Blog Post Ideas for Beginners
You’ve taken the plunge and started your own blog. Well done! But what now? What can you write about?
Your days will now be filled with an endless list of creative design ideas that you can incorporate in your blog.
You’ve selected your niche, found a theme you really like (most likely a WordPress theme), created your logo and let the world know that you are now a blogger worth reading.
But what on earth are you going to write about? I’ve been there. You can end up going around in circles trying to pick a topic.
How to Overcome Writer’s Block
Sometimes the problem is having too many ideas at the same time. Which of these many brilliant ideas should you write about? Perhaps more importantly, which idea would you enjoy writing about?
And then you start to undermine your own thinking processes by questioning if anyone would even be interested in what you have to say about any of those topics.
Writer’s Block? Search Data to the Rescue
If only we could know ahead of time exactly what our audience would like to read.
Well we can to some extent. If we already have an audience, we can ask them. But in your case, if you are just starting out, then your readership is probably still quite small. Hence your interest in blog post ideas for beginners.
On the other hand, you could gain some valuable leads with these ideas:
- You could look at topics that others are targeting.
- Comments left on other blogs can be indicative, especially questions asked.
- Social media interactions are worth checking.
- And then there are keyword tools.
A keyword tool can provide some invaluable insights into what people are searching for on the internet. There are of course many premium tools but if you are just starting out, I wager that a free tool would be much more to your liking.
What are People Searching For on the Internet?
If you are anything like me, you are probably searching the internet all the time for some information or an answer to a burning question. It could be something as mundane as:
What time does my supermarket open?
Or something more complex like:
What is the exchange rate for British pounds to Australian dollars?
The vast majority of us are ‘googling’ on a regular basis.
I have seen a wide variation in estimates of how many Google searches are performed each day. According to Internet Live Stats, a figure of about 3.5 billion is probably close to the mark. Now that equates to a lot of searches. If we could tap into this data, we would have a much better idea of what our audience wants to know, what our prospective readers would be interested in.
It has been estimated that upwards of 20% of these searches are new. This might mean that newbies can have a better chance of competing for traffic if they target these more obscure search terms.
If you type a query into Google, you will see a list of autocompletes. For example, if I simply start typing a query such as ‘how to start ” I already see a list of phrases that Google has autocompleted for me:
This already provides some very useful data about what people are searching for. BUT it takes a long time and a lot of patience as you type one query after another. A tool can make the process much easier. Any reliable Google keyword search tool for seo could automate the whole process quite efficiently.
A Free Keyword Tool for SEO
The following is a free tool that I have found extremely useful. It makes use of such autocomplete data from search engines in order to come up with related questions and phrases.
When I say ‘Free’, I should qualify that statement. This tool allows you to do 3 searches a day for free, at least at the time of writing this post. A premium version removes that restriction.
So what is this tool? It is ….
Simply load the site, www.answerthepublic.com, type in the topic area you are currently interested in and, within seconds, you will see a long listing of questions that people have been asking about that topic area.
I have to give Jon at Fatstacksblog.com credit for mentioning this very handy tool. The tool has provided me with many topic ideas. As a result, I now have quite a long list of article suggestions, just waiting for me to find a spare hour or two to do them justice.
Brainstorming Ideas on What to Write About
A Travel Blog Example
Let’s say you have a travel blog. Most of the time, you would have plenty of ideas for your travel blog, particularly from your own trips. But in a pandemic year, travel, or at least overseas travel has been put on the back burner for the time being. So, if you, like so many others, are stuck at home, what could you write about for your travel blog?
Immediately the idea of localised travel comes to mind. However, even there, some lockdown regulations have capped the kilometres you can travel from home. You could write about travelling weekends with a caravan but what if caravanning is not really your thing.
What else could you write about?
Using the Keyword Tool to Find Ideas to Write About
Let’s see what else a travel blogger could write about.
Using the online tool at answerahepublic.com, I typed in “travelling”.
Instantly I was presented with lots of ideas, all of which I could view in either a graphic format, like below, or a data list format.
And of course you can also download the list of suggestions in a handy csv format and then open the file in excel.
Possible Search Terms and Questions to Target
In this example, the tool came up with 393 questions and phrases. Now, naturally, such a long list could be a catalyst for many, many ideas. Not all would match your level of interest. But out of every search I have done, I usually find at least 5 to 10 suggestions, each of which could be the focus of an article in its own right.
14 out of the 393 search terms and questions included the term covid as it relates to travel, so you know that the tool is scanning current searches.
But let’s see what else the tool listed.
For example, the tool has come up with the following phrases and questions that people have entered in a search engine:
- what travel insurance covers covid?
- travelling and need covid test
- when travelling abroad will be allowed
- travelling during covid
- travelling on trains covid
- what travel agents are open
- travelling abroad 2020
Another idea: You might be a dog owner as well as a travel blogger. So from this list, you could check if any dog owners have questions about travelling.
Yes, we find the following search queries:
- travelling with a dog
- travelling with dog in car
From the downloaded list, you can also get some ideas about travel equipment. Writing tips about luggage would be quite relevant for a travel blog and not dependent on you blogging about current trips.
- which camera for travelling
- which backpack for travelling
- travelling essentials
- travelling hairdresser
Of course, equipment blog posts feed into an affiliate marketing campaign as well
From an exhaustive list like this, you could find lots of related search terms for one article or several separate questions for many different posts.
I highly recommend you record the ideas that appeal to you from each search you do with this tool. Then, next time you are stumped for ideas, just refer back to your growing ideas list.
This is brainstorming at its best.
Enjoy writing your next highly inspired blog post.
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