Darren Rowse has been inspiring bloggers for years. He was the blogger I read for expert advice when I started blogging seriously. He’s known for his genuineness, his professionalism, and most of all, for putting out great articles on blogging, year in and year out.
So of course I thought of him first when it came to the topic of finding awesome topics. In my eyes, there’s nobody better.
He was gracious enough to respond to my questions, even if they were a bit repetitive, and drove home the point — listen to your readers!
Let’s dive into the interview.
Leo: Darren, you create posts for a bunch of blogs — how do you come up with valuable post topics?
Darren Rowse: It’s partly an instinctive thing (when you write every day for 8 years you get in the rhythm and get a sense for what will work and what won’t) and partly something I work on using a few techniques that mainly revolve around my readers.
I run surveys to find out the needs of my readers, look at the questions being asked in comments, emails from readers and also have a forum where I watch for questions. All of this gives heaps of ideas.
Other than that I’m always on the look out for ideas when I’m going through life – it’s amazing where an idea will strike. The key is to have a way to capture the ideas.
Leo: How can you ensure that your posts aren’t the same as everyone else in your niche? How do they stand out?
Darren: It’s about looking for ways to extend what everyone else is talking about. Adding depth by using quotes, writing in a different voice, looking at the flip side of arguments rather than just the popular ones, adding examples, using metaphors, telling stories…. any of these techniques that make your content a little more unique will help you stand out.
Leo: How do you sustain your posting and keep coming up with ideas after so many years of blogging?
Darren: I guess it’s partly about staying in touch with your readers’ needs (Question 1), but also about looking after yourself. Taking time off, not working yourself into burn out, writing about topics that interest you, trying to approach your blogging in fresh ways can all help.
Leo: How do you keep your pulse on your readers’ needs and interests to keep your posts on point?
Darren: As I mentioned above – one of the main things I try to do is survey my readers. I have a couple of surveys built into an email autoresponder series that I run, that ask readers directly about their challenges and needs. Till now, thousands of readers have responded to those questions – it is a treasure trove of ideas!
Leo: Where do you find inspiration from others for your posts?
Darren: Other than readers, I occasionally find inspiration from interactions on Twitter, people in real life and the books I read – however these days most of what I write tends to come from the feedback readers give me.
Author: Leo Babauta