Problems with blog ideas – a thing of the past

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Friday, December 4th, 2015 In Guest blogger By Jorn

Another post by Georgi, one of our blog Project Manager. 

“I may quit after this month, it’s so tiresome to think blog post ideas every month” 

This is a sample of a quote taken from an email I received from one of our writers last week. As there are plenty of good writers waiting on a stand-by to refill the position immediately,you may think there isn’t any need to get so worked up about it. In general, you are right, but not in this case; not if you we are talking about Estonian writers. Even though it is spoken by 1.5 million people  it presents itself as a a more difficult task than if you were searching for let’s say, an English writer. I don’t know why, but I didn’t get many responses in the ‘jobs section’ for “Estonian writer” that I released.

Unemployment rate Estinonia

I guess that freelancing is not that popular in Estonia and most of the people are already employed. The unemployment rate is only 6%. You may realize yourself how precious Estonian writers really are. In fact, it applies to all writers and languages which can be found in Copypanthers at the moment. Keeping the mind of our existing writers creative is a much better focus for us that getting new writers started in new projects.

1. Ask your readers

You probably have at least a few readers who never miss a post. Ask them what they’d like to read next in your blog. There are a few ways to get answers from them. Firstly, ask them to simply add a comment below the last post and to type their “blog post ideas” for the next one. If you’d like to make it a bit more interesting, you can add a poll into your post, inviting your readers to vote.

buzsumo screenshot

2. Check how your competitors are doing

Secondly, I don’t know if you see them as your competitors, but these are people who write blogs within your niche. Check the first page you search for within your niche on Google. They are obviously the best. It will be good for you if you can borrow 1-2 blog post ideas from them. In order to find their best posts you can use Buzzsumo. On the right hand side of their blog url you will see the posts that got the most shares on social media. You can then choose one of their best posts according to the social media engagement and just write a similar article yourself. 

3. Answer somebody’s else blog post, by commenting it

You should go and check the top dogs in your niche again. Read a few of the most recent posts and choose one that you have an opinion on. Then, go to your blog and write an answer to his or her blog post. It’s important that you have something good to say if you want to extract the maximum of this technique. After writing your blog post send an email to the blogger to show them your blog post. If he responds to your blog there is a good chance that this top notch blogger will mention your blog the next time he writes a blog himself. If this happens you will get huge exposure and your blog may get thousands of visitors. You don’t need to agree with the author’s point of view, but it’s a must that you have something good and valuable to say.

4. Read books

Reading books will boost your creativity and you will get so many ideas for your blog. Almost all genres will give you writing ideas, but the one you get most benefit from is Fiction. Also, you can read books which purposefully develops your creativity. I can come up with two titles at this point in time: “The Six Hats of Thinking” by Edward de Bono and “The Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharp.

5. Take notes

You are in the buss, you are at home, at a boring office meeting… if you come up with an idea for a blog post, just write down, because it will vanish for less than a minute. Bringing a spiral notebook is not necessary anymore, you can use Evernote at your smartphone or any other  of the hundreds taking note apps.

6. What is happening in the world? In your country? In your town?

Something is happening any second. And media make sure you know it (like or not). It takes you 2 minutes to go into a news website and to check what’s new in the world, in your own country or town. In most of cases you have an opinion about what’s happening around you, don’t be shy and share your thoughts on your blog.

If you are a freelance writer you will be most welcome to join our team of writers and we will make sure that your creativity will never become dry. Sign up now and monetize your language assets.