While I follow some incredibly inspiring blogs across all categories on Bloglovin’, I am always in need of new blogging tips. Sometimes my creativity evades me and I need a push in the right direction. If you too find yourself looking for ways to create new blog post ideas, these blogging tips are for you. We’ll share with you our best ways to create new blog post ideas.
Last year I read a really great book about how to draw inspiration from others. With that being said, there is a huge difference between taking inspiration and outright copying. The last thing you ever want to do is copy someone else’s hard work. So how can you be sure your blogs are original? To help you source new inspiration, here are fifteen great ways to brainstorm new blog post ideas!
Blogging Tips for New Bloggers
1. Read a new book
While I love being online, sometimes I find physical products to be more inspiring. I don’t know about you, but for me, nothing inspires me more than opening up a physical book. My bookshelf is filled with different ideas. I have recipe books, health and wellness books, fiction stories and memoirs. All of these are ready for me to draw some inspiration from! I often find myself scouring my bookshelf for new ideas.
2. Find new blogs to follow
There are so many great blogs out there these days. In fact, I’d say there are thousands of blogs worth reading and following. So, how do you find new blogs worth subscribing to? Bloglovin’ is my absolute favourite platform to find new blogs to follow. That being said, I don’t follow many blogs in the travel space. I find that I can compare myself to others too easily and I never want to feel like my blog isn’t as cool as someone else’s. Therefore I follow blogs that cover my other interests. I follow baking blogs, wellness blogs and lifestyle blogs. I’m always finding new inspiration through other authors and it is nice to join other communities outside of your own.
3. Look outside your niche
This blogging tip goes in hand in hand with my previous point. If you follow too many blogs in your own category, it can be difficult to remain authentic. You never want to find yourself copying others or following too many trends, so instead consider following blogs in other categories.
4. Review your own content
This is one of my favourite blogging tips and I’m always reminding myself to review my content! In fact, this very sentence is being written years after the original post. The best way to keep on top of your content is to review old posts every year or so. For high performing posts, I review and update them every six months. For example one of the most popular posts on my blog is about the 20 best jobs for people who love to travel. But of course, the best jobs for travel have changed over the years. It is important for me to keep updating and keep the content relevant.
5. Search Keywords
Keyword searches are a pretty old school way to go about sourcing new ideas, but believe me when I say they are worth your effort! Sometimes I forget to perform keyword searches as I just write about what I love. You will, however, find this worth your while.
6. Blog the seasons
Christmas, Easter and Halloween are all great excuses for new blog content. If you’re a travel blogger you could focus more on the destination side of things, or as a lifestyle blogger, you might create something that reflects one of these themes and provide a DIY for your readers.
7. Try Something New
One of my New Years Resolutions was to try more things and learn more skills in 2016. Recently I took up watercolour painting as part of that resolution, which has resulted in me painting old travel photos and bringing them back to life. In the process this has sparked new ideas for content, having reflected on old travels and remembered so many little moments I would have otherwise forgotten!
8. Go Somewhere New
As a travel blogger this is a pretty obvious route to take to source new ideas for content, but no matter what niche you find yourself in, getting away from reality and opening your eyes to new cultures and ideas is one of the most inspiring things you can do. One trip can result in months of new content if you enlighten all your senses!
9. Mind Mapping
Another old school way to brainstorm but a tried and tested way that works is to begin mind mapping. All you’ve gotta do is have a starting point – that could be a word, a photograph, a memory – and continue to build on that with new words, ideas, and see where you end up!
10. Follow Social Media Trends
If you’re writing loads of blog content but the readers aren’t coming, chances are you aren’t writing about what people want to read! A great way to keep up with trends and be one step ahead of the game is to follow trends on social media – but beware, it moves fast!
11. Read your Comments
If you find yourself in a rut (I myself have been there many times) with your blog content, one of the best ways to motivate yourself is to read back through your comments to learn what your readers do and don’t enjoy reading on your blog. Just remember that criticism comes in two forms: constructive and comments to be deleted.
12. Write Headlines
One of the best blogging tips I have read over the years is to write your headlines before you write your blog posts. Having structure for a blog post is not only important for you as the writer, but it is important for your readers, too. Think of each blog post like a journey for the reader to embark on.
13. Talk to your Readers
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now you will know I respond to as many readers as possible on twitter (the best way to reach me) and always monitor the comments to try and write back to as many people as possible. But why? Because it not only helps you with my answers, but also helps ME by knowing what my readers are thinking and feeling about my articles. I 100% appreciate and respect the opinions of anyone who has the time to visit my blog, so as a blogger/author I think it is just as important to talk to your readers on a personal level, not just by the articles you offer.
14. Ask yourself
Ask yourself: what am I interested in? As a blogger it can become easy to fall into the trap of thinking you can only ever cover one or two niches on your blog. My blog has always been a blog about travel, but I discovered about 6-12 months ago that I was a little tired of writing solely about travel, so I started to incorporate my other interests into my blog: recipes (by sharing recipes from my travels), DIY (by focusing on my travel-y projects) and fashion (by sharing my travel outfits). The only way to ever retain a constant stream of inspiration is to enlist all of your interests, not just a sole focus.
15. Read an old magazine
Lately I’ve taken to reading magazines. But this doesn’t mean going out and spending money if you’re anything like me and have hoarded a few mags over the years. I find this is a great way to recycle ideas from the past and bring them to life in the present!
Brooke Saward founded World of Wanderlust as a place to share inspiration from her travels and to inspire others to see our world. She now divides her time between adventures abroad and adventures in the kitchen, with a particular weakness for French pastries.
