One of the most frequent questions people ask me is, “How do you come up with the creative inspiration for what to blog about five days a week?”
When you go through life expecting EVERYTHING to provide creative inspiration for what to blog about, you see potential topics EVERYWHERE.
For me, the bigger challenge is finding the time to turn all the creative inspiration into blog content both of us (you and me) would be interested in reading.
I’m not a fast writer, and I’ve gotten even slower through distracting myself while writing and incorporating more SEO-oriented steps than when the Brainzooming blog started. The result is many ideas never make it into completed blog posts, although some will show up even a year or two later. Never underestimate the value of historical creative inspiration!
Several months ago, I wrote a Brainzooming post detailing the creative inspiration for the previous thirty posts. Some of the points of creative inspiration are the same, but many differ from the previous article on what to blog about:
1. You are inspired by stories and challenges others are sharing on Facebook (Being Thankful for the Blessings in the Challenging Parts of Life)
2. Something already written can be recast and made more helpful than when it was originally written (Current Clients, New Opportunities – Five Ideas to Discover New Growth)
3. You’re trying to motivate yourself to improve on things that bother you about yourself (Distracting Yourself – 19 Ways to Undermine Your Success)
4. There’s a keyword phrase generating favorable blog traffic, and it’s time to add more blog content on the topic (Strategic Thinking Exercises – 6 Characteristics the Best Ones Have)
5. Many intriguing articles on a topic are taking up space in your web browser, and it’s easier to summarize them in a blog post than bookmark the links (10 Articles on Creativity Lovers, Haters, Branding, Insights and Storytelling)
6. You’re trying to solve your own business challenge, and you use a blog post to think through your best options (Combat Client Block – 8 Ways to Beat Client-Specific Creative Block)
7. A sales call surfaces an issue you know others are contending with as well (Social Networking, Personal Relationships & 7 Content Strategy Questions)
8. There’s an opportunity to combine content only tangentially related to your blogging subject with a different angle to make it relevant (Innovation Success – Innovating, Strategy & Pissing Off People)
9. Marking an anniversary by sharing lessons learned (What to Blog About and How – 25 Blogging Lessons from 5 Years and Number 22: 25 Lessons Learned (or Reconfirmed) in Year Three Away from Corporate Life)
10. Creating a compilation of previous articles as a resource for readers and yourself (Project Management Techniques – 21 Articles to Better Manage Projects)
11. There’s an opportunity to link your subject to a current news topic (Political Concession Speeches – Why Are They the Best of the Election Campaign?)
12. A great, frequent guest blogger has written a post (Innovation Success Through Planning, Preparation, and Organization by Woody Bendle and Number 24 Creative Thinking Exercise – SCAMPER around KC by Woody Bendle)
13. It’s possible to turn too much time watching TV into a lesson-oriented blog post (Creative Process – 5 Creative Ideas with a Twist for Product Design)
14. A bizarre situation has been staring you in the face for years, and you finally figure out an angle to turn it into a blog (Brand Experience, Glass Houses, and Naked Shower Guy)
15. A great, new guest blogger has written a post – after you made a request on Twitter (The Top Three Don’ts of Brand Building by Julie Cottineau)
16. A current event provides an opportunity to write something more outrageous than you would ever typically address (Zombies and Vampires – Strategic Perspectives on Their Popularity)
17. In the course of a phone conversation with a potential client, you list out all the items for a blog post (Strategic Planning – 7 Questions for Avoiding Strategic Management Failures)
18. It makes sense to share some behind the scenes info on a social media strategy you use (Social Media – 5 Tips to Sharing an Evergreen Blog Post)
19. You’ve developed a guest post for another blogger you can rewrite into fresh content for your own blog (Brainstorming Tools – Drawing on Big Creative Ideas)
20. A new approach to what you do is still in the creative thinking stage, and you’re interested in getting reactions to it (Strategic Thinking Exercise – Black Swan Events in Your Plan)
21. You share a lesson you don’t particularly like that you’ve had to learn to like and embrace (Creative Inspiration – Creative Ideas from Your Daily Life)
22. See number 9
23. A conference event you attend reveals a real-life factoid serves as a case study (Television Program Ideas – How Many Ideas Per Television Series?)
24. See number 12
25. A social media rockstar is pissing and moaning about something that isn’t a problem, and you want to respond in a longer format (Social Media – 19 Content Strategy Ideas from a TV Network)
26. You’re having a conversation with someone who tells you something about what they are doing, and it would be a perfect guest blog post (The Importance of a Passion Project by Alyssa Murfey)
27. Another blogger’s intriguing blog title wasn’t matched by an intriguing post, so you write the post the other blogger should have written (Brainstorming Ideas – 10 Signs You’re Done Brainstorming)
28. You’ve written enough Twitter posts to create a decent compilation (Twitter Topics on @Brainzooming – This Tweet Is for You)
29. You sit through a speech that’s so bad and lacking in beneficial information your only choice is to write about how bad the presentation is (Keynote Presenter Advice – Don’t Do These Things)
30. You’ve had to develop a new skill that your audience can benefit from developing as well (Social Media Content – 7 Ways to Repurpose What You’ve Written)
