How to Easily Come Up With Content Ideas

A personal trick I use to write quickly is to come up with headline material.

I write down what the headline of the piece could potentially be, and then write the rest of the post based on that topic. 

Why focus on the headline? Because it serves 2 purposes. 

If the first sentence doesn’t grab someone else’s attention, the rest of your work might as well not exist because no one wants to read it.

Second, it helps anchor the topic of the post so that your writing can be focused. 

Now that’s a 2-in-1 that I can happily live with.

For example (and now I’m working out loud), if I’m writing about portfolios, here are 6 different headlines I can start with

1. Top 3 Things You Need to Get Started with Your Design Career
2. Build the Perfect Design Portfolio in 14 Days
3. The Foundational Move of Every Great Designer
4. Every Product Designer Experiences Portfolio Burnout. Here’s How To Overcome It
5. How to Land Your Dream Gig/Client
6. 14 Steps to Building A Portfolio Website That Works

With every headline, I feel focused enough to write a blog post surrounding that topic. 

The key is not to overthink it. Just write it out. 

P.S. The best part is that by writing headlines, you’ve already written the first line of your piece.