Have you ever heard of blogger burnout?
It’s when bloggers find themselves uninspired and unable to come up with fresh ideas. The longer a blogger has been consistently publishing content, the higher the chances that they’ll suffer from a case of blogger burnout.
But how do you combat blogger burnout? How do you continue to come up with blog post ideas that stand out from the crowd?
Let’s discuss how you can generate blog ideas without breaking a sweat.
#1. Check Amazon reviews
Amazon reviews are a hidden treasure trove of blog post ideas. They tell you what information your target audience is looking for and how they want it to be presented. Not only do you generate blog post ideas, you can also quickly create an outline.
Begin by searching for nonfiction books about the topic you would like to write about. Once the results are populated, read the reviews for at least five of them. Take note of the following.
- What did people like the most about the book?
- What did people dislike the most about the book?
- Do the reviews mention specific topics the book failed to cover?
- Do they like or dislike the tone used to write the book?
Answers to the above questions can be an excellent jumping-off point for blog post ideas. For example, one reviewer could state that a particular book only briefly discusses a topic. You could expand on this topic in your blog post.
Let’s say you are a copywriter, and you would like to blog about copywriting. However, you are unsure how to break down such a vast subject into smaller chunks.
You enter “copywriting” in Amazon’s search bar and hit enter. The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly is among the top search results.
If you open the product page for the book and scroll down, you will see a section called “Read reviews that mention.” In this section, Amazon shows the most used phrases in reviews for a book.
At a glance, you can see what most people are saying about the book. It is a great place to start looking for blog and keyword ideas.
For The Copywriter’s Handbook, the most used phrases include “direct mail,” “step-by-step guide,” “copy that sells,” and “press releases.” From these phrases, you could come up with the following blog post ideas:
- Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy that Sells
- The Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide to Press Releases
- Is Direct Mail Still Relevant in 2019?
You can think of even more ideas once you take your target audience into account.
If you would like to write copy for small business owners, you can write a blog post entitled “The Business Owner’s Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Press Releases.”
If you would like to sell courses for wannabe copywriters, you can write a post called “The Beginner Copywriter’s Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells.”
By looking at the most used phrases alone, you can come up with several ideas. We haven’t even started reading the reviews yet.
Most of the five-star reviews state that the book covers everything a beginner should know about copywriting. It teaches how to write headlines, seven questions you must ask your audience, and the difference between copywriting and other forms of writing.
The things reviewers point out are most likely the topics they wanted to learn about in the first place.
Do not forget to read the negative reviews as well. They could provide more valuable information than positive reviews.
The negative reviews for The Copywriter’s Handbook mostly state that the book is outdated. It doesn’t cover how to write copy for the digital age.
Based on the reviews we’ve read so far, we can come up with the following blog post ideas:
- 7 Ways Copywriting is Different from Blogging (And Why You Should Know the Difference)
- 11 Questions You Must Ask Your Audience Before Writing Copy
- Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Digital Copy That Sells
No matter what you’re going to write about, there will be a nonfiction book for it. Read the reviews and see if they frequently point out the same things. They could be an excellent source of blog post ideas and help alleviate the stress that leads to blogger burnout.
#2. Get in touch with your audience
If you’re blogging for business, your audience – if you have an existing one – could be a fantastic source of blog post ideas. This includes clients you’ve worked with in the past, customers who purchased from you, and even potential customers who have interacted with you on social media.
Reach out to them, and find out what they would most like to see from your blog.
This could benefit you in two ways. First of all, you no longer have to wonder what to write about. Your audience is generating ideas for you. Next, you will be writing a blog post people are guaranteed to be interested in.
When asking your audience for ideas, use the following questions as a jumping-off point.
- What are their most recent successes?
- What are their pain points?
- How does your product or service help with these pain points?
Using our earlier example, let’s say you are an experienced copywriter who would like to sell online courses to beginner copywriters.
After reaching out to your audience, you discover that most of them struggle with finding the right resources online. There are too many blog posts, videos, and podcasts about how to get started in copywriting. It can be overwhelming for a beginner.
With this feedback in mind, you can write a blog post entitled “How to Determine Which Copywriting Resources are Right for YOU.”
Since it’s something your audience struggles with, they will most likely read and even share your post.
The easiest way to get in touch with your audience is through your newsletter and social media.
If you have a newsletter, you can briefly ask subscribers to tell you what posts they would like to see from you in the future. Tell them you would like to provide content that’s valuable to them in a sincere manner.
For social media, you can ask your followers what they would like to learn from you.
Collecting responses could prove to be difficult. Some people may not be comfortable with sharing their pain points in a public forum. Others may be discouraged by the thought of writing a lengthy response to your newsletter.
There are tools you could use that give your audience the option to reply in a quick and even anonymous manner.
Typeform
Typeform is the so-called form of the future. It is a free tool that allows you to create aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use forms.
Sign up for a Typeform account, and begin creating a form. You can choose from several templates, so using Typeform requires very little technical knowledge.
Once you’re done, you can include a link to the form in a social media post or your newsletter’s next issue.
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a tool that lets you create surveys. Like Typeform, you can select from several templates after creating an account.
With a free account, you can create an unlimited number of surveys with a maximum of ten questions each.
After a sufficient number of people respond to your survey, SurveyMonkey has a reporting system that organizes the results. However, you will need a premium account to download the reports.
#3. Research curriculums for online classes
Some may not realize it, but you can find plenty of blog post ideas from online classes. You don’t even need to sign up for them.
Visit a website with online classes, and look for classes on the topic you’d like to write about. Even if you’re unable to view the classes themselves, you will most likely see a curriculum that breaks down the topic.
Carefully study that curriculum. You can choose to write about every single topic in it, or you can focus on one and write a more in-depth blog post.
There is, however, a thin line between being inspired and outright copying. Instead of merely taking ideas from curriculums, adapt ideas to fit your blog.
Begin by visiting Udemy or Skillshare. These websites offer online classes on a variety of subjects for a monthly subscription fee.
For example, let’s say you blog about productivity for college students. Your target audience is mainly college students who are about to graduate and enter the workforce.
If you go to Udemy and enter “productivity” in the search bar, the classes you’ll see include “30 Day Challenge to a More Productive and Much Happier You” and “Master Planning: Plan Your Day, Week, Month, Quarter & Year”.
Both classes have been taken by thousands of people, and they contain a lot of valuable information. However, you can’t simply decide to write your version and call it a day.
Consider how you can adapt it to your blog and audience.
Since your target audience is students in their last year of college, you can write the following blog posts:
- 30 Day Challenge to a More Fulfilling Senior Year
- Master Planning: A Complete Guide for College Seniors
These ideas are based on the course names alone. Once you take a look at the curriculum for each course, you will come up with even more ideas.
For example, the course “30 Day Challenge to a More Productive and Much Happier You” talks about weekly planning, monthly planning, quarterly planning, and so forth.
You could write blog posts about each topic, expanding on each one and covering ideas that were not discussed in the course.
Conclusion
Coming up with creative blog post ideas can be exhausting after a while. Once your creative well runs dry, use the methods described in this blog post. You will surely think of a blog post you’ll be excited to write about and be on your way to avoiding the dreaded blogger burnout.
