Need Blog Post Ideas? Here’s an Easy Way

Boxes.

Boxes.

Boxes.

You’re up to your eyeballs in boxes.

Chances are if you’ve ever moved into a new place, you’ve dealt with more boxes of stuff than you care to shake a stick at.

But hey, did you move all those boxes yourself?

I bet you didn’t.

Chances are you asked some friends for help, right?

The same concept applies to capturing ideas for your blog posts. You don’t have to do all the heavy lifting. In fact, it might be smart not to. When it comes time to generate new blog post ideas, you can, um, ask for help.

Yeah, I know. You might think it’s kinda crazy to ask for help if you’re supposed to be the expert. It’s tempting to think that, you, the “expert,” have to come up with all the ideas for the content on your blog. But consider this:

In my experience, and as you reflect on your experience, too, most people enjoy:

1. Sharing their points of view with you, and;

2. Seeing you succeed when you implement their ideas

So, yeah, you may feel a bit awkward asking for help at first. But think about your customers. Get their input for future articles and you’ll be on “Easy Street” when it comes time to publish relevant and meaningful articles for your audience.

And your audience is more than just customers. Besides your customers, you can get new article ideas from:

• Vendors;

• Internal clients;

• Potential clients;

• Strategic partners;

• Employees.

Your list will vary, of course, so go ahead and add your ideas to mine.

But unlike moving (where you’d better schedule that friend with the pickup truck in advance), getting ideas from the people on your list is a lot easier. And the timing can be more flexible, too.

Speaking of timing, when’s a good time to ask someone for their ideas?

Asking for help on new ideas can happen anywhere, anytime. Lunches, e-mails, phone conversations, meetings are just a few of the places new ideas for blog posts can be generated.

So far, so good.

You know you are free to ask for help. Check.

You know a few folks to ask. Check.

You know when to ask. Check.

Ok, now it’s time to put this show on the road.

15 blog post ideas in 15 minutes?

Think I’m joking?

Not a chance.

You can do it in three steps and, um, three boxes.

Let’s say you’re at lunch with a customer. When you feel there’s a natural break in the conversation, that’s a perfect time to ask for their ideas.

Step 1. Draw a box on a piece of paper

This box will be one broad topic area you’re comfortable writing about.

For example, your broad topic could be “Writing.” Hey, if writing isn’t your focus, maybe it’s “leadership,” “teamwork,” customer response times,” or “employee engagement.”

Step 2. Make a numbered list from 1 to 5 in the box

Ask your customer for five ideas related to “writing” that they want to know about.

For example, your customer may want to know:

1. What are your favorite online writing tips?

2. How to write for employees?

3. Where can they learn more about writing for blogs?

4. Why is writing online different from writing offline?

5. What are your favorite writing blogs?

Step 3. Pick one topic to write about

Out of the five topic areas, pick one and write about it.

That’s your first box with five ideas.

So there you go. That’s five blog post ideas in five minutes

Now go and do the same thing with two more people. Then you’ll have a total of three boxes.

Shazam! Now you have 15 new post ideas and all it took was 15 minutes.

Let’s summarize:

There are two ways to capturing new ideas for your blog posts or articles:

1. There’s the hard way: You can do all the work yourself.

2. Then there’s the easy way: Ask for help.

Asking for help is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

All you need are:

1. People to share some ideas

2. 15 minutes

3. Three boxes to capture those ideas

So yeah, the next time you’re speaking with a customer, vendor or teammate, casually ask them for things they would want to know more about.

Um, you didn’t think twice about asking for help when you moved, right?

Right. So go ahead and ask for help when you need new blog post ideas.

Hey, you don’t need a gazillion boxes. Three boxes are all you need.

Oh, yeah. And the best part of it all?

Those three boxes are full of ideas that your network actually wants to see, since they suggested them.

Thomas Clifford is a Fast Company “Expert Blogger,” speaker, three-time co-author for the “Age of Conversation” book series and an award-winning multimedia producer. In 2010 and 2009, Tom was awarded Hartford Business Journal’s Strateg-e Award for “Best Use of Blogs.” Reach him through his blog at directortom.com. Tom’s popular LinkedIn article, “17 Invisible Tricks Revealed” and “How to Detect Gobbledygook in Your Content” can be found on his blog. You can follow Tom on Twitter at @ThomasClifford.