KentonNewby.com

Ever find yourself with writers block when it comes to creating content (articles, blog posts, multimedia content, etc.)?  If so, here are a few sites you might want to keep an eye on for idea generators for creating content.  Remember, no STEALING people’s stuff…use these sites for idea creation, NOT your own personal swipe file.  Don’t be a knucklehead!  Okay, nuff said.

1. TrafficJam.com
The newly-released flipside of the Blogrush network (similar to how Adwords and Adsense are two sides of the same coin).  Regardless of what you may think of the traffic you get (or don’t get) from the Blogrush network, TrafficJam looks like it has the makings of a pretty decent site for researching your market.  One thing to keep in mind though is that the categories are pretty broad, so you may need to drill down into multiple categories to find different ideas that are relevant to your topic.

2. Article Directories
While some people argue how useful it is to submit to article directories, they can still be a good place to brainstorm ideas for new content.  Of course, the idea is NOT to just go in here and pull someone’s article and use it on your site (even though that’s generally okay).  Nor is the idea to rewrite their article in your own words to avoid linking back to their site (which is sketchy at best). 

Instead, simply use the titles and general themes you see authors writing about as ideas for your own content.  If you’re in the online business market and see an article covering "10 Tips for Getting Traffic From YouTube", maybe you can come up with your own list of however many tips you know of.  Or write more detailed, individual articles on each of your tips.  Or take the opposite stance and write about why you may not want to get traffic from YouTube (huh?).  The list is nearly endless, just us a little imagination and you’ll come up with tons of great ideas.  I’d recommend EzineArticles.com, Buzzle.com and ISnare.com.  The others probably aren’t worth the time.

3. About.com (or other Mega-Content Sites)
If your target market is featured as one of the categories on About.com, this can be a fantastic way to brainstorm content ideas.  For instance, I had an online store I was trying to create content for.  One of the articles posted on About.com was something like "The Top 10 {topic} Gifts This Holiday Season".  Great idea.  I just wrote my own article similar to that, based on what had been selling well in my store and would make good gifts.  That could have spawned other articles based on specific holidays or other occasions.  Again, it’s just about finding the IDEA, not swiping someone’s entire article.  I didn’t sell some of that stuff in my store anyway so that would have just been stupid.

4. Technorati.com / Google Blog Search
Want to know what other bloggers are writing about?  Why not check out Technorati.com or Google’s Blog Search and look for other blogs in your market.  Using either of those services, you can find related blogs in your market and get a feel for what the hot button issues are.  For instance, if you’re in the online business market, you could use mine a an example.  I just posted an article about "The 5 Reasons Why You Should Upgrade to the New Version of Camtasia Studio".  Maybe you really agree, but have a different set of reasons.  Maybe you think I’m nuts and that there’s no reason to upgrade.  Maybe there’s another useful piece of software you could highlight the most important features of, either in an article or video.

5. Google Alerts
Want to know when Google finds new information about your market?  Just setup a Google alert and get emailed anytime Google finds new pages referencing your keywords.  This is great if there are specific terms, products, authors, etc. in your market that you’d like to follow.  I have alerts setup for things like "camtasia" because I work with that program quite a bit, as well as for a few other software tools.  If there are specific terms in your market that you need to keep tabs on, Google Alerts is that way to go.

6. Yahoo Answers / Google Answers
How about finding out what sort of questions people are already asking about your subject?  How powerful would it be to be able to answer those questions with a quick video, special report or other content that gets people to your site?  You can check out Yahoo Answers and do just that.  If someone’s asking about it there, other people in your market or viewing your  content online are probably wondering the same thing.  And even if some of the questions are closed, they can still be good fodder for coming up with content ideas.  The same goes for Google Answers…a good source for ideas.  But it’s been closed for some time now, so you won’t find any new questions being asked there.  Depending no how fast things change in your market, that might be a show-stopper for using this site.

7. YouTube, etc.
Checking out the top-viewed videos in your market on YouTube or other video sharing sites can give you some great ideas for what people are looking for and what’s of interest right now in your market.  And of course, if you can’t find ANY videos in your market, that might be a warning sign that there’s just not that much interest.  See what’s popular, who’s creating that content, and what else they’re up to.

8. Big-Boards.com / Forums
A lot of people bash on forums, but I think you’re absolutely NUTS if you’re not tapping in to these valuable research sources.  You definitely want to find forums where people are talking about your topic (either forums you already know about, that you find on Google, or through a site like big-boards.com).  Much like Yahoo Answers, you can get a good idea of what’s on people’s minds right here and now.  Not only that, but you can provide useful answers and content for people.  If you see the same question coming up over and over, why not create a free special report or other high-value content that answers that question?  Then add that to your signature and offer it for free, or to build your optin list.

Bonus Tip: Use RSS feeds or email updates to stay on top of all these sites
You’re going to find a LOT of sources as you’re searching online.  One of the easiest ways to keep tabs on all these great sources is to subscribe to each site’s RSS feed (hopefully they have one available…nearly any blogs do and many forums do too).  For other sites, see if there’s a way to sign up for email updates.  The point is to be able to get updates PUSHED to you, rather than you having to go out to each site periodically to see what’s new.

Coming Soon…
We’ll go over what to do with all these great ideas and how to keep everything organized in a future article so you can maximize the use of your content.

In the meantime, do you have  any favorite research sites?  Leave a comment below…

~Kenton Newby

Quality Website Themes - Low, Low Prices

Need a professional website theme on a budget? Try ThemeForest. I use this service when I need a low-cost layout for one of my projects. They're all made by skilled designers and you'll find themes for Wordpress and other CMSs or just plain old HTML/CSS themes.

More Info & Previews ==> ThemeForest Website Themes