In order to be a successful blogger, you have to be able to consistently produce content that people like. In order to do that, you have to constantly be looking for fresh ideas and new takes on previous topics. For those who have run into a brick wall with respect to new ideas, the process can be infuriating and debilitating for your long-term content strategy. The great thing about the web is that there is a multitude of opinions and viewpoints out there that can help us think in new and exciting ways. If your content production has ground to a halt and you need some inspiration for new ideas, then continue reading to discover three great options that’ll help you get to blogging again.

Spy on Your Competitors

There is virtually zero chance that you do not have competitors to worry about in any niche or area of blogging. Whether you compete against them financially or not is another story, but their footprints on the web can be tracked just as easily as anyone else’s. Whether they have a blog alone or social media accounts in addition to their blog, you can use this as a way to start pinging your website with fresh content. Start out by seeing what take they have on a variety of similar subjects. From there, inspect what their readers are saying about it on the blog directly or on social media. Various perspectives and commentary can be a great way to initiate fresh ideas, and who is more likely to be thinking like you than your competition?

Research Keywords

This is something that many bloggers already do in order to rank better in search, but keyword research and analysis can produce other benefits for writers as well. By using a tool such as Google AdWords and its built-in Keyword Planner, you can take existing keywords that you target and perform searches to expand your horizons. This will produce a list of associated terms that you may have overlooked in the past. Nestled in some of these terms will be inspiration for new ideas and new angles on existing topics that you have overlooked. Perhaps the quickest way to jump-start the flow of ideas in order to create new content, we highly recommend using keyword analysis in this capacity to improve your flow.

Pay Attention to Your Comments

Whether you allow comments on your blog or have a social media presence (or both), there is much to be learned and gleaned from the comments of others. While one person may be weighing in on a current event or idea directly related to the blog post, there is always the possibility that their perspective gives you a fresh idea to go with in a different direction. Likewise, blog replies and social media threads tend to “go off the rails” more often than not, which presents the perfect opportunity to tangentially explore alternate concepts. Your readers will tell you what they’re interested in, if you’ll only listen. You can then take this content and start pinging your website with new ideas and variations on old ones that will please them.