Blogging can be tough!

Creating the type of content that attracts an audience and is extensively shared is challenging.

Finding ideas to blog about is not everyone's cup of tea.

Writer's block does not make matters any easier.

So, how do you find inspiration for your next blog post? Are there tools or resources you can utilize?

In this article, we look at some of the ways and tools that can be handy as your resource for inspiration for your upcoming blog post.

Here are some of the ways to find inspiration for your next blog post:

Use Pinterest

Launched in 2011, Pinterest connects network users sharing common interests. Over the years, the platform has undergone immense changes.

Pinterest combines tons of information, guides, and ideas that you can tap into to act as inspiration for your next blog post.

Are you into baking and cooking?

Interested in architecture and design?

Organizing a party?

Planning a trip?

Intending to start a new do-it-yourself project?

Pinterest has it all!

This platform is a goldmine of content ideas because it is home to both problems and solutions. In most instances, it hosts all the audience data that you require to kickstart your blog post.

For instance, let us say your blog is about homesteading. If you have challenges finding inspiration for your next blog post on homesteading, all you need to do is head to Pinterest and on the search box type ''homesteading.''

Right off the bat, the platform will show you topics related to homesteading that are most searched.

Once you get these topics, you can use them as your guide to come up with posts for your blog.

Use Quora

One of the motherships of all answers is Quora. This question and answer based platform are highly collaborative.

This popular platform has rich information on almost everything. All you need to do is type your niche in the search box and Quora will present a series of questions touching on the same.

For instance, I typed the keyword, ''social media marketing'' and got bombarded with a host of questions on the keyword.

I could then come up with a blogpost that provides answers to some of the top questions.

The rule of thumb is to answer questions with a higher number of follows.

Use BuzzSumo

Another highly effective tool when it comes to coming up with content ideas is BuzzSumo.

Once you input a keyword on the tool, it gives you countless pages of content curated using those keywords. It comes with a list of most popular and relevant results followed by lesser popular ones.

It works just like Google Search. So what feature makes it stand out from the rest?

In addition to giving you content ideas, BuzzSumo displays the number of shares for every content over various social media platforms. Through this, you can understand which content performs better across various platforms.

Consider Google Trends

With services or tools like Google Trends, you can be able to discover the topics that people are searching for. Most importantly, this platform enables you to not only analyze trends but also see what people's interests in certain topics spike.

When a particular term spikes in relation to other searches, Google classifies or terms it as 'trend.'

The best part about Google Trends is that signing up with Google is not necessary. All you need to do is visit the platform for trendy stories.

Adjacent to every title is small graphs that reveal the specific hours that traffic surged for related searches.

With Google Trends, you can do the following:

• Remain on the latest search trends
• Thoroughly research on the popularity of a keyword over time
• Find out related topics and keywords
• Segment your results based on YouTube, news, and web searches
• Explore certain periods of regions or time

Research Competitor Blogs

Regardless of what you blog about, there is bound to countless other blogs blogging about the same thing. Actually, some of your competitors could be your reason to join a certain niche. So why not allow inspiration to stop there?

Use your competitor's blog posts to inspire you on what to pen about.

In fact, by studying your competition, you can find missing gaps in their content. Alternatively, you can choose to write about the same content with your competition but do it in a different way or curate more in-depth content.

Other Strategies

Review Blog Comments

One of the most underplated ways of generating content is through blog comments. Additionally, you can pass through the email responses that you readers send your way.

If you cannot find blog comments in your niche, then you can offer to handle guest posts for sites with solid traffic. The other alternative is to get interviewed from other sites. Doing this not only gives you authority but also enables you to find inspiration from the feedback derived.

Check on Forums

You can never go wrong with blog post ideas than with forums. By combing through the forums, you can get plenty of ideas touching on your next blog post or series of posts. With a little imagination and some tweaks, you can formulate some unique and shareable ideas for your posts.

Consider Twitter

Are you on Twitter? You can use what they are tweeting about as inspiration for your upcoming blogging post.

Hot trending topics on Twitter can be handy in giving you ideas about what to blog about.

For instance, if your blog is about the latest happenings in your country or region, you can take advantage of the breaking news on the platform as an inspiration for your upcoming post.

In addition to using this platform as inspiration, it can also be handy for the promotion of your posts.

Use Polls or Surveys

Polls or surveys are handy when it comes to helping you gather valuable information about your next blog post.

If you have been blogging for some time and have built an audience, you should consider asking them what they would you to blog about.

Make maximum use of Google Forms to create a simple poll or survey. Many other tools are available for your utilization.

The rule of thumb is to keep the poll or survey as simple as possible.

Summary

Blogger burnout is common among bloggers. Most bloggers grapple with coming up with ideas for the next blog posts.

If you are one of them, there are ways and tools that can be magical in inspiring you with some ideas to help you curate informational, valuable, and shareable content.

The above are just some of them.

Happy blogging!