5 Foolproof Ways to Come Up with Blog Post Ideas

It's Fri-YAY! And as you may have noticed, there's some new things going around over here! ;) I've had this new design in the works for so long, and now it's a reality and I could not be happier with it. I've been working with an absolutely incredible designer for about a month to bring a vision I had for my site to reality, and Stephanie did just that! I find myself coming to my blog just to look at the design, for reals. ;)
As one of my business-related resolutions for the New Year, I've been working extra hard at doing something I know a lot of us struggle with: pre-writing content and getting things done ahead of time. I'm the first to admit that I'm extremely guilty of finishing and perfecting content the night before it goes live, and sometimes even the morning of! It's stressful, and blogging shouldn't be stressful. Not in my eyes, anyway. Now, creating content is much easier said than done. If you're a blogger yourself, you know just how much goes into a blog post. Drafting it, writing and editing, taking photos, proof reading, promoting it, etc. It's a long process, but when it's something you're proud of it's super rewarding! Sometimes brainstorming doesn't come easy (I know I have days where I draw blank after blank!) so I've come up with a game plan to help never run out of content, and here's how:
Look to your analytics. I've said it before and I'll say it again - looking to your blogs analytics is ridiculously helpful when you're brainstorming for new blog posts! You can bounce off of your own ideas based on what works best with your audience. My best performing post to date is 10 Ways to Decorate Like Joanna Gaines; so when I'm feeling stuck, I'll usually work on a post in a similar format or topic. In this post by Jenny from Breakfast at Lillys, she talks a bit about planning blog content and Learning to understand your analytics is so important and on top of that, even more helpful!

Search through your Pinterest feed. Scrolling endlessly through Pinterest and pinning pretty kitchens, delicious desserts and fun DIY beauty tutorials is fun and all, but you could be using this to your advantage - big time! 98% of the time that I'm stuck on editorial planning, I look to Pinterest. Your home feed can help you see what's trending and what people are looking for, and you can come up with lots of ideas from what similar accounts are pinning on any given day.

Make a spreadsheet of topics and ideas. Use Excel or Google Sheets (I *love* Google Sheets!) to create a spreadsheet for yourself filled with post ideas. I break mine down by niche and make a column for each. Whenever you have an idea no matter how broad, you can write it in and expand on it later. I'm always adding ideas to my spreadsheet that I can expand on later and when I plan each month's editorial calendar, I look to my spreadsheet to fill in any gaps and to make sure that I space things out too.

Look through magazine articles. Some of your favorite magazines are some of the best places to go when you need more posting ideas! There's so many different types of magazines, and in each are different trending things. Celebrity style, trending nail polish colors, decorating with the color of the year, etc. Magazines almost always give me lots of inspiration and when you have ideas, you can usually bounce off of those to make even more posts.

Look through your blog post comments. You'd be amazed at how many ideas you can get from your readers' comments! Check them out and read comments from others on the blogs you comment on, too. Whether you're asked a question in a comment, or maybe someone's answering a question you asked in the post - there's always ideas.

One of the first things I thought about when I started this blog was, "how am I never going to run out of blog post ideas?!" And it's a common question from new bloggers too - but there really is *no* way to run out... There's so many ways to create new posts, re-purpose good ideas and find new things to talk about. The most important part is having fun with it! ;)
What do you do to come up with more blog post ideas?
XOXO