4 sources of great content ideas

No matter how much you might enjoy writing new blog content for your eCommerce web site, there will inevitable come a time when you simply run out of inspiration. Whatever your niche, the well of ideas can quite easily run dry from time to time and when that happens, you’ll need a backup source of killer content ideas to turn to. Fortunately, we’re here to help you out. Next time you feel writer’s block beckoning and you just can’t brainstorm a blog post topic that hasn’t been done before, try one of these sources to kick your creativity back up a gear…

Reddit Reddit is absolutely jam-packed with content and that makes it a great place to mine new content ideas. From the quirky to the cult, you’ll pretty much guaranteed to find at least one or two posts which spark an idea. With a community of around 540 million users, there is a landslide of new content uploaded each day – but this doesn’t mean that you have to spend hours trawling the archives. Focus on what makes the front page to ensure you’re getting the very cream of the Reddit crop – otherwise you may find yourself going down a Reddit rabbit hole not to emerge for quite some time! Quora If you have hopes of snatching a coveted featured snippet (also known as ground zero) ranking on Google with your content, Quora is well worth adding to your bookmarks. This site, which describes itself as a platform to share knowledge, is built around a question and answer format. This has a couple of benefits when sourcing content ideas – you get an idea for what people are asking and therefore wanting to know and you get questions that could feasibly lead you to a featured-snippet worthy post. Basing your content brainstorming on question and answers also means that your content is more likely to be useful to your audience, which makes it more engaging. Google Trends It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Google Search Trends is a bountiful source of content ideas. Why? It was created by Google for journalists who wanted to keep their finger on the pulse – which makes it the ideal tool to add a topical, relevant and trending edge to your own content. Google Trends aggregates search data and can be used in two different ways. You can plug in a topic and see search volume, related searches and emerging searches (things Google users are just starting to use as their search string) or, you can pick a major topic (such as the Royal wedding or Cricket World Cup) and access real time and daily search trend related to that subject.If you’re keen to add very on-trend content to your business website, this is a great way to ensure you have your finger firmly on the pulse. Surveys Have you ever thought of simply asking your audience what it wants to see? While this source of inspiration takes a little more time and effort, it gives you a real sense of what your website visitors are looking for – which means your planning can be extremely focused. That alone should help with content inspiration but, asking your visitors what they want and need also acts as a cheat sheet for content inspiration.There are a number of ways to carry out a survey; a pop up on your site. A MailChimp send or a more formal survey carried out using Survey Monkey or similar.