Use These 9 Tools to Help Create Ideas for Content

Any one who takes part in content marketing knows one of the hardest parts is finding new material and creating an abundance of it. You don't just have to create completely new material, you can simply provide a new opinion or put a new spin on older, high quality content through article curation. This will help you crank out the volume without sacrificing any quality.

In case you need further help, here are 9 different strategies that will help:

1. Google Keyword Planner: Google's Keyword Planner is a highly effective tool for writers struggling with content development. If you've already got a topic in mind, you can use the Keyword Planner to research keywords and concepts related to your core idea. You can use the data you uncover from Google Keyword Planner to help brainstorm titles for upcoming pieces and optimize your content for search. Pay special attention to long-tail keyword terms (for example, instead of “semantic indexing” you might look for “what is semantic indexing” or “how to apply semantic indexing to my blog”) to give you more fully fleshed ideas that reveal searcher intent.

2. Quora: Question and answer sites like Quora can give you immediate insight into your audience's most pressing problems. This tool lets you review popular questions related to topics you're interested in. If there's a reasonable volume of questions and answers, you might have a hot niche on your hands. Q&A sites give you a good sense of what people are interested in reading and learning about that's related to your field. It gives you an inside look at the way that they describe their problems, how these issues impact their lives, and the overall emotions behind the desire to solve the issue. All these factors will help you develop long lists of content ideas, and infuse what you write with insight and ideas that connect with readers.

3. Google Trends: Are you writing content that isn't resonating with your audience because it's not topical enough? Finding a news hook for your pieces could be the solution. If you want to grab your audience's attention and get them talking, take a look at trending topics online to see what people are talking about right now. Google Trends is a helpful tool that lets you see what current events, celebrity names, and cultural memes have captured the world's attention. You can search for a particular keyword or term, or simply select a category that's interesting to you. Users can also track what's trending in a particular region or what was hot during a specific time period.

4. Google Webmaster Tools: One of the easiest ways to map out a plan for your writing is to check out which keywords are driving the most traffic to your website and use that data to develop your content strategy.

5. Delicious: If you need a little inspiration to help you come up with topics, sign up for Delicious. Content marketers turn to this tool to find fresh ideas for new posts. To get started, sign up with your Facebook, Twitter, or email account.

6. Evernote: If you sometimes have great ideas and then forget them or wish you had a better organization to track inspiration from various sources, try Evernote. Similar to Delicious, the Evernote app lets you organize and save web content that's interesting to you. But instead of just saving a link, this tool lets you save an entire article, including all text, photos, videos, etc.

7. Trapit: Rather than spending hours searching around the web for the perfect content to share with your followers and friends on social media, Trapit lets you choose a subject that's relevant for your audience, browse through related articles and “trap” the ones that strike a chord with you. You can then choose to share your trapped content via your social networks or in an upcoming email newsletter.

8. Trello: Sometimes the problem in your content process isn't idea generation, but it's the approval and fleshing out of processes that come with developing each ideas. If content development is a team effort at your company, check out Trello. It's a helpful project management tool that lets you do everything from organize your ideas for upcoming pieces, create an editorial calendar with deliverables, and track your progress over time.

9. InboundWriter: If your primary goal is more traffic to your site, InboundWriter is a tool worth considering.