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How To Create Endless Amounts Of Content

This article is more than 7 years old.

Content marketing can make huge demands on your resources. Between blog posts, emails and social media, you could be creating new content every day, all day, and still not have enough.

Unfortunately, knowing you need a steady stream of content and actually being able to provide it are two different things.

This post will give you some strategies for creating endless amounts of content, regardless of your niche, business type or budget. Whether you're a writer looking for content ideas for clients, or a business owner needing to meet your own content requirements, these strategies will get you going in the right direction.

1. Find out which topics are working well on other websites and publications

One of the best ways to find new content ideas is to see what's already working for others. Using a tool like Buzzsumo, you can identify top-performing articles from across the web, and then use those as a jumping off point for your own content.

Simply type in a broad topic or theme, and see which articles have received the most social likes and shares. As you can see above, searching for "home renovations" yields some top-rated blog posts that I could use to inspire my own writing.

Note: The idea here is not to copy what someone else has already written! See which broad topics or themes jump out at you, and then cover those topics in a unique and interesting way. I personally use this to up my content game!

2.  Make sure you're constantly exposing yourself to new ideas

You can't create an endless stream of content is you're constantly "pushing" and never "pulling". What I mean is this: If all you're doing is pushing out content day in and day out, you'll never pull in new ideas, information and inspiration.

Not only does this make you a less effective writer, but ultimately, it will lead you to become demotivated and to burn out.

When you're not actively writing, make sure you're giving yourself chances to take in new information. It's this information that will spark new ideas, and inspire you to come up with unique, engaging content. Read books, listen to podcasts, visit other blogs (comments are a great source of new content ideas!) and read trade magazines regularly to make sure you stay inspired!

3. Cover a single topic from every possible angle

As you've likely experienced, coming up with new topics can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of content creation. So, once you've managed to find a topic you want to run with, brainstorm a bunch of relevant angles and subtopics you can cover.

This cuts down on the time it takes you to do research, and also allows you to stay completely focussed on the topic at hand. This strategy also often leads to higher quality, more in-depth writing; which we know is good for both search rankings as well as for gaining social traction.

One hack I find helpful is to use the ad group ideas tab in Google's Keyword Planner. While not intended for this purpose, I find it helps me brainstorm tons of related topics and subtopics I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

If I find a related topic that I like, I can also click on it to find even more specific subtopics I can write about.

4. Cover the same topic multiple times, but in different formats

Again, since coming up with topics is one of the hardest aspects of creating content, make the most of the ones you've managed to nail down.

Once you've come up with the general topic or theme, write about that topic multiple times, using various content formats. Some examples of formats you might want to use include:

  • FAQs
  • Top 10 list
  • A research-backed article
  • Tutorial
  • Interview
  • Long-form social media post
  • Resource list

The possibilities are virtually endless. The added benefit is that this forces you to write in formats you may not usually try. This often results in more interesting and balanced content.

5. Utilize user-generated content

Some of the best ideas you're ever going to find come straight from your website and social media audience. Blog and social media comments, forum discussions and testimonials are all perfect examples of material you can use to create new content.

For instance, if you have a particularly interesting or controversial discussion going on in the comment section of your blog, you could write a blog post about it. Or, if a user has submitted a glowing testimonial, you could even use it word for word on your site or social media properties.

A couple of years ago, greek yogurt company Chobani successfully launched an entire ad campaign based on user-submitted stories. The company asked fans to submit their own "Chobani love stories". They then featured these images, videos or stories on their website and on billboards....and reportedly experienced a 225.9% increase in sales over the previous year.

Warning: If you plan to utilize user-generated content as part of your content marketing, make sure to note this in your Terms and Conditions. This way, when users post to your forum, upload an image or submit a testimonial, they know you might share it with your audience.

6. Repurpose existing content

You will inevitably have times where you just can't think of anything new to write, and that's okay. One of the strategies I use when this happens is to go back and find old content that I can rewrite or repurpose.

We know that Google favors fresh content, so content that's been around for years may be well past its prime – both in terms of rankings and interest from your readers.

The good news is that this doesn't make that content useless. Often all that's needed is some updating, adding elements of interest, or repurposing it into a different content format.

Of course, you can also re-promote older content to breathe some new life into it. Share it with your email subscribers and social media audience to increase its visibility, while also helping to meet your content marketing needs.

Conclusion

Content marketing demands more content than many of us can produce - at least without some careful planning and smart implementation. The six strategies above will not only help you come up with topic ideas, but also write quickly and efficiently, allowing you to feed the content marketing machine.

How do you create endless amounts of content? Any tips or tricks for continually finding new content ideas and writing  more efficiently? Share below!