This Quick & Simple Hack Finds Winning Blog Post Ideas Every Time

Finding new blog ideas can be a challenge.

This goes double if you're working within a boring, decidedly unsexy niche.

Writing 2,000 words about coffee grinders or food processors for an affiliate site isn't always exciting, and once you've covered the obvious topics, you might find yourself scraping for new ideas.

If there's one guy who knows blogging, it's marketing guru Neil Patel.

And recently, he's offered a cool new strategy he uses himself to come up with the content he needs to keep his own audience engaged.

It's simple: hop on what's already trending.

When a topic is trending, you already know that people want to read about it.

All you've got to do is add something new to it.

Don't just parrot what others have already said — try to contribute something original.

Obviously, you should focus on trending topics that are actually relevant to your niche.

Don't newsjack just any old story.

But when done right, timely content based around a current trend can get a lot of engagement from your audience.

Here's how Neil Patel finds trending topics to blog about.

Start by finding topics that are already trending

My original “Guide to Online Marketing for Beginners” only received 68,319 visitors.

That’s less than 25% of the views my “Guide to Growth Hacking” received over 414,209 visitors.

[image source: Neil Patel]
What happened?

Why did one get so much attention, while the other received barely any?

There are a few reasons that I’ll share in this article.

However, one of the biggest problems was that “online marketing” has already been beaten to death.

Think about it.

You can’t go anywhere online without reading a “guide to online marketing.”

The topic has been around ages. It’s nothing new.

So trying to add something new is hard.

And getting people excited to share, write about, or promote it is equally challenging.

They’ve already seen almost everything there is about that topic.

“Growth hacking” has become a hot topic in recent years by comparison.

The concept and term didn’t even exist until recently.

That hints at the first tip.

There’s not a whole lot anyone can do if the public doesn’t care about your topic.

There has to be external demand for what you’re talking about.

So you have to find topics that are already trending.

Check out the Google Trends graph that led me to write a guide about growth hacking:

[image source: Neil Patel]
It’s blowing up!

Now compare that to “online marketing.” It’s a completely saturated topic.

Attention spiked a few years ago and has only dropped off since then.

[image source: Neil Patel]
Here’s another perfect example.

Check out the interest in “influencer marketing” over the past two years.

[image source: Neil Patel]
That’s no coincidence!

Social sites like Instagram have skyrocketed over the past few years, too.

All kinds of new niches opened up for regular people to reach celebrity status.

Creating partnerships with celebrities used to only be possible for giant brands with plenty of dough.

But now every single company, big or small, has the power to work with influencers.

Gaps open up in the marketplace. Topics don’t just trend randomly. New technology comes out, and things evolve.

It’s kind of like poker.

You need to look for those time-sensitive opportunities.

When a strong hand comes along, and you get a few people biting, you need to raise the stakes and go all-in.

Capitalizing on trending topics doesn’t just get you more readers.

It will also help you land high-quality backlinks without link building.

People are much more likely to write new stories and share amazing content on a trending topic over others that have already been beaten to death.