Anyone who has been blogging for a while knows that it can be difficult to come up with interesting, new ideas for posts on a regular basis. Sometimes the ideas flow and other times…not so much.
What can you do when the ideas just don’t come? A lot of people liked the video I did about using the Portent Content Idea Generator, so I decided to share a bunch of other headline and title generators you can use to come up with titles for articles and blog posts.
All of these are free. None require registration or make you jump through any hoops. Just follow any of the links below, enter your topic or keyword and click.
Look at the results you get as a starting point. Although some of the titles will be completely wrong for your topic, others will be perfect. Some will benefit from a tweak or two.
Copy the results you get from one or more of the tools, then start looking for the diamonds. Delete the titles that are completely wrong for you, then look for the ones that will work as-is or with some minor changes. For example:
Fix the grammar:
These are templates, so sometimes your keyword does fit the sentence correctly. Add, change, remove or rearrange words to make it read properly. Example: Change “Do You Need A Dog Training?” to “Does Your Dog Need Training?”
Revise the structure:
The title may not work perfectly with your topic, but it could be restated to something that is appropriate. Example: Change “Do You Need A Dog Training?” to “What Kind of Training Does Your Dog Need?”
Change the number:
There is nothing sacred about the numbers in these. You can have more or fewer items in your list post. Example: Change “15 Incredible Health Benefits of Eating Local” to “12 Incredible Health Benefits of Eating Local.”
Use a more specific (or less specific) keyword:
In the example, I went from a broad keyword (publicity) to a specific technique for getting publicity (press releases). It works better in this headline. In some cases, you might want to go the other way, from a specific technique to the broad subject. Example: Change “7 Creative Ways You Can Improve Your Publicity” to “7 Creative Ways You Can Improve Your Press Releases.”
Add or remove one or more words:
You can add a descriptive word or remove an unnecessary word to make the title read better. Example: Change “A Simple Trick For Saving Money on Groceries Revealed” to “A Simple Trick For Saving Money on Groceries.”
Here are several free tools you can use to create lots of useful titles for articles, blog posts, videos and other content.
[Update: Added 12/11/14] Blog Post Idea Generator Easy to use, and it came up with several interesting titles. Enter a keyword, then click until you get a title you like.
Tweak Your Biz Title Generator Enter a keyword and this tool will come up with lots of titles, sorted by type, such as Lists, How-to, Motivation, Celebrities and more. You can download or print the entire list with one click. Need help coming up with related keywords? Try their thesaurus.
The HubSpot Blog Topic Generator will give you “a week’s worth of relevant blog post titles.” Enter one to three keywords (they recommend nouns) to get five title ideas. They are random, and they won’t all work for you, but you can always enter another keyword or even start over with the same keyword(s).
Backlink Generator has an Article Title Generator that inserts your keyword into a list of more than 200 titles. It uses the same headlines in every result, but it is a good list that will help you come up with some useful articles.
Content Row’s Link Bait Generator comes up with titles, then they offer to write the articles for you at prices starting at $19. (I have not used their service, so I can’t say if their content is good.) One thing I like about this title generator is that you can choose a style of title: Controversial, Fun, List or Shocking.
OnlineSales.co.uk has two tools you can use to generate ideas. The Topical Brainstorm Tool is a lot like the tool at Backlink Generator, although the results are different.
They also have a tool to help you generate ideas from idioms, quotes and cliches. Enter your keyword and the tool returns a bunch of sayings with your keyword inserted in various places. For example, enter the keyword “Fish” and among the results you will find:
A Fish and His Money are Soon Parted
A Fool and His Fish are Soon Parted
A Fool and His Money are Soon Fish
In my opinion, that is not as useful as other tools, but there are times when it could come in handy.
Linkbait Generator creates titles one at a time from the keyword you entered.
My favorite is still the Portent Content Idea Generator. Enter your keyword, then click until you get a title you love.
Each of these tools provides different results, and all can be helpful when you are looking for post ideas. Use them to create a list of possible topics, and consult your list the next time you need a blog post and don’t know what to write about.
