Are you stuck trying to figure out what content to create? We’re not all content machines and there will be times when you’ll be stumped for ideas. How do you come up with content that you know people will be interested in? Here are a few tips to help give you a constant flow of original ideas for your content.

How do similar sites present their content?

Sometimes when you’re struggling, it’s good to evaluate what others in your field are doing. The internet is a big place, so browse other websites in your field. You can use a tool like aiderss to analyse recent popular posts in your niche. By examining what topics are popular, you may identify patterns of user needs that you can fulfill.

It may be easier to browse other websites than your own for inspiration as you are in the mindset of a reader. As a reader, think about what information could be expanded on or what is missing from those sites. As a reader, what would you like to read about? Often its just a matter of perspective. Looking at a topic from a different perspective can unleash those creative juices when you least expect it.

Use other media

A growing number of people are utilising new multimedia platforms for consuming information. You should know who your audience are. If they’re likely to find multimedia content useful, then you have more scope to create video or audio content.

If every other site covering your topic is only using text articles, then you could try creating videos or podcasts. There are plenty of resources to help you use software for these purposes.

Thinking about different ways in which you can deliver your message can be a good source of ideas. It might even allow you to get your message across in a way that text alone can’t.

Look for problems

One of the best ways to do this is to just spend time reading comments and browsing forums. Seek out problems people have around your topic and attempt to solve them. You can do this by browsing comments, forums and Yahoo Answers. You can answer questions directly, but if you begin to see a pattern, then it might be a good topic to expand on.

Using the example of a jewellery site, if we conduct a quick search, then there are a number of problems that we can try to solve for people:

How to clean jewellery
How to make a brooch
How to close jump rings
What Jewelry Metal is the Hardest/most Durable?

By doing this, you already have a few a few ideas of what content your audience will find useful.

You can also use Wikipedia to come up with content ideas. Use this tool to see how many people look at a particular Wikipedia page each day. These people are all looking for information on that subject, so try to find a section in the Wikipedia entry that you could expand on in an article.

Social news and social bookmark sites

Look at the most popular topics and try to find a relationship between what you want to write about and popular topics. For example, is there a way to link your topic with “technology” or “politics” or “gaming”? Don’t overdo it. You still need to think of your regular audience and how you can provide value to them.

If you don’t feel like you can capture the audiences attention if they come to your site, then building up relationships with people who are genuinely interested in your topic is probably a much better use of your time. So have a look on this list of social media sites to see if there is a place that is more suitable for you to spend your time on. (Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be releasing a table with known demographics for the major social networks, news and bookmark sites, so you’ll know where to spend your time)

Take a look what topics are generally popular on social news and bookmark sites and try to find a new angle for fresh content ideas. Here are a few quick examples (you should be able to come up with something better - these ideas only took about 5 mins)

Technology
Digital jewellery (RFID enabled jewellery - safety/privacy implications)
Computer game character jewellery

Politics
Environmentally friendly jewellery
Table showing how one item of expensive jewellery could feed X amount of people by country
Fair trade jewellery
Ethical fashion

Offbeat
How to accessorize like [a popular celebrity] on a budget
10 of the biggest diamond heists in history
How to make costume jewellery using only household items (coke cans, old computer pieces etc..)

News sites

Look at the typical stories on major news sites, such as, Reuters, NewYork Times, The Guardian etc. What is their angle when they cover your topic? In theory, if major news outlets are covering a story from a particular angle, then it’s probably of interest to their readership. Use Google’s Advanced search to look for recent articles on your topic.

New York Times

“…a common problem: finding a chic gift for a fashionable girl that doesn’t cost a fortune”
A Jewel Thief’s Audacious Comeback
In a Modern Gold Rush, Can Memories Beat $913 an Ounce?

Reuters

“Jewelry trends adapting to record gold prices”
“Briton finds ethical jewelry good as gold”

Guardian

“Ethical fashion”
Fairtrade jewllery

After doing a small amount of research you can see the angle of how newspapers like to cover your topic. Ethical fashion is covered by some of the major news outlets, so this can give you ideas for content. Try to find your own spin on each story. For our example, we could try to find out exactly how ethical “ethical fashion” really is or how much money poorer nations really make from ethical fashion.

Finalising your ideas

After you’ve collected a few ideas, try putting them into a mind-map. Draw in relationship lines where you feel your ideas can cross-over. In the mind-map below, you can see how certain stories would probably be of interest to more than one type of audience.

I would argue, that the most important ideas will be the ones that solve the problems of your core audience first. Look at the questions asked by the core audience. Most of the questions we found while researching jewellery where very specific to that field, but one question stands out as something that might cross over to a wider audience.

What Jewelry Metal is the Hardest/most Durable?

Now think about how you can answer this question while still appealing to a wider audience. How about creating a fun video similar to Will It Blend or Brainiac, that shows how hard it is to break certain metal?

You can use this technique for all your other ideas too. Try to find where ideas can cross-over and still be of use to your existing audience instead of just trying to reach the largest possible number of people.

These are just a few suggestions on how you can go about creating useful or interesting content. Everybody works differently, if you have any of your own suggestions, then please leave your comments below.