What To Do When You Are Stuck - 5 Great Ways To Get Ideas On What To Write On Steemit ...… Plus A Special Bonus For You
Have you spent hours thinking day and night about what to write on Steemit?
If you don't have a century's worth of life experiences like @stellabelle :), OR can't consistently churn out great posts like @donkeypong and @cryptocotopus, OR haven't traveled far and wide as @anwenbaumeister ...............
You need a strategy.
A strategy that would help you write stuff you love and also earn you some appreciation from others.
It is to consistently create good posts that people would relate to.
However, a major problem arises : What To Write?
Here are 5 tips that help me generate ideas on what to write.
Write 10 Ideas Every Day
I've been a huge fan of James Altucher ever since I read his article on how to become an idea machine. His recommendation of writing 10 ideas every day has been found to be very effective by hundreds of people.
Here are a few steps:
- Read a few articles or books.
- Get a piece of paper or a notebook for this.
- Write 10 ideas on anything.
If you do this consistently every day, you will have written at least 300 ideas a month. Now, unless you're writing machine like @stellabelle who wrote 2-3 articles every day for 2 weeks, you can't possibly write on all of the ideas.
But choose the best out of them and you will have gotten yourself a rich trove of ideas to choose from.
Go Through The Comments Sections Of Posts That Have Been Appreciated By Others.
One of the amazing features of the steemit community is the abundance of intellectuals. And they make a lot of insightful comments. If you're someone like @kenny-crane who has commented on hundreds of posts, I'm sure you will have noticed some salient questions that are begging for answers. Questions you can make research on or build on to create a very helpful post.
For example, @tuck-fheman made a post by reading and creating a response to @arcaneinfo comment.
Read. A lot. Always Be Learning
Writers are good readers. A good aggregation app like Feedly is all you need. Currently, I subscribe to over 100 blogs and it takes me less than 30 mins to browse through the major headlines. You just might be the first to catch a trending news and write on it (Like I did here).
Or you discover an amazing post you can relate to and write from your own perspective.
Get Disconnected
Here's a great explanation I found by Neil.
Creativity gurus explain how, from a scientific perspective, our best ideas come when we’re totally disconnected from our work. It could be when you’re jogging, showering, or waking up in the morning.
Just make sure you have a notepad nearby to jot down those ideas when they drop in. For example, @stellabelle said she got the idea for her futuristic post while walking on the street. She quickly had to run into a building to get those ideas down.
Use Tools That Help You Generate Ideas
Here are my favorite ones:
AnswerThePublic.com
I discovered this tool earlier this year and it's been an amazing resource ever since. AnswerThePublic is an aggregation tool for Google and Bing searches about a keyword. To put it in simple terms, it curates what people want to know about a particular topic. A goldmine of data.
For example, I used this tool to get what people wanted to learn about Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies and I used that data to create a curated guide for crypto-newbies. Another amazing feature of this tool is that you can have these public searches visualized in a mind map form.
To use this tool: Head over to AnswerThePublic.com and type in your niche or an idea you have. Click the Get Questions and you have a trove of public "wants" to work with.
Mindmap
A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words, and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those.
I started using mindmaps when I was planning to write my first book. Ever since I've found them to be highly useful in putting your ideas down and also generating new ones.
A popular one for PCs is Mindmeister. You can search your app store for a simple to use mindmap app. Or You can just stick to Pen and Paper like I mostly do.
Buzzsumo
If Knowledge is Power ….Then Buzzsumo is the Ultimate Power Tool.
A content analyzing tool, Buzzsumo generates, on demand, the most shared content about a particluar topic. That is, you can know the contents people have previously appreciated and why they love it.
Hubspot Blog Ideas Generator
Made by Hubspot, this generator auto-generates blog post ideas based on the keywords you input.
Conclusion
There you have it. Having a solid system of creating blog post ideas is necessary for having a successful blog.
The 5 tips listed above will help you in formulating content ideas when you need them. I hope you found them helpful. Now, you know what to do when you get stuck ;)
SPECIAL BONUS
To make this more interesting, I reached out to some top writers on Steemit. Each of them has got an amazing way of creating content ideas on topics they love. I hope you found their tips helpful.
(@donkeypong @stellabelle, @cryptoctopus @benjojo @anwenbaumeister @gavvet )
They will be making their comments below (as soon as they are online) detailing a few steps/tips on how they get ideas.
Do you have a special way of creating content ideas? I would love to read how you generate ideas for your posts too.
This is a GREAT article, very accurate and helpful. Since I started on Steemit, I've had a ton of ideas for articles every day. Most of them aren't very good, but if they have some promise, I write them down. Sometimes, this means opening my phone and sending myself an e-mail with the latest idea. A few key words will be enough for me to remember it, but if I do not write it down I will forget it.
I also read a lot, as @infovore suggests. Often, some news story or article will trigger a thought or a memory in my mind. Or I might spot a connection that I think others would find useful or interesting.
Then I start writing. Sometimes, the article goes in a very different direction from what I had planned, but that kind of transformation is good.
There are so many ideas in my head for Steemit posts that I do not get to all of them. I have given away some of my ideas to other writers or split articles with other writers-collaborators. If you are a writer and want to discuss collaborations, feel free to contact me directly on Slack.
When one idea isn't working, it's also important to drop it or delete it, and then move on. I have gotten so hung up on one concept before, trying without any luck to develop it, before I finally realize that it's been a block for everything else. If an idea doesn't fit, eliminate it or move it to another file that you save for another day. And then focus intently on developing the part that feels right.
I liked the part where you advised that one must kill the half work if it is not going great. People have a deep attachment to investment cost. What I mean to say that people try to create reasons in their mind as to how they have invested their time and why they should not leave it unfinished. Same behavior leads to so many losses in stock market.
People need to be educated about opportunity cost. By people I mean myself too. I belong to those awesome humans who are great at preaching but not practicing what they preach themselves.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
WOW. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this. Super insightful. I love the email trick. I usually just carry a notepad wherever I go.
I love this article! Lets get the creativity steeming :-)
Here are my top ways that I generate ideas for a post:
Steem on and lets inspire each other through our exchange and collaboration of ideas!
Thanks so much for the compliment. You rock. I probably should start listening to some audio files too. I've always had a bias for texts but I could use some podcasts for my transit time too.
I'm glad you took the time to write this.
This is a great post, where is the SAVE button!
I pretty much just have a google doc where I write ideas down for later, and then expand upon the ones I feel like I want to tackle first. Then I strikethrough them as they are published.
It all ends up being quite random, though.
My biggest concern is consistency, as recommended by @stellabelle herself. I need to write and publish more often. That's part of what I want to get out of Steemit anyway, to get me motivated to writing more. If I earn a bit, that's a real bonus. It's more than I was getting anyway!
Thanks for the compliment. I never thought of Google doc. I've been using Microsoft OneNote for years to organize my ideas. I should try Doc one of these days.
You're right. Consistency is truly the key. And it's part of those things I've benefited from being on Steemit.
As suggested above, my most successful post are always when I am writing about things I understand and know well.
Thanks @gavvet . I always enjoy your posts. Short and concise. Today's post was awesome as usual.
Infovore, you have a way of bringing people and ideas together that I find admirable.
I'm not a great writer or researcher but I'll do my best to share my perspective.....
Steemit is my first blogging experience and it was the desire to earn additional SP, to actively contribute to the culture/character of Steemit in a positive way and to use ideas to boost the adoption and success of Steemit that motivated me to start creating posts. I am intensely passionate about improving the world which naturally touches upon a huge number of topics; religion, war, environment, technology, health, censorship, politics, poverty, money etc. But all the discussion in the world will not help us unless we have a system that can be trusted. Steem and Steemit may be that system so my passion for improving the world makes me passionate for Steemit. This guides my creativity such as it is.
I found learning how to create a meme worked.....it's so easy. Just find a free meme generator online, then you can use free stock images or upload something from your own library and create a meme.
Also, you can create images for tags within Steemit by using photo editors, some of which can overlay the Steem logo onto your image. I enjoyed using these kinds of posts because images are an excellent way to rapidly communicate ideas and don't take too long to create once you work it out. Imgsafe.org is also very good at hosting your images for Steemit until the file storage protocol is implemented in Steem.
For all the memes and images i've made, I've either got an idea for what I want to communicate already and I'm searching for the right image, or I'm looking at images and the idea for what it communicates (in relation to a subject) pops out at me. I think there's a lot of value in quickly digestible posts in steemit.
Content of all shapes and sizes have value and there are posts with value that haven't yet gained the recognition they perhaps deserve. Just keep creating, voting and commenting.....participate positively and hopefully the rewards will come. Value is subjective. Connecting with even a single person may have untold significance.
Good luck!
Wow. This is awesome. You really are a great writer :) . I'm so glad you took the time to write this. You really should write more, Ben. You know you've got a loyal fan of your works in me.
Once again, thanks for the tips.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom. Will try memes. I have not been using it.
Thanks a lot @infovore, I like your writing style. I am a fan of James Altucher too and I can see that you too keep your paragraphs very short like him. You asking others to share their tips in the comments helped a lot. Went through them and learned a thing or two. Your posts are great. I am not having any luck here still. I guess I need to put a lot more hard work. People like you create that hope which makes me keep trying here. I will have to lift my game. Again, thanks a lot for sharing. See you around.
Thanks for the post, very helpful !