The primary objective of every blogger is to create original content.
If you are in the struggle to find original content ideas, then I am sure you are not alone. There are thousands like you who are still trying to find that original content idea for their next blog post.
And a lot of times, this becomes one of those reasons for a “Writer’s Block” in most bloggers.
In fact I have seen a lot of people professing about churning out “Original Content” in order to stay relevant.
But the big question is “what is original content and does it really exist”?
Picture this..
You have this amazing content idea. You then go onto Google and search about the topic to research more.
Yikes!
There is that exact same post that you were planning to write; on the first page of Google, but… on a different blog.
You are frustrated. Somebody seems to have stolen your content idea. Right?
Wrong!
Your original content already exists on the internet.
The Myth of the Original Content Idea
The concept of an “Original Content Idea”, doesn’t exist. It is a Myth.
With more than 4.4 million blog posts written every week, do you really think that there could be something that somebody has not thought about or, written about. Even if it did, that’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
If your idea for your blog is about only generating original content that nobody has ever thought about, then let me be upfront in telling you that, in that case your blog will always remain on the shelf.
Anybody asking you to generate absolutely untouched content is not a friend of yours. In fact they are your worst enemies.
So what about the Gurus? You ask.
They are right. They are not misguiding you. It is You, who is in fact getting misguided by your understanding of the term “Original Content”.
How do You Create Original Content when it doesn’t exist?
A quote that you would have heard more times than the term “Original Content” is –
Don’t reinvent the wheel!
That’s right.
Why do you even want to do it when you can use an existing idea out there?
Brian Dean elaborates his one of his posts about putting together a proven content strategy. In this post he describes about how to find content ideas from already existing content pieces out there on the internet, that’s particularly doing well.
Using this strategy from Brian Dean and putting it into his “Skyscraper Technique” is one of the best ways of generating authoritative content.
This isn’t a strategy that Brian only uses. There are many of those successful bloggers and internet marketers out there who are following the exact similar strategy.
In fact Neil Patel also follows a similar strategy. In this video on “how to find blog post ideas for your blogs“, he talks about the exact same strategy.
He has even created a simple little tool that can do this exercise for you. You can find it at UberSuggest.
So when the experts out there are using existing content ideas to generate their content, do you really need to be spending time to reinvent the wheel?
Original Content and Authoritative Content
In today’s world where there is information overload, what is important is not Original Content. Instead, it is authoritative content that is important.
You can create an absolutely original piece of content with no real substance in it or, create an excellent, informative and authoritative content that your readers want to gobble up.
In fact this article at entrepreneur.com talks about how authoritative content is more important that SEO.
In an age where SEO is becoming more and more competitive and Google algorithms are making it difficult to rank on Google, your only option is to establish your authority with readers and make them recommend you and your articles using social media.
Authoritative content is content that solves a specific problem and thus showcases your authority in doing that.
If you want to learn more about how you could generate authoritative content, then there is a nice article over at search engine journal that talks about 7 ways to generate authoritative content.
I like keeping things simple and follow a simple approach to generate original and valuable content.
Follow this simple 3 step approach that I personally follow and you should never find yourself stuck for content ideas.
STEP - 1 : Go to Google and type in a topic or, a question. (You can use a tool like Buzzsumo or, even Ubersuggest. But I will not cover them in this simple method)
STEP - 2 : If you are on Google, then note down the first 5 search results and go through each one of them.
STEP - 3 : Note down 10 points that comes to your mind as you are reading the post/article, that you felt weren't addressed in the post.
And. You have your content ideas for your next post, if not a couple of ones.
Do let me know your thoughts about this post by commenting below.