How to Come Up With Good Blog Post Ideas - Part 1

If you want your blog to have a constant flow of traffic, you need to post new content regularly. To do so, you need lots of blog post ideas. Where can you get topics or ideas to post in your blog?

In this post, we will look at two methods that we can use to come up with topic ideas for our blogs.

Use a Google Keyword Planner Tool

The first method uses the Google Keyword Planner Tool.

Just search for 'google keyword planner' and you will find the link to it.

The keyword planner tool is part of Google Ads, so you need to have a Google or Gmail account to be able to use it. Don't worry, it is absolutely free to use this tool. You don't have to buy ads or add money to your account. 

The page looks like this (as of this writing). You need to click the Tools & Settings on the top menu, then click Keyword Planner to get to this page. Then, click the Discover new keywords image.

For example, I want to find some fresh topics about blogging. I type 'blogging tips' and 'blogging how to' in the first field of the keyword tool and click get results. The tool will give you a whole list of keywords grouped into different themes. 

Here are some of the ideas I got from the keyword planner: 

• how to start a blog
• how to write a blog
• how to earn money from blogging
• blog writing tips
• what to write in a blog
• blogging tips for beginners

Just browse through the list of keyword ideas and take note of the relevant ones. The keyword tool also shows you the average monthly searches each term gets. Is this important? Of course. If you write a blog post about a chosen keyword idea with higher average monthly searches, your post may get more search engine visitors.

If you're serious about doing keyword research, you better watch this video.

When you're brainstorming topic ideas, start by searching broad keyword terms for your niche. Then narrow it down as you get some keyword suggestions until you come up with a list of topic ideas you want to write for your blog. 

Now, take 30 minutes right now or maybe later and do this to easily come up with a list of several blog post ideas. You can save the list of your blog post ideas on paper or digitally using a notepad or spreadsheet, or better yet make a draft post right away on your blog, so you can easily find it later.

At this point, before you even start writing your post, reword each keyword into an attractive, attention-grabbing title. Now, you have something to refer to as far as blog post planning is concerned for the next few months. 

Use Blogging Planners

A blogging planner is basically a planner, which could be monthly or yearly, pre-filled with all the events and holidays that are celebrated on specific dates. With this kind of planner, it's possible to come up with a lot of blog post ideas that may work well with your niche depending on the time of year. 

If you want to get a free blogging planner, you can download one by Lynnette Chandler of BlogEnergizer.com. Lynette listed observances of the day and holidays of the month on this printable to help you come up with ideas you can blog about for each month. 

You can also make your own niche-specific blogging calendar this way. Get a monthly calendar, or any notebook and dedicate a page to each month. Then, browse through your regular calendar and take note of seasons and holidays. List blogging ideas that can think of in the appropriate months.

For example, if you have a food blog, you can write about some grilling recipes for May in preparation for Memorial Day or maybe you can write about some red, white, and blue dishes for the celebration of the 4th of July. 

You'd be surprised how many interesting, and obscure holidays there are. Some examples are pear month, pancake day, hot chocolate day, roasted chestnuts day, and more. Go to daysoftheyear.com to get more ideas to blog about. 

Another resource you can use is the research magazines in your niche. Just look at the covers of the magazines and figure out the themes of the months. Note down ideas that you feel you can write about in your own blog. 

Once you have a blogging calendar, you can use it for many years, not just once. You can keep adding ideas related to the themes you already have, so it's easy to come up with lots of fresh blog post topics year after year. 

This is the sixth post in our Better Blogging Challenge. If you missed the other blog posts in this series, just click the link above to find the other posts at the bottom of the page.

Thank you for reading.