Sources for article ideas for your blog

A PROBLEM often faced in the early days of a blog is that you may think you have run out of things to write about.

People will have described their experiences of moving to France, why they picked the region they are now living in and produced a list of the airlines that fly to the local airports.

But if you are struggling for a little inspiration there are a number of methods you can use, both online and real world, to ensure you have at least two or three things a week to write about.

Many websites offer a newsletter so signing up to a few will ensure there is always a spark prompting an idea or two in your mind when they arrive in your in box.

As long as you do not copy an article word for word there is nothing stopping you writing a piece on the same subject, just add your own experiences and advice.

Start with company press releases

Many larger companies, such as airlines and ferry firms, will enable you to sign up to a newsletter or press release list so you can keep in touch with new routes or the findings of recent research.

Again if you add your own opening paragraphs, comments and conclusions then it will mean your news story is a little different and will look much better in the eyes of your website visitors.

Subscribe to Google Alerts

A very handy tool is the Google Alerts service offered by the world’s favourite search engine, Google.

Here you can enter keywords about your subject, for example, it could be tourism and travel phrases, the name of regions or cities, even authors who write about France.

Then Google will search the internet and report back to you either as soon as it finds something, once a day or once a week.

These alerts are so easy to set up and the best bit is that they are free.

Leaflets and magazines can help

Whilst you are out and about don't forget to pick up any leaflets or brochures from around the region, these can again form the basis of simple, informative articles about places to visit - and make sure you include the full address as this will help location based searches.

Magazines are also another good source of ideas, again no copying word for word, but if you read about a local event coming up then you could write a piece noting the date and go along yourself for a more in-depth article.

There is one other extremely helpful source of ideas and that is RSS, but how I use it for story ideas means it deserves an article of its own, so look out for that next week.

But if you want to do a little advanced study check out, how to explain RSS the Oprah way.

You will see that many of these methods of tracking down things to write about are sent to you, there's no need to visit numerous websites and that is the key, so over time you will have ideas bouncing around your head, and not enough time to write all your articles, or that’s the plan.

Part 1: First steps in starting a blog
Part 2: What to look for in a blogging service
Part 3: The key elements of a blog
Part 4: Sources for article ideas for your blog