One of the simplest ways of coming up with ideas for blogposts is asking questions. We aim to write blogposts that help people. To get at these topics, we try to empathize with our audience, to put ourselves in their shoes. We ask questions that we think might make for some useful, helpful, actionable answers.

Asking questions is a blogging method used by some of our favorite bloggers. Darren Rowse recently put together a huge list of blogpost ideas, and there’s some good overlap between his list and the list at blog.bufferapp.com - Here’s a collection of 55:

1.      What are your customers’ most frequently asked questions?

2.      What are the biggest myths about your industry?

3.      What are the biggest misconceptions about your company?

4.      What is something about your industry that you know and others might not?

5.      Describe the way you and your team use your product.

6.      How did your company come to be?

7.      What early lessons did you learn along the way that might be useful to share?

8.      How did your company get its name?

9.      What was your first sale?

10.  What was your first big “a-ha” moment? How about your first moment of doubt?

11.  What type of complete guide would be useful to help your ideal customer?

12.  What makes your company/product distinct?

13.  How did you choose the distinguishing features of your company/product over others?

14.  Tell a story about customer success.

15.  What is a typical “day in the life” for your ideal customer?

16.  What things keep you awake at night? What might keep your customer awake?

17.  Describe a process of your day that might resonate with your audience.

18.  How did your new product or service come to be?

19.  What is a counterintuitive bit of advice that you can share?

20.  What is an unpopular piece of advice that you can share?

21.  What must someone know to become an expert in your field?

22.  What would you say to someone just starting out in your field?

23.  What are the essential tools you use every day to get work done?

24.  What are the mistakes you made when you were just starting out?

25.  What mistakes do you see others making?

26.  Introduce your team and how they came together.

27.  Explain how you hire.

28.  Explain how you collaborate as a team.

29.  Explain your product creation process.

30.  What is on your recommended reading list?

31.  What are you reading right now?

32.  Who are some of the leading voices in your industry?

33.  What articles from the past week caught your eye?

34.  What articles did you read from inside your industry that you think you could maybe improve on or take in a new direction?

35.  What are some statistics about your industry?

36.  What are some statistics about your customers?

37.  Where do you see your industry headed in the next year?

38.  How about the next five or 10 years?

39.  What are the current trends that are taking hold in your field?

40.  What do your customers have a hard time doing?

41.  What have your customers suggested you add/change about your product? (And why have you made the change or not?)

42.  Which quotes inspire you?

43.  Which people inspire you?

44.  What is a useful checklist that would provide value for your audience?

45.  What is a useful pdf, ebook, or guide that would provide value?

46.  What have you presented on lately? Turn it into a blogpost.

47.  What are you company’s goals for this year? Next year?

48.  What were some of the biggest obstacles and challenges from this year?

49.  Which two products could you compare and contrast?

50.  Which two strategies could you compare and contrast?

51.  What tips do you have for your industry for next year?

52.  What 10 customers, peers, staff could you ask a single question of and create a wrap up article on?

53.  What is the history of your industry – from inception to today.

54.  What were the key takeaways from a conference or industry event that you attended?

55.  What are you most passionate about?

Plus a few others that aren’t exactly questions but are super stellar ideas from Darren.

·         Sum up the year that was

·         Review a book your customers should read

·         Review a tool, product or service relevant to your customers

·         Create an award for your industry

Atomic Reach was kind enough to share their go-to blogs for content marketing tips and resources, and the Bufferchat community chimed in with their favorites, too. Here are 34 amazing blogs for you to check out:

1.      Uberflip
2.      SteamFeed
3.      Business2Community
4.      Marketing Profs
5.      Content Marketing Institute
6.      Buffer blog
7.      Jeff Bullas
8.      Problogger
9.      Jay Baer
10.  Atomic Reach
11.  Hub Spot
12.  Short Stack Lab
13.  Mashable
14.  Copyblogger
15.  Brian Solis
16.  Social Media Examiner
17.  Marketing Sherpa
18.  Neil Patel
19.  KISSmetrics
20.  Inbound.org
21.  GrowthHackers
22.  Word Stream
23.  Moz
24.  Hootsuite
25.  NewsCred
26.  CoSchedule
27.  Sprinklr
28.  Feldman Creative
29.  Joel Klettke
30.  TheNextWeb
31.  Gregory Ciotti
32.  Contently
33.  Social Fresh
34.  Marie Forleo