5 Blogging Ideas From RSS Feeds
When was the last time you glanced at your favorite blogs’ RSS feeds?
Perhaps you did this morning. But have you taken a closer look? Believe it or not, these lists are not mere updates. Not for productive bloggers, at least.
RSS feeds can turn out very useful to quickly come up with a blog post idea.
How?
I’ve collected 5 inspirational tips over the last few months, all in my to-do-list for my most popular blogs. But here, I want to share them with you. 
Let me know how they do work for you!
1. RSS feeds let you explore topic frequency in a certain niche
The list of posts in the feed shows all topics recently touched by a blogger in a short time span. You can easily extract the statistics and compare them to another blogger’s. If you sampled a few blogs and did this work on all of them, you’ll have the material for an interesting case study post.
2. What’s missing in this feed?
Among all those headlines and abstracts, do you think the blogger should have added something? Use your blog to fill the gap– write a post! It’s a way to join in the conversation.
3. Timely posts on recent news
Did your favorite bloggers write about recent news in a timely way? If they weren’t, start from their most recent post and write a piece with a ‘response’ to it– e.g. “Recently I read on XYZ blog that A produced a new B and I was thrilled by news. You can imagine my surprise when, just this morning, I heard that B was featured by my local magazine!”. You create a connection with your favorite blog that will benefit both.
4. Use the feed to plan your week’s blog contents
By examining your favorite blogs’ RSS feeds, you may get new blog post ideas for the entire week. Take notes on the posts in the feed, write down keywords that describe the topics, then mix them up. Sometimes originality is akin to a tasty soup with unusual ingredients.
5. Observe the order of posts
Does it tell you anything about the blogger’s unique views? How does that order meet the readers’ quest for curiosity and information? Does a certain order of posts increase user feedback? Play with the order of your posts until you notice significant improvements in your traffic.
What inspiration do you get from your daily RSS feeds?
Image credit: Ludwig Gatzke
I don’t get to my feeds every day… tend to postpone it because I go into overwhelm… how to you prevent that?
Anne Wayman recently posted..7 Ways To Save Half Baked Articles – Getting Unstuck With Your Writing
[Reply]
Luana Spinetti Reply:
October 12th, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Just prioritize, Anne!
Read the blogs you find more useful on a certain day.
There’s always time to catch up later in the week/month.
Luana Spinetti recently posted..5 Blogging Ideas From RSS Feeds
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Great tips. Luana. I agree there is all kind of inspiration from my RSS feeds. I have them separated into categories that make them easier to scan. For example-Freelance, Technical, Health Care (My niche) to name a few.
I like to play with combining the two – like a new app used in health care. And sometimes, just reading good posts from those I admire is its own inspiration.
Cathy Miller recently posted..Friday Posts Overcome Bad Behavior
[Reply]
Luana Spinetti Reply:
October 16th, 2012 at 10:41 am
Thanks Cathy!
I keep all newsletters, RSS feeds and white papers separated by topic, too. It’s good to browse them by theme as you need it.
Glad to meet another person who likes to combine topics! I do it when I need to let my thoughts free, pen and notebook at hand, and I scribble down several combinations that I can use later in articles and blog posts. I can fill several pages and I’m surprised by how relaxing it is.
Luana Spinetti recently posted..5 Blogging Ideas From RSS Feeds
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