content ideas for busy bloggers

Taking Maximum Advantage of Books: 5 Content Ideas for Busy Bloggers

34 Comments / Blogging Tutorials, Guest Posts / By /

There was a time when I couldn’t care less about books. I barely read anything and I found the whole activity pretty boring.

Fortunately things changed when I grew older. Once I finally realized the potential of books (especially the self-improvement ones), I really got sucked into the world of reading.content ideas for busy bloggers

Reading is beneficial for anyone who wants to learn more about any given topic. However, there are couple of additional benefits when it comes to blogging.

What if I told you that you can create some cool content based on the books you have read? In other words, with the time you spend on reading, you can come out with many new content ideas that provide value to your readers or to your subscribers.

Especially if you are running a blog part-time, you know that your time is very limited. That’s why you want to maximize y0ur time spent on reading and these five ways are a fine way to do that.

Without any further ado, let’s get started, and hopefully you look at books in a different way after reading this post.

1. Extracting the ideas first

Reading a book is one thing, but you also have to make sure you capture those great ideas that your book offers.

My system for this is pretty simple: When I read the book, I mark any ideas or important sentences on the margins, by drawing a vertical line next to the important line or paragraph. Sometimes I might also mark a certain section of the book with a letter A with a circle around it.

After I have finished reading a book, I browse through the pages again and I can immediately see all the important points that I should either take action on or write about (the letter A refers to the word Action).

I then collect the actionable points in a Google Docs document. This document acts as my idea file and it lists any potential topics for future blog posts.

2. Write applied lessons for your target audience

When I started my (now deceased) blogging productivity e-mail list, I wasn’t quite sure what kind of exclusive content I could provide for my subscribers.

However, at some point I had an idea: What if after reading a book I’d write how to apply the lessons found in that book to my target audience (people who are interested in increasing blogging productivity)?

I thought it was a great idea and after reading a book (“Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy), I took the key lessons that he was talking about. I then applied those lessons in blogging.

After writing the applied lessons (21 of them) with my own words, I had another idea: What if I turned these e-mails into an e-book? That’s what I did next and an e-book was born.

I even wrote an additional report on how one could create an e-mail autoresponder series and an e-book based on the book they have read.

In total, reading one book resulted in three different pieces of content (autoresponder series, an e-book and a report).

3. Write guest posts based on the lessons and get some traffic

There is yet another nice way to take advantage of books and that’s when you turn what you have learned into guest posts.

This in turn gives you traffic back to your site and some of that traffic converts into e-mail subscribers (considering that you link your guest posts to your landing page).

I used this technique when I wrote a guest post for My Supercharged Life. After reading Charles Duhigg’s excellent “The Power of Habit”, I took two key concepts out of the book, the habit loop and keystone habits, and created a guest post around those ideas.

There is also another benefit when using this method. Writing about what you have read is an effective way to internalizing a new concept. Based on my own experience, the information sticks better than just reading about it.

4. Record the lessons and use them as short video tips

By using the idea extraction method I told you about in the first point, you’ll get a ton of ideas for your future content.

In some cases, certain ideas are more suitable for guest posts while others work better as videos.

For instance, when I read Alan Lakein’s “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life”, my idea file was full of new lines based on the book’s lessons.

While some of these ideas can be turned into blog posts, some of the concepts work better as short, 1-3 minute videos.

Once you have created these videos, you can then upload them to YouTube or give them away as exclusive content for your e-mail subscribers.

5. Connect with the authors

Sometimes when a book is a very good one, I like to learn more about the author(s). I do this by conducting an interview with the person.

For instance, when I read Lucy Jo Palladino’s “Find Your Focus Zone”, I sent a request to her for an interview. She accepted the request and we did an interview through e-mail.

You can do the same by conducting e-mail interviews or audio ones (as podcasts). And hey, there is no one stopping you writing a book review and then providing the interview as a bonus if a reader buys the book through your affiliate link.

Want 197 pages of advice for busy bloggers (and other online entrepreneurs) – for free?

Remember the e-book I talked about in the point #2 (based on Eat That Frog)? Well, it turns out that this book is indeed available, and if you want to improve your reading experience, there is no one stopping you from buying the book – either as an Amazon Kindle version or as a physical book. It sure makes the reading experience much nicer when you can take the book onto a couch or into bed with you.

34 thoughts on “Taking Maximum Advantage of Books: 5 Content Ideas for Busy Bloggers”

  1. Sagar Rai

    Hi Timo,

    These are great concepts.

    My difficulty is finding the Time, and endeavouring to conclude what the right content is for users to not only find us online, and proceed on to give us a try.

    These tips are wonderful for bloggers lik me who always run out of time.

    Thanks for distributing!

  2. diwaker

    hi timo,

    Great post and timo i need some more matter on connect with audiance. Please explore with example if you can do this .

    Thanks timo for sharing

  3. Tony Nguyen

    Hi, Timo!
    I love your post. I am a part time blogger. My main job is rather busy, so to it is hard for me to create content posts. this article gives me some ideas that I think I can improve my blog and business. thanks for sharing this post. Great job!

  4. Vukasin

    That is a great post Timo. I really enjoyed reading it. I will definitely use this post in my next weekly link roundup of all epic posts this Friday.

    I will let you know on Twitter when I publish it!

  5. Sadek

    Hello,

    Awesome tips, reading ebooks are really great and can improve and capture more ideas. In my free time I basically spend my free time in reading books and posts.

    Thanks for the share.

  6. Alexandra Petean-Nicola

    There are many ways in which you can play with the ideas you get out of a book. But what you first have to apply is active reading. You need to read and understand the books you read and only after that you can create post that use those lessons for your particular audience.

  7. Bethany

    I also do guest posting, and struggle to find something interesting about, so I appreciate the idea of using the book I am reading for inspiration.

    When you use this technique while guest blogging, do you tell the readers about the book or maybe give credit to the author?

  8. Shiv Saroya

    Hi Timo, its a great article about content ideas for bloggers, any blogger have a big problem to choose content niche for their blog, this article really helps those blogger to choose the right one. thanks.

  10. Nikhil

    Most of time we got idea for writing books but after some time we forgot it and not able to implement. I like that point; note down your concept and writing guest posts on some reputed blogs.

    Really productive tips.. Thanks for sharing.

  11. Arun Kallarackal

    Hi Timo,

    Great post. Particularly helpful for those who face time constraints. I find your idea of making video’s and making use of them very cool.

    As you said, short videos of 2-3 minutes will work like a charm! Long videos won’t be of much use I guess.

  12. karan

    hi timo

    yeah you are right books are one of the best way to gather information, i personally don’t run a blog but i have good knowledge of self development as i am also very much interested in the self improvement genre, after reading those books you can see life in a different way and if you want than it can help you to run a blog as well.

  13. Sarah

    I never thought to try and connect with authors, what a great idea. I think my passion for reading, especially self development books, could help me generate some great blog posts. Thanks for the tips and inspiration.

  14. Shiv Saroya

    I never thought so much in deep! But this strategy will really help me to become great blogger. I like the article and good graphic images designed!

  15. Amit Kumar

    Hi Timo,
    Thank for sharing such a detailed and valuable post about the content ideas for bloggers. these two tricks are amazing – (1) Writing guest posts based on the lessons (2) Recording the lessons and use them as short video tips. above mentioned points are providing a unique and useful thought. i really loved this post. thanks again Timo.

    Amit Kumar

  16. Jamesw

    Interesting post Timo, I’m still fighting with myself when it comes to reading books. I also find them boring from time to time. And I think that web is just another and new form of books, so why would I read books when I read all of these blogs and magazines.

    But I get your point, it can help us a lot in our online missions, if I can call them like that.

    Thanks for sharing.

  17. Timo Kiander

    Hi James!

    I think that reading in general is very beneficial – especially if you are a blogger.

    I get a lot of great ideas for posts that way.

    Cheers,
    Timo

  18. Karan Shrof

    Hi Timo,

    I also like to read about the Self Improvement genre and after reading your post & in other blogs as well, i realize that there are many people who are interested in self improvement, i am planning to start an blog on the same genre and no doubt books will be the first source of knowledge for that.

  19. Pierro

    I actually like the idea of reading books, but finds it difficult to find time for that. I am almost always online reading blogs and news day in day out. Just don’t know how to make time for reading books. I appreciate your point very much.

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