photo:

Skley


Writing one blog can be tough.  Writing three, being a featured blogger on two, and guest blogging is just insane.  I’m insane.  But I love it. I love writing, I love connecting, I love figuring out the tricks to grow my audience.  But every now and then I boot up my notebook, look at my screen, and nothing.
What the hell am I going to write about?
If you’ve ever experienced this, then you may have Googled “how do I find blog post ideas.”  I’m confident that there are thousands of posts out there sharing how to find blog post ideas.  The difference here is that how I find inspiration for blog post ideas is genius!  Not really, but sometimes it’s nice to have someone point you in the right direction. -
5 Places to Find Blog Post Ideas
Each of these places inspire me to ask a question, answer a question, or share my experience.
1 – Forums and Groups!  I belong to several groups on LinkedIn.  I love the LinkedIn Groups the best, because people seem to be serious about what they’re doing, you get a response pretty quickly, and it’s fun to start up discussions with people who share the same enthusiasm for a topic.  LinkedIn is cool, because it looks at the groups that you’ve joined and it suggests similar groups that you may like.
I get daily updates on the new and popular discussions in the group and just scrolling down those titles gives me great ideas for blog posts.  If someone asks about how to promote their blog locally, I’ll respond in a blog post and link it to the discussion.
I do two things to see if a group is a good fit for me.  I check to see the date of the last post – if it was a week ago, then the group isn’t active enough for me.  And I check to see if people are only posting their blogs; I want to join a group to participate in discussions, not just to have yet another place to post a link.  If their blog posts are sparking a discussion, GREAT!  If not, I keep looking.
2 – Google Alerts!  I tried to find a site where I can sign up for pet food recall notifications and I couldn’t find one; so I created a Google Alerts.  I’m able to write up a blog post to inform the Keep the Tail Wagging followers of a pet food recall immediately, because of this free tool.
I also have Google Alerts for my name and my blogs names.  So when an interview (that I landed through HARO or Reporter Connection) goes live, I can share the link with my followers.
3 – Other Blogs!  I follow way to many blogs; too many to read them all timely.  Once a week, I scroll down the list and click on the titles that look interesting.  Not only am I looking for posts where I can leave thoughtful comments, but I’m looking for inspiration too.  This post was inspired by someone’s article about Klout.  Originally, I planned to write about Klout Perks, but then the fact that I went from “no idea what I’m going to write” to having blog post ideas inspired this post.
4 – My Life!  Life is so fascinating to me and because our lives (as bloggers) are so tied in to social networking, it’s easy for me to write a post about my experience that might help someone else.  Some time ago, I received a critical comment about using Fiverr for logo design.   How I chose to handle the comment inspired a blog post idea.
I joined a direct marketing company, Life’s Abundance, and learned that Multi Level Marketing isn’t evil.  I’m promoting a product that I believe in and I love the company and the people I work with, so I wrote a blog post about multi level marketing.
I ended a friendship recently and the backlash was vicious; I shared that over on Through the Lens, because I learned something that day.  Sharing things that I learned through friends, families, books, movies, or television programs is fun.
5 – Ask Your Followers!  My followers are getting comfortable with asking me to write about certain topics.  I mainly get questions about blogging and dogs.  And over on Through the Lens, followers will send me a link to a video or article about photography that I can share too.   I’ve written about Ticks and Dogs and received a really cool tool for a future giveaway.  And I’ve shared my Google Plus and Social Networking strategies.  These were blog post ideas inspired by followers.
 
So, go forth to these spots and find your blog post ideas!  And I know that these aren’t the only places to get inspiration so please share where you get most of your blog post ideas!