If you’re like me (and I’m sure you are), the writing is easy. The hard part is figuring out what to write about. 

What do your readers want to know? What do they need to hear? What will they find interesting or useful? 

If you create content, you need ideas. Lots of them. And you should start working on compiling a big list you can tap into when you need to write something and don’t have a topic. 

A great way to get ideas is to steal them from other content creators. Or, if you prefer, “borrow” them because ideas don’t belong to anyone. 

So, borrow ideas from other lawyers (in your field or in a complementary field). Borrow ideas from consultants, accountants, financial experts, business owners, and other smart or interesting people.

Borrow ideas from newsletters or blogs that target readers in your clients’ industries or local markets. 

Borrow ideas from anything you see or hear that catches your attention and might be good to share with your clients and subscribers. 

When you find a blog that has something you might use someday, bookmark it. If they have a newsletter, subscribe to it, so their posts wind up in your inbox. 

A few good newsletters or blogs might give you enough ideas to last for months or years. 

(NB: You might want to set up another email address for that purpose). 

Then, use those ideas to create your own content when you need it and are late for court or need more sleep or can’t think of anything to say.  

Grab someone’s article or post, summarize what they said and tell your readers why you agree or disagree. Or write about the same subject with your own examples or stories or reasoning. 

Or just use their article or email as a prompt and write whatever comes to mind. 

Because you don’t want to be late to court. 

For creating content—blog posts, articles, videos, presentations, or anything else meant to inform or inspire your readers and followers, the writing is the easy part. 

What to write is the challenge. 

You don’t want to write what everyone else writes about, or say the same things, so you stay away from certain subjects or points of view, hoping to find something unique and borderline amazing. 

But this is unnecessary. 

Most of your readers and listeners aren’t reading or listening to others in your niche and if they are, they’re not reading or listening too carefully. 

But even if you write something nearly identical to what others write, your article will still be different.

Because you are different. 

Your experience, cases and clients, stories, opinions, and writing style might be similar, but they aren’t the same. 

So, relax. You don’t have to create original content. 

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that it is usually better not to. It’s usually better to write about the same things others in your space are writing about. The existence of their articles and posts and videos shows that there is a “market” for those ideas. 

People read those posts and they will read yours.

Knowing this should not only encourage you to let go of whatever might hold you back from creating (enough) content, it gives you a simple way to find all the ideas you will ever need. 

Here’s the plan.

Once or twice a month, browse through the list of blogs and newsletters or channels you follow, whether lawyers, industry experts, or other creators who inspire you, and bookmark several posts you can use as fodder to create your own. 

I do it. Sometimes, I get the “perfect” subject to use for my next article or post. Sometimes, I get nothing and those posts go back into the slush pile or get deleted to make room for something new. 

And sometimes, I zero in on a small part of something someone said and I’ll say something about that. 

In a few minutes, I have my subject. I’ll add a headline or title and my new post is almost nothing like the original. 

If you aren’t doing this now, try it. Nobody owns ideas. Besides, they are only a prompt. A place to start. And when you’re crazy busy cranking out billable work, a place to start is your best friend. 

Yesterday, I was busy with (something) and didn’t have time to write a new blog post/newsletter article. So, I re-posted an article I originally wrote ten years ago. I changed the headline, did some minor editing, done. 

Did you notice?

No, you didn’t. Because you weren’t a subscriber ten years ago. Or didn’t see it. Or can’t remember. 

That’s good news for content creators like you and me. Re-posting gives us another way to create content, especially when we’re busy with other things.

Yes, you can re-publish old posts. No, they don’t have to be ten years old. And no, you don’t have to change the headline. It’s your blog, your newsletter, your content, and you can do what you want. 

I hope this encourages you to do that.

I wouldn’t do it too often. Uncle G might object. But it’s better to be spanked occasionally by The Masters of the Universe than to deny your new subscribers the opportunity to learn something valuable or interesting because they weren’t around a few months (or years) ago and never had the opportunity to see it.

Besides reposting, you can also update old posts with new information, statistics, cases, or trends. You can re-post and offer a different opinion, because your thinking has changed. You can add new resources, ideas, or quotes from other experts, or stories about cases you’ve had since you first wrote about the subject.

And thus, turn an old post into a new one, without spending a lot of time.  

Another way to save time is to do no writing. Invite another lawyer or professional to write a guest post for you. Or, interview them, which can be as simple as sending some questions via email and posting their answers. 

A “listicle” is another way to create a blog post or article without doing a lot of research or writing. A listicle is a list of resources, tips, ideas, or quotes,often just a few sentences on related topics. For example, you could write a listicle about important new laws in your field, or changes to old ones.

So, there you go. Alternate ways to get new content, without slaving away at the keyboard. 

For more ways to get more content, see my course, Email Marketing for Attorneys