How to come up with blog post ideas

I have a variety of methods I use to come up with blog post ideas, but these are some of my favorites:

1. Ask Amazon

If you head over to Amazon.com, select “books” from the search bar and start by typing in a variety of basic and more specific topics that fall into your niche to get some ideas.

As you dig around, you may find a bunch of books with titles that may give you some great blog post ideas. Oftentimes, a book title could just as easily turn into a huge resource blog post you could write.

For example, if I follow this “dog training” thread, I find books titled:

• 14 Days to a Well-Behaved Dog
• How to Raise the Perfect Dog
• 101 Dog Tricks
• How to Housebreak Your Dog in 7 Days
• Training Crazy Dogs
• How to Raise a Puppy

With a little tweaking and research, I could create blog posts out of each of these. And the great news is that you already know these are in-demand topics because they rank so high on Amazon.

2. Check out related magazine covers

Magazine editors spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure what articles will draw in new readers. They post the best ones on the cover of each issue.

3. Read other blogs and websites

This is especially important if your niche has lots of changes like cell phones or politics. But even if you’re writing about a more evergreen topic like gardening, it’s still good to visit other websites, blogs, videos, etc. to get ideas.

4. Write about what bothers you

I don’t do this often enough, but showing emotion and your human side is always a good way to connect with readers. And one of the best ways is to write about what frustrates you. Be it how GMOs are destroying our food, how Rand Paul is so much better than the other politicians, how wrong it is to cut down trees, or any other topic that people get passionate about.

Writing about topics you care about will certainly offend some and you’ll lose some readers, but at the same time, it will add a much stronger bond with you and your followers.

5. Reader questions

If you have a contact form or your email address listed on your contact page (which I recommend having and Contact Form 7 is a great plugin for that), then you’ll get questions from readers.

And when you get a question, you can bet that many other readers have that same exact question. Not only will these make great and relevant blog posts, but they also show your readers you’re listening.