How To Find Great Article Topics

As article marketers, we write as part of our livelihood. We're writing articles every month (when all goes well! ) and are submitting them consistently over the lifetime of our website. 

But like all writers, you probably have really prolific periods of writing and then also some pretty dry ones too. 

If you've ever had one of those days/weeks/months where you just couldn't muster the passion or creativity to brainstorm any great article topics, then this article is for you.

I've got a few tricks up my sleeve that I like to use to get my creative juices flowing and come up with article topic ideas that are also SEO friendly (they'll help your target market find your articles when they do Google searches). 

 Let's get started:

1) What types of questions is your target market typing into Google?

Take a look at the free WordTracker keyword suggestion tool and type in a general word or phrase that has to do with the topic of your website (you can type in your keywords if you like). Then do your search.

The list that appears is a suggestion of keywords associated with the initial word or phrase that you typed into the search box on WordTracker. 

You may get a long list of results, or you may get no results at all–just keep on typing in words or phrases having to do with your website until you hit pay dirt. 

You'll notice that the search terms that are the most commonly used appear at the top of the results list, and WordTracker also lists how many times the term has been searched for (I believe) within the last 30 days.

Look through that list and you may be surprised at what folks are typing in related to your niche. It never ceases to amaze me at how I can be overlooking some of the most basic types of information that folks in my target market are searching for. 

From looking through your various search results lists, start a list of your own of article topics based off of the suggestions from WordTracker. This is a list of article ideas. 

Just as an example, here's a screenshot of a search I did on the phrase "article writing":

There are some searches that I never would have thought would be that common–namely "tips on article writing".

Although I've written lots of articles that gave tips on article writing, I've never written an article specifically titled "Tips On Article Writing".

That just seemed too simple to me, but that is a specific thing that my potential customers are typing into search engines hoping to find information about, so I should definitely be writing articles on that topic.

You see, it's those simple ideas that can open up worlds of article topics for us–sometimes we can be overlooking the obvious!

I add that topic to my Article Idea List, and move on to searching for another phrase associated with my website. 

2) Ask your customers/readers what they want to know.

If you have a blog associated with your website, then I encourage you to routinely ask your readers what they want to be seeing on your blog. Because your blog is on the same topic as your website, any suggestions can be used as both article and blog post topics.

This also works if you have any sort of list at all–just email your list and ask them if they have any questions for you about your niche. You might be surprised how many folks were wondering things that you had the answer to. Oftentimes people are just waiting for you to ask them for their questions!

Also, if you correspond with your customers/potential customers through email or a support site, that's a great spot to pick up routinely asked questions.

Many times I'll get ideas for articles from questions that come into the SubmitYOURArticle.com support site, and by writing a well thought out article addressing that question, I have a ready resource to refer any other folks who have that same question. 

3) What are people searching for to reach your website? 

Many stats tracking programs will give you this sort of information–in addition to writing articles to satisfy common search queries of your target market, you can get valuable information by learning what types of searches resulted in a person finding your website.

Most stats tracking programs will also tell you how many people were searching for that term and landing at your website, so if you see a search term popping up again and again, it might be a good idea to provide more information on that topic at your website and to also start writing articles on that topic.

The reason why this info is so eye opening is because these are actual searches done by your target market–it's like you're able to read the mind of your potential customers and find out exactly what they're looking for. 

Actually all of the tips I've just told you about can help you get your ideas for article topics directly from your target market, which is a whole bunch easier than just sitting at your desk wracking your brain on what to write about next. 

Whey not let your customers and potential customers lead you?

Let them tell you what to write about, and I think you'll get a burst of creative energy and enthusiasm so that when you're writing your articles you'll feel like  you're really engaging in a conversation with the folks you want to reach, giving them the information they're looking.

What about you guys–have any of you used any of these techniques, or do you have any other suggestions for coming up with great article topics?

Photo Credit: Close up of The Thinker Originally uploaded by marttj

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