Where to get new ideas

If there’s one thing I hate about writing, it’s running out of ideas. Every so often, I’m just dry on ideas. I sit down with my laptop to write something, but I just can’t think of anything to write about. To keep myself from running dry, I came up with some places to get new ideas.

1. Personal experiences. Think about things you’ve gone through. Things you’re currently going through. You’d be surprised at what you can come up with. I write about credit for About.com, so I’m always tuned in to everything I do related to credit - paying my bills, forgetting to pay my bills, calling credit cards about a problem. Even though those tasks sometimes seem second nature, I have to realize they’re not like that for everyone.
2. Talking to other people. I like to listen to people talk about their problems. Not because I just like to hear people doing badly, but because problems lead to great ideas. The other day, I was making a recipe that called me to roll up corn tortillas. Well, the things kept cracking and breaking when I tried to roll them! A food writer could take that and turn it into an article about cooking with tortillas, corn vs. flour, and how to keep them from cracking.
3. Other writers. Magazines, books blogs, and websites can be another source of ideas. Of course, it’s illegal to copy their articles, but you can write on the same or a similar topic. Sometimes I get the best ideas from an unexplained or briefly covered topic in another article. A single sentence or phrase in a 500-word article can give me an idea to create an entirely new article.The same thing applies to your own writing. Go back and read through some things that you’ve already written. Can you cover the topic from a different angle? Is there something in the article that you didn’t cover completely?
4. News and press releases. I used to spend hours scavenging through news sites to find topics to write about. Then, I discovered Google Alerts. You can have Google email you all the news related to specific keywords. Instead of sifting through numerous news sites, the news comes directly to you. Sign up at www.google.com/alerts.
5. Forums and message boards. These are my favorite places to get ideas. The nature of forums makes it easy to get ideas. Forums are full of people posting about their problems. Find a few active forums in your niche and save them as favorites. Visit them from time to time to see what questions are being asked, what problems people are having.
6. Your idea file. For me, ideas seem to come in spurts. There are times when the ideas keep coming and times when I don’t have any ideas at all. During those wealthy idea periods, I jot down all my ideas so I can come back to them later on. Then, when I can’t come up with anything, I turn to my idea file.Now my idea file, isn’t really a file at all. I actually have ideas all over the place. I’ve tried to consolidate them, but it doesn’t work, so I quit trying. The key isn’t really the storing method, but that you collect your ideas and you can get back to them later on.

How do you generate new ideas for content?