When is a Post Not a Post?

Well basically, when it’s not what people want to read.

If you’re anything like me, then listen up and see if there’s something to learn here.

Like me, you, and probably most people, you may find yourself struggling to conjure up an interesting topic to write about when it comes time to do another blog post or article.

Even if you do have ideas for content, you could be feeling that what you want to write about isn’t necessarily what people want to read about.

Which of course, could be entirely true. 

Just because you want to write about something, doesn’t mean that others want to read about it.

And if you spend valuable time writing stuff that no-one want to read, then not only is it precious time in that moment that’s wasted, but you might negate weeks or months of prior effort as people decide that your stuff is just not worth reading any more.

So how do you choose a topic to write about, that you know for sure people will want to read about?

Well there’s a couple of ways.

For one, you could write about your own personal journey.  That’s actually a fantastic idea since it shares the real life ups and downs, winners and losers of your journey with like-minded people, who will usually find something to take away from your post.

But if from time to time you want to venture away from that particular predefined track into the realms of the broader world of the online universe, then you pretty much need to know what people want to read and what they don’t, before you put pen to paper.

It’s as simple as that actually.

So how exactly do you choose a topic that you just know is gonna be right on the tip of everybody’s tongue right now?

Well if you have a moment, I’d like to share with you a bit of a trick that I use from time to time when my posts move away from my own personal internet journey.

For a start, one thing you could do is ask your followers, your list, your audience what exactly it is that they want to know more about.  That can work well, and I can safely suggest to you that the gurus will agree on this, – that you should survey your list from time to time with exactly that in mind.

But obviously that only works if you have a list or audience.  What if you’re new to all this? Or maybe you have a list but they just plain don’t respond for some reason.

Obviously, asking them is not going to give you the information you need.

Well, here’s the way I get over this hurdle from time to time.  I have a bit of a strategy for finding out what people in your niche want to know about.

It’s so simple, and if you do as I say, then you can keep your readers not only glued to your post, but also thinking that you must be reading their minds or something – lol

Here’s what I do in 3 simple steps……

Step 1:

Whatever niche you’re in, you can be sure other people in your niche get together to discuss all their favorite things in Forums.  So I recommend you search Google for forums in your Niche.

Interestingly, there are differing opinions about exactly what syntax produces the best results when using Google to search, but I’ve found that the following seems to produce the most and best results …..

forum:niche

For example, if your niche is motorbikes, you’d type in:

forum:motorbikes

I’m not sure why it’s different, but you’ll get more results if you type in “forum” and not “forums” (plural). But either way, the first few pages is what we need and they’ll be exactly the same, so it doesn’t make much difference in practice.

Anyway, the results you get will usually be in order of forum popularity, with most popular at the top.

Step 2:

Then I want you to enter one of the forums.  What you’re looking for is a ‘search’ facility that will allow you to search for certain terms and phrases that people have used in their forum posts.  Be aware that you may have to register with the forum first before doing this.

Step 3:

In the search field, you want to just type in some of the following generic sort of “post starters” as I call them.  You can imagine that this kind of phrase would be exactly the sort of thing that someone wanting to know about something in their niche, would include in their original post.

Try it and see what comes up.

• “advice about”
• “I hate it when”
• “I need help with”
• “can anyone help me”
• “I’m looking for”
•  “really bad”
• “desperate for”
• “can’t find”
• “have no clue”
• “newbie”
• “question about”

Sometimes, depending on the forum, the syntax may be a little different and you may have to use a ‘+’ sign rather than enclose the whole phrase in double quotes, for example …

• advice+about
• I+hate+it+when

There are all sorts of additional terms that you could search on that would suit this purpose.  I called these phrases “post starters” if you recall, so I think you can probably see what I mean here.

Try it, – you’ll be amazed at what you can drag up in forums.

For Example:

I searched on the “desperate for” phrase in a migraine forum, and came up with someone “desperate for correct migraine diagnosis” which got an amazing 172 replies.

So from that result alone, you can reasonably conclude that “Migraine Diagnosis” is a hot topic.  Not to mention the other sub-topics that could get mentioned along the way.  For instance there was a sort of sub-discussion going on in there about the use of “naturopathic remedies for migraine”.

The possibilities can be endless as to what you can uncover by searching forums in this way.  And truly, if you’re to give your readers what they want, whilst at the same time becoming an authority in your niche, this is one sure fire way to do it.

When I search through that forum in the Migraine Niche, these are some of the things I found:

• Hemiplegic Migraine (whatever that is!)
• Migraines treatable at the Jefferson Headache Clinic
• Migraine and anti-depressants
• Implanted Nerve Stimulators
• How fast does TOPOMAX work?

How good would that be?

These topics were taken from just one search on “desperate for”.  You can see how easy it would be to do a little research and come up with a great post on any one of these.  Some will be better than others.  You may even strike gold.

And there it is, your very next blog post.  Or, if you’re feeling mentally energetic – your next eBook to offer at your opt-in.

As a bit of a bonus, if the threads you uncover are quite recent, you could create an article or blog post addressing that need or problem specifically, and then re-enter the thread itself as a “newly created” user and offer a researched solution or advice which links to your article or blog post for those wanting to read the complete post or article.

In case it’s not obvious, that traffic would be considered highly targeted in anyone’s language. Correct?

Pretty cool huh !

If you thought this was useful or have any comment to offer, then please do feel free to leave words of wisdom below.

Thanks for sticking with it right to the end – I admire your patience 😉