The single biggest problem people have with running a blog, aside from gaining more traffic, is coming up with ideas for their blogs. The thing is, it’s really easy to come up with ideas for blog content. It’s jus that people think it’s incredibly hard because they don’t understand how to think creatively.
Identify Your Passion
The first thing you need to do in order to create a successful blog and to come up with quality ideas for your blog is to identify your own passion. While many people want to write a blog in order to make money from it, writing a blog about a subject you care nothing about but which you have heard is profitable is a recipe for disaster.
In order to generate traffic to your blog, your content has to reflect your knowledge and passion. The only way to do that is to write what you know and care about.
Think About Problems You Had
The next thing to consider when coming up with ideas for blog content is what problems you had along the way to where you are now. Do you want to write a blog about personal growth? How did you grow as a person? Got something to say about getting out of debt? How did you do it? Blogs need to share useful information. Unless of course they are personal musings and you don’t care about money.
Bottom line: the best way to come up with ideas for your blog is to think about what you would want to read about if you were reading a blog on your subject. Therefore, it’s often a good idea to imitate ideas from other bloggers that you found interesting. Just make sure the content and title is your own words and not theirs. Otherwise, you’re guilty of copyright infringement.,
Decide What Kind of Blog You Want to Run
There are really three kinds of blogs out there on the net. While they cover hundreds of thousands and possibly even millions of unique topics, the truth is that blogs basically fall into three categories:
Personal Musings – This is your personal soapbox. Just write about whatever is bothering you. Don’t expect to make much money though unless you happen to be famous.
News – In this case, the rule above about taking ideas from other blogs comes into play. You can take ideas from newswires and newspapers. Remember though that you’ll need to build a loyal following to make money from this kind of blog.
Evergreen – This is a blog which has information which is useful today, tomorrow and ten years from now. Here again, getting ideas from other bloggers that have written things you are interested in will be your best bet. Just be sure again not to plagiarize. Ideas are fair game. Words and graphics are not.
Whatever You Do
Whatever kind of blog you may choose to write, there are a few axioms you must follow:

  • Keep it professional. No one really wants to read your personal whining except your family (though if that’s your target audience, then go ahead and whine away).
  • Make it Relevant. If you write about personal finance, then you can say how to save money on dog food. However, you can’t write how to give your dog a massage.
  • Remember SEO. Search Engine Optimization is still key to successful blogs, at least those looking for an audience. Mention keywords wherever you can, as long as they sound natural.