Steal Appeal: 10 Sites To Source Your Next Post Idea

A huge part of the appeal of blogging is it’s instant gratification. You want a story published? An hour later… Boom! We have all gotten to love the immediacy of online news and information, especially when it comes to social media. Timeliness is hugely important in our industry, and your blog can benefit from your knowledge of today’s news! In addition to your usual content and personal style photos, you can pepper in timely and news-oriented elements with your blog stories to make them more searchable and relevant to your readers. Below, we’ve given you a little jump start (or cheat sheet) of our favorite publications to read for inspiration and story ideas. Your Local Paper or Magazines Browse your local news for events and happenings where you live. If there’s a great concert coming up, put together a collage of concert-perfect looks for your readers, or even make a playlist of the band’s music to go with it. If there’s a store or restaurant opening, go to it and write up a review! Spicing up your content with local happenings, news and lifestyle elements gives your blog individuality and helps your readers learn a little more about you and your life. Mashable Use this tech, social media and business site to find out what’s happening with all your favorite tools like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest as well as just about anything interesting happening with the internet. Consider how their stories could affect you and your readers, and put it into context. Fashionista As you may no, Fashionista is sort of a one-stop-shop for fashion media news, and the range of topics that they cover under that umbrella is virtually endless. A quick browse will keep you updated on celebrity trends, events, fashion week gossip and as well as beauty and shopping. Why not do your own round up of ‘best dressed’ from the Time 100 Gala or share your thoughts on the Altazurra and J. Crew collaboration? CNN Here’s where I challenge you to get creative. CNN reports on big important global issues, politics, the environment, health, media, travel and more. That’s a broad range of coverage, but these are the stories that shape our lives offline as well. Check out their travel stories for ideas for vacation fashion posts. Maybe even discuss what politicians (and their wives) are wearing. Critique, comment and put your own spin on the world’s events. Women’s Wear Daily While you can’t read everything on WWD without a subscription, there are some articles available to everyone (they’re usually linked through their Tumblr). This is the definitive source for industry news pertaining to designers, brands, fashion week, retail, and trend repots. See if they’ve reported on a retailer in your area, or if you’ve recently worn a trend they have called out. Will you or your readers change their shopping habits if the price of cotton rises again? Style.com Style.com is an amazing resource for Fashion Week images and trend reports. With proper crediting, their images can help you illustrate your posts on color, pattern, trends and everything else. Their stories can also inspire reaction posts for your blog. For example, today style.com pondered, Is Color-Blocking Played Out? What do you think? Share your take on this story with an outfit post, a shopping round-up, the possibilities are numerous. BellaSugar For your beauty trend stories, this is the place to go. Try out some of the trends yourself, round up your favorite products – the possibilities are endless. Do a hair tutorial inspired by their loose waves report or try one of their manicure trends. Racked Racked is an amazing source for shopping and sale news, as well as industry tid-bits. Do a round-up of sales from your favorite brands, stores and boutiques, share what you might be buying and encourage your readers to comment on what they might buy as well! Keep an eye on sales happening at brick-and-mortar stores in your area to share with your readers as well. People StyleWatch Everyone loves a little celebrity fashion, and this is one of the best sources around. Make an outfit post around your favorite celebrity look of the week, create a trend story from images you see, or provide your own commentary on Hollywood gossip! IFB What’s this? Story ideas from IFB? Why yes! We give you tips for content ideas, social media and more. If you’ve got your own tips for how to increase blog traffic, get more followers on Twitter or engage with your fans on Facebook – share them! Do you have strong opinions about the thinspiration controversy? Your readers value your opinion and trust you, so don’t be afraid to put your own spin on these topics. Where do you look for blog post inspiration? Share your favorite sources with the community!