How To Get Ideas For Articles

Lesson Sixteen

Need ideas for articles? Hopefully you have a website about something that you have a passion for. It is much easier to have ideas for articles when you have a deep interest in a subject. With or without that interest, though, there will be times when you think, "what can I write about now?" Here are some ways to start cranking out those articles again.

Make Your Pages Into Articles

When I first started writing articles to promote my websites, I started from scratch, coming up with ideas as I went along. Then one day it occurred to me that I had a couple hundred pages on my sites that could be made into articles. A quick rewrite and they were ready. That made article writing efficient! To do this properly, be sure to read the lesson on rewriting, coming soon.

Look At The Keywords

Other Ways To Get Ideas For Articles

1. Ask friends for suggestions.

2. Keep paper by your bedside for middle-of-the-night-ideas.

3. Go to 999ideas.com and sign up for my free course, How To Have New Ideas.

4. If you have a newsletter, ask readers which article topics they would like to see.

5. Visit websites with the same theme as yours and see what topics they cover.

Suppose you have a website on cats, and you need ideas for articles. Using the Yahoo keyword tool (discussed in a previous lesson) you type in "cat" and see that 21,200 people searched for "cat names" last month. Maybe an article on how to choose a name? Type "cat names" into the box, and you see more keywords, including "popular cat names." It had only 700 searches last month, but it's an easy keyword to compete for. An introduction, two sub-headings for "male cat names" and "female cat names," and a list of popular names - an article!

Try as many related words as you can think of. A search of "pets" just now, showed that 11,650 people searched for "pet training" last month. If you have a personal story about training your cat, you have an article. Look at those keywords!

Use Your Own Articles For Ideas

I used to write a lot of "10 Ways" types of articles. They are fast articles to write, but they often are too abbreviated. For example, I have an article titled, "Ten Easy Problem Solving Techniques." I was looking at it one day, and realized that several of the techniques warranted their own articles. The bit on how to solve problems by changing one's perspective, for example, would be more useful with a fuller explanation than with the three sentences it got in the original. That became a new article.

Mine your old articles and web pages for ideas. Maybe you mention something in passing in an article, and that can be expanded into its own article. Look at pages on your site that explain things, and ask yourself, "What more is there to say about this?" Whatever there is, say it in an article.

Listen To Yourself For Ideas

You have knowledge that most people don't have (hopefully your website is based on that knowledge). We all have our areas of expertise. Suppose you have a website about your hobby of woodworking.

Your friends would ask you things about it on occasion, right? You would find yourself explaining something to them.

Listen to what you are saying! Any time you take a few minutes to explain something to someone, you have the material for an article. If it is relevant to your website, start writing that article.

Next Lesson : Rewriting (Very Important)

Note: Not yet subscribed? To get a free lesson each week by e-mail, go here: Article Marketing Course. To buy the course as an e-book at a reduced rate, (and with a bonus), visit: Writing Articles E-Book/Course.

Lesson 16 - How To Get Ideas For Articles