How to Get Ideas for Blog Posts When Your Brain Feels Empty

Last updated on 3 December 2025

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If you’ve ever opened your laptop, cracked your knuckles, taken a deep breath… then immediately realised you have no idea what to write… you’re not alone.

Not even a little bit.

Take it from someone who has been blogging since 2009, it can be really tricky to keep coming up with blog post ideas. Especially if you’re blogging every week or even more than that.

At the writing of this blog post, it’s been over 15 years since I started my first blog, and over those years I’ve found blog post ideas in a range of ways. From IRL events to digital trends, from physical magazines to music, movies and media.

Even after more than a decade of blogging, I still have moments where my brain just… taps out. Like, “Oh, you wanted creativity today? Couldn’t be me. Good luck!”

And honestly? That’s so normal. This is part of the creative life. That we have chosen, as bloggers, to live. Go us. 🎉

So let’s walk through the practical, the strategic, the creative, and the “why didn’t anyone tell me this sooner?” ways to get new blog post ideas … including some spots people always overlook. (And there are some goodies in this list!)

By the time you reach the end, you’re going to have more ideas than you know what to do with. Sorry-not-sorry? 🤷🏻‍♀️

And if you want the cheat-sheet version? We’ll talk about the Blog Post Idea Vault later on, which is my resource packed with 800+ ideas across multiple niches.

Alright. Let’s make sure you never run out of ideas again. Ready?

Why we tend to run out of ideas (even when we actually have plenty)

Before we jump into how to come up with blog post ideas, let’s normalise something: Idea droughts don’t happen because you’re not creative.

Most of the time, it’s because of:

• overwhelm with all the possibilities for your blog and content
• perfectionism when we’re trying to write our blog posts or come up with those blog post ideas
• decision fatigue if you have way too many ideas and you don’t know what to prioritise
• feeling like everything has already been said in your niche
• trying to write for “everyone” instead of one person
• Burnout (eek!)

And it can be tricky to work through these, and sometimes we really do just need a break. Once you take the pressure off, ideas start flowing again. Seriously.

Simply by mixing up how we do things might be what actually helps you go from blank page to a full content calendar for your blog.

How to come up with blog post ideas, like all the time

1. Start with your reader

Whenever I’m stuck, this is the first place I go. Yes we’re writing our blogs for us, because we love, because we want to share our story, expertise, knowledge with the people.

But our blogs are reaaaaally about the reader. How can we help them? Think about one specific reader; perhaps it’s someone you know, or you can make up a person who is the best fit for your blog. Picture what they’re going through right now.

And then ask yourself:

• What’s frustrating them?
• What are they trying to learn?
• What have they Googled in the last week?
• What are they nervous about doing?
• What do they wish someone would explain in a simple way?

2. Look at your analytics

Your analytics are not scary. They’re not judging you. They’re literally just showing you what’s working and what’s not. This is the part most bloggers skip because they think it’ll be boring, but it’s honestly one of the easiest ways to find ideas.

Look for things like: 

• Top 10 posts on your blog
• Seasonal spikes (what hits every year?)
• Search terms people use to find your site
• Pages with high time-on-page (they cared enough to stay!)
• Low-performing posts that could become updated, expanded, or rewritten

Patterns like these will give you content you know will perform in the future.  Gaps show you where you can create new pieces that tie everything together, create content clusters of information and inspiration for people.

Example: If your top post is “How to Start a Travel Blog,” you could expand that to some more blog posts that are probably going to do well, like:

• What I’d do differently if I started my travel blog today
• Common mistakes new travel bloggers make
• How to grow a travel blog without social media

Obviously, you’d still do your keyword research to make sure you’re hitting the right keywords for your blog, but it’s an incredible start!

3. Repurpose blog posts

We always think we need to write something brand new, when actually, readers, a lot of the time, want depth, variations, updates, and expansions.

Try:

• Turn one post into a series
• Split a long post into shorter spin-offs if it works
• Create an ultimate guide from your top performers
• Update older posts with: new stats, new photos, new examples, or new tools (more on that later)
• Turn a blog post into:  a checklist, a tutorial, a story-based post, or FAQs

Now obviously, this won’t work for all your blog posts, but you could definitely look at some of them and see if you can expand them into more blog posts in a different way. You might be surprised how many ideas for posts you come up with!

4. Pull ideas from everyday life

Some of the BEST blog posts come from real life. Moments when you thought:

• “Oh that was annoying.”
• “Why is this so confusing?”
• “Wish someone told me that earlier.”
• “I made a mess of this but learned a lot.”
• “I’m obsessed with this thing … I must share.”

If something made you feel something (happy, frustrated, excited, curious) and it’s something in your niche, then your reader will probably relate to it too.

Some places that you might find blog post ideas in everyday life:

• conversations
• travels
• books you’ve read
• mistakes you’ve made
• wins you’re proud of
• hobbies you love
• things you Googled at midnight
• events or scenarios you’ve witnessed

All fair game for ideas, even if you have to think outside the box a little bit.

5. Simply brain dump

1. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
2. Open a blank page on your computer or notes app or grab a piece of paper.
3. Dump every idea in your brain to do with your niche.

No editing. No overthinking. No trying to make sense of weird sentences that might spill out. Messy is good. Messy is honest. Messy is where creativity lives so often.

After the timer stops, go through your list and highlight anything with potential. There might only be a handful of things, and that’s okay – that’s a handful of blog post ideas you didn’t have yesterday. I promise half of your best ideas come after the three ridiculous ones you almost deleted.

6. Get inspiration from other bloggers or creators

You are not copying. And please don’t!

But when you look and see what other bloggers and creators are doing, you’re doing what every creative person in history has done: observing the world around you, seeking inspo, seeing how you can put your own spin on it.

Look at:

• Other blogs in your niche
• Pinterest search trends
• TikTok videos in your niche
• YouTube titles your audience watches
• Threads conversations
• Amazon books in your category (this is one of my faves!)
• Facebook group questions
• Comments on other people’s blogs

If people are talking about a topic somewhere… they’ll want to read about it somewhere too.

💡Bonus tip: Whenever you see a topic that sparks something, ask: “What’s my version of this? How can I add a little bit of me and my story to this topic in a way that is going to be helpful for my readers?”

7. Try structured prompts

Sometimes inspiration needs a tiny push, a nudge in the right direction, and prompts are great for this. These are like fill-in-the-blank ideas that you can actually use multiple times, too.

Here are a few to get you started: 

• “What I wish I knew about [topic] when I started.”
• “The biggest mistake people make with [topic].”
• “5 reasons [something negative in your niche] isn’t working for you.”
• “How to get started with [topic] without feeling overwhelmed.”
• “I tried [something popular in your niche] so you don’t have to.”
• “Everything you need to know about [topic] in one place.”

This is exactly the kind of thing you’ll find in the Blog Post Idea Vault, by the way!

8. Keep an ongoing list of ideas

Your best ideas will not show up when you’re sitting at your desk. They will, however, show up:

• in the shower
• in the car
• during a walk
• at bedtime
• while cooking
• while scrolling Instagram
• while eavesdropping on strangers (you know you do it)

So you need one place where you drop ideas the moment they appear. Notes app, Google Doc, Notion page, tiny notebook… doesn’t matter. Just make sure you write them down. You will not remember it in the morning.

9. Use tools that are there to help already

SEO tools are great for when you already have an idea to work with … but they can also be great for helping you form your ideas.

And then there are lots of other tools you could be utilising to get those ideas flowing too. Here are a few to get your thinking:

• AnswerThePublic
• People Also Ask on Google
• Pinterest Predicts
• Or just Pinterest in general!
• Exploding Topics
• Google Trends
• Reddit threads

These are all going to show you what people are searching for, so use broad-ish words in your own searches to see what people are asking in those topics … and see what you can come up with.

10. Get out of your laptop and your head

This may seem a bit weird, and it does connect a bit to number 4, pulling ideas from everyday life. But if we’re mixing up the input we’re having in our lives, then sometimes we can mix up the output, too.

Try a few of these:

• listening to a podcast in your niche
• reading a book (in your niche or otherwise! Just pay attention a little bit more)
• journaling
• going on a walk
• having a conversation with someone you might not usually
• consuming content outside your niche

11. Ask your people

The people know. You know? Try asking your audience or community about what they want to see or what they’re struggling with. Social media is great for this (ideas below), but also asking your email list is a good one.

• Polls
• Instagram stories
• Facebook groups
• Email replies
• Threads conversations (My fave at the moment)

People LOVE to share what they’re struggling with or share an opinion, especially if they know you can help.

Ask them things like:

• “What’s confusing you right now?”
• “What would you love to learn this year?”
• “What’s stopping you from [doing something in your niche]?”
• “If I wrote one blog post this week, what should it be?”

Their answers are going to help you come up with ideas for your blog.

12. Check out the Blog post Idea Vault

If this is all very well and good but actually? You just want a list of blog post handed to you … I created the Blog Post Idea Vault for the days when your brain is like: “Absolutely not. I will be providing zero creativity today.”

Inside the Vault, you’ll find:

• 800+ blog post ideas
• across 25+ niches
• fill-in-the-blank prompts
• seasonal ideas
• evergreen ideas
• SEO-friendly topics you can find keywords for
• and more ideas added over time

It’s basically never running out of content ideas ever again. Your future self — the one who has a blog post due tomorrow — will be SO grateful. And you can request ideas, too!

Your 20-minute action plan going forward

Before you click away, here’s what I want you to do (it’s good practice!):

1. Pick two strategies from this post (any two — the ones that felt easiest)
2. Spend 10 minutes with each. Set a timer. Make it fun.
3. Write down 12 new ideas. That’s it. Just 12

Why 12? You’ll then have one blog post idea for each month for the next year. If your blog post publication is more frequent than that, try to come up with blog posts enough for maybe the next 6 months.

In 20 minutes (or less!), you’ll have a full content bank ready to go.

And remember, if you want even more… the Vault has you sorted. You can find it here.