How to Get Ideas for Content for Your Website Articles
Search engines crave fresh content.
Which means that each time you add a page to your website, the search engines will crawl it and work out where it belongs in their results.
Generally speaking, the more often you add new pages to your site, the more often the search engines will crawl round it.
So you have the option of getting other people to write pages of content for you - and then reading it through and editing it - or writing the content yourself.
Either way, you need ideas to write about.
And, if you're like most people, those ideas dry up after a while and you get a sense of "been there, done that" with every idea you come across.
These tips will help you become a prolific creator of website content again.
Write lists These could be lists of articles you'll write soon.
That works if you're in a creative mood - I often just jot down some keyword phrases in a spreadsheet and pop back to that when I need inspiration.
Or they could actually be lists in the form of website content.
People like lists - they're easy to skim and easy to digest the content.
Just browse the magazine shelves and you'll see lists are used all the time: 17 great ways, 101 things to do, that kind of thing.
I often start with the idea of writing a list and then find that the ideas near enough flow onto the word processor.
So I leave the number of items I'm covering until last as it often varies from my initial thoughts.
Comment on something I don't mean adding a comment to someone else's blog.
Instead, pick on something topical and write about it, adding your views to the commentary.
If you're not sure what to comment about, set up a daily email or two with Google Alerts and you'll get a daily digest of news relevant to your chosen keywords.
This is a simple but highly effective way to get ideas and I find that as soon as I see a few titles, other ideas come into my mind.
Chances are your brain will do the same for you.
Do a tutorial If you find yourself being asked the same question over and over again, it's almost certainly worth writing a tutorial about it.
Not because it will save you from doing the explaining - although it might, if you can politely redirect people to wherever you've put the tutorial.
But because for every person who plucks up the courage to ask you for an explanation, there will be lots more who haven't managed to do so.
Possibly because they think you're too busy or possibly because they think they'd make themselves look foolish or possibly another reason altogether.
Whatever the reason, the audience is already there and you just have to put the words (and maybe pictures or videos) in front of them.
If you have an email newsletter you can mention your new tutorial in that.
And you can put a conspicuous link on your website pointing it out as well.
Which means that each time you add a page to your website, the search engines will crawl it and work out where it belongs in their results.
Generally speaking, the more often you add new pages to your site, the more often the search engines will crawl round it.
So you have the option of getting other people to write pages of content for you - and then reading it through and editing it - or writing the content yourself.
Either way, you need ideas to write about.
And, if you're like most people, those ideas dry up after a while and you get a sense of "been there, done that" with every idea you come across.
These tips will help you become a prolific creator of website content again.
Write lists These could be lists of articles you'll write soon.
That works if you're in a creative mood - I often just jot down some keyword phrases in a spreadsheet and pop back to that when I need inspiration.
Or they could actually be lists in the form of website content.
People like lists - they're easy to skim and easy to digest the content.
Just browse the magazine shelves and you'll see lists are used all the time: 17 great ways, 101 things to do, that kind of thing.
I often start with the idea of writing a list and then find that the ideas near enough flow onto the word processor.
So I leave the number of items I'm covering until last as it often varies from my initial thoughts.
Comment on something I don't mean adding a comment to someone else's blog.
Instead, pick on something topical and write about it, adding your views to the commentary.
If you're not sure what to comment about, set up a daily email or two with Google Alerts and you'll get a daily digest of news relevant to your chosen keywords.
This is a simple but highly effective way to get ideas and I find that as soon as I see a few titles, other ideas come into my mind.
Chances are your brain will do the same for you.
Do a tutorial If you find yourself being asked the same question over and over again, it's almost certainly worth writing a tutorial about it.
Not because it will save you from doing the explaining - although it might, if you can politely redirect people to wherever you've put the tutorial.
But because for every person who plucks up the courage to ask you for an explanation, there will be lots more who haven't managed to do so.
Possibly because they think you're too busy or possibly because they think they'd make themselves look foolish or possibly another reason altogether.
Whatever the reason, the audience is already there and you just have to put the words (and maybe pictures or videos) in front of them.
If you have an email newsletter you can mention your new tutorial in that.
And you can put a conspicuous link on your website pointing it out as well.