Remove The Writers’ Block – Three Resources To Get Amazing New Topics For Your Blog

This is a guest post by Anand Srinivasan. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Every blogging guru’s advice to grow a thriving blog is to keep writing more and more content. That is why we are often advised on starting websites on topic which we are most passionate about. This is because these are topics that we can keep on talking (or writing in this case) for hours together and so will have so much of content to write.

But honestly speaking, this is more easily said than done. Firstly, most of us don’t have such huge passions on something. And even if we do, it is either in a topic that is already so competitive or something no one cares about. I am so passionate about the game of Cricket, but do not own a website on that because it will not monetize very well. So, admit it, at some point, we will have to start websites on topics that we are not very highly knowledgeable about, but are into it primarily because it is highly monetizable and because we can write.

Here comes the well-famed malaise of all bloggers – the writers’ block. You might go on and write a hundred articles. But beyond that you will realize there is simply not many things to write about. Where do you find new topics to write? Here are three websites that I have found so much success with in finding new topics to write about. And trust me, they get in a roaring traffic as well!

1. Google (ever heard about the “Wonder Wheel”?)

I can see that smirk on your face. Google, a website no one has ever heard of, right? Well seriously, I use two tools on Google that can get you amazing new topics to write about. The first is something you might have discovered yourself – The Google keyword suggest feature that gives you keywords even as you start typing a search query on Google. This is a real good feature to use. Just start typing a keyword and Google suggests other related keywords. To make better use of this feature, try using different kinds of search queries. For example, if you are looking to write on “photography”, try searching for “How to Photo..” or “Tips to photo..”. You will see different topics to write on – like ‘Tips for photographing children’, ‘Tips for photographing fireworks’,etc. Cool, ain’t it?

There is one more brilliant feature in Google that I like to use. This is called the Google Wonder Wheel. Let us take the same topic called ‘Photography’. Search for the keyword on Google. Now, on top of the results, you see a link that reads, ‘Show Options’. Click on that and you will now have a sidebar on the left with various options. Click on the ‘Wonder Wheel’ option (under standard view). You now have a graphical display of related keywords. Click on one of the options, say, ‘Photography career’ and you will now see keywords more long-tail from there. Keep going deeper and you will find one niche topic you have not written about!

2. Yahoo Answers

Yahoo answers is such a wonderful resource to know what people actually want. Unlike keyword research tools that only claim to tell you which keyword is hot and which is not, Yahoo answers actually tells you what people are searching for. So, it is more like a first-hand report on the hottest questions. Just realize that if there are so many people asking for ‘tips to buy a good guitar’, a much higher percentage of people should actually be asking the same question on Google. If you are going to answer the exact same question, chances are that you can make it to the top of the Google search results too, and voila, you got a new topic that’s hot!

3. EzineArticles

Simply put, Ezinearticles is an article directory where anyone can submit articles. And you have hundreds of articles being uploaded there every single day. So, why should it help you? That’s’s simply because people uploading the articles there are webmasters themselves. These are people who have done the dirty work for you – they have researched a niche topic, researched for proper keywords that will get them listed on Google, and then written an article on EzineArticles praying that it will help them throw traffic to their website.

Now, you have a website too. Why not outsource the keyword research to these people? Simply search for the topic of your website and get thousands of articles on the topic available. That is possibly thousand different ways you can write on the same topic. I searched for a weird keyword ‘toothpaste’ and see close to 8000 articles listed on the topic. Imagine how it is for other more competitive keywords!

Anand Srinivasan blogs on Internet statistics at Techcrunchies.com and has also newly launched KnewThis.com.