EPP 136: 5 Content Creation Ideas To Help You Get Unstuck

In this week’s episode of the Extra Paycheck Podcast we’re talking about content creation ideas for your business.

Also available on: iTunes | Stitcher | Tunein | Google Play | YouTube

If you’ve been creating content for any amount of time you probably know the struggle. Writing an article whenever you feel inspired sure sounds like a great idea. However you know that in order to succeed you need to create original content consistently.

Regardless if you decide to post once a day. once a week or even once a month – eventually you’ll get to a point where you feel like you simply ran out of content ideas. You’ll waste the whole day trying to brainstorm the subject of your newest article and then you’ll go to bed. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are several things you can do that will help you get unstuck. Let’s get you creative juices flowing once again!

Revisit Old Content

Most of your older posts can use an update. Regardless of your niche things change with time. Industry evolves, you change your ways completely or you simply change your mind about certain subjects. That could be a perfect reason to look at some of your older content that did well and turn it into new content.

In 2015 I wrote this very detailed How To Start A Podcast Guide. I was (and still am) very proud of this 7,000+ word article. However not even 2 years later I had to write a new version of this article. In 2017 I published the Complete Guide to Starting A Podcast. The new guide was also about 7,000 words long and took a while to write but it had to be done. I was using completely different gear at this point, I was recording differently, I was editing differently and I even changed things on the technical side (RSS Feed and such). I had to let my readers know about all the updates.

You can (and should) do that to your old content as well. Think of the major changed in your industry, things of all the new products and new strategies that are more relevant today.

Return to Basics

As your business grows so does your level of expertise. Let’s say your niche website concentrates on electric guitars. You’ve probably reviewed all popular guitars in your blog and have been only posting about pedals and other auxiliary equipment for the past year. Have you thought of beginners to this hobby who aren’t going to buy the pedals any time soon? Their biggest concern is actually selecting their very first guitar for under $500. This is your chance to go back to basics and write up a list of best beginner guitars.

This might feel like you’re going backwards but in reality you’re simply helping the beginners. Do a good job with this basic article and you just might earn a life-long fan who will buy all of his equipment through your affiliate links. When trying to come up with “basic” content think of questions such as: “What would I do differently if I was to start over” or “If I knew back then what I know now”.

Break it Down

Readers (and listeners, and viewers) like bite-sized content. Although you might be inspired to write the world’s longest blog post (after hearing about my 7,000 podcasting guide) there might be a better way to do things. That super long blog post can probably be broken into a series.

Instead of writing a blog post on how to build a perfect road-race bicycle you can write 5 different blog posts: “How to find the best bike frame for your height”, “How to find the best set of wheels for a racing bike”, “How to select the best saddle for your racing bike” and so on.

This will allow you to create many separate blog posts that will probably go even more in-depth into each of these subjects. Besides being able to create more pieces of content you’ll also be able to get your site visitors to come back to your site so they could get the other parts of your series. This can also be done with videos or even podcasts.

A while ago I had Dom Wells from Human Proof Designs on my podcast and instead of packing everything into 1 episode we ended up recording 2 separate parts: Earning A Living From Niche Websites and Selling Done-For-You Niche Websites. Break it down.

Interview the Experts

You are certainly an expert in your niche. However, you’re most likely concentrating on only very specific things that relate to your business or your own interests. There are many other experts in your industry that spend their time on completely different tasks. It is a great idea to reach out to these people and ask them for advice or an interview. Ask them what their clients are talking about. Ask them about their own struggles, fails and wins.

Reaching out to such experts over email is a good way however I would also suggest attending local meetups and networking events. This way you can meet a lot of people in your industry in a single day and create new contacts that will inspire you with new content ideas for years to come.

Ask Your Audience

This might seem like an obvious advice but a lot of people skip this step. You are building your email list, right? Reach out to this list and offer to answer their questions. Hold a Q&A session on your Facebook page. Encourage your blog readers to send in their questions. Chances are lots of folks in your audience struggle with the same issues. Offering your advice will help you understand these issues better and hopefully solve them in your future blog posts.

Keep track of these questions and you’ll be able to come up with a lot of new content.

Scroll up and press the PLAY button to hear the full episode.

Also available on: iTunes | Stitcher | Tunein | Google Play | Mixcloud

Don’t forget to check out the 6 Ways To Find Great Content Ideas For Your Site.

You can subscribe to the Extra Paycheck podcast and review it on iTunes.

If you do have any comments or question, please do use the comment form below! I will answer every single one

– Alex