a few brainstorming sessions for blog content ideas and one thing that came up is that a great source of content for your blog would be to ask readers what they want you to cover/comment on. I haven't yet used this approach on my blog but I know folks who have been successful at this.
You can also run polls on your blog to learn about what your readers are interested in.
Rand,
Thanks for the ideas. There was a couple I wouldn't have thought of on my own. Another good resource that doesn't apply to you but does to everyone else is this blog.
Rand, Thanks for the great tips-always useful!
love the tips their great! that's why you guys are the best! keep up the good work.