30+ Sources for Ideas for the Hub Challenge - A Cheat Sheet

Are you doing the 30/100 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge and are a little daunted by the prospect of coming up with so many Hubs?

So am I. Though I'm a long time reader, I've only recently joined HubPages (about a couple of weeks before the challenge started) and so I have yet to perfect the knack of writing copious amounts of quality Hubs.

I thought it would be a good idea to sit down and think of a whole heap of different sources for ideas so that each day, all I had to do was look through the list for instant inspiration. I thought it may also be helpful for other Hubbers on the challenge.

If you have more good idea sources for Hubs, please share them in the comments.

Remember that this list is for a source of ideas only. It's against the terms of HubPages (as well as a probable copyright infringement) to copy and paste. Remember that any information you find should be put into your own words and include your take on it and your own personal experiences.

Look through/buy a magazine - the stories can make starting points for great Hubs. Even small tips can be turned into a bigger Hub - look for more on Google and bundle them all together (in your own words of course).

When I'm feeling really brain dead, I try this little trick. I type in random words off the top of my head into Google and look through the results until a topic catches my interest. Once you have that topic idea, Google that for more information to create a Hub.

Another trick for when the brain is asleep: go through the alphabet thinking of words of that letter. Eventually something pops up that's interesting - or else look through this Hub, Alphabet Titles - 26 Topics for your next Hub or Lens.

Think about what you did in the last hour - could anything you did be turned into a potential Hub? If you don't come up with anything, step through your day - you may discover skills and problem solving abilities that you didn't realise you had. Even patting your dog might remind you of something else, like that you need to give it a bath which could lead to a HubPage (eg How to wash your dog or How to make homemade herbal dog shampoo).

Think about your relationships, your family, your friends, your work colleagues, even your pets. Some detail can trigger an idea for a Hub (eg I have a friend who has allergies, with a bit of research the allergy topic could create heaps of Hubs). Or alternatively, maybe writing something from the perspective of someone else could be an idea for a Hub (eg 10 things I learned from my kids).

Think about your life experience - you would have encountered problems in your past. How did you solve it? What would you have done if you could do it again? What would you advise someone in the same situation? These answers could be a post.

Think of problems you have now that you want solved - research, write it up and voila, you have your problem solved and a Hub!

Think of your favourite hobbies or hobbies you're interested in - while this is a pretty obvious source of ideas, it's something that's easily done so it often gets forgotten.

Look round your room/house/garden/computer, what software are you using? - every object is a potential Hub (eg how to choose a good pen, the best notebooks).

Look through your bookcase, closest pile of books - look through the contents of the ones that stand out.

Look for books in your area of interest in Amazon, often they will have the option to view the contents - many of these content titles can make good HubPage topics. You can also look through Amazon's products and think of reviews for HubPages.

If you have a blog, look through your favourite, most useful posts. Maybe you can summarise a post or rewrite it with a different angle on it. Remember, even though they are your own words - you should make sure anything that goes to HubPages is original new content so don't copy and paste! Work that you haven't published could be polished up for a Hub.

Think of your favourite recipes: maybe I'm biased, but I love reading about food. It's an easy way to get up some extra Hubs.

Look through the archives of websites/blogs in your niche that are massively prolific. Examples are  http://Mashable.com, http://Gizmodo.com, http://www.bhg.com - they are an ideas goldmine.

Think of any bigger resources that you can summarise into a smaller, more digestable list. For example, someone may have a list of 100 photo tools - look through it and choose the best 10 and write your opinion on that 10. Or you could look through a repository like all the free software  available (legally) http://download.cnet.com/windows/  and make summaries of the 10 best in a category as a Hub. Remember to exercise your judgement so as to help out your reader - don't just randomly pick a selection and say that they are good.

Sign up to Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader -subscribe to a bunch of blogs in areas that interest you - don't just go for the big ones, but try to find smaller blogs that may come up with something that not everyone has seen. Don't get caught up in trying to read through the stories everyday (you don't need that stress in your life), feel free to regularly mark all stories as read. Just dip into it when you are looking for inspiration.

Look through any email newsletters that you subscribe to (if you don't have any, you should subscribe to a number in your areas of interest - make sure you set up a filter so that they bypass your inbox - this is purely for reference when you need it not to make your inbox more unmanageable): the tips and advice can be idea starters for Hubs.

Looking through blog posts posted to Blog carnivals: You can find ones in your area at http://blogcarnival.com but often popular blogs host theirs directly. I like these because they are usually of a much better quality and more effort has gone into making the idea clear. They make great inspiration (but don't copy!). If you do find interesting posts and you use some information from them, it's good practice to give a linkback to the them.

Look through the articles in article diriectories like http://EzineArticles.com - I would use this more as a starting point for ideas as I think a lot of articles are a little short and insufficient in depth for HubPages.

Look through wikis like WikiHow and Wikipedia  and don't forget the more specialised wikis in your niche.

Look through YouTube on a channel in your niche - find an interesting video which you can embed and then build a Hub with support info around that.

Read online newspapers like the NY Times - look past the news stories and they often have great lifestyle, technology and blog sections hidden away that are brimming full of great ideas and information.

Look through thread titles in a popular forum in your niche: look for questions as these are often the same questions that HubPage readers will want answered.

Digg is a great source of stories and issues that are hot now.

Technorati's front page is not only a great source of hot topics, but it also is a great source to discover blogs to add to your Google Reader.

Google Hot Trends are the most searched terms today. I find many of these are silly but there can be gold. Clicking on the keyword will bring up popular news articles, blog posts and web results which are all information sources to flesh out an idea.

I find Yahoo Buzz more useful when I filter it by categories. Health and Lifestyle are  good ones. I find with the more news-y articles that these offer inspiration rather than direct information. But once you have the idea, it's easy enough to search in Google or Yahoo for more information for your Hub.

Type your keyword or niche into Twitter Search and you'll get a list of recent conversations that feature that word. Often there will be links but what I love is looking for questions or problems - these you can answer in a Hub.

Yahoo Answers is a great source of questions and problems that need solving. If you know the answer, it could make a great Hub. Looking through answered questions also turns up really helpful information.

You may need a Google/Gmail account to access the Google Keywords Tool. Enter in a topic area that you're interested in and it will give you popular search terms that are related (make sure you have the "Use synonyms" box ticked to maximize your search). If you are making HubPages to get some extra income, then the better your HubPage title and content match the keywords people are searching for, the more traffic you'll get to your HubPage. Make titles from these keywords and build content around that.

This is a bit more of an advanced method and works when you already have a topic in mind but it is a good way of getting multiple Hubs from an idea. So if you're looking at antique clocks - you can create a Hub on each brand and time period. If you have a long tutorial on making a Bookcase, you can break it down into the various steps (eg choosing the wood, putting it together, staining the bookcase)

This is a real goodie. Visit Hub Requests to see hubs that other hubbers would like see done. You can sort by the latest, the hottest, the best, the most popular, and ones that are unanswered. To find out more: Answering Hub Requests.

Hub Mobs are where hubbers all get together to write about a particular theme or topic. To find out more and join the latest one check out: What is a Hub Mob and how to join one.

I thought of an extra idea while writing this so there are actually 31 ideas! Each of these idea sources can generate heaps of ideas so if you are doing the 100 Hubs in a 100 Days then just go through this list 3x! :-)

I hope this is of some help, I'll definitely be working through this list for my HubChallenge

Can you add to this list? Please share your ideas in the comments or even write a hub about it and share a link to it in the comments - the best stuff I'll add to this list with a link to the Hub/Hubber.

CommerceCat is an IT consultant and runs her own business. This is the fourth hub in her series of 30 Hubs in 30 Days. She is new to both HubPages and Twitter so if you are on either please friend her! (Her Twitter name is websmallbiz).