Every good writer has been there; you sit for what feels like hours, trying to come up with the perfect topic that your audience would like to read about, only to be blocked in coming up with anything.
As someone who writes many articles per week, having writer’s block is my worst enemy. It slows me down and makes it nearly impossible to meet my writing goals.
If this has happened to you, take a deep breath, clear your mind, and use the following tips to unlock your creativity and have topic ideas ready to be used at any given moment.
1. Current Controversial Topics
When controversy is written about, you can count on a large amount of people having an opinion on the topic, resulting in tons of comments.
Keep the topic related to your business or industry and use a little common sense to determine if it’s a topic you should write about or should avoid.
2. Create a How-to Article
Many people go to blogs to get tips they can put to use in their own businesses or lives, and can be one of the easiest types of articles to write.
Make a list of things that you can explain in actionable tips on topics that will help highlight your area of expertise. Bloggers such as Heidi Cohen set a good example of what actionable tips look like.
3. Read Other Blogs in Your Industry
If you need some inspiration or want to find out what the latest trends in your industry are, the best ideas can come from other bloggers.
Are there any great ideas they have written about that you can elaborate on? In no way am I saying you should copy their ideas, but competitors and other industry trendsetters’ blogs can be a valuable resource when trying to find inspiration for the perfect writing subjects.
4. Search Social Media
Social media has made finding and networking with other professionals a breeze, thanks to the use of hashtags and groups. There are hundreds of networking websites out there, but my two favorites for finding writing inspiration is LinkedIn and Twitter.
With LinkedIn, you can search for groups by industry, interest, or company name. By going through the posts under certain tags or groups, you’ll get an idea of what people are talking about and what their interests are.
If you are still having a problem coming up with anything good to write about, start your own group discussion by blatantly asking others what topics they would be the most interested in. You’d be surprised at how many people will respond.
5. Create Google Alerts
Google alerts are an excellent writing resource because you can type in what topics you are interested in and will get an email daily, weekly, or whatever your preference is, with a list of articles that came out about that topic.
For example, if you are searching for marketing articles, have an alert set with the keyword “marketing” and Google will find every article with that keyword listed in it.
These are just a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing for your next writing masterpiece.
