Content Writing For Newbies (Keyword Research) Day 3

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Quick Research Tips for Content Ideas

When you’re pursuing an online marketing career, you know you’ll be cranking out a lot of content for your blogs, emails, product creation, lead magnets, and social media. So you want a method that can help you conduct quick research that makes the writing process super fast.

Working from an outline speeds things up, but if you have to sit there reading long blocks of text to absorb the information all day, it can be prohibitive in your productivity efforts.

In some instances, if you got into a niche where you’re oblivious about the facts, then you may need to spend more time learning the facts and little details. But if you’re reasonably familiar with your niche and are looking for ideas to work off of, this should help immensely.

One thing you may want to do is pick one day of the month or one day of the week to dedicate solely to research for content ideas. You can create your own ready made research file. That makes the rest of your task much easier because you can simply pull from this. When you sit down and write you only have to write.

Use Online Resources to Generate Content Ideas and Outlines

News sites like CNN or Fox News (or some of the smaller news sites) have daily articles posted about various niches. Don’t just look at the headlines, but instead go to some of their subcategories.

You can usually find these by scrolling down to the very bottom of the page, where you’ll find links to their latest articles on topics like travel, health, parenting, tech, gadgets, and more.

There may be a quick list of 6 or fewer links across the top of the page, but the site map or bottom area has more detail in terms of subcategories so that you might find more relevant topics for your niche.

For example, on Fox’s website, they have a health link at the top, but at the bottom, you find specific categories for mental health, cancer, heart health, healthy living, children’s health, and more.

You can also go to any news site and use their search box to type in relevant keywords. Be sure and look for drilled down keywords. If you just type in diet on CNN’s website, you’ll find everything with that word – including articles about the fish served in a particular luxury villa on Sardinia.

So you want to be specific with words like keto. That way, you’re filtering out irrelevant search results for fish and instead getting something you can use. When you go to news sites, jot down a list of topics they’re writing about.

Chances are, consumers will begin conducting their own searches on the topics once they’re mentioned in the news. You can also just search on a search engine and use their News tab, like Google News.

That way, you’ll be seeing the most up-to-date topics being discussed that will help you stay on top of trends and chatter. Blogs by your competitors are another excellent spot to turn to for ideas for your content.

You never want to rip off another person’s site. You’re just looking for the basic content idea. You’ll cover the topic in your own way. Don’t copy and paste and rewrite their content – just take note of the overall topic idea.

Images you can search can give you lots of ideas. Go to a search engine and type in your niche keyword and click on Images. Here, you’ll find all sorts of good ideas for your content.

So, for instance, you might type in the word vegetarian on a search engine. You might assume that all you’ll see are a bunch of pictures of fruits and vegetables, but you might also see a very fit person with a headline on the image that says building muscle on a vegetarian diet. That’s a content idea!

Videos that are already out there can help you gain more ideas or outline concepts. Sometimes video channels will have topics that may not be making major headlines, so it’s a good idea to check them out and see what the buzz is for their audience.

If you’re in the survival and prepping niche, you might go to Google Videos or YouTube and type in the word homesteading. That could give you content ideas for homesteading on a small property, financial needs to start homesteading, starting a homestead garden, and more.

Let Books Guide You to Some Solid Ideas for Content

Dummies and Idiots guides have a wealth of content ideas inside if they’ve created one of them for your niche or a related niche. They have one of the most detailed tables of contents you can imagine.

In fact, they have two. The first one (called At a Glance) is more broad, and the second one is a drilled down version, which is perfect for people wanting to create an outline for a lead magnet or blog series.

Specialty topic books are a good content idea generator, too. Sometimes many consumer books for a niche are broad, like anti-aging tips, for example. But you might be able to find an entire book about preventing or cataracts, which gives you more to work with.

When you find a specialty book, it helps you drill down a lot more than what a comprehensive book would do for you. A comprehensive book might just mention that cataracts are a sign of aging, but a book all about cataracts might cover details about symptoms and treatment options for them.

Don’t forget to go-to money saving book sources like your library, discount bookstores, and even Kindle free or discounted reads in the non-fiction sections. Even if you go through a book and use it for a series, you can always repurpose your content ideas down the road, so keep your resources to refer to later.

For example, you might do a simple blog series about 12 different weight loss plans. Later, you might want to dig deeper into one or more of those plans, so the resources will come in handy to provide you with faster content creation methods if you build a library of them over time.

Consumer and Trade Magazines Are Great Content Generators

There’s a difference between trade magazines and consumer magazines. One is for the professional person who is operating in the niche, and the other is for the consumer who is buying products in that niche.

Trade magazines are for professionals. For example, you might find a magazine written for fitness trainers that talks about various ways they can help their clients achieve their goals.

Consumer magazines will talk directly to the client themselves, motivating and inspiring them to go after those goals and providing tips for them to do it. Both will come in handy for you as an online marketer.

Bookstores such as Barnes and Noble will have both kinds of magazines available in a variety of niches. You won’t just find broad consumer magazines, but you’ll be able to find lots of small, specialty magazines, too.

You can also find these by typing your niche keyword and then the words trade magazine into a search engine. You can do the same for consumer magazines. Keep an eye out at the grocery store, where many consumer publications are sold, too.

If you buy the magazines, you can either keep them for future reference or tear out articles that are relevant and create a file folder of swipe ideas. That way, if you sit down and need an idea for a blog post, you can reach in the folder and take one out.

You can also keep a note on it about where you’ve used the idea too. So if you used it on your blog, keep it until you’ve also used it in a product, on social media, and in an email. Repurpose the idea itself as much as possible because you never know where your prospective customer will find you.

Spreadsheet Ideas

I tend to create a spreadsheet. In the first column, I have the keyword and the date I first used it. The URL where I wrote the article and the date it was ranked. That also helps later when I am tracking my rankings in Jaaxy. Then the columns go on the second time I used it, where I used it, and the date ranked.

You can go to Wikipedia and see a list of magazines in the United States here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_magazines. They’re categorized into business, food and cooking, health (with subcategories for men and women), and so on.

Sometimes you’ll find something that pairs nicely with your niche. So if you were in the weight loss niche and you looked under Food and Cooking, for example, you would find a Cooking Light magazine that might have good content for you to touch on in your own online content.

Then, using that image search idea, you could type in that magazine name and get ideas for blog topics. Remember, you’re looking for inspiration only. So if Cooking Light has an article titles 67 Favorite Dishes, Lightened – you would take the idea for giving a favorite dish a makeover to lessen the calories.

You might look at the foods they listed, like pasta, pizza, soup, sandwiches – and then pick one of those to lighten on your blog. Or do a “lighter sandwich” blog series – or a post with “5 ways to lessen the calories on your sandwich.”

So make sure you’re keeping your eyes open for related magazine topics and not just the main topic you’re pursuing online. Instead of just thinking of one idea, always look at how you might be able to turn it into a series, an info product, or something more significant than a single article.

Utilize Keyword Tools to See What Content Consumers Need

There are both free and paid tools you can use to generate more ideas for your content and outlines when it comes to keyword tools. Both work – you can drill down as far as you want with either one.

The problem is, many marketers don’t know how to search for excellent or unique content ideas. They might search for the broadest term, like anti-aging. The results they get will all be broad.

When you’re creating content ideas using a keyword tool, you want to keep track of which words and phrases you’ve used and where. For example, if you have a toy site for kids and you found a keyword phrase that said best toys for kids to learn to tie their shoes, then you’d want to know that you already used that.

Use an Excel spreadsheet or simple Word doc list to track what was used and where. Don’t get hung up on keyword volume when you’re searching for content ideas. Your goal is to create a well-rounded site that delivers good content for your audience.

Get creative whenever you’re using keyword tools. You can use an asterisk to help fill in the blank for you. For example, you can search for best * for golfers, and it will deliver the results people are searching for – best gifts for golfers, best exercises for golfers, the best sunglasses for golfers, and so on.

Or, if you know you want to promote aromatherapy, for example, but you need a good slant, and you’ve already used the typical “stress relief,” type the phrase aromatherapy for into your keyword tool. You’ll find ideas like aromatherapy for headaches, nausea, and pregnancy.

Maybe you want to review a product, but you want a slant on what it’s good for. You might type in how to lose weight using * and see how to lose weight using a treadmill, how to lose weight using apple cider vinegar, how to lose weight using macros, and so on.

Turn to Tangibles Selling in Your Niche for Content Ideas

Sometimes, what people are buying can give you a good indicator of what kinds of content you should be creating. People pay for solutions to their problems. For example, looking on Amazon to see what anti-aging enthusiasts are spending money for, this can help steer your content in the right direction for buyers keywords.

You’ll see lots of skin rollers for the face being sold on Amazon right now. These are supposed to help tighten up the skin and smooth it out. It’s also supposed to help stimulate collagen production.

So this would tell you that wrinkle prevention or minimizer content and collagen production content would go over well with your audience. You might even want to write a piece of content about using a face roller correctly or tips on making it more effective.

Always think in terms of people who may want the same effect or results but who may not have had success with the roller – or not like that solution. You can write an article about 5 Ways to Tighten Skin and Reduce Wrinkles Without a Face Roller.

When you look at what’s selling in your niche to get content ideas, be sure to check out the Q&A section of each product. People will be sharing their questions, like how long it takes to get results and does it help to freeze it before using it?

The comments section of tangible products will give you good content ideas, too. For example, one person reviewing the jade face roller mentions that she combined it with a new skincare regimen.

That could give you an idea for skincare regimens that pair well with a goal (fewer wrinkles or less acne, etc.). Sometimes the titles of the reviews alone generate ideas – tired eyes, swelling under eyes, great for acne scars, etc.

All of these ideas can individually lead to dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of content ideas that will help you fill your blog for years, cater to your subscribers, engage people on social networking sites and educate them through products.

If you try to research the fly, it can get overwhelming and time-consuming to go through so many options to find the right one. That’s why it’s best to dedicate a set amount of time to gathering your research and ideas and then pulling from them like a pantry whenever you need them.

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Recent Comments

17

Amazing Catherine. You have certainly given a lot of thought into your post. Lots of creative and practical ideas. You have certainly got me thinking about how to go forward. I really liked the idea of spending a day researching and also liked the excel keyword spreadsheet. I would never of thought to do this. Thanks

Glad to be of help

Such a long wise ideas. I think it will be another booster Sourcing ideas through these outfits. Thanks Catherine.

What a thorough presentation of your subject! Good on ya...it will be helpful to lots of people.

My last two ideas came from friends. First, one presented me with a story about a little kitten who got lost on the ferry, ended up 6 miles from the ferry terminal...that story in turn gave me two ideas: one, a story on microchipping your pet, and one on GPS locators for pets.

Today I got a new one...a friend in Kodiak sent me a suggestion for a story she saw there. You just never know where the ideas will come from.

Catherine - Another Excellent Post & Share to help all bloggers how to do it better. Thank You.

Thank you Edward

That was a great article as usual, Catherine. For some reason, I had not thought about looking for topics in my niche through new outlets. Great idea.

i have always thought outside of the box

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