26 Article Ideas That’ll Actually Get You More Traffic

Introduction Have you been able to meet your writing goals in 2020? If your answer is a big fat NO, you should know that you’re not alone. This year has been a strange one for writers and bloggers, and that’s putting it nicely. From holding on to jobs to finding new clients, the pandemic has...

Introduction

Have you been able to meet your writing goals in 2020?

If your answer is a big fat NO, you should know that you’re not alone.

This year has been a strange one for writers and bloggers, and that’s putting it nicely.

From holding on to jobs to finding new clients, the pandemic has made it challenging for some of you to sustain an income and hone your crafts.

Some may argue that things weren’t a stroll in the park, during the past year, even before the pandemic came to town. Writing blog posts was never a problem. Getting as many people as possible to read it was.

So, unless you stand out as a writer or a blogger in 2020, you may not be able to plan for early retirement any time soon.

The bad news is that “standing out” isn’t what it used to, even a decade ago, especially not for writers. Because everyone’s a blogger or an aspiring author in 2020. Today, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody blogs about deforestation – it won’t make a sound. Saturation in content marketing is a real problem that turns writers into grapplers.

The really bad news is that people seem to prefer watching content. It happened a few years ago. The need for visual stimulation has skyrocketed past the joy of consuming text.

There’s no reason to panic, though.

The good news is that writers can pull out article ideas or a story plot from thin air. You don’t require a debriefing. You can post about what’s on your mind. Maybe, you’ve been thinking about it for years. Perhaps, it just occurred to you yesterday. A new experience, a familiar feeling, a funny incident, or a troubling memory – it could be anything at all. If you have felt it, you can write about it. Then, it may help someone else who might have felt it too.

But the really good news is that we’ve got your back. In this article, we have come up with 35 article ideas that can inspire you to write articles that’ll attract more traffic to your website, social media channel, or company page.

Some of you, who are not freelancing writers, may be wondering if this article is for you.

In a nutshell – absolutely YES.

It’s a no-brainer for freelancers that writing articles and blog posts that get attention are a sure-shot way of getting new business. Showing consistency and quality in content marketing can blow the trust factor through the roof.

But here are three more types of professionals who should read this article and post more content.

A full-time writer

Writing articles on social media channels, personal websites or blogs, media outlets, other people’s virtual platforms can boost your profile as a writer and a content marketer. Recruitment begins with evaluating the candidate’s online persona. Basically, it can increase your chances of landing a full-time gig. It’s simple, effective, and a way to ensure continuous improvement.

An aspiring author, in any field

For budding authors, writing content regularly can give you some direction and purpose. It eggs you to practice harder, thinks clearer, and come up with new writing goals. More importantly, the world has moved past remembering one-hit wonders. If you want your readers to await your next book eagerly, don’t keep them hungry for content while you start writing your next story.

Someone with article ideas

You may be an entrepreneur, an engineer, or even a rocket scientist, but if you have ideas or just a story that deserves an audience, you owe it to yourself to communicate those to the world. Writing articles can be of great help to get other people interested. It doesn’t have to be a 2,000-word story. Make it just a few paragraphs long.

Even though writing articles and blogs means different things to different people, every piece of content starts with an idea. Unless you have been literally living under a rock, the chances are that you already have a ton of them. However, getting the time and finding the patience to list them presents a wee bit of a problem.

Alright, it’s a significant problem.

So, without further ado, here are:

26 article ideas that’ll actually get you more traffic

Watch out for trends and new patterns

Log in to content curation tools like Social Animal and discover what’s trending – not just in your region but also across the world. If so many people generate content about a topic, why not ride the bandwagon for some sure-fire traffic? You’re sure to get some of that action.

Verify popular tips and popular theories

Many bloggers and other content generators come across as experts when they offer tips, hacks, and solutions. Many of them are applicable across a wide demographic. Choose one that you can personally test by speaking to accredited experts in the field.

For example, you can conduct tests on project management hacks, people-managing tips, or diet recommendations. You can even challenge the content of a bestseller by incorporating their advice. Then, showcase if their expertise holds water in the real world.

Reimagine what’s there

Social media platforms have made an oxymoron out of outliers. If you uncover the potential to address a trending topic in a way that isn’t being discussed, make a list of questions that challenge the current perspectives. For example, if “digital marketing” is trending, draw parallels, and post an article about how old-school marketing is the foundation of digital marketing. Every story needs that twist.

Rely on books

Have you read a piece of fiction or non-fiction that left an indelible mark on your mind? Share a book review or write down the lessons or perspectives you gained. It may encourage other people to buy the book at once or give them enough to consider a later purchase. Before you start, make sure that the book, whether it’s by a business leader or an athlete, has a sizable reader base. It will increase the chances of bringing more traffic to your article.

Say it aloud – LISTICLE

Listicles have become the new opiate of the online masses. Content marketers, popular bloggers, and regular contributors to media outlets create listicles based on common ideas to give their readers an optimized reading experience. You can create lists out of pretty much anything, even out of your daily life experiences. For example, if you just returned from your first day of a new workout session, write an article or a blog post (in the form of a list) about “Top 7 things a gymnasium can do to encourage newbies to try harder”. If your blog post offers practical help, there will be a bigger audience for it.

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Make a bucket list

Speaking of lists, everyone wants more than what they have. That’s why bucket lists go viral. Create a bucket list of places you would like to visit, type of cuisine you want to try, the kind of futuristic technology you would like to own, and so on. They may not provide life-changing information for readers. But they can engage them with a story that almost delivers out-of-the-body experiences.

Seek the right influencers

There’s nothing like an influencer to give you broad ideas of great blog topics. Visit their page and see what’s new – the topics they have recently talked about the most. You can bet your bottom dollar that they would have done some research on traffic-worthy content. Why not capitalize on their business research?

Interview an expert

Don’t be surprised if it takes you less than a day to find an expert within your network that you can interview. After all, you’re not looking to sell the interview to a major news agency. Suppose you can, then more power to you. But if not, you can easily find doctors, scientific researchers, professional artists, industry thought leaders, etc. who are also content producers without being inaccessible – like many influencers. Talk to them via email or phone and be ready with a set of questions that gives them clarity on what the discussion is all about.

Follow the followers

Your online followers connected with you for a reason. It could be a common goal, a shared vision, or a mutual love for a specific product. But they could be following others who generate top-notch content that attracts a large amount of traffic too. Go through some of their tweets, their recent Instagram story, or YouTube video, and see if there’s anything that can lead to a potential blog post or an article. It could help you know the content type with which people are most likely to interact .

Just ask your followers

If the previous idea sounded like we wanted you to spy on people (well, we didn’t), here’s a more straightforward one. Ask the audience. It could be through a poll you conduct on Twitter, or an email sent your preferred distribution list. Let them help you get their attention!

Report and observe

There are countless new reports, with local stories, that flash in front of your eyes every day. Can you relate to any of the major ones? Pick a few and give it a national or global spin to make it appealing to a broader group of people across the country or the world. Remember, hot takes sell faster than shortcakes nowadays.

Chronicle how subjects evolve

The only thing constant is change, from technology and business to science and art. You can blindly select a subject and retrace how much things have changed over the decades, if not centuries. Today, the world is evolving at a rate of knots. And the more things change – the more interesting the story gets. Document the old and the new in your blog.

Turn the old into the new

If you subscribe to, or a frequent reader of, industry-related content like trade magazines, check out the back issues to unearth topics that may still matter. Develop a topical narrative about a facet that is still relevant to today’s market. It could help provide a valuable perspective even to industry stalwarts.

Solve a problem you’ve solved before

It’s remarkable how little time needs to pass before someone is forced to face and overcome some challenge or the other. These days, kids are going to have so much to post about in the future, considering they are living (in some cases, thriving) during a global pandemic. The same applies to you as an adult. Even if you don’t want to talk about COVID-19, you get to address some of the challenges you’ve faced prior to this moment. Survived an economic crisis by smart financial planning? Overcame a writer’s block? Figured out an alternative to cheese that doesn’t taste like frozen sawdust? Share it in the form of a blog post!

Look to solve a problem you currently face

Some of our biggest problems can turn out to be the most benevolent writing muses for writing a blog post or an article. For instance, if you have trouble maintaining work-life balance – use it as blog ideas. If you have something going in your life like great friendships, mix the two and write an article about “5 ways that friends can help you find work-life balance”. Maybe, you can solve your own problem by thinking about the narrative!

Figure out a problem that doesn’t exist

You don’t have to be Elon Musk or Steve Jobs to solve new problems that don’t exist. Who’s to say your city wouldn’t be facing a major water shortage? Maybe, artificial intelligence might turn out to be a slippery slope, as far as work ethic is concerned. And what if smartphones turn out to a bigger threat than we had imagined? With a little creativity, you can share your views to readers and get them thinking proactively about it.

Rediscover children’s stories

Seek inspiration in some of the favorite stories you may have enjoyed as children. There are tried and tested ideas that authors have used for centuries. They are friendly ideas for bloggers too. They are based on narratives like heroic missions, rags-to-riches tales, mythological triumphs, and simple friendships. Your article or a blog post can follow one of these narratives to create healthy anticipation of the climax and grab the reader’s attention.

Return to the drafts

Create a repository of your first drafts, unfinished pieces, or an old idea for a blog. You may have some gems that only require tweaking to be published as a great article or blog posts. At the least, you may find a train of thought that could be germinated into something more significant and new for you to share.

Leave your comfort zones

When the going gets easy, the tough start to weaken. Post on topics outside the realm of your personal interests and subject matter expertise. It will help in writing down ideas that cater to an untapped audience while developing unique narratives.

Bring back memorable experiences

Pick a superlative adjective like “amazing,” “spectacular,” or “stunning” and write about the first topic that comes to your mind. Your mind is an expert at playing word association when it comes to positive experiences because good things happen to everyone. And that’s a good place to get started on discovering motivational ideas. Share what makes you feel good. That way, your readers may think about theirs too.

Dig into your past

The past may be through with you. But you can still dig into and write about parts of your life that stood out the most. Perhaps, it could be an unforgotten detail that others can relate to, given the social, economic, or cultural similarities. An effective way would be to dust out old photographs (or bring out your hard drive) and use them as inspiration to write and share engaging fragments of your past, along with life lessons that can be taught to the audience.

Get meta and talk about writing

Is the room too claustrophobic? Is there too much noise blocking all those great ideas for blogs? Maybe, just too many bills to pay and not enough time? The reason for your writer’s block, for all practical purposes, is also an idea to write for a great article or a blog post. If you’re going through one, write about it. You would be amazed at how many readers can relate to it. You could end up sharing ideas on blogging.

Forget TED Talks, think about tech talk

Focusing purely on new technology can be an endless journey. Imagine the sheer velocity and volume of technology that is available at our fingertips. Even better, think about how much technology has seeped into our daily lives. How far are we really from being perceived as cyborgs? The primary purpose of one of our arms has become to assist in holding a smartphone. If someone can find what you write online, you can rest assured that they are interested in hearing about how technology is an undeniable part of human existence. Share your opinions on this matter because there’s an ready-made audience out there for you.

Don’t completely forget TED Talks

Despite the dipping quality of the iconic TED Talks series, some of the episodes live up to its billing as a brand that showcases “great ideas worth spreading.” You could also watch the TEDx series that might not have high-quality production values. But the ideas are still worth considering if you want to write a great blog post about a potential business idea to solve an existing problem.

Travel outside the front door

You don’t have to be a digital nomad, and travel everywhere – from Timbuktu to Transylvania, to discover engaging perspectives. Just go outside for a stroll. Look around, and you’re always on the verge of finding interesting ideas and observations that are worth a discussion. Is there a civic issue in your neighborhood deserving of a blog post? How about the way your city has coped with modern infrastructure? No matter where you live, there are stories all around you.

Turn to Google search suggestions

This is as easy as it gets. Just start typing new keywords on the Google search engine and make a careful and quick note of its keyword prompts.

Keep an eye on forums

Reputable online forums like Quora are a goldmine for finding sticky content ideas. As diverse as the network might be, it’s easy to spot the ones that are ranked the highest. It can quickly get you a fair indication of the sort of content you ought to write to get more traffic.

Take Social Animal for a spin

Discover top trending content for any keyword or the recent articles of your competitors to pick ideas from. Look at what got the most engagement and shares on any platform. Maybe that’ll work out in your favour?
Or perhaps you’ll find your next inspiration among the daily alerts that you can set up for keywords and competitors. Write a better competing article as soon as you can.

Conclusion

Remember that writing a great article worth sharing is not difficult as you might have assumed. It’s the generation of ideas that causes most of the delays. Even if you’e not a professional, full-time writer, there are enough reasons for you to run a successful blog that produces consistent and quality content. And you can’t wait till something new and extraordinary happens in your life that motivates you to write a new post and share it to the world.

As we mentioned earlier, sometimes, you can also find ideas at home to post an article or a blog post worth spreading. One thing is for sure – you must start somewhere!

We really hope that we helped spark ideas in your mind to get started. And the fact is that you don’t need anything else. A spark is what it takes to create a content campfire around which your readers can sit and pay attention to what you write.

Happy writing.

Also read: Short-form vs long-form content – Which is effective?

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Christy Bharath is a writer, with 13+ years of content marketing and branding experience. He helps clients tell their stories across industries like Banking, Retail, Healthcare, IT Services, etc. He also trains writers to help them generate authentic and creative content. Christy is a birdwatcher, and he tweets @contentbirder.