How To Research Content Ideas For Your Blogs/Articles, Emails and so on..

I think it's about time that I started to post some useful information to this great friendly forum.

My first informational thread will hopefully provide some of you with a new found approach to researching your niche for content ideas. I know some will be aware of the resources and advice I mention, but for some I'm certain this will help them - I hope so anyway!

So, We all need content.

Whether that's for your blog, membership site, products or simply to keep your email list subscribers happy and willing to stay on your list, without it we start to run out of ways to keep the relationship blossoming.

Without content ideas, we soon start to panic.

Are we going stale? Will our subscribers dwindle away? Are we really educated enough for our niche?

Content is precious and without it where nothing, with it where special.

Information seekers are a determined fickle bunch of people.

One minute they think your God of the niche, the minute your content dwindles your history.

They want a constant supply of the goods, end off!

If they don't get it, they look elsewhere because they know the big World Wide Web will provide it to them.

You lose them once and they may never come back.

So how do we keep them happy?

It's easy really.

We simply keep providing great useful information.

Below is a few methods I use to find suitable things to say:

Ubersuggest - This is a great free little site that lets you type in your niche topic and once you hit the suggest button, you are provided with a list of questions and phrases related to the topic. It get's better though. Once you then click on each phrase, question you are then provided with another list of phrases related to the one you clicked in a drop down menu. ( A bit like the old Google Wonder-wheel)

You can actually find a few quality keywords as well as finding some really good article titles and problems that your niche are asking and wanting the information for - simply copy them into a word file and use for your future material.

Be A Snoop - The top blogs in your niche have lots of money and resources to do their market research. They know what the customer/ reader wants and all you need to do is spy on them.

Go to Feedly (Free and they also have a great free mobile app) and punch in at least 5 blogs in your niche. Make sure they are the top blogs that are getting lots of traffic and social interaction.

How do you know there popular blogs?

Well visit them and see how many comments their posts get. Also notice how many social shares they are getting. Most of these blog owners are show offs and they will display their social shares via a plugin if they are getting them.

Once you find them then all you need to do is sit back, open Feedly and see the posts they produce. ( Researched Popular Content ) All you need to do is read the post and then make a better version for your blog. You already know that the topic is popular and in demand by the amount of comments, so simply write an article/email/product about it.

Sidenote - Notice any questions in the comments that keep getting repeated as these are potential future content that your niche will love to know about.

Facebook - Like all the popular Facebook pages in your niche. Every day you will receive updates from them and most of the posts will be niche content that's been written to hook you in. This again is more content ideas for you.

Online Forums - If you visit forums in your niche then you will have access to a wide range of burning questions that your niche will want answering. Make a note of them and answer them in your content/free products/email ect. Forums are one of the easiest places to find content.

Google News/Yahoo News - Run a search for your niche and you will be provided with up to date information on your niche. This is a great way to find the hot news before anyone else.

YouTube - Search your niche in the search bar. You will then have in front of you a list of videos and tutorials related to your niche. Simply watch the videos and use your new found knowledge in an article/email.

That's it for now, I'm pretty sure that I will add to this thread over time.

Hopefully some will find it useful.

How do you research content ideas?

Great informative article! I've never heard of Ubersuggest so will for sure give that one ago...

Its difficult to add anything but one thing comes to my mind is WolframAlpha which can help with searching for facts, statistics, data analysis which may give some more ideas to build on... For further background reading check out:

Wolfram, a Search Engine, Finds Answers Within Itself
Wolfram Alpha Pro runs rings around today's search engines

WolframAlpha is new to me, so thanks.

I've just added the site to my bookmarks.

1. MillionShort - its google minus the first 10,000 queries - so you can find some hidden gem

2. FAQfox - digs up comments and articles in Reddit and any other website

3. Answer the Public - pulls in ALL the queries from search engine

4. OzContent - follows your industry's ecosystem combine with your in-house data = original story angles [self-promotion]

Message me @ideasbyoz if you need help, I tweet often tips and tricks on content ideation

Thanks for the info. I do like to use Google News but better than that I like to use Google Alerts. With Google Alerts I will get notified anytime someone in my niche has something new out. It really does help you know what's in the news and spurs some new ideas of your own.

You must have a Gmail and Google account to use this method. It is not available from your email so you must go to google.com/alerts to set up the alert. Cancel anytime you want.

Nice to know about this useful information.Its helps me a lot in my professional work.I am new in this filed want to get extra info about the blogs,SEO tools etc.

I like using Google News too, but when it comes to content ideas for specific niches, I go to the forums. They give me fresh experience based insights too.