Thinking about new content ideas can be super exhausting, but it doesn’t have to be. And in this article, I’m going to show you five easy ways that you can find a lot of content ideas that don’t involve using Google auto complete. If you follow along, step-by-step I promise you that you will have at least 10 new content ideas that you can start working on today.
Source 1: Reddit
The first place we’re going to check out to find some great content ideas is none other than Reddit. Reddit is home to tons of different sub-communities in which you can figure out the sorts of questions that people are asking in relation to whatever it is that you are creating content about.
There are just two things need to know in order to use the methods I’ll show you here. The first one is how to use the site colon operator in Google search, which is where you’re going to type into your Google search bar, site: reddit.com followed by whatever it is that you are thinking about creating content around?
The second thing to know about Reddit is that there’s a super helpful tool by Ivanka that actually outputs all of the related subreddits to a topic that you have in mind. So this tool can be a great tool to figure out the other subreddits that people use that are related to the subreddit that you are starting out with.
For the sake of this article, let’s imagine that we’re creating an online course that helps for baristas and coffee shop owners sell more coffee. To start things off, we would go to Google and search something along the lines of site: reddit.com/r/barista. From this, we get ideas like how to sell bulk coffee, what amount of coffee sales is good for a day or how to upsell in a coffee shop?
Something that’s helpful to do here is to dig into some of these actual responses. So, if we were to click into one of these, we might find additional ideas. For example, in this post around, if anyone can give this person upselling tips, we might get to more content ideas around how to learn food pairings that work with coffee, as well as how to word certain upsells.
Just from taking a few minutes and digging into these subreddits, we already have five great content ideas that we could create into either blog posts or videos. Then later on, if we wanted to stretch our content further, we could repurpose it into Twitter threads or into some Instagram images.
Source 2: Quora
The second place we’re going to dig into to find some great content ideas is Quora. In this situation, we’re going to use a lot of the same tactic around that site operator except just filter it towards Quora. So in this case, you’re going to type into your search bar site: quora.com and then how to sell more coffee or something along those lines. As we go ahead and do this, we’ll notice a few interesting things.
For example, we see some core responses around how to make a coffee shop unique. We also see some search results around what gets a higher profit margin in coffee shops. As well as the question of whether or not selling coffee beans is a good business. Something to keep in mind is that if somebody has gone on a social community like Quora before and asked this question, then it is likely a question that somebody else in the world also has as well. Because we know this, this makes it into a much more likely piece of content that people would engage with if we were to build a content piece around this question,
Remember questions that people have asked before, demonstrate proven search intent. And proven search intent means that if you were to rank for those same terms that you would get proven traffic. From here, if you get proven traffic, then you will get more sales and leads for your business or whatever it is that you’re building.
Source 3: Facebook Groups
The third place we can turn to for great content ideas are Facebook groups. To do this, all we need to do is hop onto Facebook and search for the sorts of communities that the ideal audience that we’re writing for hangout in. So to do this, in our example, we might search for the term barista. And from here, we could identify a few different communities.
From doing the search, we might find the Barista Community or the Starbucks Baristas groups to be helpful. In other words, you’re going to want to use the search function and search for words like who, what, where, when, why, and then how. By searching for these terms, you’re going to see posts from people in the past who have asked questions that other people might have interest in, or might have answers in. At this point in time, you should already have 10 content ideas like I promise.
Source 4: Books on Amazon
The fourth place that you can go for some awesome content ideas is none other than Amazon. Amazon is home to a ton of different books. And the reality is that not all that many people read books these days. So it can be super helpful to go onto Amazon and search for something like barista book. From here, we might find a well ranking book that we’d be able to dig into the table of contents and see if there are any other things that we could find from the table of contents that might spark some content inspiration.
And this situation, the Professional Baristas Handbook seems promising. So we’re going to look to see if we can locate the table of contents of this book. From looking at this table contents, a few ideas come to mind for me that I think could be helpful for us as a course creator around baristas and coffee shop owners in selling more coffee.
For example, we might come up with an idea like beginner mistakes when tamping espressos, or the best way to steam and pour milk. We might also think about ideas like common barista workflow mistakes, or the best barista workflow. Lastly, we might come up with an idea like how to make a memorable French press coffee.
Looking at books on Amazon can be a great way for you to get some creative juices flowing in thinking about the topical things that people that you are writing towards care about. The main thing I want to emphasize here though, is that it’s simply a place for inspiration. From here, you’re going to want to think about your own personal experiences and expertise and how you can meld that into the topics that you’ve identified.
Source 5: Course Marketplaces
The fifth and final place for some content ideas is to check out course marketplaces. To do this, you’re going to want to check out sites like Udemy or Skillshare. And from here, you’re going to want to do the same process of searching for the sort of audience that you are trying to create content for. So in this case, I’m going to hop into Udemy and search for baristas. As I navigate through the search results, I’m going to sort by best courses.
From here, all I need to do is scroll down and then review the table of contents of these courses to again, see if anything sparks inspiration for the sorts of content pieces that these baristas or coffee shop owners might be interested in. From taking a look at this course on steps to becoming a coffee pro, I might come up with ideas for content pieces like, how to make epic shots of espresso, pros and cons of using coffee beans in coffee shops, pros and cons of using instant coffee in coffee shops, or how to foam milk like a pro.
Once you’ve made your way through the table of contents, you might also find it helpful to read through the good and bad student reviews. From here, you can pick up on certain things that the course creator may not have answered that might be interesting to create content on and you can do the same process with the prior source when you are working through those reviews of different books on Amazon.
By identifying these sorts of shortcomings of what exists in the market, you are identifying opportunities for you to differentiate your content and stand out from the pack.
Big takeaways
There are two things I want you to remember from this article:
- The first thing is to dig into communities. Communities are great places for you to find the questions that people are already asking and provide immense value for these people. They’re also going to ask these questions in a way in which it’s how people actually search for that question, which means that your content piece will be more likely to be discovered.
- The second big takeaway is to make sure that you meld your inspiration with your expertise. What I mean by this is that it’s one thing to use these sources to identify different content ideas, but it’s another thing to be able to meld that with your own unique experiences or expertise. It’s only by creating these sorts of unique angles, that you’ll be able to differentiate your content and make it stand out from the rest of the pack.
If you found this article helpful, be sure to check out my YouTube channel to get new videos every single week I’ll help take you from zero to self-starter as you grow your business, get more customers, and hone your business acumen. Also, feel free to share this with anybody that you know that might benefit from learning how to find content ideas for your blog.