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where to get article ideas
A friend liked to write, but still his biggest problem was finding things to write about. My friend was in awe of the volume of writing I do: at least one article and something like six a day. Where do I get all the ideas?
I, in turn, was amazed. Why the hell would anyone have trouble finding things to write about? In fact, my main problem has been that I have so much to write about that I often find myself locked in a silent battle over which topic should be written first.
People find it even more amazing when I tell them that I try really hard to write only about positive events and provide helpful articles. You will rarely find any of my writing that contains criticism, complaints or, worst of all, complaints. Every now and then I write an article recommending not to buy a product, watch a movie, read a book, or visit a website, but these are the exception.
The world is a huge, amazing and wonderful place. Things happen around us all the time. There are so many great things to see and do all over the planet, so many wonderful things happening everywhere, that it's easy to find something to communicate about just by opening your eyes and looking.
One of my passions is the Internet. I have written over 1,000 articles on all aspects of this mass media. Much of this comes from my 23 years of experience in the computer science field, and the rest comes from research, reading, and most of all, other people's questions.
Although much of what I write is about the Internet, I also find time to communicate on many other topics. These include relationships (marriage and romance), raising children, developing a career, managing office politics, current events, hobbies, and history. I have yet to find a topic where I don't have something useful to contribute to other people.
How do I find so much to write about? Let me tell you some of the ways: Many of my article ideas are some from real life. For example, I have a long and happy marriage, so I like to write articles that help people with their relationships. I've also worked hard most of my life, like most people, to build a career, which is another area where I enjoy sharing tips to help others.
Question and Answer Sites: Sites like askme.com and askjeeves.com are perfect places to visit from time to time for article ideas. I visit and scan the questions (and there are thousands of them), looking for anything that looks interesting.
Newsgroups: There are over 70,000 newsgroups. Most of them are useless, but several thousand contain useful information and varied conversations. Look at yourself in any active newsgroup for a while and you should find something worth writing about.
Yahoo and DMOZ - Visit any large directory site and you will find thousands of topics to explore.
Egroups and Topica: There are thousands of email discussion lists available on these two sites. Sign up for some and get article ideas from them.
There are many other places to look for article ideas on the Internet. I tend to avoid looking at things like ezines, e-books, and websites for article ideas. Why? Because when I look for ideas for articles I don't look for answers.
What I tend to look for are questions. What kinds of questions do people ask? Are there any questions that require a deeper analysis and a little more explanation than a simple sentence? It doesn't matter if someone else has already replied, as my main goal is not to provide raw information. You can find raw information from any number of books or encyclopedias, but figuring out how to clean up your bedroom clutter - well, that requires something different. That requires the experience and knowledge passed on by someone who has had to go through the experience of cleaning many times, so many times that it has become easy.
Interestingly, I have found that television is not worth as expected for article ideas. Excluding some criticisms, I have found television to be a vast wasteland, devoid of anything but the most trivial or violent concepts of our society. The exceptions are, of course, channels like Nova, History channel, and Discovery.
So the next time you're trying to find something to write about for your own ezine, website, or e-book, just consult.Create a newsgroup, list, or directory on a topic that you find interesting. Sooner or later, you will have an idea and can start writing.