How to: get ideas for blog posts (+ blog post ideas!)

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Today we’re talking about getting ideas for blog posts! Finding ideas for posts can be hard. It’s something that I think all bloggers struggle with and is definitely one of the hardest parts of blogging. I’m (obviously) by no means an expert, but these are some of the things I do to get ideas and inspiration.

Quick disclaimer: I’m not trying to say that I’m an expert or the best at this, by any means. These are honestly just things I’ve found work for me, and that I wanted to know when I started my blog.

Past Top Ten Tuesday or Top 5 Wednesday topics

Did you miss a TTT topic? Or was there a topic you wanted to go more in-depth about? Use that for a discussion post, or for a more in-depth list post! I’ve done this for a ton of posts. There was a past T5W post about your favourite settings, so I did a whole discussion on my favourite settings and settings I’d like to see more of. There was a Top 5 Tuesday topic about books you don’t talk about enough, so I used that as a discussion post too. Make sure you credit where you got the idea from, especially if it’s something as obvious as that!

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Questions in tags

I love tags and sometimes there are questions in tags where I could write a whole post about my answer. So, I do. I write down the question and write all my answers and then post that later. Like, a tag recently asked for a book I thought would make a good movie. Now I have a whole post drafted about books that would make good movies. If there’s a topic that you’re interested in, make a note of it for later.

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Goodreads

So Goodreads has a lot of features people sometimes don’t know about (see my post on how to use Goodreads like a pro for more info!). On your shelves, you can organize by number of ratings, number of pages, average rating, publication date. Play around with those and see if there’s a topic you want to talk about. I have a couple posts of the shortest/longest books on my TBR, or the books on my TBR with the lowest overall rating.

You can also look at your reading stats, designate which books you own, and get recommendations! You can use these as inspiration for posts, if there’s anything interesting.

Other people’s posts

Honestly, if someone does a post you find interesting, use it as inspiration. Don’t be worried about using someone’s idea, but also don’t steal it.

Make sure you give credit where credit is due. Even if the post isn’t 100% the same, just saying “this post was inspired by [blogger]” and linking to their post really means a lot. Honestly, whenever I get a pingback to a post and the person says their post was inspired by my post, it means the world to me.

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Keep a note of every post idea you have!

I have a note on my phone and laptop for post ideas.Even if I think they’re dumb, I write them down so I remember and I can decide later. That way I always have an idea at the very least.

Also, something that might seem dumb to you might be really interesting to someone else. Being totally honest, I was super hesitant about posting my The Types of Reviewers post, because I thought it was so stupid. I was like “no one will find it funny, someone might be offended, it’s such a dumb idea” but I posted it anyways, and it’s been my most successful post ever, by a lot. So, even if you think something is dumb, post it anyway. Or ask people on Twitter if they’d find it interesting.

You also never know when inspiration will hit. It happens to me all the time in the car (honestly, all the time). Having a note on your phone makes it easy to jot down these sudden bursts of inspiration.

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Use monthly themes!

For example, June is Pride, or February is African-American History. So for June, you could do recommendations for books that include LGBTQ+ characters, books on your TBR by LGBTQ+ authors, or your favourite book covers of LGBTQ+ books. Essentially, whatever post you would normally write, but consistent with the monthly theme.

If you’re stuck for ideas, here are some good go-tos! I tried to make these generic, so you could do them multiple times but with different books/themes/etc.

• Favourite books in [genre]
• Books that have been on your TBR the longest/books you own but still haven’t read
• The longest/shortest books you own/have read/want to read
• Recommendations for the different Hogwarts houses
• Books you want to see made into movies/fancasts for your favourite books
• Throwback posts: your favourite childhood author, series, book, reading memory, book to read for school, etc.
• Favourite covers with [colour] on them
• Favourite book titles
• Books with the most ratings on Goodreads that you want to read
• Books you’re taking on vacation
• Books you want to read in the summer/over winter break/with a friend
• Favourite authors, or favourite books by your favourite authors
• Favourite characters from the last five books you read
• The weirdest books you’ve read
• Series you still need to finish
• Favourite book quotes

Remember, not all posts have to be long, thought out posts. You could just do one of book covers you find pretty, or talking about two books that you read recently. Not every post has to be The Perfect Post.

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So those are some of my tips for where to get inspiration for posts! Where do you get inspiration? What was the weirdest place you were when you got a post idea? Let me know!

If there’s anything you want me to cover, let me know and I can do my best!

Thanks for reading! xx