There is absolutely nothing worse than having all of the passion in the world for something, but not knowing how to take that first step.

In this case I’m talking about content marketing. Content marketing is a powerful aspect of your overall marketing strategy and something that will not only take your search engine optimization to the next level, but will also help you reap the benefits of your social media marketing strategy.

So you have a blog on your business website and are ready to get writing. You’ve knocked out 4 or 5 blogs and it was easy as pie.

But now you are getting a bit dry on ideas.

You are not alone.

When you have to consistently write about topics, after awhile you will begin to experience fatigue with the subject.

So how do I renew my vigor?

As I always say, it takes a village to raise a blog.

Here are some content generation ideas that you might want to try out:

*Google Alerts: by setting a Google Alert for your given topic (for example “running tips” if you were running a sports apparrel store), Google will trawl through all of the new results on a daily basis (or more/less frequently as you choose) and email you with the results. These are great ways to come up with topics that are not only topical, but also hot off the press

*Your Staff: one of the most underutilized and most powerful forces, are people within your organization. Let them know that you are always looking for new ideas for the company blog and would appreciate them forwarding on/telling you about anything they think would be a great addition. Note: this is not a one-time practice. You will have to continually remind them about this as their busy day to day life can push them away from being as vigilant as you would like them to be.

*Competitive Analysis: this one is simple. Look at what your competition is writing about and see how successful it is. I’m not suggesting copying or plagiarizing their content, but look to see what topics seem to be working for them. Then write some original blogs and articles with those topics in mind.

*Social Media: do a social media search for your topic and see what comes up. I suggest using Twitter and LinkedIn for this as they tend to give you the most relevant results. See what people are talking about, see what they are asking about. Find some hot topics and create a blog or two around them.

*FAQs: another missed opportunity for many organizations when it comes to their content strategy is the power of writing blogs and articles that address questions or objections that they get from potential consumers on a regular basis. For example, if you were a plastic surgeon who administers botox, perhaps a FAQ would be “If I use botox, will my face be frozen forever?” Then the surgeon could write an article about “Botox: What You Can Expect” or something along those lines. This will not only answer the question, but you can share this link in the future with any potential clients who may have the same question. And believe you me, this impresses them.

Use the above tools and methods for dragging yourself out of the creative doldrums. Remember, blogging can be a tough subject – but perseverance and thinking out of the box will keep you, and your blog, fresh.