Blog Content: Where do you find it?

During our recent contest asking "what's your biggest blogging challenge?" several people mentioned their challenge with finding enough content to write about. This seems to be a bigger challenge with new bloggers who may not have developed "blog antennae" yet.  Here's one comment we got from Joanne Hunold of Overwhelming Success for Solopreneurs:

Coming up with timely, relevant (to my target market) and informative posts on a consistent basis. I have a new blog that needs content, and until I am more established, do not want to use guest posts. So my biggest challenge now is to create many posts in a short period of time; and I am finding I don't have a lot of ideas for post topics.

Honing your blog antennae requires a little time. First, set up Google alerts with keywords on your topic/niche. You'll probably get tons of ideas from that alone.

Second, read other blogs in your niche. What are your colleagues writing about? How can you spin the content into your own viewpoint. Do a search on Technorati.com or Six Apart's new Blogs.com.

Finally, use your email as a source. As a professional or business person, no doubt you get a lot of email from clients and customers. Write Q&A posts (as long as you don't reveal client details). It's a good bet that if one person has a question, there are others who want to know the same thing.

Here are a couple of previous blog posts that may help as well:
Blog Content Ideas: What's the best source?
Writing Blog Content
Google Trends Can Help You Find Blog Content

Comments

[Sonia Simone]

Questions & observations from your existing comments are a good source, too. (And from those related blogs.)

I find that when I have good systems to *catch* ideas as they come to me, I get more ideas. I keep extensive idea files, so when I need to write, there's usually *something* in there that will spark my interest.

When I'm really desperate, I go to magazines.com and look for a magazine headline I can tweak. (Not a magazine in my field, but one that is completely unrelated. Maybe Women's Day, or a gardening magazine.) Coming in with a sideways whack can get that creativity going again. :)

[Todd Lohenry]

I use Google Reader for blogging ideas. Here's a quick training session gathering inputs and outputs; http://tinyurl.com/5649fn

[Cindy Petersiel]

This is fantastic information - really helpful as I take the next step in my business and step into the blogging world.

Just to add to the ideas already offered, I have found that my clients have a great deal of wisdom and new perspectives to offer. It's funny how I will often have several clients going through the same type of issue. That tells me that this is something that more people are probably eager to learn about the solutions or perspectives. These have helped to feed the content of my ezines.

[Jeanne May]

Whenever I need blog content I use the topics frequently talked about with colleagues, clients, friends and family... the issues important to them often provide valuable content for my blog. Many a conversation topic over a casual coffee with someone has ended up becoming an article on my blog (with heaps of modification I might add!).