Blogging
is great fun. It’s exciting. You start out with great ideas, full of
motivation and inspiration. After a while, though, you run out of steam.
The muse isn’t so amused any more and you start hunting for content,
things to write about.
There are two aspects of finding content for your blog. First, it is
to find the inspiration that generates original content on your blog.
This can come from a variety of sources. Basically, it can be a news
story, fellow blogger’s post, an interesting web page you stumbled
across, something a friend said, or anything that interests you enough
to research and write about it.
The second aspect is to find links. A lot of
bloggers seem to specialize
in finding interesting content and providing a link and maybe a few
words to recommend to their readers that they check out the original
content on someone else’s blog or site. While this isn’t so much about
finding original content for your blog, it is about finding information
and resources that is helpful to your readers.
Either way, when the well runs dry, where do you go to find more content to keep the river of babble flowing on your blog?
I’ve put together a huge list of content resources for you to peruse
and investigate for possible blog content. It certainly isn’t a list of
all the content, resources, and information out there, but it is
designed to get you thinking about all the content, resources, and
information out there for you to blog about. And there is a lot out
there. If I have missed a favorite resource of yours, please add it
below in the comments. I love looking up new avenues of inspiration.
I’ve grouped the different resources for finding content for your blog into the following categories:
Top News Stories
The news is probably one of the most popular resources for stories. Many people monitor
CNN or
Yahoo News
to keep up with what is going on around the world or in your backyard.
While the “top 10 news stories” may be intriguing for some, there is a
lot of news out there to digest and dig through, finding potential
stories. I’ve collected a few interesting and more unusual places to
find news, often news that doesn’t make the main headlines, to help you
start thinking about where and how you find news to write about on your
blog.
Industry News and Resources
If you are blogging about a specific subject or industry, monitor the
news stories coming out of that industry. There are many industries to
choose from, and they are not always all encompassing. For example, if
you are interested in the blogging industry, not all the information on
blogging might be of interest to you. You might only be interested in
bloggers blogging in Japan or China, not the whole world. So your need
for news resources covers a very wide industry but narrows to a specific
focus.
The following is a general example of some industry news and
resources available online. For a specific industry, hit the search
engines for your industry keywords. Whatever your blogging topic, the
odds are that there are one or more industries which support it. So
search far and wide to find good resources for your blog stories.
- New Scientist (dinosaurs, evolution, being human, endangered species, technology, health and more)
- BlogPulse
- Blodex – Top Blogged Stories
- Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Magazines and
Information Resources on Health, Science, and Medicine
- Geography Network of Canada (maps, geography, and data)
- Silicon.com – Most Popular White Papers from Silicon Valley
- Above Top Secret – Top Conspiracy Theory News
- Business Week – Technology Research Library Top 50 Resources
- Business Week – Blogspotting
- Netcraft – Web Server Survey
- Webmaster World
- Wired – Blogs
- ZDNet Blogs on Technology
- Inbox Robot – Most Popular Newsletters
- Inbox Robot – Hot Newsletter Topics
- All Bookstores – Most Popular Books
- Spacetoday.org – Research Resources for Journalists
- Writer Magazine
- About.com’s Urban Legends Blog
- Hill News – News About the US Congress
- Business Wire
- ZDNet – Technology News
- The New England Journal of Medicine
- US National Library of Medicine
- Medline Plus – Medical News and Information
- The Educator’s Reference Desk
- Jane’s News On Defence, Airport, Transportation, Security And Risk Developments
- Landings.com – Aviation History, Accident, and Archives
- Newsforge – News about Linux and Open Source
- Internet News
- Editor and Publisher News Headlines
- Bloomberg Financial News
- OneWorld.net – Human Rights News
- Book Wire – Book Publishing News
- Idea List – News from the International Non-Profit World
- ReferenceShelf – Docuticker – News from Librarians
- Electronic Frontier Foundation – Freedom of Speech Resource Center
- Internet News Bureau – Most Recent Stories
- Research Buzz – Search Engine News and More
- Biz Journals – Business News
- The Smoking Gun
- WebReference
Tag and Social Bookmarking Services
Tags and social bookmarking services are similar but different.
Social bookmarking
actually is the term that refers to users recommending which topics are
most popular with them. This is done through votes and by tags.
A site or software tool that collects and stores your recommended or “bookmarked” sites is called a
Social Bookmarking Manager.
Some Social Bookmarking Managers are private, but the ones that will
usually serve you better are the public ones, which show the world what
you think is important information, and asks others to “vote” for your
recommendations as you vote on theirs, and the winners rise to the top.
Tags are mini-categories for blog content, tagged by the blog owner
or visitor. Used in combination with social bookmarking, you can search
through tag services for the most popular posts within a specific tag
category based upon traffic, voting, or other recommendations.
Tags and social bookmarking help Internet users talk to each other,
sharing favorite posts and articles. They also help let you, the
blogger, get a feel for what topics are popular at the moment. If it is
popular enough, you may want to blog about it. By monitoring these “most
popular” lists, whether by overall category or tags specific to your
interests, you can keep a finger on the pulse of public opinion.
Most Popular/High Traffic
There are many lists online that list the “most popular” websites,
blogs, topics, news, products, services, and more. By monitoring these
sites, you can stay on top of what is attracting the most attention.
Most popular lists are based upon a variety of criteria. For a few,
it is just what is most popular to them, the individual or group, as
they see it, often with their own criteria. For most “most popular
lists”, though, popularity is solely based upon measurable data such as
actual purchases or highest visitor traffic.
For high traffic sites or blogs, there is a lot to learn as well as
be inspired by. What are they talking about? How are they talking about
the subjects? Where are they getting their information and resources?
Should you be following their lead? Use high traffic and most popular
sites and blogs as resources for possible content and ideas.
If you don’t see a specific “most popular” topic of interest to you,
in a search engine type in “most popular” with a keyword for your
interest, like WordPress, and the search results will include the most
popular WordPress Themes, plugins, tips, techniques, blogs, and other
WordPress related most popular items. From here, you can find sites to
monitor for the “most popular” topics for your blog.
Top Search Results
Another method of finding content is to find out what people are
searching for. Search engines and other search engine monitoring
resources are always keeping an eye on what topics are most popular by
counting up the top search keywords and phrases.
There are several different types of reports for tracking top search
results. Old style but useful lists include top search keywords and
phrases from seardh engines. More modern style top search results show
you
live, as-it-happens search action, which may or may not
reflect the most popular searches but shows you what people are
searching for in the moment. Which ever method attracts you, there is a
lot of information and inspiration that can be gleaned.
Research: Reading What Other People Wrote
There is so much being written on the web, it can be overwhelming.
Yet, one of the most important ways of finding something to write about
is to find out what other people are writing about. This goes beyond
news or most popular stories. It is the monitoring and reading of what
other people are writing about to help inspire you to write.
Inspiration comes in many ways from reading. It begins by reading
about what people are writing about in your industry. If they wrote it
wonderfully, then you can cite them on your blog with a comment or two
to encourage your readers to visit their site and read the article. If
you want to talk about what they wrote, you can cite their post and
include a blockquote or two from the article, and then say what you want
to say. If you like what they wrote, but you think you can write it
better, use their article as inspiration to write your own. Reading what
other people also write helps you to keep up with what is going on
around you, the trends and the news.
You never know where a bit of inspiration will come from, so keep
your mind open to all possiblities. The following includes a wide range
of resources for finding articles and archived articles. I’ve also
included a list of some
aggregators, sites that display content
from other sites to help you keep track of what is going on through
blog feeds. Some of these you can personalize and customize, while
others are just lists to read through.
Search Engines, Search Blogs and Search Feeds
There are times when the most popular, highest traffic, or top
stories just don’t give you the material you need for creative
composition, or you need more collaborating evidence and research for
the topic you are working on. That’s when you turn to searching.
Sometimes just putting in a few words that sum up your industry or a
topic that interests you can bring up interesting story angles and
perspectives that you haven’t thought of before. Sometimes, just typing
in a word and hitting the “Surprise Me” button that some search engines
have will take you to new places you never thought to look before.
Either way, search engines offer tremendous information, resources, and
inspiration if you just start looking.
Everyone has their favorite search engines, but this list also
includes a variety of search services that might get you more
specialized results on your topic. Among these more specialized
searches, you can also search just blogs, feeds, or specific topics.
Tracking Stories
Sometimes you want to be the first blogger on your block to cover a
particular story. Then there are times when everyone else has covered
the story but you want to know what has happened to the story now, after
the news has turned their headlights away. There are also times when
the headline news doesn’t tell the whole story and you want to tell
more. This is when it is time to start tracking the story beyond the
headline news.
While there are a variety of sites that track stories and news, there
are three methods for story tracking services and sites. First, there
are sites whose goal is to simply to list blog or site content or press
releases from subscribers or whatever resources they monitor. They are
glorified information lists. Some showcase odds and ends, while others
specialize in a specific industry. These work well for general interest
subjects you are researching or investigating.
The second method is known as “website trackers”, software, online
services, or utlities that will notify you if there has been a change in
a specific website or blog. If a new post is published, you get an
alert via your browser, email, or when you visit the website tracking
page, showing you which blogs or sites have new content.
The third method is to use search engines and feed services as well
as tagging and social bookmarking services to track stories. Search the
story subject, title, or keywords to generate potential sources. Check
these to see if they allow you to create a feed from your search results
so you can track the story. See the
lists above for those services.
Whatever reason you want to track stories, I’ve put together a list that includes both groups.
Facts and Statistics
There comes a time when you just need the facts. Or, you stumble upon
some facts that so amaze you, you want to check them out so you can
write about them. There are so many facts and statistics out there, I
couldn’t possibly list them all, but here are some of the more popular
resources for facts and figures for the US and World.
Internet Traffic, Web Trends, and Page Rank
Whether you blog about the Internet, the web, or blogging, you are
still working within the Internet industry by being a blogger. No matter
what your blog topic is, it helps to understand your Internet audience,
where they are coming from, how they blog, and how they search. If you
have advertising on your blog, then it is important to understand what
is going on in the blog business in order to help you blog better and
make more money. It also helps to keep an eye on the top web hosts and
traffic in general so you know what is going on around you in the
Internet world.
By watching which blogs or websites are top of the charts for
traffic, you can pretty much guage which topics are popular with most
Internet users. Here are some resources for lists of the most popular
websites and blogs online, as well as tracking web trends and traffic.
So what are some news or resources you monitor frequently to find
stories and content for your blog that I have missed? Wanna share?
Digg |
Del.icio.us |
BlinkList |
Furl
Spurl |
Reddit |
Simpy |
RawSugar
24diggSite Search Tags: content, stories, finding, find, information, resources, links, news, industry, feeds, search, search engines, blogging, tips, inspiration, articles, stories, research, facts, statistics, figures, most popular, popular, traffic, tags, tagging, social, bookmark, bookmarking, social bookmarking, write, writing, posts
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network Subscribe
Reach out and touch someone social:
Like this:
8 bloggers like this post.
Wow! What a reference tool!
Wow!
I have had to add it to del.icio.us even though that took me 15 minutes to get del.icio.us to load up.
Oh the links
Keep up the good work. I might make one suggestion and that is to get a Subscription Box where people can sign up with an email and be alerted everytime you update? Bloget.com i think is good.
Hope this helps
Mr. Peeves
thedailyticket.blogspot.com
lifeannoyances.blogspot.com
makeyourblogmoney.blogspot.com
Mr. Peeves:
Thank you for the suggestion for the email subscriptions. Features such as that are not available on WordPress.com. Besides, feeds are the future and much better at helping people keep track of new action on websites and blogs they like. I also post 1-4 or more posts a day, so you would get a LOT of email from this blog if that was available.
Respectfully,
Tim
Might I suggest Variety.com for Entertainment News? That’s the only area I don’t think you have covered
Also the Internet Movie Database (I use the International Version at akas.imdb.com) and TV Tome tvtome.com
Nice work
VDO Vault
http://vdovault.wordpress.com
Thanks for all the hard work Lorelle. Now it’s upto people to reap the benefit they have been presented with.
A-mazing list!
(I found your blog through: http://www.web20watch.org )
Thanks for mentioning InfoMinder. I use it to track about 400 pages (like xmlhack, rdf planet, techcrunch, ehub and many of my favorite blogs. This in addition to digg.dot.us gives me more than enough information to blog.
Poppy
wat an exhaustive collection
i’m dumbstuck
now ‘blogger’s block’ will be meaning less..
anyway thanx a lot…
— Jagannath .A.
http://jagannath.wordpress.com
BTW – Your Blog looks teh awsomes. CSS upgrade?
regards,
aziz
It’s my first experience with such a great list.
Thanks a lot for spending your valuable time for writing this useful article! It’s just awesome!!
Still, thanks for the offer and glad my articles can help.
This is such an *exhaustive* list. I’ve bookmarked it on my BlackBerry browser too.
Thanks for all the effort.
Cheers!
good luck
thanks
first time on your site. Love the mood and content consider me an appreciative visitor, all the best to one an all. Pat
Before reading this post I was struggling to post a Good Blog.I strongly believe this post will make me As a reasonable good Blogger.
Definetly If someone ask me ” How to have a Good Blog”
I would suggest them to read this!
Everything was okay ! But you didnt gave any stuff’s regarding How to share a personal memories? It remains unanswered.
Looking For your response …
As for help writing personal memories and stories, the inspiration and sources are in your head, not outside. If you need help releasing your inner voices to tell your stories, then seek out memoir writing, biographical writing, and other “how to write” sources. Good luck.
Recently, I started a beginning WordPress blog because my blogspot blog is lacking some important features. I will look forward to reading more of the helpful information on this site.
Thanks for the excellent list of resources. I have just discovered another one which you might consider adding to your list. I have no connections with the site but it does seem to me to be very good, up-to-date and fast – http://www.congoo.com.
Kind regards, Vic
(Will definitly link in my next post..)
Wonderfully ! Keep it up.
More on this here
db
Thanks
Please see the WordPress FAQ for tips on how to do this.
This is information overload.
I remember when I was a bit more of an active blogger last year how many RSS feeds I used to follow.
Being able to find unique news-breaking stories was really key to getting your site to the top.
After a while I had found a number of unique sources that brought me regular stories top post about that would always attract new readers and links.
I’ve read this and found it very interesting and inviting. I’m just a starter in blogging and I chose wordpress on one of my friends recommendation. I feel that I’m also getting into the habit of blogging now-a-days. Trying to write something of some interest to anybody, trying out ways to increase traffic to my website and other stuff.
I guess I’ll make use of any of your ideas to turn my blog into a successful one as well.
And by the way if you find time, just visit my blog n can comment on it.
Thanks,
V V S (http://myblogthoughts.wordpress.com)
I’ll translate thies Post to Portuguese and put then, with a Link to You in my Brasilian Blog, blogprofissional.com.br
Hug’s
If you read my copyright policy, which I am sure you did, you would read that it is against my copyright policy to permit full translations of any of my blog posts without permission. You do not have that permission. Thus, translating this post would get you in trouble.
A link to the post, and the Google or Bablefish machine translation isn’t great, but that is all I’m allowing at present, besides a small excerpt.
Thank you, and hugs back for caring that much you will protect my rights as an author as I protect yours.
Best
Joe
its superb
thanks Jan
http://welcometech.wordpress.com/
The leading provider of recruitment process outsourcing services.
Send it out? I don’t understand. It’s your list. Keep it. By publishing it on the web you are already sharing it. Either way, I’m glad you have your list. Thousands of bloggers have their lists, too. It might be nice to have someone compile a big list of all the lists of resources for content building. A list of the lists – not a compilation of everyone’s content but a recommendation to go visit all the sites with such lists. Go for it.
Traveling contents? As in resources for finding information on travel to write about on your blog? There are so many different travel resources online – get them all into your feeder and make use of the news and content they produce. Track your industry. That’s the key.
Money and Blog Making TIps
Welcome to the world of blogging. You have an uphill challenge starting on blogspot. I sure wish it didn’t have such a bad reputation. Too many people (and spam filters) make a very right assumption that if you are using blogspot, you’re a splog. I spent a lot of my time going through comments vetting any blogspot blogger who comments, including you, before I will allow their comment. A majority of the time, the work is worth it as they are sploggers. Good luck and I hope that you can overcome the stigma with your blog.
Great work, keep up the good work.
Thanks,
Kishalaya
I stumbled on this post through google search.Continue it.
Thanks for the information. Today is my second day in the blog-world and I want to learn how to create an awesome blog; these resources with help me tremendously. Lorenzo Wallace signing out for now.
Enjoy!
It’s very-very useful for any new blogger
like me.
Keep it up !
regards
Thinkjayant
Where do I get web designer / developer content for my new blog WITH pictures? Example: smashingmagazine.com, smashingapps.com, mashable.com
Honestly, that is the CORRECT answer. The rest is of the answer – the one that you want – is to pay someone to either blog for you or buy content from other places. There are also some places which will allow you to use their content for free, but you MUST ask for permission. See What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content for information on the repercussions of using someone else’s content without permission. ALWAYS ask first.
Thanks
thanks for your great work !
what a great resource site! I am most happy to have come across this wonderful blog. As a 2-week old blogging infant, with a ton of ideas, a decent resource is exactly what I am in need of.
Just launched my site, and must now get busy loading some quality content, widgets, etc. Like a new house, there are only curtains at the front windows.
Thanking you in advance for the education.
Beth
finally I know what I have to do to create a good and usefull content for my blog.
many thanks
Thanks
Owen
A better list would be of sites that provide accurate and valuable information and helpful advice and tutorials so you could introduce your readers to valuable content rather than a list of sites based upon traffic. Ever seen some of the top watched videos on YouTube outside of celebrities? Some are complete time wasters and useless but people go bonkers over them. Traffic is not always an indication of value.
Go digging through Google for related topics and keywords and start looking at the sites and finding ones worth sharing. They will thank you when you send them good people, and the people will thank you for sending them to great sites so they can learn more.