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Jason’s Tips
3 Ways To Find Content Idea Starters
3 Ways To Find Content Idea Starters
Some days you may need to create a blog post, a newsletter article, or even a short social media post, and you come up empty.
Maybe you’re not sure what topic to write about. Or maybe you know the topic, but you’re not sure about how to approach the topic (what angle/perspective/slant).
That’s where this article comes in, as it serves as an “idea starter” to help you brainstorm and research fresh topics and angles for your next piece of content.
By the way, if you are serious and want to take your content marketing and your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.
Ok, let’s jump in…
Step 1: Brainstorm Using Prompts
Defined: Idea starters are basically prompts to help you think about ideas and angles of what to write about.
To that end, go through the following idea starters and write down as many ideas as you can think of for your niche.
TIP: You can go through this list and write down ideas for your niche without having a specific topic in mind. Starting with only your niche will help you generate ideas for dozens of topics within the niche.
However, this list also works well when you do have a specific topic (such as “getting rid of aphids” or “replacing a classic car’s upholstery”), as then you’ll get dozens of ideas for ways to approach these specific topics.
Here are your idea starters – list as many ideas as you can think of for each one:
- X Common Myths You’ve Heard About _______
- For People Who Want to ______ But Can’t Get Started
- How to Prevent ___________
- How to Get Rid of _____________
- Fast Relief of ______________
- Five Hacks for ______________
- How to Save Time When ___________
- How to Save Money When ____________
- How to Stay Safe When _______________
- The Fastest Way to ________________
- The Best Way to _________________
- The Cheapest Way to _____________
- The X Stages of ________________
- The Pros and Cons of _____________
- What To Do When You’re Worried About _____________
- How to _____ Like ______ (How to do something like a famous person)
- X _______ Ideas That Don’t Require ____________
- How to ______ Even if You Don’t _______________
- The #1 __________ Mistake You Don’t Want to Make
- How I Turned __________ Into ________________
- What I Learned From _________________
- What __________ Taught Me About _____________
- Why You Should Never ____________
- Why I Do __________ Differently Than Everyone Else
Next…
Step 2: Do Some Research
Your next step is to do some research to help generate even more ideas. The strategy here is to look at existing content and ideas and then reflect back on the idea-starter questions above to generate additional ideas.
I’ll first give you a list of existing content to review, and then I’ll provide you with examples of how to implement this strategy:
- Check your competitors’ blogs.
- Read your competitors’ newsletters.
- Browse social media pages in your niche.
- Search for niche information in academic journals (use Google Scholar).
- Browse YouTube videos and YouTube channels in your niche.
- Review PLR (private label rights) content in your niche for ideas.
- Check paid products in your niche.
- Browse slide shares in your niche on SlideShare.net.
- Look at your own existing content.
Let’s work through an example…
Let’s suppose you go to your competitor’s blog, and you find an article with 10 tips for losing weight. You can look at the article as a whole, as well as each individual tip, and run through your idea starters.
“X Commons Myths You’ve Heard About _______” becomes “Top Five Common Myths You’ve Heard About Losing Weight.” You can then turn a positive tip on the list into a negative myth (that you debunk).
Let me give you a specific example…
Let’s suppose one of the tips is on the topic of eating multiple smaller meals per day to boost metabolism and provide the body with a steady supply of food to fuel one’s activities.
You can turn this idea around to become a myth. E.G., “Eat Two or Three Big Meals Per Day” is the myth, and then you can share what to do instead (eat six small meals per day).
Step 3: Use A Tool
Need more ideas? Then your next step is to use a tool to generate additional ideas.
One of the best tools to use is BuzzSumo.com. Not only does this tool give you topic and angle ideas, it also presents ideas for content that’s already popular in your niche.
Start by entering your broad keywords into BuzzSumo, such as “gardening” or “dog training.” Then write down any ideas that spark your interest.
Then…
Enter broad keywords from OTHER niches.
For example, if your market is dog training, then enter completely different market and niche searches such as:
- Weight loss
- Traveling (or even more specific, such as “RV traveling” or “overseas traveling”)
- Camping
- Gardening
- Marriage/wedding
- Relationships
- Conception/infertility
- Adoption
- Anti-aging
- Bodybuilding
- Self-defense
- Home security
- Computer security
- Running
- Hiking
And similar big, evergreen markets and topics. For each market or topic you feed into the tool, you’ll get dozens of ideas. In turn, you can take these ideas and apply them to your own niche.
For example, let’s suppose you feed the keywords “weight loss” into the tool, and you get a result such as “It’s Never Too Late to Start Losing Weight.”
You can then take this topic and bring it to your niche (dog training). E.G., “It’s Never Too Late to Start Training Your German Shepherd.”
Or let’s suppose you enter “gardening” and get the result: “10 Gardening Ideas that Work Even If You Don’t Have a Green Thumb.”
You can brainstorm and apply that to your niche, like this: “10 Dog Training Ideas That Work Even If You’re a Complete Dog-Training Newbie.”
Let’s wrap this up…
Conclusion
Now that you have a list of idea starters and access to research and tools that can help you generate even more ideas, your next step is simple: start brainstorming 😊
By the way, if you really want to know more about the power of content marketing and blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free detailed blogging report; download, read it and take action 😊
2 Fears That Could Be Holding You Back From Success
2 Fears That Could Be Holding You Back From Success
Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said in a speech, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” If you take the statement literally, it doesn’t really make sense because you can’t really be afraid of fear.
What Roosevelt was trying to say is that fear is a crippling emotion that can hold back nations and individuals from achieving greatness. In that sense, the consequences of fear can be terrifying.
Here are a couple of the most common fears and a few tips on how to overcome them.
Fear Of Risk
Risk is related to a perceived loss resulting from an action. Oftentimes, there’s also a potential gain but we tend to magnify the loss while minimizing the gains. The fear of taking risks is a very strong primal fear related to our survival instinct where our prehistoric ancestors were surrounded by peril. Taking risks could mean getting eaten by wild animals or some other horrible death.
This fear remains very strong in us and is the first emotion that overcomes us when we think of taking important action.
How it holds you back
Let’s say you want to start your own business. You have a great idea for a useful product or service that’s scalable. There’s an audience for it and your initial market research tells you it will be in demand. You’re very excited. Then, the fear of risk kicks in and your mind starts bombarding you with ‘what if?’
What if the idea’s not so good after all? What if you take out a loan and can’t repay it? What if the product doesn’t sell? What if the market collapses? What if there’s a nuclear war and you lose everything?
The ‘what if’ questions typically escalate into gloom and doom scenarios until the fear paralyzes you into inaction. Realistically, if there’s a nuclear war, everybody’s going to be out of business, aren’t they? This is how the concept of risk can really play on your fear of loss.
Your fear ends up holding you back from, doing something that can have some real benefits for you. So, you ditch the idea and decide to stay on in a job you hate that’s stifling your potential and ambition. You convince yourself that being miserable is safer than failing miserably!
Now, consider the alternative: you realistically assess the risks involved, plan for them and start your own business. You embark on an exciting journey when you become your own boss, take control of your life, and grow a super successful business. This is just one example of how fear of risk can hold you back from great things.
Action Steps
Highly successful people have a unique mindset. They don’t shy away from risk but rather, they see it as a challenge that can always be overcome, and the reward always outweighs the risk. That’s what makes successful people great! You can develop this mindset and conquer your fear of taking risks with the following strategies:
Assess And Evaluate Risks
Identify your desired outcome. Let’s stick with the example of starting your own business. Realistically and honestly assess the risks related to the outcome.
In this case, they could be using your savings for capital, taking out a loan and changing interest rates or liabilities or hazards related to your product. I would also include the risk of not making any income from the business for a few months until it’s up and running.
Weigh the desired outcome (establishing a successful business) against the risks involved and honestly assess the possibility of these risks really happening. You’ll most likely find that the outcome or goal is worth the risks.
Assessing possible risks and putting them into proportion usually shows you that they’re not as bad as you imagined, not likely to happen or if they do, can be managed.
Plan For Risk
When you’ve identified all the possible risks, create a risk management plan for each one. This will give you tremendous peace of mind and confidence because you’re mentally prepared and your back is covered.
Having a risk management plan or a plan B will arm you with the tools to immediately take action to mitigate or eliminate risks with the least possible losses. Oftentimes, many of the imagined risks never come to pass but having a plan B is one of the most powerful ways to break your fear of risk.
Set Clear Goals
Always define your goal or goals clearly and factor in the potential risks. Include sub-goals of steps you need to take to avoid risk. Your goal map should include benchmarks or timeframes where you stop and assess your progress to ensure that all is on track and to make modifications if something seems to be heading towards a risk.
OK, let’s move onto the second fear that may be holding you back from the success you desire (and deserve).
Fear Of Failure
Failure can have tangible repercussions such as material or financial loss as well as emotional consequences such as the loss of reputation, respect, and self-pride. In most cases, the emotional associations come into play more to hold us back.
Failure is associated with negative qualities like incompetence, inexperience, poor skills, low intelligence, and other qualities that cause emotional distress.
How it holds you back
Quite simply, nobody wants to be regarded as a loser. This is why the fear of failure leads to three negative and debilitating habits:
- Procrastination
- Overthinking
- Inability to make timely decisions
It’s not hard to see how these three habits can hold you back from seizing new opportunities, taking initiatives, and embracing challenges, all of which can help you function at your best and achieve success.
What’s more, the fear of failure saps your self-confidence. The more it keeps you stuck in place, the more you become convinced that you don’t have what it takes to do any better. It’s a vicious and very crippling cycle.
Action Steps
Highly successful people have a unique mindset. Firstly, they don’t acknowledge the word ‘failure’ but rather, refer to it as a setback. Secondly, they see setbacks as challenges that can always be overcome. That’s what makes successful people great! You can develop this mindset and conquer your fear of failure with the following strategies:
Reframe Past Failures
We’re often ashamed of our past failures and avoid reflecting on them. But reframing past failures can decrease your fears. Firstly, remind yourself that you may have made some very big mistakes in the past – but so has everyone else on the planet.
Secondly, reflect on how your mistakes are part of who you are today. For better or worse, they’ve shaped your character and they’ve made you wiser and stronger. Finally, reflect on the lessons learned and how they’ve helped you avoid making the same mistakes again.
Reframe and reflect on your past failures in this way and you’ll begin to see that failure can have a positive effect.
Learn New Skills
These can be skills related to your career, tech skills, or communication and listening skills to improve your relationships, leadership skills and so on. The goal is to give your self-confidence a big boost.
Having a varied toolset of skills and expertise gives you the confidence to be more proactive and eager to take initiatives to improve yourself and your life. This strategy is a huge fear of failure buster.
Reflect On Your Greatness
Reflect on your special skills and talents that make you unique from everyone else. This is a great exercise to engage in when you’re procrastinating or overthinking.
These unique skills would be a great creative mind, powerful analytical skills, great people skills and so on. Celebrate your unique qualities as often as you can because it’s the best way to overcome negative self-talk and tell yourself that you can do anything well if when you put your mind to it.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
Brainstorming Content Ideas In 4 Steps
Brainstorming Content Ideas In 4 Steps
Since you’re someone who creates a lot of content, that means you also likely spend a fair amount of time brainstorming (or at least you should be doing this).
EXAMPLE: You need to brainstorm topic ideas. You need to brainstorm unique angles/approaches for your content. You need to brainstorm things like how to turn a step-by-step process into your own unique formula. And so on.
With that in mind, here’s a brainstorming checklist you can use to help you do all the brainstorming you need to develop content ideas, angles, talking points and more.
Step 1: Pick A Brainstorming Method
Many people think of going old school and taking pen to paper to do their brainstorming. You’ll want to experiment to see what works best for you, as some methods will open up your individual creativity better than others.
Here are different methods to try:
- Pen and paper
- Whiteboard
- Large tabletop paper plus markers
- Audio (record yourself)
- Video
- Text/document/app using your device
- Mind mapping
NOTE: While you may be brainstorming on your own (which is fine), many people find it more effective to brainstorm in groups. Even having just one other person helps the two of you think up ideas that neither of you would have thought of on your own.
To that end, consider brainstorming with a knowledgeable friend. You can brainstorm in the same room using a whiteboard. Or, if you’re not local to each other, then you can use an online chat to brainstorm. Ideas include:
- Use a platform like Trello.com.
- Try using Skype.
- Utilize a system like Slack.
- Brainstorm using Google Docs.
… or use any other platform or messenger service that you prefer.
NOTE: Trello (and similar platforms) are specifically designed for helping teams brainstorm.
By the way, if you are serious and want to take your content marketing and your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.
Next step…
Step 2: Select A Brainstorming Topic
Before you begin brainstorming, you need to get very clear on what exactly it is that you’ll be brainstorming. If you’re not clear, you’ll likely end up thinking about all sorts of things… but not thinking or brainstorming deeply about any one of them.
To that end, start with a focused question. E.G., “What topics should I write about for my blog?”
Next…
Step 3: Shut Down All Distractions
The next part of good brainstorming is to get rid of all distractions and potential interruptions. For example:
- Schedule a block of time when you don’t need to be anywhere else immediately after (so you can extend your brainstorming session).
- Ask family members or roommates/housemates not to interrupt you.
- Turn off all distractions, including TV, music, your phone, etc. If you’re brainstorming on your computer, close all windows and apps except for the one you’re using to brainstorm.
TIP: If you’re brainstorming using a device, and you’re prone to distraction, then you might use an app like GetColdTurkey.com. This app blocks your access to certain sites you find distracting, such as social media.
- Be sure you’ve taken care of everything that needs to be taken care of before you brainstorm.
For example, walk the dog, feed the kids, feed yourself, get yourself a beverage and so on. You don’t want to get interrupted or distracted because you didn’t handle a task beforehand.
NOTE: If you live in a household where there’s a lot of noise and distraction, then you may want to leave the house in order to do your brainstorming. You can go to:
- A library.
- A coffee shop (works if you perceive the constant hum of this sort of noise as white noise).
- A mall food court (same as above – do you perceive it as white noise or a distraction?).
- An outside location, such as a picnic table at a quiet park.
And similar places.
You may find that going to different locations helps unlock your creativity.
For example, maybe you find yourself distracted at a coffee shop because you’re too busy people-watching. But perhaps an outdoor setting – such as a secluded, quiet park – keeps you focused and really unlocks your creativity.
Next…
Step 4: Start Brainstorming
Now that all those preliminary steps are out of the way, you can start brainstorming. Keep in mind that you’re just generating ideas at this point, and in no way should you be judging the ideas while brainstorming.
Write everything down that comes to mind – later you can judge the ideas to see if they’re good or viable.
Let’s work through an example…
For the purpose of this checklist, let’s suppose you’re brainstorming topic ideas in your niche. You can start by asking a generic question such as, “What topics should I write about?” Then write down every answer that comes to mind.
You can then ask yourself a series of more targeted questions to help you uncover even more ideas. For example:
- What topics do I know a lot about?
- What sort of problems have I solved in this niche?
- On what niche topic do people ask me for advice?
- What topics do I like to talk about?
- What topics do I read about often? (E.G., read niche blogs, newsletters, watch videos, etc.?)
- What topics do people ask me about via email?
- What topics do I have special qualifications to talk about? (E.G., You’ve won relevant awards, you’ve had a job related to the topic, you have a track record of producing good results for yourself and others with respect to this topic, you have a degree related to this topic, etc.)
Be sure to set aside individual brainstorming time for each targeted question you ask.
NOTE: As you can see, a brainstorming session can get quite lengthy, so be sure you schedule enough time to go through all the questions.
Now, let’s wrap this up…
Conclusion
If you’re creating a lot of content, then you’re going to need to do plenty of brainstorming. Be sure to keep this 4 step process handy so you can follow the steps and tips that you just learned for effective brainstorming.
By the way, if you really want to know more about the power of content marketing and blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free detailed blogging report; download, read it and take action 🙂
Questions To Ask To Discover Your Purpose
Questions To Ask To Discover Your Purpose
Discovering your purpose and calling in life is a thought-driven process. Watching self-help videos or reading motivational books may lift your spirits and give you some skills, but you’ll be no closer to knowing your purpose in life.
In fact, overloading your mind with extraneous mental clutter might cause more problems. To uncover one’s purpose, you’ll need to simplify things and get to your authentic self.
The key to doing that is to ask yourself crucial questions that help you discover who you really are. So often, we wear masks when out in the world that we never really get in touch with who we really are. The mask is all we know… and we act and think like how we believe we should.
By digging deep and asking yourself the questions that matter, you’ll discover what it is you truly want in life. It’s imperative that you be radically honest with yourself. Forget what the world has told you to believe in.
Go with your heart and answer the questions below:
- What did you enjoy doing when growing up?
- What were you naturally good at when young?
- What do you enjoy talking about?
- What activities can you easily spend hours on?
- If you could start over in life, what would you do differently?
- If money was not an issue, what activities would you engage in?
These questions can help to reveal your innate talents and desires. For example, you may have loved art and crafts – and might have been naturally gifted at them.
But somewhere along the way, your parents or teachers told you that subjects such as math and science were more important for landing a good job in future. So, you ditched the art and listened to them.
Years later, you’re stuck in a job you hate, and it’s related to math or science. But your heart and soul pines for more. Your dissatisfaction with your life cannot be explained.
There is a missing piece – but you don’t know what it is. In this case, you may miss being involved with art.
Getting back to it might bring joy to your heart. You may even wish to pursue it as a career and become a prominent success in this field. You’d never know unless you ask yourself what you truly love doing and if you’re good at it.
Once you know what you love, you can always practice and hone your skills until you master them.
- What is your ideal life like?
- How do you want others to see you?
These 2 questions will reveal your heart’s innermost desires. Your ideal life is the best version of you. It’s your dream you.
Your purpose will be wrapped up in this image. You may want to be fit and muscular so that you can inspire others to achieve their dream bodies too.
It’s quite common to see overweight people who have transformed their bodies and went on to become fitness coaches because they found that their purpose in life was helping others become fit and get the body of their dreams too.
Be willing to explore and be imaginative. Forget the limitations you’ve been led to believe. Ask yourself what you’d do if anything was possible. This is what you’d do if you were on purpose.
You’ll find your answers once you still your mind and listen to the voice within. This can be a difficult task and you may wish to start journaling to aid with the process.
Ask yourself the same questions daily and write down your thoughts. Keep digging deeper and give yourself the freedom to answer without restraint. The world has kept your innermost desires buried long enough.
It’s time you dug out your authentic self from underneath the burdening rubble of other people’s beliefs and expectations – and live life according to your true purpose.
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
By the way, if you want to know more about enjoying the journey to discovering your purpose then check out Enjoy The Journey. It is a premium training that will show you how to embrace the process and enjoy life’s journey when working towards a goal. Check it out here.
How To Find Your Purpose By Letting Go
Finding your purpose in life is a process where you dig deep within yourself to discover what makes you happy. You’ll need to look at your talents, skills, desires and what you really want.
The process requires you to clear the clutter in your mind and also in your heart and soul. Like the author, Deepak Chopra, says, “In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.”
That’s exactly what you must do – let go.
Don’t Let Your Past Drag You Down
All human beings have regrets, mistakes we wish we could undo, past memories of instances where people did us wrong and so on.
Millions of people relive these bad memories and experience the same negative feelings over and over. They’re in a vicious cycle that just doesn’t seem to end.
It’s impossible to discover your purpose if your mind and heart is filled with repressed anger and other negative emotions. In most cases, one will not be able to undo the mistakes of the past.
Holding on to baggage from years ago will only burden you. This excess weight will drag you down day by day and life will feel like a struggle.
The key to finding your purpose and putting a spring in your step will be to let go of the unwanted baggage you’re carrying. This could be memories, negative habits, toxic people and so on.
Benefits Of Letting Go
There are several benefits that can be accrued by letting go of past grievances and bad memories. It’s a cathartic process that will make you happier and feel a sense of ‘lightness’.
If you’ve made mistakes in the past, the first step is to forgive yourself. Regretting the same mistakes over and over is just self-punishment that will prevent you from redeeming yourself. Let these regrets go and strive to do better from here on out.
If others have done you wrong, the best thing you can do is forgive them. You don’t have to tell them a word, and you’re not doing it for them. You’re doing it for you.
As long as you have anger, sadness and hate in your heart for wrongs done by others, you’re robbing yourself of happiness that you could be having right now. Don’t let them live rent-free in your head and heart. Let it all go… for your sanity and well-being.
What Should You Let Go Of?
What one needs to let go of will depend on them. It varies from individual to individual. Here is a common list of things you should let go of
- Any grudges, gossip, grievances.
- Regrets because of mistakes you made in the past
- Bad habits that have plagued you for years
- A job that makes you hate your life
- Fear of failure and the unknown
- Jealousy and comparing yourself with others
- Demanding partners
- Toxic ‘friends’ and family members
- Poor financial habits
- Perfectionism
- Trying to please everyone
- A poor diet and a bad body image
- Procrastination
- Possessions that you no longer need
This list is just a starting point. You may have other things in your life that you need to let go of. A rule of thumb is that if it doesn’t make you feel good or serve you well, then you need to let it go.
Once you’ve rid yourself of what’s holding you down and holding you back, you can focus on what you want and how you can feel happy and fulfilled. That’s how you discover your purpose.
“You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – André Gid
4 Important Factors That Determine If Purpose Can Lead To Profit
Most of us would have seen the quote – “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” This quote has been around so long that some people attribute it to Confucius, while others say it’s Mark Twain who said it.
Whatever the case may be, there is a fallacy in this quote. You could love knitting and spend hours on the task. Yet, that does not necessarily mean you could make a living from it.
There are 4 important factors to consider when ascertaining if your purpose in life can derive profit for you. By finding a way to make a living while living your purpose-driven life, you’ll not only find happiness, but will also be able to generate an income that sustains a comfortable life.
The Task Makes You Happy
This is the litmus test of finding your purpose. If the task you’re engaged in makes you happy and you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll naturally be inclined to do more of it without any ‘forcing’ on your part.
People drag themselves to work because they dislike their jobs. They get no satisfaction from what they do, and the mundane tasks they’re engaged in saps their energy and soul.
A part of finding your purpose is to engage in work that brings you pleasure. It could be writing, painting, dancing, construction, training animals, etc. As long as it makes you happy, you’re on the right track.
You’re Naturally Good At What You Do
If you were good at art since young and you loved it, that’s a sign it could be your true calling. So often, the world tries to shape and mould us into what we’re not.
Parents try to impose their wishes on their children and stifle their kids’ natural talents. A kid who loves telling jokes is often told to stop ‘playing around’ and focus on his/her studies.
The child’s natural talent at comedy is never given room to grow – and the world loses a talented comedian. The same applies to other arts such as dancing, painting, etc.
People measure talents based on the jobs they can get in future. This is myopic.
The key to finding purpose in life is to focus on your natural talents and hone your innate skills until you’re very good at what you do.
The World Needs You
To get paid for what you do, you MUST bring value to the marketplace. Your natural talents and skills must be needed by other people.
A good writer must be able to write books that people crave to read. An exquisite dancer should have moves that awes the audience. The talented artist should create works of art that captures people’s imagination.
Your success in the marketplace is directly linked to the demand for your work. Being good at what you do and loving the process is just half the equation. The other half is that people must want what you have to provide.
You Must Get Paid For It
As obvious as this sounds, many people tend to forget about it. You can only profit from your work if people pay you for it. So, if you wish to make a living doing what you love, you’ll have to find a way to market yourself and your products/services.
This is the key to living life with purpose without going to a job you detest. Initially, it may be a struggle when you’re learning the ropes and trying to get your name out there.
However, if you stay the course – success will inevitably be yours. Always make sure you love doing what you do and you’re great at it. Then check if the world needs what you do and if they’re willing to pay you for it.
Satisfy these 4 factors and the world will be your oyster.
As you probably already know, having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to finding your purpose and passion and staying focused on them, so click on the featured resource below to get a detailed free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 😊
4 Ways To Find Topics For Your Content
4 Ways To Find Topics For Your Content
The kind of content you’re going to need will vary and include things like lead magnets, paid products, blog posts, guest posts, newsletter content, video content, social media content and so on. That means you will need to come up with a whole lot of topic ideas for all of this content.
The question is, how do you generate all these ideas? That’s what this checklist will help you do.
Let’s get started…
Step 1: Check Paid Products
Your first step is to look at paid products – especially popular bestsellers – to help you generate topic ideas. One advantage of this method is that you get to multitask. Not only do you get topic ideas, but you also get to do your market research at the same time.
Here’s how to use paid products to generate ideas:
- Look for bestsellers. You can search for your niche keywords on sites such as ClickBank.com, JVZoo.com, Udemy.com and Amazon.com. Then pay attention to what topics sell well in your niche.
- Browse tables of contents. The idea here is to look at the tables of contents inside popular products in your niche, as each chapter or section may be a potential topic idea.
- Check sales letters. Search your competitors’ sites for infoproducts, and then read the sales letters. Each item in the bulleted list is likely a potential topic idea for you.
- Search Google. Here you search for your niche keywords alongside words such as book, video, membership site, buy, purchase, download and similar. The product as a whole will help you generate topic ideas, plus the table of contents or sales letter will give you even more ideas.
- Read niche magazines. Check the cover articles first for ideas, as these tend to be the most popular topics. Then read the table of contents to generate even more ideas for your next piece of content.
- Check PLR content. Go to sites that sell private label rights content – there you should be able to generate dozens of additional ideas for your own content. Bonus: if you hit upon a topic you really like, you can purchase the PLR and use it to create your content.
Important…
Remember, you’re generating IDEAS as you go through all these paid products. In no way will you copy anyone’s work. Rather, you’re just looking for topics to write about (using your own perspective, information and style of teaching).
Step 2: Browse Free Content
The next step is to check free content to generate even more ideas.
Check out these ideas:
- Check blogs. Each of your competitors’ blogs can help you generate dozens of ideas. Each post is a potential idea, plus each major point within a post can be a separate topic idea.
- Visit niche groups and forums. Another good place to get ideas is on niche groups (such as Facebook groups) as well as niche forums. View popular posts to get topic ideas. Also check the archives to see what topics come up repeatedly.
- Browse social media. Check your competitors’ pages on Facebook and Twitter, paying particular attention to posts that get a lot of likes, shares and comments.
- Visit YouTube. Insert your niche keywords into the search bar, and you’ll likely get dozens of videos in return. Each video is a potential topic idea, plus you can watch the videos to get even more ideas.
- Check SlideShare.net. Pay particular attention to the most popular presentations.
- Browse Quora.com. Each question on this site provides a potential topic idea, plus each answer will give you even more ideas.
- Subscribe to niche newsletters. Each email you receive could give you at one or more potential topic ideas.
- Check your inbox. Here you check the emails your audience sends to you, such as their questions. Each of these questions is a potential topic idea.
- Run a Google search. Here you can enter a broad search for your niche keywords and see what comes up. Or you can run specific searches, such as: [niche keywords] FAQ. (Each question and answer is a potential topic idea.)
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Next…
Step 3: Use Keyword Tools
Still another way to uncover topic ideas is to use a keyword tool such as WordTracker.com (or your favorite tool).
Simply enter your niche keywords, and the tool will return dozens of results, each of which is a potential topic idea for you.
Step 4: Check Your Content
You can also generate topic ideas by checking your own content on your blog, social media and other platforms. This is an often overlooked place to find ideas for new or updated content but shouldn’t be overlooked because it can be a real opportunity to find fresh readers.
As always, pay particular attention to popular topics (such as ones that get a lot of comments on your blog).
Then ask yourself these questions:
- Can you update this piece of content and republish it? Let’s suppose you’ve found an older, outdated piece of content that was popular when you first published it. Can you update the content and re-publish it on your platforms?
For example, if you have a gear list for bloggers that you created five years ago, you can update the list with the latest tools.
- Can you expand on this content? Let’s suppose you have a short blog article. Can you expand on each point in the article to turn it into a report or other longer piece of content?
- Can you turn this content into multiple smaller pieces of content? Let’s suppose you have a blog post that shares ten tips. Each of those ten tips is a potential topic idea, meaning you could turn each tip into its own full-length article.
- Can you change the content into a different format? Let’s say you’ve found a checklist on your blog (like this one). You could expand on it and turn it into a regular article or a report. Or you might turn a text article into a video, or a video into a text article.
Conclusion
If you follow the steps above, you’ll easily create a list of more topic ideas than you have time to write about. And that is a good position to be in!
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