Coming up with content for your blog probably see saws, going from this…
“Oh my GAWD I have to write about this and this and this and this…” (hopped up on caffeine, staying up late to write, etc)
…to this…
“Oh CRAP. What on earth am I going to write for tomorrow? I mean I SHOULD post tomorrow but I have no clue what to say. Maybe I'll do a meme or maybe I'll just write about my weekend. Well, um, I dunno. Think, McFly, think!”
For that time in between, you may keep a notebook (or a few) laying around to write ideas in. But eventually they drain faster than your cup of coffee and you're left with a blank mind, a blinking cursor and a slight sense of dread.
Well, let me share with you a secret to coming up with a GAZILLION post ideas in one sitting. Okay, so “gazillion” is hyperbole but by the end of this post, you could have over 30 post ideas.
Not bad, right?
What's the Secret?
Magazine covers.
Let's get the microscope out and just look at headlines on magazine covers. Magazine editors know how to write catchy headlines that entice the reader to flip the pages. Use that to your advantage!
To make it easy, let's walk through three ways to use front page headlines for blog post ideas. Then I'll use three magazines from around my house and show you how to put these tips into action.
Word Swap:
Take a headline from a magazine and then swap out one or two words to make a new headline (and a new idea for a blog post).
ORIGINAL: The Secret to a Gazillion Blog Post Ideas
POST IDEA: The Secret to a Gazillion Veggies Growing in Your Garden
Springboard:
This simply involves taking the original headline and picking a word or two from that headline as the basis for brainstorming.
ORIGINAL: The Secret to a Gazillion Blog Post Ideas
POST IDEAS:
Secret: a post about our favorite hike that few people know about, a post about my secret to getting Big Roo to eat his veggies
Gazillion: gazillion funny things Big Roo says, seems like it takes a gazillion years to travel with kids
These aren't necessarily post titles, they are just rough ideas I can then develop into blog posts if I choose.
Same Idea:
Sometimes you may read a headline on a magazine and say, “I wanna write about this too!” Change the headline, tweak the focus or keep it as is, and use your own perspective. Be sure though that you don't copy or paraphrase the article. Instead, write the post from your own point of view. (I don't even like to read the article until I've written my own post so I won't be swayed.)
ORIGINAL: The Secret to a Gazillion Blog Post Ideas
POST IDEA: (whatever your secret is for great blog ideas)
Putting It into Action
All right, now let's take three magazines I have laying around my house. I chose three VERY different ones to prove that it can be done with ANY magazine. When you're doing this exercise, don't think too hard. This is a brainstorming session so the idea is to think of as MUCH as possible then start circling the really good ones and running with those.
Here's what I came up with:
Parents
ORIGINAL: How School Lunches are Failing Our Children
WORD SWAP: How our school district is failing our children
SPRINGBOARD: School lunch: cool ideas for packing a fun lunch, why my child will never eat a school lunch
SAME IDEA: Write your own opinion piece, take it from either a national level or your school district or state level
ORIGINAL: No More Toddler Power Struggles
WORD SWAP: No More Teenage Power Struggles
SPRINGBOARD: Toddler: toddler activities, funny story about my toddler, question about toddlers
SAME IDEA: Pick an example of when your toddler gave you a hard time and discuss tips that worked diffuse the situation
ORIGINAL: An All Natural Cure for Tummy Troubles
WORD SWAP: My cure for a cranky kid
SPRINGBOARD: Tummy Troubles: write about a time your kid was sick, write about the things you feed a sick kid
SAME IDEA: What's your natural cure for tummy troubles?
Lucky
ORIGINAL: Your Whole Week Made Chic
WORD SWAP: Your Whole Vacation Made Chic
SPRINGBOARD: Week: run down your week in the life, write about a crappy week you had (or a great week you had)
SAME IDEA: Have any fabulous ideas for making your week chic? (of so, PLEASE let me know!)
ORIGINAL: 678 Instant Ways to a New Look
WORD SWAP: 8 Instant Ways to a New Healthy Lifestyle
SPRINGBOARD: Instant ways: instant ways to look like you got 8 hours of sleep, instant ways to take better pictures
SAME IDEA: More power to you if you have 678 ways for ANYTHING.
ORIGINAL: Totally Inspired Outfits for Every Situation
WORD SWAP: Totally Inspired Outfits for Back to School
SPRINGBOARD: Outfits: post about crazy outfits your kid picks out to wear, post about the outfit your baby wore home from the hospital
SAME IDEA: how do you dress for the park, the playdate, the mom's night out, etc.
Macworld
ORIGINAL: How the iPad Fits into Your Life
WORD SWAP: How exercise fits into my life
SPRINGBOARD: iPad: fave iPad apps for kids, why you wish you had an iPad
SAME IDEA: How does the iPad fit into your life… as a parent, as a writer, as a student?
ORIGINAL: How Much Smarter Can a Smartphone Be?
WORD SWAP: How smart can my 3 year old really be?
SPRINGBOARD:
Smartphone: why you love/hate your phone, fave apps, how smartphone changed your life
SAME IDEA: what surprising ways has your smartphone simplified your life?
ORIGINAL: Inside the new iOS: Multi-tasking and more
WORD SWAP: Inside my sleep-deprived brain
SPRINGBOARD:
Multi-tasking: how you're a great multi-tasker, the definition of multi-tasking now you're a parent
SAME IDEA:How your iPhone makes multi-tasking through the day easy
Okay, Let's Count ‘Em
Did you see count how many ideas I came up with from just from nine headlines? 38.
Doesn't that ROCK?
::fist pump::
Let me know what happens when you try this for yourself! In the meantime, have you ever tried something like this before? Do you think it would help you come up with ideas for blog posts?
Want to come up with even more ideas? Take Content Brew, my e-course where you'll get an ed calendar and learn to brainstorm 1-3 months of content (or more). Lifetime access to all the lessons. Find out more about Content Brew here.
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Hey- I'm Melissa! I'm a mom, side hustler, online course instructor, and brand marketer. I run a 6-figure blog helping online biz owners find their a-ha moments with can-do tips, tutorials, and online courses. I also work at Burt's Bees as the Social Media Strategist (yep, it's as cool as it sounds). Jump start your biz productivity with my free worksheet!
you’ve totally just given me a new tool for coming up with blog posts. Thanks!!
Awesome! I love this post. Time to go through all these magazines I have stacked up in my house. Drafting some post while Blogger is “under- construction”.
Heck yea! I was listening to my radio today and thought of two ideas to write about just for the rest of the week (I’m trying to stick with at least 3 posts a week). As for the rest? I’m working on it. I recently got the latest issue of Money magazine and will hopefully get around to reading that soon.
Thanks for the tip! Even more reason why your blog rocks!
love the ::fist pump:: Great flowing ideas. I will reread this in the morn. Retweeting too!
Great article… thanks for the great information
I have finally came across an idea to my next blog post on Creative Writing
Love this! I realized I have been doing this without knowing it, but I know if I become intentional about it I will be able to come up with more ideas.
Thanks.
Wow…I am sure glad I picked this link. I went from five original posts to 27 (and counting) potential ideas!! Thankyou! I was really in a rut creatively, but I have a whole stack of old mags that I cannot wait to tackle! What a wealth of information! Thank you!
I am definitely going to be referring back to this for blogging ideas. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed trying to sort out what I’m going to post about. Good thing I can find inspiration so close by.
Awesome post – very helpful for doing my own magazine analysis.
This s an awesome post.
I have to say, I don’t have a problem generating ideas for posts. My problem is that I am insanely perfectionistic so it takes me a very long time to press SUBMIT. I’m slow. I care a lot about my content. I try to develop a really great story, but I can’t do that everyday. So the question for me is do I write something kind of bogus or do I post one fabulous something each week because I’m working on my book, too. I’m finding that even writing 300 words takes me a long time because I always want a great image, and I make sure I have appropriate attribution. Le sigh.
Anyone else struggle like this?
Thanks for the comment, Renee! It takes me a lot of time to write too! My opinion? One something fabulous each week and not a bunch of “meh” posts just to have something. I try to think about a new reader coming to my site and seeing the MEH post that I just wrote because I felt I needed to publish something. I’d rather them see the FAB post I wrote, even if it’s a few days old, ya know!?
Hope that helps!
what a wonderful source of inspiration! honestly never would have thought to do this but I will now be looking at magazine covers in a whole new way! especially those by Martha LOL she is one of my BFF’s after all 🙂
Very cool idea! This reminds me of my college journalism class or english class. Good old fashioned brain storming!
I recently did something similar (did the 31DBBB and read about it another book). Came up with a gazillion new ideas! 😉 Great advice, Mel. Thanks for sharing!
xo,
Shannon
Wow great tips on coming up with new blog post…Most helpful 🙂 Thank you
Brain fart be gone! Thank you for inspiring several ideas : )
I will be heading to the library today and trying this. I do sometimes get inspired by other posts, but I have never actively swapped words or picked out words.
I also think that 31 days to a better blog will be something I’m going to buy. I’ve never seen that product from them before! How is that possible?
So worth pulling this one out of archives! Love it!
I love this! Keeping it around for when I get around to launching my own blog!!!
You are a wealth of ideas! Now, I need to actually make time for myself to sit down and write!
Great post! Now the juices are going!
Debbie
Wow! I am definitely going to use this method. So glad I found Blog Clarity! 🙂 Hope you are enjoying your vacay.
I’m back now and it was a blast! Glad you find my site too!
Ok, so I’m now going to spend some time this weekend digging out all my old magazines and making a list of post ideas to keep in my blogging notebook. What a great idea, thanks!
This is so helpful! Thank you for sharing these great ideas! I’ve had a bit of writer’s block, any tips/articles I should check out that could help with that as well? 😀
Hi Lauren- Glad you liked the ideas! I have an entire self-paced course about creating content you might want to check out: https://blogclarity.com/shop/content-brew. One blogger I know planned out content for the entire year with the techniques in this course!
I love this idea! Awesome. Thanks for sharing.
This is amazing! I recently used a magazine to come up with my 5 Key Pieces for Spring Series. I actually did a budget-friendly version versus what the magazine had. It worked well for me and it was a fun little series to do. I now need more magazines…. Ha! Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you thank you thank you for the reminder!
This is an AMAZING idea! I always have a million magazines laying around and they often just end up getting thrown away (or used to hold up my boots in my closet, but that a different story). My issues isn’t necessarily coming up with blog ideas, but it’s the TITLES that have me starting at my computer screen for 10 minutes blankly. Your awesome trick will DEFINITELY help with that! I also really like your idea of spring-boarding off previous post ideas. I think this would be a great thing to do with my most popular posts from my own archive as well! Thank you so much for sharing!
Hi Melissa,
Excellent post – great ways to generate new blog post ideas!
This Is such a good article I’ve just added it to Blog Post Ideas – a huge compendium of the best articles and resources on creating fresh, new content ideas for bloggers.
It’s got 1000s of tips, ideas and resources that can be borrowed and used today.
Your readers can access it for free here > http://flip.it/IBrMn
Best Regards,
Robin.
Thank you for the ideas!
Thank YOU so much for this post! Major help in planning my posts out for the summer!! 🙂
I just ran across this article on Pinterest and I love it! I have read so many ‘how to find post idea’ blog post but none as creative as this. This takes it from the generic to the unique and I love it.
Can’t wait to go flip through my magazines, (I knew I hoarded them for a reason) and see what I can come up with.
Wow! You’d better believe I’ll be putting this into action! Thanks for the awesome article. Sometimes you need a fresh perspective on things… super helpful! 🙂
Hi love the way you write 🙂
I totaly liked the point on “ORIGINAL: 678 Instant Ways to a New Look” I think men will not relate to that…
Why not submit the great ideas you have to the post generator? it’s a cool tool you might already know of (I was sure I found it on your resource page, but I don’t see it now there so I guess I’m wrong)
http://www.buildyourownblog.net/the-blog-post-ideas-generator/
best,
Sharon
This post is just great! Right now I only want to go out and buy a magazine since I’m out of post ideas lately.. Unfortunately it’s almost 11pm and everything is closed (also, I’m already in my PJ’s)… Well, tomorrow I guess 😀
Thanks for the tips!
http://indiellie.com
Seriously? This is awesome!! So simple. So creative! Thank you. Hoping to launch my blog soon and this will be a BIG help! Again, thank you.