What To Write About When Blogging

When I first started blogging I was at such a loss over what to write. There have been plenty of times that I have no idea. In fact, I would say that it is only in the last few months that I have nailed down topics better. Isn’t that just awful?

It’s easy to say I should write this or that but for years I was more or less all over the place. I didn’t really have a niche and while I still don’t I am getting better at narrowing my focus. For me I have four main categories or subject types; Product Reviews, Blogging & Business, Life & Family, and Southern. I haven’t done much of the southern to date but once I return from vacation that is going to change.

What I did was create a Trello board for Content Ideas. That way when I thought of an article I could list it along with any notes. I could add in research and other thing before I moved it into my calendar. As you can see within that board I put a list of each category. From there I list ideas.

So how do I come up with those topics? Product reviews are easy and require no brainstorming as far as the topic itself goes. Everything comes to me in various ways. Sometimes it is just an idea that I had. Sometimes it’s something read or hear on television. Other times I research “blog content ideas” and see what comes up.

I watch Twitter to see what’s trending as well as some other news feeds. Mostly I know what I want to share and can generally come up with ideas from there. There have been some articles that were more popular than others. Some ideas never made beyond the idea stage, mostly because I would forget about them. There have been a few that were sponsored campaigns over the years.

A lot of the articles come from things within my life. Lets face it I have a house full of people who do things that inspire blog articles. I have even had them tell me that I better not bog something. I so don’t pay any attention to that.

MY PROCESS

The process that I have found that works for me is the Trello board. I sit down once a month and brainstorm. I jot down a list of topic ideas and then go through each one to see if it fits within one of my given categories. From there it is added tot eh board. I also check the board for any ideas I have listed throughout the previous month and see if I still plan on writing them. If the answer is yes they are moved into one of Monthly Editorial Calendar boards so they can be written and scheduled.

I haven’t been using this process long but out of all the other processes I have ever tried this is the one that works the best for me. It is also the one I have been able to stick with.