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Hey SiteFling-er’s here is a killer guest post (that I’m sure you’ll love) from one of our friends on Twitter who is a great marketer, Shawn Horwood. You can learn more about him at his fitness blog or find him on Twitter.

I often hear people say that they can’t think of what to write about in articles or in blog posts or what to make videos about. I think that’s crazy because I always have a huge list of things I could write about and I have to try and choose what’s most important to write about first.

I just started a new blog in the fitness niche and I already have a huge list of things that I want to write about. I could probably plan out my whole next six months or even a year posting 6 days a week.

Here are 15 ways that I come up with ideas for content:

1. Hot Topics on The News: You can often take hot topics in the news and relate them to your own market, using the hot topic to generate new visitors, viewers, leads, etc. I know when the whole balloon boy thing happened, I had multiple people relate it to internet marketing and one guy relate it to fitness (those are the two types of lists I’m currently subscribed to).

2. TV Shows Relating To Your Market: If you are in relationships, you may write or make a video about something Dr. Phil said. If you’re in weight loss, you may comment on something Dr. Oz said. Find TV shows relevant to your market and watch what people say on them. You can either agree or disagree or a little bit of both. Just make your opinion and back it up.

3. Popular Blogs in Your Niche: See what other people are posting about on other blogs in your niche. If they have a Popular Posts plugin, see what posts are getting the most attention. Put out something similar or even mention the specific blog post and give your take on the subject. You can even go and comment on the blog post stating your opinion and linking back to your post, giving you extra traffic.

4. Popular Youtube Channels in Your Niche: See what videos other people are putting up and what’s getting the most attention & do the same as with the blog posts.

5. Product Launches: See what products are successfully launching in your niche and see what they are about, what hot buttons they’re hitting and why they’re successful. Use that as ideas for content for your own stuff. You can even mention the product launch in your stuff and you can get the attention of all the people that didn’t buy (and even the people that did and want to get your take on the subject)

6. Affiliate Articles: Many affiliate areas have articles that you can use to promote their product. Most product owners know what works, and they provide articles on subjects they know people want to know about. Write articles on similar topics or even on the same topic. You can even comment on the specific article and give your take.

7. Most Viewed Articles in EzineArticles: I love the list of most viewed articles on EzineArticles because it gives you a list of hot topics that people are interested in. It shows you which articles are getting lots of views and are most likely being shared with others, so you can be pretty sure if you put out content on that topic, people will be interested. I know this can be rigged and people can inflate their views, but if EZA catches people doing that they lose their accounts as it’s against the TOS and most of the time they aren’t, especially in smaller niches.

8. Most Published Articles on EzineArticles: This is also great because it shows you what articles people are taking and posting elsewhere, meaning it’s probably a hot topic. Now this can be rigged as well, but it’s unlikely so you’re likely to get some good ideas for content.

9. Q&A Sites: Obviously these are a good place to go because you can see what questions your market is asking and then answer them. You can even give a brief answer to the question on the Q&A site and then link to a more in-depth answer on your blog or Youtube Channel or wherever you have your longer answer.

10. Run Contests: Instead of putting out content, just run a contest. Be creative. You can even get people to submit their own content as part of the contest, or submit ideas for content. Be creative.

11. Niche Reports: See what reports are being distributed in your niche. Look for brandable ebooks in affiliate areas and see what people are giving away to capture leads. Generally the reports are well researched and what the market is looking for, so they can be great ideas for content.

12. Ezines, Newsletters & Mailing Lists: See what other people are mailing about in your niche. You can get some great ideas from what the other people are mailing about.

13. Survey Your Prospects, Subscribers & Customers: Just freaking ask people what they want you to talk about. They’ll tell you what they need/want info on, and then you can give it to them.

14. See What People Are Searching for On Google: This one’s pretty simple. Just use Google’s keyword tool to see what people are searching for. If they’re searching for it, they obviously want info on it.

15. Whatever Pops Into Your Head: Once you start using the other strategies, your brain will start to shift and think in a different way, often giving you tons of ideas of what to write about.