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[01:23.600 --> 01:29.960] This is optimal work daily episode 1226. Have writers block three easy ways to generate
[01:29.960 --> 01:36.640] ideas for your content by Aaron Blasky of AaronBlasky.com. And hey there, I am Dan. I'm your host and
[01:36.640 --> 01:41.880] narrator here, and I'm with you every single day reading from these great blogs on entrepreneurship,
[01:41.880 --> 01:46.800] work, and productivity. So let's get to it now as we hear from Aaron, and optimize your life.
[01:51.240 --> 01:58.440] Have writers block three easy ways to generate ideas for your content by Aaron Blasky of AaronBlasky.com.
[01:59.960 --> 02:04.840] I remember a phone call I had with a client once, and we were chatting about a list of 10 to 15
[02:04.840 --> 02:09.480] blog post ideas that I had created for her. She asked me where I came up with those ideas,
[02:09.560 --> 02:13.880] as she figured some people would struggle with creating a list like that, specifically in an
[02:13.880 --> 02:18.760] area that they weren't familiar with. I told her that most of my blog post ideas come first from
[02:18.760 --> 02:24.440] a session of inquiry. I asked myself, what would I like to know about this subject? Sometimes that
[02:24.440 --> 02:30.440] means drawing on my past experiences. And other times, it simply stems from pure genuine curiosity.
[02:30.920 --> 02:36.280] I love knowing how things work. So asking myself that question generally ignites a fire inside
[02:36.280 --> 02:41.560] of myself of wanting to know more. That method doesn't always work, though, as sometimes I'm
[02:41.560 --> 02:46.680] left feeling stuck for ideas. When that happens, here's where I go to find inspiration for my
[02:46.680 --> 02:54.600] content, whether it's a blog post, playbook, YouTube video, or tweet. One, Feedly. Feedly helps
[02:54.600 --> 03:01.080] me generate inspiration for blog posts, vlogs, and ebooks on a regular basis. Here's exactly what
[03:01.080 --> 03:06.280] I do to leverage Feedly for content generation. Step number one, set up a Feedly account.
[03:07.000 --> 03:11.720] The first step in curating content to inspire you is to create an account over at Feedly.
[03:12.280 --> 03:18.200] Feedly is an RSS feed reader, which means you can copy and paste the URL of blogs that you love,
[03:18.200 --> 03:24.200] or blogs in a niche area, into the tool to generate a feed that makes it really easy to read 10,
[03:24.200 --> 03:29.560] 20, or hundreds of the blogs you love. All of the blogs you subscribe to can be sorted into
[03:29.560 --> 03:35.640] helpful categories, aka feeds, and once added will populate an easy-to-read feed like the one
[03:35.640 --> 03:41.400] you see in this post. Step number two, add your favorite blogs or blogs in niche categories.
[03:41.960 --> 03:47.960] I'll typically add 25 to 50 blogs per category. This is because many of them have a slow publishing
[03:47.960 --> 03:53.160] schedule, which means if I only have 5 to 10 blog posts in a category, I may not see new posts
[03:53.160 --> 03:58.040] for some time. The goal is to get a really good feel for what's happening in the industry or
[03:58.040 --> 04:03.560] niche topic so that I can pick up on trends quickly and without much effort. I look for blogs
[04:03.560 --> 04:08.440] that update often and get lots of shares to social media, and if they are open, comments.
[04:09.000 --> 04:14.520] Once the blogs have been added, I log in and refresh that specific category whenever I'm about to do
[04:14.520 --> 04:20.840] any type of creative work for a client or my own blog. Step number three, browse the posts and
[04:20.840 --> 04:25.800] process them. After you get into a routine of checking Feedly, it's a good idea to get into
[04:25.800 --> 04:31.160] the habit of processing the new posts that appear. I like to leverage the read later or save to
[04:31.160 --> 04:36.120] board options, as seen in the screenshot here in this post, as it lets me clip things that I know
[04:36.120 --> 04:41.720] will be good for my own writing or for my client's writing. Anything that I know isn't a good fit or
[04:41.720 --> 04:47.800] is more promotional or company-specific news related, I simply use the mark as red and hide option,
[04:47.800 --> 04:54.600] which removes them from the feed. Two, Quora. Another fantastic source of content inspiration is
[04:54.600 --> 04:59.800] Quora. I use Quora to search up topics in my niche and review the questions that people are
[04:59.800 --> 05:04.920] asking in that topic. For example, if you're a realtor, you may want to look up real estate as a
[05:04.920 --> 05:10.280] category. Once there, look at the top questions people are posting and which questions have a
[05:10.280 --> 05:15.640] lot of engagement in the form of answers. I'd also highly recommend that after you create blog posts
[05:15.640 --> 05:20.920] that are inspired from Quora, pop back over to the question that inspired your post and leverage
[05:20.920 --> 05:25.800] some of your post content as a response to the question. That way, you can take advantage of the
[05:25.800 --> 05:29.960] thought leadership that is established on that site when you answer questions as an expert.
[05:30.840 --> 05:37.480] Three, Uber Suggest. This one is a bit more of a hack, but it's still a great source of content
[05:37.480 --> 05:42.680] inspiration, and you can leverage your competitors to save yourself some work. Pop on over to Uber
[05:42.680 --> 05:47.400] Suggest and put in the domain name of one of your competitors. Once the report populates,
[05:47.400 --> 05:52.520] click on Keywords under Traffic Analyzer. Next, take a look at the top keywords that your
[05:52.520 --> 05:57.000] competitors rank for. These are the words that you'll want to start creating content around for
[05:57.000 --> 06:01.880] your website in an effort to rank higher than they do for those search terms. This one has a dual
[06:01.880 --> 06:07.320] purpose too. Not only will you feel inspired, but you'll also work toward better SEO rankings
[06:07.320 --> 06:12.440] and pushing your competitors rankings down in the process. The goal with this process isn't
[06:12.440 --> 06:18.680] to make a list of blogs to copy from, but rather to take away enough new ideas and keep your finger
[06:18.680 --> 06:23.400] on the pulse of what's happening in the industry so that you feel inspired to write and have a
[06:23.400 --> 06:28.760] direction to write in. I've found this to be an effective way to deep dive into an industry too,
[06:28.760 --> 06:33.960] specifically when I worked with clients whose area of expertise falls outside of my general knowledge
[06:33.960 --> 06:44.280] space. You just listened to the post titled Have Writers Block? Three easy ways to generate ideas
[06:44.280 --> 06:51.320] for your content by Aaron Blasky of AaronBlasky.com. You want consistency and quality, but you also
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[07:59.400 --> 08:04.600] And a huge thank you to Erin for letting us share her work today. Erin became obsessed with
[08:04.600 --> 08:09.960] video games like many of us did once she got her hands on a Commodore 64 back in the late 80s.
[08:09.960 --> 08:14.520] So you'll often hear her make comparisons and analogies to video games in her writing.
[08:14.520 --> 08:19.960] Today, she's leading marketing at fellow dot app, which is a productivity tool for managers
[08:19.960 --> 08:25.240] and curates productivity content on dig's productivity namespace. For the past 20 years,
[08:25.320 --> 08:30.840] Erin has been invited to speak on stages around the world, including TEDx and now more recently
[08:30.840 --> 08:35.800] virtual conferences. And she covers a lot of topics, but focuses mostly on marketing,
[08:35.800 --> 08:41.480] community and remote work. You can also check out her book, which is called Destiny, a love story
[08:41.480 --> 08:47.640] about a video game, marketing and storytelling. So come by erinblasky.com for much more. That's
[08:47.640 --> 08:55.880] erinblasky.com. And that wraps up our episode for today. Thanks so much for being here. And
[08:55.880 --> 08:59.560] I will see you right back here tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.
Transcription results written to '/home/forge/transcribe3.sonicengage.com/releases/20240207165123' directory
