Blog Idea Generators: Tools or Toys?

We’re getting all our August editorial calendars filled, and that can involve a certain amount of staring out the window, thinking. Instead, you could use a blog idea generator. These are tools that let you type your topic into a text box and produce a plethora of ideas on the subject in question.

Do they work?

We tried out a few.

We’re fans of Hubspot’s materials, so we tried theirs first. You just type in a few nouns, and click.

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Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator instantly strings your keywords together with some generic bloggy phrases and you’ve got a week’s worth of titles.

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Portent’s Content Idea Generator has a cool hand-drawn interface. Type in your keyword and click.
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You will receive not only an essentially meaningless title containing your keyword, but also some tips on why you might choose to use the phrases supplied.
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We gave Portent another shot, in case it was just having a moment, but all the suggestions were essentially meaningless. However, they definitely get points for style.

 

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Not all the generators have you add a keyword and then click. BlogAbout from Impact gives you vague ideas to start with — blog about preparation, for example, or management, or your opinion. Then you click, and you’re given a title with empty spaces where you can put your keywords. If you happen upon a good idea, you can click the heart icon and save the title in a virtual notebook.
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Contentideator has you type in your keyword and click, and then gives you a list of interesting titles, much better than the other tools. Don’t get too excited — it is just bringing you blog titles which have already been published, much as Google does.

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Tools or toys? Definitely toys. None of these tools will actually give you new ideas… which makes sense, since ideas are sort of a human thing.

However, all of them will fill up a little time while you think of a blog idea yourself. That’s essentially what staring out the window does, after all.

If you have trouble thinking of ideas for your company blog, it’s very possible that there are better uses for your time. We provide professional blogging services.


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