Why I'll Never Run Out of Topics to Write About

Years and years ago, I wrote my first online course. It was called Blog Topics. Guess what you got when you purchased it? That's right: topics! Then, I turned it into something more. I showed people how to blog consistently, which seems to be a challenge for people (even today, when blogging has more or less fallen by the wayside and newsletters reign supreme). People feel like they run out of topics, and so their letters/blogs/whatevers falter.

Recently, a friend and longtime colleague in the same space as me asked how I always come up with topics so effortlessly, so I thought I'd write this out as my reply.

How to Write Endless Topics

There are maybe a few dimensions to this, so let's break it down:

• Goals for your material
• Actual topic subject matter
• The practice of writing them out

Let's start with goals.

Why Are You Writing?

I find that people often have trouble writing because they don't have an actual goal in mind. They don't know why they are writing, just that people said, "Hey, you should have a newsletter (blog, podcast, whatever)." Goals always have two sides: what I want for me and what I want for you. The "what I want for you" has to be more compelling than what I want for me, or no one will care.

My goal for me is to stay top of mind with you, should you need anything I offer. My goal for YOU is to keep giving you useful things so that you continually reinforce the belief that "Wow, that Chris sure wants me to win," because I most certanly DO!

SO your first duty is to answer those two questions. Why are you writing for you? Why are you writing for them/us?

How to Come Up With Topics - My 3 Main Inspirations

I have a few major themes for finding topics:

• Wouldn't it be cool if ____ ?
• Why hasn't anyone ____?
• This thing really bugs me.

In the first case, I might see something from reading a post or watching a little video or hearing a conversation. Maybe someone is talking about how frustrated they are that they have to keep signing into everything over and over, proving they are who they are. So maybe I'll write a piece about how identity technology is still woefully rudimentary, but with a more hopeful angle.

The term "Why hasn't anyone___" was written once on a way in Hubspot HQ (and there's more to that story, but I'll save it until you email me directly and ask me), and I am in LOVE with that idea. "Why hasn't anyone turned all their physical business locations into overlays for other services like how Kohls has the Amazon boxes in it?" "Why hasn't anyone figured out a way to keep bigger corporations well informed without miring people in overhead and documentation all day?" And so on.

And it's easy to understand the third way to get topics. This bugs me. You get bothered plenty. It's just that you might stew on it. I write posts. If someone at work frustrates me, sometimes I write a helpful post for them. If I run into some kind of annoyance out in the wild, I often find something to post about it. This is probably one of my easiest tools to writing things.

Okay, so then what?

Goals Plus Inspiration Equals a Topic List

This post I'm writing to you write now came from my goal of being helpful and thought of as delivering great information to you. The inspiration came from an email from a friend, but it could have just as easily been one of my "Wouldn't it be cool if__?" lists. So goal plus inspiration.

Let me do another mix. I'll make this up on the spot (on that note - realize that not all your topics you write down will be gold but I'll get to that).

Goal - ten writing tips for my friends on LinkedIn

Inspiration - Wouldn't it be cool if?

Here's my list (just written now off the cuff for you):

1. How to write a newsletter article people will actually read
2. Can you watch YouTube and get inspired to write newsletters?
3. Steal your way to great and unique inspirations
4. Should we still talk about David Ogilvy?
5. When did people forget how to end a newsletter in a strong way?
6. The Muppet Show had it right (by the way, I have no idea what I mean by that - but I bet I could come up with one)
7. Are there too many newsletters? And why should you bother?
8. Are you accidentally writing consumption media, not action media?
9. If you ask a question, people will want to know how you answer it
10. Writing so that people will reply: a guide to more engagement

There you go. That's a list. Nothing on it looks amazing. But I could write a bunch of letters based on this (if I wanted to be the newsletter guy - I do not).

Oh, and if you see one you like, by all means, write something from that list!

The Habit of Topic Generation

This is where you'll maybe want to forget about the idea. It's the work part.

I write out 10 ideas every day. Every single day, I write a list like the one I shared above. I think that's tricky for some. But it doesn't have to be. It's like running. You can't just instantly run 10 miles easily. You start by running from one telephone pole to the next and then wheezing until you can do it again.

It's a daily thing. Write your 10 ideas. Do it.

Just like my example above of wheezing while learning how to run, your ideas will stink. For a while. But who knows? You'll get a gem or two.

You'll get better the more you practice the habit. I promise.

So what do you think? Make sense? Need more? Ask some questions. I'll help.

Chris...