How to Find Hot Off the Press Writing Ideas

Look at the articles presented on eHow.com. How many of them do you say to yourself, "I could have written this." What do you know how to do? Can you explain it to someone in a reasonable manner?

Use keyword selection tools such as Overture or Google Keywords to remind you of keywords that tie into topics that you can expand. If you put in one word, it leads to more. Find out what is popular and spin off of that.

What is most popular on news sites? Is it generating a buzz anywhere else on the Internet or is it just blah blah news that will go to the bottom of the stack (the bottom of the search engine results) the very next day.

Can you come up with a new perspective on an old topic? How many times do people need to hear about exercise and weight loss. Are there any new ideas on these or are they better left alone? If we really thought we would be healthier doing these, we would be doing them.

Go blog surfing. What blogs attract your attention? Which ones repel you? Are some dull and dry? Why? What are the interesting ones about, and could you come up with a topic that would hold attention on a blog? It might turn out being an article topic for writing on numerous sites which accept articles for pay or performance pay.

Check out what people are doing on social networks. They are discussing something. What always comes up? What holds their attention?

There are websites which capture people's goals. One is www.43things.com. Their topic is: "List your goals. What do you want to do with your life?" People spell out their hopes and dreams, the things they think they should do (like drink more water, for instance), but of course it is less generic than that. Pick up on the trends. What would make a good article?

Spend a certain block of time surfing the Internet for new ideas, and write them down in a logbook. Keep a timer on to remind you that the object of the game is to come up with ideas and not get so totally distracted with surfing. What is amazing is the depth of knowledge that is available when people put their heads together, as now can be done with the worldwide web.

Go to libraries and look at the magazines. What do the writers commonly focus on. Someone must be interested in it or they wouldn't be consistently publishing on those themes. After you have a list of consistent themes that readers will take an interest in, then put a keyword into Google Keywords, fill out the captcha, and then find out the keywords that are related and how popular they are. It opens up a whole new world. From a small town, surburb, or large city, this can work to expand the writing area that you are working from.

Some people get their ideas from dreams, and wake up with an mental image in their mind of some great idea or invention and are ready to roll. Some foods create vivid dreaming. In my personal experience, I found that raw green cabbage, beef, milk, parsley, turkey, garlic, and beans - especially kidney beans, can create vivid dreams with lots of ideas.

This is just a start, but will generate enough ideas that you can get started. Keep a notebook with all your ideas and it will encourage you as you write.