10 Great Ways to Generate New Content Creation Ideas
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The days of the static web page are dead. I would go as far as to tell you that if you have a Web 1.0 static website, whatever it is costing you is wasting your money. In this day and age of the World Wide Web, content creation is king. Which means you need new content creation ideas. If you aren't consistently creating and adding value with new content, your site is not going to be found, and you are never going to engage your audience. It’s that simple.
But coming up with new content on a daily, or even a weekly basis can be a chore. You may even think that your business does not lend itself well to new content creation. Some days, or even weeks, content creation ideas seem to be nowhere in site. You may refer to it as writers block, or you may just think you are too busy to come up with good content creation ideas.
But, if you want any success in your online marketing efforts you need to be adding new and valuable information all the time. You are now in the publishing business. Even if you hire a content creation company to write your content, it is your business and you are the expert. You need to take some responsibility for the content creation ideas your writers or web consultant use.
Here are 10 quick ways to come up with new fresh content creation ideas that you can use any time you are stuck.
1. Scour Social Media Sites for Questions people are asking.
What better way is there to come up with new content than to answer questions that people are already asking? You are already involved in social media (you are, right?), find out what people are looking for, and then help them out. What better content is there than content people are already asking for?
2. Listen to the News
Are there any recent news stories out there that relate to your industry? Write a commentary on one view of the issue or another. Respond to someone else’s blog topic on the subject. Create a video response. If the topic is hot, jump on it, and you might even manage to get some viral traction.
3. Create an Infographic
Does your industry lend itself well to statistics? Are there certain steps to a process that your business uses every day? Infographics are simply images that illustrate statistics or
other data in a graphical way. These are hot right now, and if you can illustrate some interesting information, they are likely to go viral.
4. Comment on Other Blogs
That’s right, commenting on other peoples blogs is considered content creation. But only if you leave a thoughtful and appropriate response, so add to the conversation, don’t spam. Read blogs and articles in your industry and get involved in the conversation.
5. Write a Response Blog Entry to a Blog
Did you find that your comment on another blog was not enough to convey your opinion? Or maybe you got so riled up at someone’s blog entry you need to post contrary opinion. Reading other blogs in your industry is a great way to come up with content creation ideas.
6. Turn a Blog Entry into a Video
Take one of your old blog entries or articles, and turn it into a video. You can either talk on camera, or you can create a power point presentation and record it that way. While you are at it, upload your power point presentation to one of the Slideshare sites. And create a podcast with just your voice. Re-purposing existing content is a great way to create new content based on what you have.
7. Interview an Expert
Chances are, if you have been in your industry for a while you know a few experts. Here is a chance to interview them, and create some fresh content. Or, if you don't know any experts, maybe that makes you the expert, so have someone interview you. You can turn this interview into videos, pod-casts, articles, reports, blog entries and more.
8. Teach Something
Many people are worried that if they teach their clients too much, they won't hire you. This usually isn't true since most people are too busy to add anything new to their schedule. You can teach your readers how to better utilize your product, or solve a simple project on their own. Or, you can teach them how to do something complicated, and then later explain how your product or service makes it much easier.
9. Let Others Create Content For You.
Some of your best content can come from your own clients and visitors to your site. You should make sure that your blog is easy to comment on, but there are other content creation ideas you can use here as well. Ask for guest bloggers to write on your blog. Or get your customers to share stories or testimonials. My wife owns a craft company that does tutorials, her customers send her pictures of completed projects all the time that she can post to her blog. User content can also include surveys and polls.
10. Curate
Blog curation is getting extremely popular. Sites like perezhilton.com and huffingtonpost.com are worth millions of dollars, and they do nothing more than curate. Curation is simply taking content from other blogs, adding it to your own, and then commenting on it. There is a bit of a trick to this, and you want to make sure to give proper credit to the source of the blog, but it can be an extremely valuable tool. An example of a curated blog might be “The Best 5 Blog Posts about Using Widgets for <some aspect of your business>”. Take a snipped of each blog (with proper attribution), and make a comment as to why you liked it.
There are literally hundreds of new ways to generate content creation ideas for your small business website. The biggest thing you need to do is stay alert for what is going on around you. And remember, content creation goes way beyond blog posts to videos, pod-casts, reports, webinars, eBooks, comments, social media and so much more.
You should set some consistent time every month to think about your content creation ideas for the month. The easiest way to do it is to remove distractions, get a pen and paper and just start writing. Most importantly, don't beat yourself up if you can't come up with any new ideas right away. Just be observant, and any time you get a new thought about some potential content, write it down.
What are some of your best ideas for coming up with new content? Enter them in the comment area below.
Content is king. You have heard it before, but as more and more businesses come online, and Google and the other search engines get stricter in their rules, it gets to be more important. Start implementing these content creation ideas today.
One of the best things you can do in order to create new content on a consistent basis, is to start a blog. Download our Power of Blogging E-Book for Free and get started as soon as tonight.
