30 blog post ideas a week

How to come up with 30 blog post ideas each week

For the last few weeks - probably months now - I have been coming up with 30 blog post ideas each week and adding them to a schedule. I've got blog posts all the way up to December planned, and then some waiting in the wings ready to be put on the calendar. 

My point is, thanks to this I don't panic about what to write or sit about for hours trying to come up with something fun, interesting or relevant for the next day, week or event. I have it all planned and most probably written up the week before. 

Today I'm going to be explaining how I do it, why I do it, and I'm going to also explain how I plan everything out too. 

The Secret Formula

There's not much of a secret, but there is most definitely a formula to it.

• Brain Storming. Catch yourself in a creative mood, or one where your mind is just spitting out ideas left, right and center. This isn't something very many people can do on command, but you'll probably catch yourself in this type of mood at least once or twice a week. This is when you want to grab something to write your ideas down on, because you're about to explode.

• Write it down. There's not much point getting yourself all pumped up and ready to set your pen on fire with the speed of your writing if you don't actually have a pen or notepad. Even using a word document on your computer or using the notes app on your phone, just find somewhere you can write your ideas down before they disappear into that black hole that seems to feed specifically on blog-post ideas at the best of times.

• Write. It's pretty obvious, but you really do need to write EVERYTHING that comes into your mind down on that piece of paper or in your notes. Random words that don't mean anything, a full post title, half a title, a sentence that you'd put in that post... ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. It doesn't matter if it makes sense right now or not.

Right, now you most probably have a lot of jumble and words, sentences, titles. You might even have a few pages. If you don't, that's fine too because this is where we make that jumble and nonsense into titles and full ideas.

For example, say you wrote down... Apple. It's your favourite fruit, and that's why it came to mind. How do we make a post title/idea out of "apple"? Simply take the word, and give it relevance in your field.

Here's an example:

Beauty: DIY Facemask with apples! I would suggest playing about with natural things we already know to be good for our skin and add a "binding" agent to the mix (basically what sticks it all together and to our face) like honey or something. Look up what benefits the natural chemicals in apples provide. If you find they are bad for our skin, twist it into a "Why you shouldn't use apples in your DIY facemasks". 

Just FIY, I have no idea whether apples are good or not for our skin, so you really will have to do the research.

Fashion: Apple Inspired OOTD! Or something along those lines. 

Food and/or Lifestyle: Homemade Apple pie or Homemade Apple crumble. Never made one before? Great! Review a recipe you find online. A total pro? Share your recipe!

Get the gist? I hope you do, if not please feel free to ask for more examples in the comments!

You pretty much follow this process for everything you've written down. If you've only managed a few words or sentences - don't worry, the more you do this the more you'll get the hang of it - try and make a few different post titles/ideas out of it. 

Why I do it

Okay, so 30 post ideas/titles a week is A LOT. Too many to post all in one week. So why do so many?

First of all it started as a competition for myself. How fast could I come up with 30 blog post ideas? Then it just became routine to think up 30 ideas.

On average I end up discarding 5-10 of the ideas. Either I don't think they fit in with my bog, I don't want to write the post, or I don't think it has much relevance to others. These are all reasons why I won't write a post, because my goals with this blog is to help and inform others, and to have fun and document my life. Writing about something that I don't want to write about, or I don't think is very important to my readers just doesn't make sense.

That takes us down to maybe 20-25 ideas. Those 20-25 ideas and/or titles are great to have saved somewhere I can just pull them up and decide what to write. In fact, that's what I was doing at first. I would get up in the morning, find a title/idea I liked the sound of that day and just write.

That's all very well and good, and if it works for you by all means continue to do so, but it just wasn't working for me. My posts were jumbled, had multiple mistakes and I just seemed to drone on forever about things that really didn't have much to do with the post. This leads me onto my next point...

How I schedule my blog posts

I've actually gotten a little behind with my scheduling, and I'm writing this the night before it goes live. I know, I've just said not to leave it that late but you know me. 

Anyway, now we have 20-25 blog posts. And next week we'll have 40-50. That's quite a few ideas and titles to keep up with. I don't get rid of my ideas, I write them all out in a Word document, and keep them saved in a folder on my desktop. 

Then, I open up an Exel document - it's still called that, right? - and set out 4 columns ready for me to fill in. I use one for Date To Post, one for Topic / Category, one for Post Title, and then I use the last for any ideas or things I want to remember to include in that particular post when I come to write it.

Doing it in an Exel document means you can move things around with ease and not worry about it looking awful. I used to do it on a piece of paper, but then last minute I would change something and would have to cross something out. I hated how it looked after only two weeks of doing it. 

I've not used a screenshot of my actual ideas and titles because I don't want to give away the next 3 months worth of posts!

I even use the last column to pinpoint what photographs I want to take or any links that need to be used in the post.

I've used this method to make up a schedule all the way up to the first week of December. I'm still figuring out some ideas for Christmas posts, so December hasn't been filled in yet. It's a great way to get things thought up and in some sort of order, and better yet you can change it as and when you like!

Not all of your ideas are going to make it into your schedule, and not all of the ones that do will be used. It's a way to be able to have some sort of order, when life can become hectic and you lose place on your blog.

I started doing this because I was awful at typing up posts then and there, and mainly because my life is so "now it is, now it isn't" and I have so many things going on, that sometimes I just really don't have the time or energy to do ANYTHING. That's when I rest assured that I have all my ideas and a very very short draft all written out for me.

I try to write out my posts and schedule them to go live on their particular day a week or so in advance. It gives me time to change things and think things over, to make sure I put out the best content I can for you.

If you'd like to see more on how things work behind the scenes, just give me a shout! 

Do you schedule your posts in advance? Do you have a planner full of ideas ready and waiting?

Thanks for reading, 

Bella x

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