Wondering how to find some new material for your blog? Create a companion forum site to go along with it. Last year, I decided to create a blog for our real estate investing site, BiggerPockets.com. After a few months, I realized that I had lost my motivation and had run out of material. Why? I didn’t know how to come up with ideas for new stories. I’ve since been able to build the real estate blog up into a credible site.

Blogging is not as easy as it seems. To run a successful blog, you need to have a constant stream of ideas. One of my greatest sources for material is our real estate forum.

Use your Forum to Get Ideas for your Blog

Once your forum becomes established (ours is currently ranked #1 for real estate investing forums and #2 for real estate forums), you will have plenty of people to supply you with material or ideas.

How to Use Forum Material on Your Blog

• Directly quote messages from members in the blog.
• Include a disclaimer on the forum sign-up and on all pages, and make it known to your membership that you do this.
• When using something written by your membership, make sure you give credit to the author.
• Link back to the discussion on your forum, as it will often help to continue the conversation.
• Let your members know about the blog, and encourage them to submit ideas/material.

There are many other places you can go for ideas, but there is nothing like the ease of self-supplied blog material.