- September 23, 2014
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How to Keep Coming Up with Evergreen Content Ideas
So you’ve decided to start a blog or develop a content marketing initiative. Congratulations! You might want to save this short list for reference later. Because if you ever have trouble coming up with new and interesting story angles for your chosen topic, these three simple but effective ideas from writer Jayson DeMers will come in handy.
1. Read and Share
There’s always a lot to learn, to matter what business you’re in. As things are always evolving, there are many new technologies and trends to read about. So you should be reading a lot.
Content curation has become a popular tactic with many bloggers. But as DeMers describes it, the trick is to find content that is especially interesting, helpful, actionable or unique. Take care not to use curated content too often, or your readers will consider you more of an aggregator than an authority on your subject. Try doing monthly or weekly reviews or lists.
Good sources for finding quality content to curate include blogs, online magazines, newsletters and Twitter.
2. Relate Experiences
“How To” articles or videos are also highly popular, along with lists. As long as the subject is something you’ve actually done or experienced for yourself, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a unique way to explain it.
Have you figured out a better way to do something, a way to save time or money, or maybe something new or innovate in your business? Those are all potential topics. Don’t hold back. By sharing your knowledge, you help to establish yourself as the expert in your field.
3. Answer Questions, Solve Problems
Have you solved a problem for someone? Write a How-To post by explaining the situation and how you resolved it. You could also “crowd source” questions to answer by inviting your readers to share their most difficult business challenges, then look for common threads between them and develop a solution in your response post.
The best How-To articles find a common problem or need to address. A few ways to figure out what your audience wants or needs include industry forums, comments on competitor websites, general discussion boards or related blogs. Get the information directly from your target audience whenever possible.
For more tips on developing content, check out “30 Minutes to a Better Blog Post” and “Steal These Headlines”.
