Never run out of ideas for blog posts

Sometimes I really struggle for ideas to write about. Other times, the ideas flow faster than I can log them. One of the biggest challenges I still face as a blogger is making sure my posting frequency doesn’t fluctuate along with the natural flow of ideas.

Here are some strategies I’ve used:

I regularly brainstorm ideas for posts and keep the ideas in a notebook. When it’s time to write, I can select an idea from the list. Hopefully I’ve also jotted down some of the key points to make in the post.

Another idea-generator is called “mind-mapping.” For me, this works best when I start with a post I’ve already written. I draw a circle in the middle of a sheet of paper and write the name of the existing post in the circle. From there I just start brainstorming ideas for follow-up posts, posts on a similar topic but from a different angle, “antonymnic” posts where I write about the opposite of the idea, and other twists on the existing topic.  This usually generates at least 5-10 new ideas.

If I’m ”in the zone,” I’ll write several posts in one sitting and use my WordPress software to schedule them to post automatically on assigned days and times in the future. I’ve gotten as far as three weeks ahead using this method, which gives me time to work through any dry spells.

I’ll sometimes experiment with assigning certain types of posts to various days of the week, for example: opinion posts on Mondays, list posts on Wednesdays, problem-solving posts on Fridays. This at least gives me a guideline for what type of post my readers are expecting, and that makes it even easier to select something from my notebook of ideas.

I will also sometimes just select a type of post, and try to brainstorm a title based on that type. Some common types I’ve used include list posts (“Ten Ways…” “Five Things…” etc.), Q-and-A posts, link posts (link round-ups), and opinion posts (on a controversial topic).

Failing all of this, of course, you could just try snagging one of Chris Brogan’s 100 post ideas.

photo by Microsoft Clips Online