Sometimes you know you need to write up a blog post but you just don’t have anything on your mind. Here are a few quick ideas to get your creative juices on the direction of a topic for your next post.

  1. Write a review or reaction to the latest new story. Not only will it probably be a total traffic bump since anything newsworthy is also search worth and thus traffic worthy, but it can also bring new readers to your blog. Before you discount this one because your blog is tightly focused, trust me, with a little creativity any subject get be twisted to have a connection to the topic of your blog, no matter how weak.
  2. Tell an anecdote (preferably blog or business related). Everyone has those stories that they bust out at the dinner table to make everyone laugh or that incident that you are annoyed about to this day that you like to rant about. Remember that time that lady in the post office started interrogating me about eBay? Yeah, I sat on that for months before I actually wrote about it. But I threw in a few sentences after the story to make it sound like I had a point in telling it and that was one of my most popular posts. People get engaged in a story and especially if the story is related to what you usually blog about, making a connection with what you usually blog about isn’t too much of a stretch. Plus, writing out something that happened to you is much easier than writing up your standard non-fiction post so you’ll whip through it quickly. When things get really desperate, I have an fantastic one about mailing a Kermit the Frog phone to Turkey I have to tell you sometime. But even a story about how your 3 year old flushed something down the toilet can be turned into something blog relevant with a little creativity.
  3. Make an extended pop-culture or sports analogy. Take this one as an excuse to talk about what you are most passionate about beyond the realm of your blog. This is an excellent opportunity to tell us how the rise of Bonanzle is just like that awesome part in Star Wars or how Lulu’s newest contest reminds you of this amazing play the Yankees did in a game in ’73. 
  4. Write an open letter to a celebrity, company, brand, etc. This one can be a ton of fun and, for some weird reason, the letter format makes you feel freer. You can even write a letter to a concept such as “feedback” or “old age,” whatever is irking you at the moment. I find that framing it as a letter gives me a more informal style and also leads in interesting directions.
  5. Write a list! Man, lists are great. People love them because they are short and to the point and bloggers love them because they are easier to write than a full prose post. Lists of 3, 5 or 10 are all popular and it’s often easier to come up with idea for a post when you know you only need to list them rather than elaborate.

Other bonus quick post ideas? How-to’s of processes you are very familiar with, reviews of a relevent book/video/blog/service, and writing a list of idea for a blog post . . . oh snap!

In all seriousness, if you have another tried and true tactic you like to fall back on when you are stuck, let us know what it is below.