Never Run Out of Blog Topic Ideas: Here are 36

One of the most popular articles in the SBA Community is “8 Tips for Keeping Your Business Blog Current, Relevant and Fresh.”   It has excellent advice, but after you read it you may wonder, “So how do I come up with ideas for WHAT to write about?”  

Writer’s block is something that affects even the most prolific at one point or another.  Maybe it’s only a temporary block -- a few hours or days -- but sometimes it can go on for weeks, months, even years.  Just look at all the abandoned blogs out there.  It’s as if one day you wake up and can’t think of anything inspiring to write about.

Well, I’m here to show you it’s easier than you may think to develop ideas for your blog, even when you’re feeling totally uninspired.  Just use the following handy list of 36 blog topics to trigger an idea for your next business blog post:

Your Industry

• Create a list of the best industry resources
• Talk about something that has changed in your industry in the last decade (or last 5 years, 3 years, etc.)
• Attend an industry event and blog about it afterward
• “What I Learned About Business From [Your Favorite TV Show]” 
• Interview someone well-known in your industry
• Write a post respectfully taking a different position about a post written by someone else in your industry.
• Comment on recent news about your industry, giving your take on it. (Search Google News if necessary to find recent press releases and news stories.)
• Create a poll. Blog the result.
• Create a chart that breaks down a complicated industry problem or issue
• Publish a PowerPoint presentation you gave at an industry event
• Create a list of the Must Follow Twitter people (or Google+ or Facebook Pages) in your industry
• Find an industry-related  question on Yahoo Answers or OnStartups and respond on your blog

Your Business and Your Customers

• Why your business is different (and better) than your competition
• A video tutorial showing how to use your most popular product
• The answers to the most common emails or customer support questions you get (make sure you do not reveal anything confidential or customer-sensitive – even inadvertently).
• How you delegate tasks (or what you mucked up by not delegating)
• Answer questions left in your comment section
• Give 5 reasons to sign up to your email newsletter
• How you learned to do what you do, or how you got into your current business
• Highlight your customers, such as a Customer of the Week (or Month) feature.  Or, publish a customer testimonial, along with a heart-felt thank you.
• Give something away to one of your blog readers/ customers
• Feature a video detailing a customer’s success with your product
• Share your biggest screw up with a customer and how you made it right
• Explain how customers can connect with you on social media

Get A Bit More Personal

• What have you read lately that inspired/angered you?
• Introduce your staff and what they bring to the table
• Share the best [or worst] decision you made as a business owner
• Your biggest challenge as a business owner
• What you love best about being a business owner. What you don’t like.
• The danger of doing everything by yourself
• Write about the achievement you’re most proud of
• Create a video introducing your company to your community
• Share the local vendors you trust
• Give people a video tour of your building
• Your new baby (whether that’s a real baby, a pet, a new project, the car you’ve been restoring for the past two years, etc.)
• Share 10 things you’re thankful for

Hat tip to Lisa Barone, who has written so many articles on Small Business Trends about blogging, including 100+ SMB Blogging Ideas from which I drew inspiration.

Bottom line:  I will be very surprised if this list doesn’t knock out your writer’s block and trigger an interesting blog post.  Go for it!

About the Author

My name is Anita Campbell. I run online communities and information websites reaching over 4  million small business owners, stakeholders and entrepreneurs annually, including Small Business Trends, a daily publication about small business issues, and BizSugar.com, a small business social media site.