I would say that one of the main problems when it comes to pure blogging / writing is to find out topics to blog about.

Especially when you’ve been blogging for some years, because that’s when topic research can really be a hassle and make it even harder.

That’s when brainstorming comes into play, but how’s the best way to do it?

Now you must be thinking brainstorming can’t really have any secrets.

While it’s true, there are some techniques that could maximize its effectiveness, as those techniques will lead to a more precise brainstorm, hence, you will find more topics to blog about.

For new bloggers, a brainstorm is just a practice on which you have to shout every idea you have, even if it sounds stupid, then getting rid of the worst ideas and saving the good ones.

What I like to do is a triple brainstorm.

The Four – Parts Brainstorm

Quickly said, the four- parts brainstorming I do two to three times a week consists on a first brainstorm, a second brainstorm, a thirst brainstorm then an images brainstorm. Let me explain it how I do it step by step:

First brainstorm

1) The first thing I do is to take a pen and a piece of paper, or using the draft feature on wordpress, and start dropping both nonsense and useful ideas (at this point I don’t know yet which ones are useless or helpful).

2) Instantly, I start to realize that some ideas are just too crazy; others still need more research to publish a decent post…

So I get rid of them. I’m happy, I’ve gotten a ton of great ideas to start blogging about.

Important phase

3) The third step is certainly the most important on this process. We, humans, tend to get influenced by the feelings we have on a particular moment, so a particular thought we have right now may take a 180º turn and completely change some hours later.

That’s why, after making the first brainstorm, it’s really important to take a rest and coming back a few hours later to check if those great ideas we had before are still good ideas to blog about.

I guarantee you that some of them won’t look as great now as they did before.

Second brainstorm

4) Once I have returned from taking a break, I take a look at the list and, again, get rid of the worst ideas.

Even though this is mostly done to perform our list, I’ve came across more ideas while looking at that list. If that happens, I write them on a new piece of paper and recheck them later or even tomorrow.

Third brainstorm

5) The third brainstorm is the post itself. Once I have my well performed list plenty of ideas to blog about, a pick up the topic I want to write about today and start a new brainstorm.

This one is useful to write the post, as you will find ideas within the main idea, then the only thing you’ll need to do is to link those ideas and bringing a bit of sense. Apart from that, it will give you, again, some new ideas. Let me show you an example with an image:

Got the idea? This technique can quickly bring you a ton of good posts. Plus, it’s a funny way to do it, as sometimes you will make fun of yourself looking at some ideas you had.

Fourth brainstorm

6) The fourth brainstorm is quite a lot simpler, as it’s an images brainstorm. It’s always good to add some images on your posts, so look at the topic and start thinking about some images that could fit and start looking over the web or designing them by yourself.

This is one of the ways I use to get ideas to blog about. Of course, the idea to post about how to get ideas came from one of my famous brainstorm.

Anyway, abusing from brainstorming may get you crazy. Beware.

Thanks for reading.