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Note: The discussion in this post is not about brainstorming for ideas (I will tackle that in a future post), it is about searching through multiple sources to glean ideas from others.

Writers block can be a huge problem for any type of publisher, but it is especially difficult for columnists or bloggers who need to come up with fresh ideas on a continual basis. Having a blog, but not knowing what to write about, will quickly cause the blog to fail.

When I outsource blog posts, I always hire writers who are passionate about the given subject so that they can do the topic brainstorming for me. Just as it is hard to write on a subject that you know nothing about, it is equally hard to come up with good topic ideas. But what if you aren’t outsourcing the content? What if you are writing on a subject that you do know about, and you need to keep coming up with fresh ideas yourself? It really isn’t that hard to do.

I tackled this problem last night, spending about 5 hours creating a large list of possible topic ideas for DerekBeau.com so that I always have something to choose from. I will probably spend some time each week expanding the list so that I never run out of ideas. Of course, this list doesn’t stop me from impulsively writing about things that catch my attention, but it does provide me with an endless repository of ideas for when I need one.

The end result was a list of approximately 110 categorized topic notes. Below is a rundown of different methods I used to generate this list.

What do people want?

One of the easiest, and most effective, ways to get ideas for new content is to simply find out what people want. There are a couple of ways to gather ideas from this method:

• Search Newsgroups - These are archives of current and old discussions that people have had online. Go to Google Groups and search for general topics in your niche. Scan over the discussion titles and take note of any that seem interesting.
• Check Yahoo Answers - This is an ideal place to find out what people are confused about, what they are wondering, and what they need help with. Yahoo Answers is an absolute gold mine of idea fodder. If one person is looking for the answer to a question, you can bet many others are too.
• Participate In Related Forums - Topic related discussion boards are filled with current news, common questions, and helpful tips. The same principles as the previous two sources apply, just search and browse for thread titles that intrigue you.

What has been written before?

You might as well face it, most of the things you are going to write about have been covered before. You know that you need good, original content in order be successful, but this doesn’t mean you can only write about unvisited topics. Writing original content can mean that you simply form your own opinion, do your own experiments, write about your personal experiences, combine multiple research sources, etc.

With that said, a good way to get topic ideas is to see what other people have written about in the past. I did this with my choosing a great domain name post, and there was nothing wrong with it. The content in that article is original in that the same piece of content has never been written before and it contains my own ideas/opinions. I will also tell you that I am going to be writing about a lot of topics that have already been written before (including this post your are reading right now).

OK, I have justified this enough. Here are some methods for gathering ideas from other writers:

• Search Websites - Use a search engine to find websites on the same topic that you are looking for ideas on. Read their articles and see where you can share your own insight or expand on their ideas. Make note of the webpage because it is always nice to give links to your sources.
• Browse/Read Blogs - Yeah, blogs are technically websites, but I feel they still differ enough to deserve a separate mention. Thoroughly browse through the archives of every related blog you can find. Ideas can come from post titles or from sub-topics within the post content. Just as with websites, it isn’t really required to give credit for topic ideas, but it is a nice thing to do. It also benefits your readers by exposing them to more information and multiple perspectives.
• Scan/Read Books - The best benefit of getting topic ideas from books is that a large percentage of your readers will probably never have heard of the book or read the content before. I’m not saying you should pass the ideas off as your own, but you can provide great value by summarizing or expanding on content in books. If you do summarize, you should give credit to the source.
• Scan/Read Magazines - Most magazines also publish their content online these days, so using them isn’t that big of a difference to using websites and blogs. You could, however, scan old editions of magazines for topics that can be revisited and/or updated.
• Watch Television - Are there shows or networks on TV that are all about your niche? Just imagine how many ideas a writer for a home improvement blog can get from HGTV!

What are people talking about right now?

This doesn’t go along the same lines as the previous two sections, but it is still a very valuable source of topic ideas. This is where you will get your “breaking news” type posts. Be one of the first to report the news, making sure to give some added value, and there is a good chance you will be rewarded. Just look at how well John Chow is doing with Agloco.

• Previously Mentioned - All of the previously mentioned sources (aside from books) can be used to find newsworthy topics. Actively participate in your niche and you will have plenty of opportunities to report news.
• Use News Aggregators - Google News and Yahoo News pretty much have all the news you could possible need. Everyone else will probably be using them as sources too, so either put your own spin on the stories or find some lesser known news sources.
• Read Local Papers - There are times when something happens locally that the rest of the world hasn’t yet heard about. These events are great to write about because you have a very good chance of being the first to report.
• Talk With Family & Friends - This could have gone under “what do people want”, but it involved communicating so I put it here. If you have family and friends that are interested in your niche, make sure you have your radar on when communicating with them so you don’t miss out on any potential ideas.

Well, I think I have about exhausted my options for now. Those are the various methods I have used (as recently as last night) to come up with content ideas. If you know of any others methods/sources that you have success with, please let me know in a comment.