Generate Continuous Blog Posts With These Great Ideas

Everyone who starts a blog, especially for the first time, is excited about the new venture. "I’m never at a loss for something to say,” they think. "How hard can it be?" Then two weeks into it, the excitement fades as the reality of generating a steady stream of posts on a regular schedule sets in. Another week and they are scrambling for new ideas and after one more week passes, the venture they were so excited about a mere month before is now something they’ve come to dread and possibly abandon.

It doesn’t have to be this way though. Finding just a few great strategies to generate posts will give you enough to work from while never feeling stretched too thin. Focusing on a few types of posts will also let you become skillful at those specific forms. This will help you generate more traffic as readers are drawn to quality writing and they will know what types of pieces to expect from you.

Some bloggers feel that it’s better to have dozens of different types of posts. They may write about a wide variety of subjects, summarize formal research, tell anecdotal stories, write from the first perspective and possibly even mix fiction and poetry in for good measure. The mistake here is believing that readers want as much diversity as possible. Yet this approach can confuse readers and they have little incentive to return, without know what they may find on the blog from day to day. When readers have little idea of what may be coming next, this can lead to a low number of followers and the failure to convert many into fans.

It’s important to have some kind of organizing principle to attract a regular following. Limiting the type of posts that you right are one way of accomplishing this.

If you write just three posts a week and keep it to these three kinds of posts on a set schedule, you will find it quick and easy to take care of your blogging responsibilities once you have your system in place. Each idea can be expanded into an almost endless number of individual posts.

Using Interviews to Spice Up Your Blog

Interviews are a good way to take a break from the necessity of creating your own content every day. While it may sound labor intensive and the opposite of quick, interviews can be conducted anywhere you go as part of what you are already doing. Going out to eat? Great – grab a manager and find out how they got their start in the restaurant business. Need to go shopping? Ask someone at a retail store about how they choose their inventory and how much input shopper have into the selection. With out new world under COVID-19 there are many new opportunities for interviews as well.

You can generate interesting topics for interviews practically anywhere you go. Subway delayed? Ask random passengers what alternatives they rely on when this happens and they need to be somewhere. If you know any celebrities or people who would generate interest due to the area they work in or know about or because of a specific business they own or work for, all the better. If you don’t, try to contact local celebrities online and supplement this with some answers they have given to fans in their comments section. Maybe you are familiar with a local business that has a picture of a celebrity who was a patron. Interview the owner or someone who was there when the celebrity came it.

Go through your contacts list. You are guaranteed to find at least a few people in a specific area to interview based on your own interests. Don’t forget about your family and friends. Everyone knows someone who will make for an engaging interview. Check online organizations or list serves for alumni you went to high school or college with.

Often “local” interviews with people in a specific city or geographic area can form the backbone of an entire blog decreasing the need to constantly generate unique content ideas. Do you know someone who is an expert on the city you live in? Get them to tell you about locations that are off the beaten track. Meet a local real estate agent at a party? Interview them about the strangest, scariest or most beautiful house in your area.

Are you still in school? Interview a professor about their advice for getting into college or someone in the financial aid office about little known grants, scholarships, state specific and college specific funding opportunities for college students.

Interview people who have jobs with enviable perks on how they were hired (e.g. live theater ushers who get to watch whatever play they works). Ask people you know that are involved with hiring what questions the ask applicants and what are some of the best answers they have heard. Ask friends and family what job benefits they value most and what job benefits they don’t have but wish they did. If you know anyone who works from home, ask them how they found their job and what other work at home positions they looked at.

Remember that it’s the questions asked that create a winning interview. Think of what you might like to know that the interviewee would be expected to have information about. If you run out of questions, use the personal angel. Ask them what they can tell you about themselves that people would love to hear about, get them to tell you a secret about themselves that no one would suspect or ask them to describe their most embarrassing moment.

Who to Interview

Without too much work you should be able to generate several easy interviews a week. When you consider all the people you know including online friends and contacts, you will be surprised at how many ideas for interview topics you come up with. Interviewing people at places you are going to anyway you will never run out of potential interviewees. Some ideas for interviews include:

• Restaurant Managers, Owners, Servers

• IT Experts on Computer Security (Can be a friend who know a great deal about the topic)

• Social Media Experts

• Movie Cinema Projectionist

• Life Theater Ushers

• Social Media Experts (Again consider friends with a lot of formal or informal knowledge in the area)

• Tour Guides or People Working Visitor Sites

• Interior Decorators

• Real Estate Agents

• Police Officers

• Firemen

• Paramedics/Ambulance Drivers

• Emergency Dispatchers

• Religious Leaders

• Actors in a Local Theater Production

• Educators

• College Financial Aid Staff

• Peers with Interesting College Majors

• Celebrities

• Local Athletes

• Member of the Press Covering a Local Event

• Community Leaders

• Volunteers

• People in Non-Profit Positions

• People Working in Startups

• Physicians and Other Health Professionals

• Owners of Gyms

The list can literally go on without end so give some thought to who you know and places where you will be going and who there is likely to have an interesting take on the establishment or their role within it.

Generate Interest with Off the Beaten Path Posts

Travel posts are very popular but you may wonder what you can add to what’s already been written on well-traveled locations. Many people vacation in the same place multiple times, have a vacation home somewhere or simply want to be able to say they did something out of the ordinary during their time off.

There are all kinds of information written on the topic of “off the beaten path” for popular locations. For example, instead of writing about the places people usually go in Israel, write about the underground boat trip in Ramla that takes you to an eighth-century arched structure called The Pool of Arches. Rather than just discussing the beaches and nightclubs in South Florida, write a post on JFK’s bomb shelter at Peanut Island off the coast of Riviera Beach. As an alternative to another post about the best rides at Disneyland, talk about the secret passages in the park and the little-known Snow White’s Grotto and Wishing Well. Ideas for Off the Beaten Path posts might include:

• OTBP by Country

• OTBP by Major City

• OTBP Amusement Parks and Attractions

• OTBP Restaurants

• OTBP Hotels

• OTBP Tours

• OTBP Experiences/Adventures (e.g. Chase a Storm in Tornado Alley, Zipline Over Rainforest Canopies)

• OTBP Vacations

• OTBP Wedding Locations

• OTBP Travel for Boomers, Millennials etc.

• OTBP for Retirement

• OTBP for Online Clothes (Shoes, Home Decorations, Art et.) Shopping

• OTBP Book Reviews

For the duration of the pandemic, OTBP may include places you can go safely that are still unusual. Many resorts and hotels are building unique accommodations such as treehouses each with its own dining shed. In Iceland, you can watch the beauty of the northern lights from the warmth and safety of your own clear plastic bubble. More and more hospitality hosts are coming up with creative ways to allow people to take advantage of their establishments in a safe manner. That means finding places not often frequented by travelers, that few people know about and that remains secluded. And with people still stuck inside much of the time due to businesses being shut down, living vicariously through your eyes is enticing.

Attract Followers with Truth is Stranger that Fiction Posts

Look for the really crazy stories that make you ask “What were they thinking? How could someone do that? WHY would someone do that? Who would do that?”

Good sources for these types of posts are Bizarre News, a GopherCentral product. They send out free weekly newsletters publicized with the slogan “Scanning the globe for the weird, strange and stupid.” Sign up for the newsletter here. The BOB & TOM Radio Show is another good source for these types of posts. The show is an upbeat comedy program based on the day’s news, sports and contemporary lifestyle choices. Find local stations the show plays on here. Some ideas for Truth is Stranger that Fiction Posts can be found below.

• Bizarre Stories From History That Are Stranger Than Fiction

• News Headlines that Show That Truth is Stranger than Fiction

• List Three Equally Odd “Facts” about a Person, Place or Thing With One Being Untrue and Tell About Each, Offering a Surprising Outcome

• Debunk Popularly Accepted Myths and Then List Related Things Thought to Be Myths that Are Actually True

• Look into Urban Legends and Discuss Which Have their Basis in Fact and Which are Made Up

• Use ideas related to the topic of “People do the strangest things”.

• Discuss Weird News Stories (e.g. Weird News)

• Look at Popular Superstitions and Research Which Have a Factual Basis and Which Came About in a Coincidental Manner

• Discuss Oddities Found in Nature

• List some of the Bizarre Things You Can Buy Online or Offline (e.g. Cult of the Weird)

Conclusion

While there are many lists out there with 25, 50 or even 100 different ideas for blog posts, don’t get carried away with the choices just because many appeal to you. Bloggers who write on numerous ideas and categories can come across as scattered, disorganized and having no real goal for what they are presenting. This is not likely to impress readers Without an organizing principle and content schedule the blogger often becomes overwhelmed, erratic, and inconsistent in posting. They may even give up on the blog entirely.

While it likely that all of us could come up with creative blog posts if we had all the time in the world or had no other obligations in life, the reality is those things that can’t be put off come first and are always coming up such that writing a blog post gets pushed to the back burner. Establishing a schedule with a few types of blog posts, that can be easily and quickly generated, such as the three discussed here, decreases the chaotic feel of a blog, lets readers become comfortable with the blog format and gives you breathing room to continue to enjoy writing your blog and not have it become another onerous duty you’d rather avoid.

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