
I created a list of 82 possible blog post topics over a year ago. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek and wasn’t done with a whole lot of thought. Oddly enough, it’s my most popular post in terms of traffic.
I’ve never been happy with the job that I did on that post. I could have written something much better if I’d taken more time with it. I decided to do a better job this time.
The post will help you generate more than 20,000 possible mini-outlines for your blog, articles, essays, or other content, whether it’s personal, business, or something else. If you publish five posts a week, it could take you until the end of 2099 to use all of these ideas.
A Content Idea Matrix
The way this works is simple: create a content idea by combining the following three elements:
- a topic
- the subject of the content (who it is about)
- the theme/focus/lesson of the content.
They are all listed in this Content Idea Matrix:
| Topic |
Who the content is about |
Theme/focus/lesson |
| The community where you were born |
You as a child |
Creativity (idea generation) |
| The community where you lived (longest) as a child |
You as a post-secondary student |
Inspiration/motivation |
| The house/apartment where you lived longest |
You and your first job |
Innovation (making exciting new stuff) |
| Your bedroom |
You in your first long-term relationship |
Discovery |
| Your favorite toy/hobby/pastime |
You in your current long-term relationship |
Teaching/demonstration of skills |
| Your nemesis |
You in your favorite job |
Life lessons |
| Your favorite place to hang out |
You in your current job |
Entertainment (non-humor) |
| Your favorite TV show |
You as a parent |
Humor |
| Your favorite music |
You as a grandparent |
Analysis |
| Your greatest achievement/your favorite creation |
You as a senior citizen |
Critique/review of some product/service/article |
| Your biggest disaster or failure |
You as you approach death |
Hypothesizing/thinking/writing a manifesto |
| How you mastered a skill |
Write any of the above about a sibling |
Bragging/celebrating |
| Your best vacation or trip |
Write any of the above about a parent |
Marketing/selling (business oriented) |
| Your worst vacation or trip |
Write any of the above about a grandparent |
Promoting a cause/pleading |
| Your hairstyle (good, bad, or ugly) |
Write any of the above about a friend |
Calling out bad behavior |
| Your clothes (good, bad, or ugly) |
Write any of the above about a neighbor |
Thanking/displaying gratitude |
| Your favorite food |
Write any of the above about a teacher |
Recognizing/acknowledging/spotlighting |
| Your super power (your greatest strength) |
Write any of the above about a lover |
Warning |
| Your super challenge (aka disability) |
Write any of the above about any authority figure |
Teasing (dropping hints with the promise of a future benefit) |
| Your underdog moment |
Write any of the above about a celebrity |
The importance of practice |
| Your king/queen of the world moment |
Write any of the above about a master |
The importance of hard work |
| Your favorite area of interest (school, work, hobby or otherwise) |
Write any of the above about a fictional character |
The importance of timing |
| Your story about having a serious illness |
Make a concept or idea the subject of your content instead of a person |
The importance of luck |
| Things you did when you were bored while… |
Make any business or organization the subject of your content instead of a person |
Business skills/smarts/lessons, etc. |
| Your biggest fear |
Write from the perspective of an animal |
The importance of interpersonal skills |
| Ritual that you loved |
Write from the perspective of a plant |
The power of faith |
| Ritual that you hated |
Write from the perspective of an alien |
The power of reason |
| How you saved or damned someone |
Write from the perspective of the Earth |
|
| How someone saved or damned you |
|
|
| Your “aha” moment |
|
|
| Any life changing moment |
|
|
| A world event that provoked an emotional response (happy, sad, angry, etc.) |
|
|
| A world event that you didn’t care about |
|
|
| How you reacted to the introduction of a new medium (e.g. computers, Internet, cell phones, blogs, microblogging, etc.) |
|
|
| What you think (or thought) freedom is |
|
|
| What you think about the implications of free products and services |
|
|
| A time when you had no idea what to do |
|
|
| The best conversation that you ever had |
|
|
| A time when it was better to listen than speak |
|
|
| A puzzle or mystery that you solved |
|
|
| A difficult friend/colleague/customer situation that you had to deal with |
|
|
| A conflict that was never resolved |
|
|
| A community event or cause that you participated in (charitable or otherwise) |
|
|
| Open markets versus regulation (in any situation; micro or macro) |
|
|
| A miracle or event that you could never explain |
|
|
| Something ugly |
|
|
| Something beautiful |

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Here are some examples:
- The community you were born + you as a child + bragging/celebrating: If you were born in New York City, you could write a post describing all of the ways in which New York City has a lot of fun opportunities for children including links, photos, videos, testimonials, etc.
- Your biggest fear + you and your first job + business skills/smarts/lessons, etc.: You could write an article about your first experience giving a presentation or speech at work and what you learned doing it.
- How you reacted to the introduction of a new medium + write any of the above about a grandparent + discovery: Write an essay about how one of your grandparents discovered the Internet and what they chose to do on it.
- Any life changing moment + a master + the importance of practice: Create a post about someone who mastered a skill through lots of practice and their “tipping point” when they realized that all of the practice was making them great at their chosen field, career, or skill.
These are just a few examples. I’m sure some of them seem obvious and you may have already used them. Some of these elements might not combine together very well and they might be difficult to work with. On the other hand, something that might seem awkward or tricky could turn out to be a great piece of content. As you’ve probably guessed by now, the 20,000+ ideas number comes from the combinations of each of the three elements. If you do the math, it’s actually more than 30,000 potential ideas but some of the elements might not combine together well, as I mentioned above.
To add more flexibility and possibilities, you could also use different media (text, images, video, sound, or combinations thereof).
A final word about the Content Idea Matrix
This is a creative tool to help you come up with outstanding or remarkable content, but it is only a starting point. Creating excellent content takes time, effort, patience, thought and skill. This post, for example, has probably taken about eight ten hours of work from start to finish. My hope is that this tool can help stimulate your thinking and get your creative juices flowing if you’re not sure what to do next.
I hope that you find this matrix to be useful! If nothing else, I hope it will help you develop some ideas of your own. Please feel free to share it with other content creators! If you have links to other good posts on this topic, please feel free to share them in the comments section!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
(sorry, I couldn’t resist…)
If all of these ideas weren’t enough… here are some links to other great ideas from other bloggers:
Problogger.net – Darren’s created a great 2009 year end series of posts about blogging (click on this link)
Problogger.net – here’s another post from Darren about using mind mapping to help develop blog post ideas
The Future Buzz – Adam Singer created a list of 45 Blog Post Ideas That Always Generate Buzz
SEO 2.0 – Tad made a list of 101 Blog Posting Ideas
Chris Brogan.com – Chris’s list of 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write was followed by 20 Blog Topics To Get You Unstuck and 20 Blogging Projects For You
Darren Barefoot – Darren was inspired by Chris’s 100 Blog Topics and then wrote 55 More Blog Posts I Hope You Write
Bakersfield.com – this is just a huge list of blog topics, like 18132 of them…
Vertical Measures – 50 Corporate Blog Topics
Sparkplugging – Wendy created The World’s Largest Blog Niche and Topic Idea List
Life in Student Ministry – 100 blog topics I hope YOU write (and some of them will surprise and even shock you) – I included this because some of these ideas may be jumping off points to other ideas that aren’t necessarily religion or faith based or they might work very well if you do write about religion, faith, Christianity, etc.
Louis Gray – while not necessarily a list of blog topics, Jesse Stay wrote a post at Louis Gray‘s blog called To Blog Or Not To Blog – That Is The Question with some advice on writing posts, including some topic ideas.
Remarkablogger – Michael Martine wrote a post called How to Decide What Your Blog Should Be About When You have Many Interests which can offer some insights into blog material at a macro level and then break it down to lower levels of detail.
Skelliewag - Skellie wrote a great post on 37 Viral Post Ideas You Can Use Today
Techipedia – Tamar Weinberg shared her Top 6 Ideas for Incredible Viral Content
Big Huge Thesaurus has an interesting tool which displays random blog post topics
Acknowledgement: this post was partially inspired by the Visitor Grid at I Help You Blog. However, I believe this tool is significantly different in that it comes with suggested idea elements.
PS: here’s a new blog that you should also check out: Thoughtwrestling. It’s a new one that I started with some friends and it’s destined for greatness.
The nice but not gushy guy
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009I’ve had this post in mind for awhile, but I’m struggling to find the right words.
Screw it, here it is.
Sometimes I wish I had more comments here on this blog. Social proof and all that.
Then I look at other blogs, where people are:
I realize that I have a pretty high quality of comments here, even if the quantity is lower than I might like sometimes. I think that’s the right end of the continuum to be on.
It makes me think of the method that I try to follow whenever I comment on other people’s blogs. I don’t fawn, gush, or schmooze very well, in print or in real life. It’s probably part of being an introvert – small talk doesn’t come naturally. What I do try to do, though, is help. Some people would refer to it as adding value. I’ll question, add, challenge, or encourage when I think it will help.
If you’re just content to read, then that’s fine, too. Thank you for continuing to read.
Tags: blogs, comments, social media, social proof
Posted in blogging | 11 Comments »