#25 The Clarity Sessions Podcast - Tips For Creating New Content

One of the questions that I get often from my coaching students, from people in my Amplify Method coaching program, and even at live conferences is, "Brian, how do I get new ideas for content? How do I know what to post on social media? How do I get my new ideas?"

And my response is: answer the public.

Find out what questions people are already asking, and then answer them as part of your content process. So what I want to share three different ways to answer the public or to provide answers to the questions that people are asking.

The strategy is to find out what questions people are already asking about your industry and your niche, and answer those questions. Your answers become the content.

1. Join Facebook groups in your niche and ask questions.

The first place to find these questions is a private Facebook group. Join a private Facebook group or start a private Facebook group in your niche. There are many examples of online Facebook groups where there's a really dynamic conversation going on. So I'm part of those groups, but I don't run those groups. Those groups are a great place to go in to answer questions. One project my team and I are working on right now is Kajabi Kickstart -- how to kickstart your website using Kajabi. And there is a private Facebook group, which is all the Kajabi users who want to get tips, support, and advice. And if I go in there to search for questions people are asking, I can then create content to answer those questions.

That's one thing that we've done for hope*writers. We have our own Facebook group, and we get probably 20 or 30 questions in there every single day. Those questions are really good ideas for who to have as a Tuesday teacher or what we talk about on our podcast. The questions help us choose what topics we should have at our conference because we see these questions popping up consistently.

2. Use a database.

There are a few databases that I've recently discovered but I haven't used much. However, I love the possibilities! There's one called answerthepublic.com, you can type in your keyword or question and it'll show you all the questions that people are asking about a particular keyword. And if you click on those questions, it'll even give you more ideas. So as an example, if you write on motherhood, you might type in "mom" and you'll see all the questions people ask about motherhood. What you'll find is maybe of every 10 questions that are kind of a waste of time, there's one or two that's like, "Oh, I could totally blog about that or create a good podcast episode about that."

Another website is questiondb.io. On this website, you just type in a keyword and it'll give you all the related questions. They've tapped into a number of discussion boards and discussion forums, and they're looking for keywords like how, what, where, when, and why. Find questions in public databases that are already being shared and use them to help you create content your niche will love!

3. Survey your audience.

So I use a tool called wufoo, and I'll ask something like: What are your goals for this year? Where are you stuck right now? What would you like to accomplish this year when it comes to your website? What advice do you need? Or what questions do you have when it comes to building your online following? What questions do you have? So I ask these questions and then get a Google sheet of all the questions that people who already follow me have filled out on the survey. I then work toward providing answers to those questions through the content I create.

I can answer the questions in a podcast episode, on social media, in an email newsletter. I could answer them as a keynote speaker or even with a new product!

So if you're struggling with how to create new content or coming up with new content ideas on a regular basis remember to provide answers to your people's questions, and serve them well!

What common questions have you seen in your niche?

Click here to listen to the full episode.