Where To Get Great Ideas For Writing Your Next Article
More inspirations for generating content for your website
7th January 2002
There are times when I want to write an article to send out to promote my web site (or for my newsletter).
And an article idea pops right into my head and then it’s easy. I’m off and typing away on my computer keyboard.
Other times I’m stuck for anything to write about at all!
It’s those «other times» that really frustrate writers!
Here are a few ideas to help get those article ideas flowing again and to get you «unstuck»:
1) Visit a forum on a topic of interest to you. You’ll find many posts to the forum (usually). See if there is a common question or thread that forum participants are talking about. If so, then bingo! You have the topic for an interesting article. Now you can begin to research further before you put the pieces together for your article.
2) Sometimes newspapers or magazines can provide a good idea. Locally we have a publication for computer users that is distributed for free. Since my website and my efforts (for the most part) are geared toward internet marketing, sometimes I’ll find an interesting article on the topic in the newspaper.
Of course, I set the article down and then go to work on the internet looking for resources (usually from the search engines) to help with my article.
Then I’m off and writing! Usually with the ideas that are already in my head and the new information I’ve found I have the pieces for a pretty good article.
3) Brainstorm! This is something we used to do in school. When you’re stuck, you just write down any and all ideas that come into your head.
Then sort through the ideas and pick a topic to use for your article.
Still stuck?
4) Look over your web site. What is it you do really well? Or what kind of advice do you offer that people really need to know about?
Bingo. You have a topic to write about.
5) Go off into one of the chat rooms specific to the area you’re interested in (for example, internet marketing) and see what they’re talking about. If you find a really interesting conversation going on — bingo — you have another great article idea!
6) And finally, you can always ask a good friend or even your spouse.
Ask your friend what he or she would like to know more about (for example with marketing a web site). As the conversation progresses, one or two ideas is sure to surface.
7) Finally, surf the internet. Sometimes I visit different marketing sites and see what they have that is of interest. Sometimes I’ll find a great idea I hadn’t thought of before. Then I’m off to research more on this topic. (Usually I can also provide a link in my article back to the site that gave me the idea — for more ideas on the topic — giving my readers another place to go for more information.)
The trick is not to stay «stuck» for very long. Using some of the ideas I’ve suggested, usually you’ll come up with not only one idea, but many ideas you can use.
In that case, I file each new idea away (writing them down either in a notebook or in my word processing program for future reference).
Then later, when I’m stuck I have another great resource of article ideas . . .
8) My idea notebook!