How to generate ideas for your business blog

8 min readApr 27, 2022

Maintaining a regular business blog in addition to your daily work is not an easy task. But it’s one of those necessary evils in this all-encompassing online world we live in, if you want to succeed … so we’re told. So, you block out an hour from your hectic schedule to write something new on your blog. But … you know the drill, right?

You go to your desk, open your laptop, and mentally prepare yourself for writing. And then …

… you sit there, hoping that inspiration will strike, the cursor flashing steadily, and the monitor gleaming, so white, you can barely look at it. But it remains blank.

You look at the wall, check your phone, get up and stretch and when you sit back down, still nothing.

You take a look at what’s new on social media, just 5 minutes, honestly.

Excuse me? How much time has passed? You can’t believe it!

And what did you do? Drink two coffees and one tea, eat chocolate and a sandwich, make a phone call, play Candy Crush, like some Instagram posts and comment on some LinkedIn posts (you don’t even know which ones anymore), solve a few online tests to discover which Disney princess you are and that the love of your life really does awaits you around the corner, you just have to open your eyes.

Before you know it, you realise that you no longer have time to write, even if you did have a good idea. However, other commitments await you, and the blog can wait until tomorrow. Who knows, by then you may have even come up with a good idea.

As a business owner does that sound at all familiar?

The above situation may sound a little far-fetched, and the epitome of procrastination, or it may not. But most writers and bloggers know it’s not that far from the truth.

A blank screen and not a clue on what to write about has happened to all of us, at least once.

Is an idea more than time or is time more than an idea?

We all struggle with lack of time.

How do you find time to write with only 24 hours in the day, when you have a business to run and family commitments?

The best ideas don’t just materialise when you sit down to write, they come to you at the oddest moments. Sometimes when you’re just settling down to sleep, in which case you can forgot drifting off until you’ve written it down. Others when you’re busy doing other things. My best ideas normally pop in my head when I’m in the shower!

More often than not, the problem is neither in the lack of time nor in the lack of ideas, but, with the person who has the task of creating the content. If you want something, you will find the time. If you don’t want to, you’ll find an excuse.

And let’s face it, for most business owners writing a blog is a drag, and not high up on their list of things to do, especially if they can’t think of what to write about.

So how do you come up with new ideas? And, more importantly, what do you do with them when they come to your mind and you can’t start writing right away? How do you make sure you never run out of ideas even if you post content on your blog every week?

How do you come up with good ideas on a regular basis?

Thinking of a topic to write about that will add value and engage your audience is always tricky. Sometimes the topic presents itself to you, and sometimes you can spend hours and hours researching a topic through which, you hope, will bring our business, products and services closer to potential new customers or users.

Fortunately, there are a few tricks that can help you in the idea process that you can use whenever we get stuck in a creative grind.

9 top tips for when inspiration doesn’t strike

Change your environment

The worst thing is sitting, staring at a blank screen on a laptop. Sometimes when ideas just dry up, a flashing cursor doesn’t help you find inspiration.

So, when that happens to you, pack your things and change the environment. Not only will you feel better but your thoughts will clear and you will come up with new ideas.

Go for a walk or pack up your laptop and write in another location — in a cafe, on a park bench or on a blanket on the grass by the lake.

Whatever you do, stepping away from your screen for 30 minutes or even a couple of hours, can help clear your head, and it’s then that ideas can emerge.

Carry a notebook with you everywhere

You never know when you will get that rush of inspiration but where and whenever it comes, it’s vital to write it down. And I don’t mean the unsystematic writing down of ideas on colourful pieces of paper, napkins, notes on the phone, or a document on a computer. I mean keeping and writing down ideas in one place.

Yes, I know everything’s online these days, but sometimes grabbing your phone, unlocking it, opening an app, then a file is more of a faff than grabbing a pen. And there’s something timeless about writing on paper.

But whether it’s your phone or a physical notebook, the important thing is that your thoughts are written in one place where you can easily access them. Something that is always with you and where you can further develop these ideas, as and when more enlightenment comes to mind.

Your idea doesn’t have to be concrete and well thought out, it can simply be a thought, a question, a problem, or an event. Whatever comes to mind that could be used at a later date is worth writing down.

Analyse your old blog posts

Do a search and find out which are the most read texts on your blog.

This is not an every day, or even every month task, but if you do it every 6 months you’ll get an insight into what type of posts your audience prefers the most.

Likewise, by just studying the texts that are most popular, you can also discover:

What type of posts have gain the most traction: Lists, How Tos, Case studies, etc.
Which topics are popular
Do posts with pictures perform better than posts without

Then you can use this information to make a list and develop new ideas.

Read comments and emails

One step further on from analysing your old blog posts is to read your comments, and look at the questions you receive on email about your product or service.

This alone will help you generate loads of ideas. Some will tell you what they would like to read more about, some ask the same questions, and some leave comments that you can use to create a new blog idea.

So the next time you get an email or comment, don’t just reply to it automatically, or worse, ignore it. Write it down, think about it and try to get an idea for a new topic. Then pop that idea in your notebook of ‘Big Ideas’!

Did you know you can update/refresh and republish old blogs?

One of the biggest disadvantages of creating content on the internet is that old blogs, in which you have invested a lot of effort and time, after a certain period remain forgotten and buried under the new content.

It’s a shame and you shouldn’t allow it, especially if some of them have performed really well.

So if you have some time, go through your old blogs and separate the ones that would benefit from an update. You can expand some with additional and new information or refresh by deleting outdated information. From some of them you can also make a new series of follow-on posts, especially if they have potential for more detailed development.

You may even get the idea to record a podcast, video or write an e-book or guide based on an old blog.

Republishing old blogs that have been refreshed with new data or images could pay off. Not to mention the time you will save thinking of new ideas.

But, and this is a big but, don’t take this as advice to republish your entire blog from scratch. Only use the ones that will really add value, and benefit from a refresh.

Social media and the internet

There are no better places to explore and gather new ideas than social media and the internet. Just surf a bit and you will already find out what is in trend, what topics are currently current, what the media is writing about and what is new in the industry you are in.

Another source of ideas is other blogs, especially those in the same niche. Of course, this does not mean that you have the green light to steal other people’s texts. However, there are a lot of blogs and it’s difficult to be first in everything.

So follow trends and use social media to gather news, information and ideas, not just as places to waste time. And if you see a text on someone’s blog that you like and it attracted attention, process the same topic but in your own way.

Remember, you don’t have to be the first but you have to be unique.

Keywords

A list of keywords related to your business, product, or service will give you a clear start to your blog to get started. It is necessary so that you do not write about topics that have nothing to do with your business or topics that will not ultimately have the desired effect or result you want to achieve. Once you understand who your target audience is and what you want to tell them, you’re already half done.

Case Studies

Your successful completed projects are a source of content and topics you can write about. A case study, an infographic with the results of the project or an interview with the people involved in the project will show potential new clients how much time and effort you put into the business and the results you can achieve.

Tell the story of success that everyone will want from your hands, and if you are especially brave, tell the story of failure and most of all — what you learned from it.

Original Research

Surveys and research are a great source of content, and if you put in the time and effort and conduct your own research relevant to your business, products or services, and present your results through a blog, you get an added bonus — the opportunity for others to share your information source.

Additional traffic and promotion are never out of the question, nor is the consolidation of your authority in the field of business in which you operate.

Conclusion

Many small business owners often complain about the lack of ideas and inspiration for their business blog, but the truth is, it really isn’t that hard.

All you need to do is keep your eyes and ears wide open and observe the world around you, make notes, ask your clients what they want to know, use quotes, and use your experience.

Do you have any tried and tested methods to help you come up with new business blog ideas?

If you have, let me know in the comments below.

Kook Content

Kook is a copywriting and content creation agency. They work with SME businesses and large start-ups managing projects, creating copy and social content, and occasionally providing voice overs!

Originally published at http://kookcontent.business.blog on April 27, 2022.