5 Ways to Find Good Topics to Write about Online

There are many different “road blocks” that come up along the way no matter what “model” you adopt or how long you’ve been working online. Usually each model or technique presents it’s own set of road blocks or issues that need figured out. But there is one that seems to come up over and over again for almost everyone, no matter how long they’ve been working online and no matter what it is they do online.

“Writers Block!”

I get it, you get it and everyone else who writes anything, whether online or offline, gets it too. It just sucks, doesn’t it?

It’s what happens when you know you need to write an article, blog post, web page etc. but you just can’t think of something good to write about.

Although I, myself, still get it, it happens much less frequently these days because of the advice I’m about to give you.

The following are the 5 best ways in my opinion to come up with topics to write about online when you’re suffering from your own unique case of “writer’s block:”

1. Go to one or more forums in your niche. Discussion forums are probably the BEST place to go to find topics in your niche that your readers will want to hear because forums are full of people just like your customers and in some cases they may BE your customers and/or readers! Check out the “hot” threads. The threads with LOADS of replies. These are awesome topics to write about!

2. Ask your subscribers what they want you to write about! Sending out a survey is the best way to do that. Offer something for free to those who complete the survey or some kind of contest. Asking a visitor what he or she wants to learn from you is about as accurate as it gets. You can offer the survey to your list if you have one, on your homepage etc.

3. Watch your competition! Particularly the competitors who are authoritative in your niche. They got that authority somehow and it’s a good bet their readers like what they are writing about, so looking at their content will usually give you some good ideas as to what you should be writing about.

4. Actively participate in social networking! Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc. are social networks that provide a unique opportunity to not only interact and get to know others in your niche to JV with etc. they are also full of potential readers, clients, customers and leads! Any chance you get to interact with these people is good. Social networking is a great way to find out what they’re interested in within your niche.

5. Look at what you’ve written in the past that seemed to have done well (if possible.) It won’t give you an exact topic, but it will give you an idea of some of the things you know your readers respond to historically.

Although some of these points may seem obvious or basic to you, hopefully you can refer back to this post next time you get writer’s block and hopefully they help find an idea for you:

Can you Really Make Money Blogging?

I know there are millions of people out there who definitely think the answer is yes and they are right. But, most of them think they will do so by frequently posting and sticking up a few adsense ads and/or affiliate banners. And when that’s the case, they do make some money, but very rarely is it a substantial amount.

I’m writing this blog post… the same blog post that so many others have written on other blogs because I believe I have something new to offer. I bet there are at least 100,000 other blog posts on the Internet right now with a topic similar to this one “Can you make money blogging?” And I bet 98% of them say basically the same thing (yes, you can make loads of money blogging)… written primarily by people who are making little to no money blogging.

So let’s talk about the average blogger, then we’ll compare the average blogger, who makes little to no money, to “professional” bloggers who make a good deal of money.

The Average Blogger:

- Has an interest in the topic he or she writes about.

- Doesn’t really have any form of business strategy in place other than “write as much as possible” and try to build links.

- Worries WAY too much about how many people are subscribed to their RSS feed and doesn’t even build an email list.

- Will go about 1 year (max) … realize he or she isn’t making much money and quit posting to that blog.

The Successful Blogger:

- Has a PASSION for the topic he or she writes about.

- Has a solid plan for his or her business, in which his or her blog is usually only a PART of.

- Concentrates on using his or her blog as a platform to build his or her list!

- Will not quit, even if little to no money is made because of passion and confidence.

I predict one of the first 5 comments below will be similar to “But Darren Rowse of ProBlogger doesn’t seem to concentrate on building his list.” And you’re right… or at least it’s seems that way by glancing at the current layout of his blog. My answer to that, he’s leaving ALOT of money on the table and for every one successful blogger who doesn’t have a list, I’ll give you 10 Successful bloggers who do!!

Give me 100,000 RSS subscribers and 100,000 Email Subscribers all in the same niche and I Guarantee you I’ll make $100,000 more with the email subscribers.

The primary reason I decided to write this blog post is because I see SO MANY people spending hours every single day writing blog posts with no real plan… no visitor retention other than RSS… no passion.. Yet they have a dream of blogging full-time and being a “Pro Blogger.”