In order to grow your site and increase the number of followers, you need to constantly come up with new ideas for exciting and engaging content. But what do you do when all inspiration leaves you and you find yourself staring at a blank page? Have a look at this list of sources for inspiring content – there are lots of them scattered around the web and all full of great ideas that are just waiting to be picked up and written about.
ContentIdeator
All you need to do is to enter your keywords and the tool will generate a comprehensive list of all the blog posts around the web that feature it. Browsing the list of titles, you can get inspired and ensure that whatever you come up with hasn't already been written down.
Alltop (http://www.alltop.com/)
To put it simply, Alltop features all the top stories from around the web. The tool provides you an insight into what's trending, with data driven from some of the biggest news resources like TechCrunch, Mashable or The New York Times. You can have a look at custom-selected lists of topics from major industry figures to see what they find inspiring.
Quandary Content Idea Generator (http://www.contentideagenerator.com/)
This tool is free, but in order to benefit from its vast database of content ideas you'll need to sign up. Once you do that, you'll just need to answer several questions about your business, and the tool will generate content ideas relevant to what you're doing.
Übersuggest (http://ubersuggest.org/)
This tool provides a wealth of content ideas with just a few clicks. Enter your phrase (e.g. “how to”) or keyword and Übersuggest will give you a list of related topics, allowing you to offer fresh content and potentially address new audiences.
Buzzsumo (https://app.buzzsumo.com/top-content)
With this smart web app, you can search and identify the most popular and most shared content on the web. Even if the topics aren't your cup of tea, its formal aspects will give you a lot to think about. Have a look at the presentation and the formats used to convey the popular message (infographics, podcasts, you name it).
BlogAbout (http://www.impactbnd.com/blog-title-generator/blogabout)
With this simple tool, you can generate fill-in-the-blank titles based on your keywords or choose from a wide range of proposed topics. You can save all the ones you like most and have them emailed to you, ready to inspire your writing anytime.
Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/)
If you're stuck and want to know what people are talking about, that's the place to go. You can visualize hot searches, have a look at topics that people search for and get inspired by comparative search analytics offered by Google (Justin Bieber vs. Miley Cyrus anyone?).
Tweak Your Biz Title Generator (http://tweakyourbiz.com/tools/title-generator/)
This is a title generator tool that in just a few clicks gives you lots of potential blog topics. All you need to do is enter a keyword, indicate whether it's a noun or a verb, and you'll instantly get a list of titles. Mind you, the tool uses similar title templates and just alters the keywords inside them.
Reddit Top (http://www.reddit.com/top/)
Another great source for trending topics, Reddit's top page will give you an insight into what kind of content is popular right now and inspire you with some ideas you can use on your own website.
Link Bait Title Generator (http://www.contentrow.com/tools/link-bait-title-generator)
This tool is slightly different, because it allows you to choose your results – you can choose 'lists', 'shocking', 'fun' or 'controversial' themes. It works best when you've got a boring subject, but would like to make it into something people want to talk about.
Quora (https://www.quora.com/)
Providing answers to questions that get asked a lot is one way to make your content more engaging. Have a look at Quora to see questions being asked in your sector or industry.
Topsy (http://www.topsy.com/)
Topsy brings you a wealth of Twitter analytics for a selected keyword – it will show you what is tweeted about it, who does the tweeting, how many times it's been tweeted, and what the overall sentiments are, or other trends related to that word.
Icerocket
A brand new tool on the social listening scene, Icerocket shows you what other bloggers are writing about, all of which can serve as an inspiration for your own posts.