How to choose topics for blog

Once upon a time, I had no idea what to write on my blog. Coming up with blog article titles was slow and painful.

That was 10 years ago.

Now, thousands of articles later, coming up with topics is easy. Not only do I publish articles on my two blogs, but I also publish hundreds of guest posts for dozens of publications.

Wondering what happened along the way that made this process so much easier?

I'm going to pull back the curtain on how I’m able to generate so many topics, and explain what it means to choose great article topics. I think you’ll find it helpful.

4 Simple Ways to Choose the Best Blog Topics for Your Audience

1) Know your target audience.

Let me deal with first things first -- the “best possible blogging topics” are the best ones for your audience.

Everything comes down to your audience. In fact, there is nothing more important, essential, and critical to blog success than knowing your audience.

The story of my own blog is a testament to this fact. The longer I write my blog, the better I understand my audience. I read and respond to blog comments. I take time to read emails from my readers. I listen to what they have to say.

It’s safe to say that I know my blog readers. And it would be almost impossible for someone else to come in and write an article -- even a really, really good article -- that connects with my readers in the same way.

The key issue is selecting topics and writing about those topics in a way that my readers know and are familiar with. So, what’s the key to selecting the best possible topics?  

It’s simple, but not easy: Know your target audience.

One of the best ways to get to know your audience is to define that audience. If you’re just starting as a business, you get to decide who it is you want to reach and how to reach them. For established businesses, one of the best ways to know your target audience is simply to talk to them. Whether it’s online surveys or phone conversations, try to get in the mind of your users and figure out what makes them tick.

Once you get in your user’s heads, you can’t help but pick the best blogging topics.

Need help getting to know your audience better? Check out these free templates for creating buyer personas for your business.

2) Make relevance your guiding light.

I’m going to introduce a concept, and then explain how to do it: Relevancy.

Relevancy is nothing new. It’s popular to talk about relevancy and the need for relevancy in content marketing ... but hang on a second.

What the heck is relevancy? What does relevancy even mean in the context of blogging and article topics?

Here’s my answer in five (sorta) simple points:

Relevancy is focused on your audience.

Relevancy is a lot more focused than popularity. Instead, relevancy has everything to do with your specific audience. What are they interested in? What problems are they facing? What unique challenges are they trying to overcome? Trying to be relevant without defining your audience is like trying to go surfing without a surfboard and without a beach. (Refer to point one.)

Relevancy is focused on your niche. 

The narrower your niche, the better you’ll be able to define and develop relevancy. For example, if you’re in the hamster pet care niche, then a relevant article will have to do with hamster care, hamster feed, hamster health, etc. You wouldn’t publish an article on Microsoft SQL Servers on your hamster blog.

Relevancy is focused on your objectives.

Relevant topics are focused on your audience and fall within the parameters of your niche. If you want to go a step further, you need to define relevancy in relationship with your objectives. Every blog has an objective -- a goal beyond just attracting eyeballs and getting traffic. You’re trying to get something else. What is it? Conversions? Subscriptions? Identify your ultimate objective, then create articles that help to meet that objective. 

Relevancy is focused on the present time.

One feature of relevancy is its timeliness. You’re not going to be relevant if you’re dealing with old news and outdated techniques. Besides, Google prefers content that is fresh. Trending topics (and in the future, possibly current tweets) are favored in Google’s algorithm.

Relevancy is focused on solutions to problems.

Relevant content starts with needs, and develops solutions. When you can successfully solve real issues, then you’re really nailing the relevancy thing. That’s your goal.

Relevancy is important, but we must make sure that we understand relevancy if we are to come up with relevant topics.

3) Find a blog to steal from.

Someone once said, "Good artists copy. Great artists steal."

If you want to pick absolutely stellar topics, then go to the blogs that are already doing it and pilfer them. Lest you think I’m going nefarious, allow me to explain ...

I absolutely oppose anything remotely connected with stealing content or intellectual property. What I do suggest, however, is to identify a blog that is doing it right, and follow their example. Here’s the process:

Make a list of five blogs that you admire. They can be in your niche or completely outside of it.

Write down their article headlines, and repurpose them based on your own niche and audience.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you want to steal from Lifehacker. Maybe your niche is SEO, not hacking life. What do you do?

1.Find an article that’s trending.Don't pick a subject just because you see others make money writing about it.

2.Avoid writing about something you are passionate about, but very few other people are.

3.Don't base a blog on a topic you know little about or have minimal practical experience in.  

Thanks for Reading, I hope this is helpful for your blogs.Keep Reading!