Are you stuck at the corner? 
Fear and lack of self-confidence are the strongest reasons why most bloggers experience writer’s block.
You struggle to come up with blog post ideas that will ‘Wow’ your customers or readers. But you don’t seem to get hold of untapped sources.
You decided to write anything that comes into your head, thereby wasting your precious time, boosting bounce rate and killing your business.
Image courtesy: Brian Walter
But if you blog the right way (tapping sharable ideas from unknown sources), you’ll generate 97% more inbound links.
Prefer to watch video? Tommy Walker gives the insider tips on how to generate blog post ideas. See it in action below:
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If you’re a small business blogger, and you continually write in-depth blog posts, you’ll generate 126% more leads than businesses that ignores blogging.
As I write this post, more than 2,200,000 billion blog posts have been published. Here’s a stat from worldometer:
How do you stand out and make your own blog content visible, and impactful to your target audience? That’s the ultimate question. Whether you want to be a passive blogger or get actively involved, you can't do without great content ideas.
The right content will generate search traffic for you, improve your search rankings in Google and inspire other people to share it. Apart from search, you also have to understand user research: i.e. know who visits your site to read your content and where they came from. No one is going to care about your blog post if there is nothing new discussed.
In this in-depth article, I want to show you the 10 untapped sources where you can extract blog post ideas that no other blog has ever discovered. Just by looking at other powerful headlines, ideas will start bubbling in your head.
I bet you’ll stand out and drive a lot of traffic, because your content is right on point, unique and easy to implement.
1. Popular Magazine Covers
Magazine covers have lots of ideas that you can tap in to create blog content that generate leads. When conducting user research, magazines can give you a headstart.
Magazines are extremely popular. It doesn’t matter your industry/niche, I’m certain there is at least 20 different magazines. Every article covered on a popular magazine gets read by thousands, if not millions of people.
This means that the headlines in a magazine cover have been brainstormed, tested and invested heavily on.
Instead of wasting time trying to craft your own blog post headlines, all you’ve to do is model one of those that appears on the cover and craft a better one.
So where do you find popular magazines online, so you can model their headlines or article ideas?
Step #1: Go to Magazines.com. Type in your topic or keyword that you want to get ideas or find related magazines on (e.g. marketing).
Step #2: Click the search icon.
Step # 3: Check the ‘marketing’ magazines.
Step #4: Click on one of the magazines to extra blog post ideas.
The headline on the above magazine is:
The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies
The above headline or topic may not be relevant to your readers/community, but it doesn’t have to.
Let's say you’re an SEO blogger or content marketer, with that headline format that’s been proven to generate clicks and convert readers into loyal fans and customers, here’s how to craft a relevant and sharable headlines for your audience:
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The Web’s 50 Most Innovative SEO Tools That You Can Use
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The World’s 50 Most Creative Search Experts Who Builds Trusted Links
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30 Most Innovative 6 Figure Bloggers Who Started Out With Nothing
You get the point, don’t you?
2. Amazon book previews
Amazon is another powerhouse without millions of hardcover books, as well as Kindle Books. Chris Gutrie made over $21,000 in February from Kindle books and other products that he sells on Amazon. And you can also use Amazon to grow your email subscribers, quickly.
That’s not all, Steve J. Scott earned over $200,000 in the first quarter of 2014, through his self-development Kindle book series. And lastly, Stefan Pylarinos consistently earns over $40,000 from over 100 kindle books that sells like hot cakes.
What does this tell you? Well, it means that if ordinary people are making money from Kindle books, you too can preview their table of contents, extract ideas from their tested headlines and use it to produce sharable content.
So how do you get blog post ideas from book previews?
Step #1: Go to Amazon.com. And type in your keyword (e.g. email list). Then click the ‘Go’ button and Amazon will give you relevant and popular books to preview for free.
Step #2: Click on your preferred book cover.
Step #3: Look inside the book. Just click the book cover to preview the first few pages of the book, including the table of contents.
Step #4: See the table of contents for blog post ideas. On the book preview page, scroll down and you’ll find ideas in the TOC.
In the above screenshot, I highlighted 4 ideas that will make for an in-depth blog article. In order to avoid copying someone’s work, you should create a better headline, research each of the points and make yours better.
Let’s write a unique, clickable and better blog post headlines using the 4 above:
Original headline:
How to Create a High-Converting Squeeze Page
Fresh headlines:
Step-By-Step Guide To Create A Landing Page That Converts
How A 2-Year Old Blogger Created a High-Converting Squeeze Page
Original:
Six List-Building WordPress Tools
Unique and clickable headlines:
6 WordPress Tools To Build Your Email List Fast
How To Increase Your Email List With WordPress Tools
Original headlines:
The Importance of the “Thank You” Page
Just crafted headlines:
The Top 5 Importance of The “Thank You” Page
7 Things You Should Add On Your “Thank You” Page
Original headlines:
12 Types of Email Marketing Messages
Unique headlines:
13 Type of Email Marketing Messages That Converts
15 Email Marketing Experts Share Strategies For Writing Messages
3. Docstoc featured videos
Your social media strategy begins when you create content that resonates instantly.
Social sharing is so important. Using descriptive opening sentence is one of the ways to get people to share your post. Even before your blog post goes live, you’ve to map out strategies for easy sharing on Twitter, Facebook and even docstoc.
A social media network is that one which encourages others to participate and share. Even your blog is a social media platform.
Docstoc hosts 20 million articles, expert videos and documents. It’s one of the best source for generating blog post ideas that very few content marketers and bloggers are currently using.
So how do you find topics and ideas for your next blog post using docstoc?
Step #1: Go to docstoc.com.
Step #2: Scroll down the page and find featured videos.
Step #3: Watch the 3-minute video. According to Outbrain, 87% of marketers use videos content. Because more people prefers to watch than read plain text or listen to audio podcasts.
While watching the video, jot down ideas for your next blog post. It’s that simple. Also read some of the articles on the docstoc homepage for additional content ideas.
4. TED keynote talks
Where can you find incredible videos and extract great ideas? TED. TED has a lot of ideas worth sharing. If you can watch renowned experts from all around the world deliver keynote speeches, and teaching, you’ll never struggle to write another blog post. I can guarantee that.
Millions of people watch TED talks and videos, because they’re inspiring and appeals to the emotion. So how do you find ideas that will make for a great blog post at TED?
Step #1: Go over to TED.com. Type your keyword and see what video pops out.
Step #2: Watch a video and take down ideas. Just click on a video and keep watching.
The headline on the above video screenshot is an inspiration. Isn’t it?
How to Pitch To a VC
You could model this headline to make your next blog post sticky and attractive. Here are examples:
How To Pitch Your Guest Post Topic To Busy Bloggers
How To Pitch Your Business Idea To Potential Clients
5. Google Scholar
You can carry out conversion experiment on your content. But first, you’ve to research accurate information that will make your blog post stand out.
One of the ways you can acquire clients with your blog post is to back up facts with stats and data. In other words, use data-driven approach.
Do you want to stand on the shoulders of giants? Then Google Scholar is a platform where you can access well researched thesis, books, projects, and articles that includes patents.
So let’s say that you want to get ideas that are related to ‘marketing,’ you want scientific proofs, experiments and hypothesis. You just have to go over to Google Scholars official homepage. And type in your primary keyword “marketing.”
Next, look for citations. “Citations” are usually extracts from a particular work that’s been proven or authenticated. Since Google appreciates cited works, you should use them to create your blog posts, too.
Next, click on All versions.
Next, read the book and extract ideas for your blog content.
6. Educational research blog
I know some bloggers and experts who provide educational content. For example, Gris Goward’s post on the 31 conversion optimization tips to increase conversion rate was a bomb. It helped me increase my email list subscription by 28% in just 23 days.
Of course you can get ideas from such educational content, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
When I say educational research blogs, I’m talking about colleges, universities and tertiary institutions or health related blogs and there are several educational sites around.
Majority of them have their own blogs as well and they usually publish well-researched articles that you can model.
So let’s find these educational blogs:
Step #1: Go to Google.com and type in “colleges blog + business.” Then click one of the results.
Step #2: See latest articles for ideas.
The above highlighted article headline reads:
8 Reasons Why Dating an Accounting is Amazing
Why not use this headline idea to create better ones that relevant to your audience. Let’s do it:
8 Reasons Why Starting a WordPress Blog Is Amazing
8 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Landing Page Design
7. Techcrunch News
Techcrunch is the foremost news portal for everything tech, social media, startups, and brands.
They’re always current. A breaking news could inspire you to write a new post today, thus improving your productivity as a blogger. Most times, they’ll announce a new technology, startup or product even before everyone in the whole world knows about it. You can easily improve your search traffic, by being at the forefront in your industry.
If you want to find news topics that would be ideal for your audience, and blog readers, follow these simple steps:
Step #1: Go to Techcrunch. Click on the “News” Tab.
Step #2: Click on a subject or topic that you’d like to write about. E.g. social.
Step #3: Select your latest topic. Click the one you want, read it thoroughly and use the ideas to create content that’s right for your audience.
Don’t write like Techcrunch or use their exact headlines. Make yours special, practicable and use screenshots to explain statements and instructions.
Apart from the headlines and news topics, you can learn something new in the social media world by reading the article. If I were to write a post on facebook page’s likes, here is what I’ll use as my strongest point:
8. Flippa “just sold sites”
How to flip websites on flippa is a very popular topic. You can find great blog post ideas on Flippa. Especially on the page that contains “just sold sites.” Because when a site is sold, you can talk about the factors that contributed to its success.
Since revenue is the core factor that affects website sale price on flippa – compare prices of two different sites and you’ll have created a data-driven content for your audience.
What you think would have happened if the site owner/agency did something different. In other words, you become a content auditor and I believe that your readers/community will love to hear your own worldview.
Are you ready to critic, evaluate, audit or compare recently sold sites on flippa? That would make for a valuable blog post no matter your industry:
Step #1: Visit Flippa.com. Click on the “Established sites” and click “just sold.”
Step #2: Click on the site you want to check out.
Step #3: Read seller’s note. Get ideas on how the site started. What the revenue is, the traffic stats and sources as well as challenges. Then use the idea to write your own ‘how to blog post.’
Your headlines could read thus:
Case Study: How Jack Sold His 7-Month Old Blog For $3,200 (And Lessons)
How To Double the Sale Price of Website On Flippa
9. Kickstarter projects
I love kickstarter. Do you?
Do you want your next big idea to be supported by influencers and impactful people, then use Kickstarter. A Crowdsourcing platform for everyone. Well, you should because several new projects usually gain traction, and gets over $50,000 in funding, which ordinarily would not have made headway. Like this one:
A simple kickstarter campaign video can inspire people from all around the world to get involved. So when you find a successful kickstarter campaign, study it and use the ideas to create the right blog post that will attract paying clients into your business.
So find Kickstarter campaigns that are doing well currently and write about them. No, don’t promote the kickstarter. Rather, use the elements that made it successful as a yardstick for whatever topic you’re covering.
Just the same way you’d growth-hack your email list, you can also growth-hack your readers by presenting to them a successful kickstarter project and what they can learn from it to help grow their own online business.
10. Viral content upgrade
What do you think is the secret of creating viral content? If you want your content to go viral, you don’t have to wish or pray for it to happen. See an infographic on why content goes viral.
You’ve to make a decision to really create in-depth data driven article (above 2,000 words) that appeals to people’s emotion.
According to Statistica, the most shared video got 2.78 million twitter and facebook shares as well as blog shares in February 2015.
In viral content upgrade, your responsibility is to find content that went viral on social media platforms and analyze it’s power points.
That is, find out why thousands of people shared it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Then go the extra mile to create something even better. This is real hard work, but it’d pay off big time.
Follow these simple steps to find out viral content:
Step one: Go to Buzzsumo.com. Type in your primary keyword – the software will show you the most shared content pertaining to that single or long-tail keyword. E.g. writing tips. Then click the
Step two: Analyze the most shared article.
The most shared headlines are:
Make Your Writing Clearer: 6 Tips for Re-wording Sentences
Seven Tips From Edgar Allan Poe on How To Write Vivid Stories and Poems
So here’s what you’re going to do.
Having seen the huge success of these headlines and how each one of them got over 15,000 facebook likes alone, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or test anything. Just model the headlines, and make yours better.
How?
Let’s write a more powerful headline that will suck in targeted clicks, traffic, leads and increase sales:
From the original (1):
Make Your Writing Clearer: 6 Tips for Re-wording Sentences
Here are catchy headlines with keyword-rich styling:
How To Write Clearer By Re-wording Your Sentences
6 Steps To Write Clear: Make Your Sentences Sticky
From the original (2):
Seven Tips From Edgar Allan Poe on How To Write Vivid Stories and Poems
Let’s make it better and shorter:
How Edgar Allan Poe Writes Vivid Stories and Poems
Seven Steps To Write Vivid Stories and Poems (Tips from Edgar Allan)
Note: The objective is for you to write headlines that grow traffic, and improves user experience. Don’t stuff keywords.
What does Matt Cutts say about keyword stuffing and density? Watch the video below:
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Conclusion
The rule is not set on stone. But the guideline is this:
Once you’ve crafted a clickable and (no) pushy headline, pull a seat and write powerful subtitles, paragraphs and sentences. Let every word count. Avoid fluffs. You can easily build client relationship by giving away useful information in the form of an article, a blog post, video or podcast. With a great idea, you've it all made.
And remember, the real engagement time happens below the fold. The headline doesn’t engage readers, it attracts.
In a world full of noise, you need more than great content idea to build a profitable blog.
You need the right audience, the right angle and viable sources where you can consistently get blog post ideas/topics.
Are you still worried about writer’s block? I don’t think so. Unless you didn’t go through this 10 untapped blog post ideas sources. In that case, go and read it.
As always, I want to hear from you. How do you find blog post ideas every week? Have you tried any of the sources that I listed? Share your thoughts.