100 Free Gifts Your Friends and Family Will Actually Want to Receive

The holidays get expensive fast. Checking off everyone on your list can be daunting, especially for your bank account. The average American plans to spend $882 on holiday gifts in 2015, according to the American Research Group.

But we’ve got an early holiday gift for you: a list of 100 free gift ideas.

You’ll probably see at least four or five items you can easily give someone you know and love — which means four or five gifts you don’t have to buy.

Ready to get started? Gifts are divided into categories, so you can easily scroll to find the type of gift you need. Or, read the whole list and get inspired for a frugal, fun and FREE holiday season!

Food and Drink

If your kitchen isn’t well-stocked, you’re going to have to buy ingredients like flour and sugar. But if you already have the supplies, you can make a lot of free gifts from what’s in your pantry.

1. Bread

Bake a delicious loaf of bread (think banana, zucchini and chocolate chip breads), wrap it up in some colorful plastic wrap and you’re good to go.

2. Cookies

Many people wait all year to make their favorite holiday cookies, and many families have traditional holiday recipes. Why not share your favorites with your friends?

3. Cookie Mix in a Jar

You can bake cookies, or you can give people the gift of being able to bake cookies whenever they want.

Put dry ingredients (flour, chocolate chips, etc.) into a glass jar, tape the recipe to the outside of the jar and tie on a festive ribbon.

4. Casseroles

Don’t turn up your nose at the humble casserole. Anything that gives people an excuse to eat Fritos chips smothered with cheese is a hit, in our opinion.

Give it fresh out of the oven, or prepare a frozen casserole for your recipients to heat up on one of those “no-time-to-cook” days.

5. Breakfast Burritos

While we’re on the subject of “no time to cook,” a bulk supply of handmade, frozen breakfast burritos would be very welcome in a lot of our homes!

You do the work, and your recipients will think of you every morning as they eat a healthy, delicious breakfast.

6. Muesli

If breakfast burritos sound like too much work, make muesli instead.

Just fill a glass jar 3/4 full of dry, raw oats, then add nuts and dried fruit. Put a lid on the jar and shake it a few times until the muesli is well mixed. Add a festive ribbon!

7. Other Holiday Treats

We know you’re already thinking of at least one other holiday treat you could make for your friends, from sugarplums to rugelach. You don’t need our permission to make it!

8. Recipe Book

If you love baking, but don’t have enough cash for the ingredients, give people a recipe book.

Write your favorite recipes on index cards, or print your recipes out and tie the pages together with a ribbon. Want to go completely free? Make a PDF version and email it.

9. Regifted Sweets

Even if you aren’t naturally skilled in the kitchen, you can still give people a delicious holiday gift.

Take some of your holiday sweets — like the box of Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark you got at your office holiday party — and pass them along to someone else.

10. Wine

Want the easiest possible holiday gift? Put a bow on the unopened bottle of wine you have sitting in the cupboard.

From My Home to Yours

One of the easiest ways to give someone a free gift is to pass along something you already own — whether it’s the package of scented soap from your aunt or the favorite book that’s been on your shelf for a decade.

11. Regift

Take that thing you got last year that’s still in its box, and give it to someone else.

12. Regift This Year’s Gift

Take something you got this year and give it to someone else. We suggest scented soaps or candles.

13. Gift Card

Did your office give employees gift cards this year? Have an old gift card sitting around you haven’t spent? Pass ‘em along.

But check expiration dates and balances first. Gift cards are one present that should never arrive used.

14. Books

Give an old favorite, or wrap up the book you bought a year ago and didn’t read.

15. CD Coasters

Old CDs make great coasters, and you probably have a whole binder full of old ones collecting dust somewhere.

Group them into sets (the Weird Al collection?), add a card explaining the gift and pass them along to a friend that appreciates music and upcycling old technology.

16. CD Art

If you and a friend bonded over a band or album several years ago, dig up the CD and frame the jacket art.

17. Ornaments

If you have adult children or grandchildren, giving them treasured ornaments off your Christmas tree will make them feel very special.

Plus, they’ll think of you every time they place the ornament on a branch.

18. Puzzle

People rarely do the same puzzle twice, so make sure your used puzzle has all the right pieces and then wrap it up.

19. Clothes

To get away with this type of gift, you’ll need to be a mother giving a favorite sweater to a daughter, an older sister giving a favorite T-shirt to a younger sister or a best friend passing along a treasured jacket.

20. Vintage Wear

You might know a teenager or young adult who’d love to wear the outfit you’ve been hanging onto since the early 90s.

Vintage is always in style!

21. Costume Jewelry

If you inherited a pile of costume jewelry from an older relative, share the wealth with the younger generation.

22. Family Heirloom

This is a more serious gift. Pass along the necklace or china set that’s been in the family for generations.

Make sure you give it to someone who will appreciate both its history and value.

23. Childhood Stuffed Animal

Pass along a beloved stuffed animal to make a special memory with a child or grandchild.

24. Pet Rock

Make a very special memory with a niece or nephew — pass along on a beloved pet rock.

Only the coolest aunt or uncle would give out pet rocks.

25. Funky Mug

If you’re one of the people who loves collecting novelty mugs, it’s time to start distributing your collection.

Wash ‘em really well first — we don’t want to see any coffee rings or lipstick stains.

26. Collectible

While we’re on the subject of collectibles — if you know someone who collects owls, trains or snow globes, pass along a respective item from your home.

We all have at least one snow globe in a drawer somewhere, right?

27. Storage Unit Surprise

If you have a storage unit, there’s probably at least one thing in it that you aren’t using and would make an excellent gift.

The Gift of Memory

Now that so many of our photos and videos are stored online, there’s something very special about receiving an actual photograph or home video.

Plus, these are items you probably already have in your closet — which makes them ideal free holiday gifts.

28. Old Photographs

Pass along old photographs of grandparents or great-grandparents to the younger generation.

29. Photographs From Childhood

If you’ve known a friend since childhood, slip an old photo of the two of you into a frame.

30. Old Home Video

Send everyone in the family a copy of old home video footage of children or other relatives.

31. New Home Video

Why not make a new home video this year?

Take video of your children playing the piano or singing holiday songs. Or, get in front of the camera and tell the people you love how much you care about them.

32. Family Tree

If your family doesn’t have an updated family tree, put one together and send it to everyone in its branches.

33. Family History

Interview family members about their history and favorite memories.

Then put the interviews together into a book — or video!

34. Family Trivia Game

The family that plays together, stays together.

Make a trivia game featuring details about your family members and play it over the holidays. It can be as simple as questions and answers on index cards or as complicated as your craft skills allow!

35. Book of Shared Memories

Give your closest friend a book of memories.

Write down as many stories and shared experiences you can remember. Include doodles, photos and anything else you’d like to add.

You’ll give your friend a history of your friendship and a gift to truly cherish.

The Thought That Counts

When you don’t have enough cash for a “real gift,” give something equally thoughtful and memorable.

36. Heartfelt Letter

Tell a friend or relative how much they mean to you in a thoughtful letter.

37. Monthly Letter

Write a friend or relative a dozen thoughtful letters.

Put them in envelopes with instructions about when to open.

38. How Do I Love Thee

Begin with the famous Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Then count them.

39. Friendship Mad Libs

Remember the time when we went to [PLACE] but we ran out of [ITEM] and we had to [VERB] our way back home?

Give a friend a book of Mad Libs based on shared experiences — see if it sparks any memories!

40. Kid Mad Libs

Here’s another “cool aunt or uncle” gift.

Write up a few Mad Libs. Don’t worry too much about the story — the kids’ll fill all the blanks in with “boogers” and “farts” anyway.

41. Mixtape

The classic mixtape never gets old — especially if it’s on an actual cassette you have lying around.

42. Spotify Playlist

Don’t have a tape? Make and share a Spotify playlist instead.

43. Memory Jar

Fill a jar with strips of paper containing shared memories.

44. Inspiration Jar

Fill a jar with strips of paper containing inspirational quotes or thoughts.

45. Hopes and Dreams Jar

Give an empty jar with a bunch of blank strips of paper and tell your friend to put their hopes and dreams into the jar.

46. Change Jar

Give a kid a cute jar with some loose change inside. You might inspire him to become a future Penny Hoarder!

47. Time Together

Whether it’s an afternoon spent exploring a park or an evening spent knitting and chatting, sometimes the gift of time spent together is what really matters.

48. Binge-Watch a Show

Tell your significant other (or teenager) that yes, you’ll binge-watch a show with them.

You know the one. You’ll probably really like it.

49. Visit the Museum

Many museums have free days. Find out when they are and take someone special.

Something for Nothing

There are many ways to get new or nearly-new items for free. Check out this list for inspiration.

50. Buy Nothing Group

The Buy Nothing Project connects people who want to both give and receive gently used items for free.

See if there’s a Buy Nothing Group in your area, and take a look at what its members are offering. Maybe one of the free items will make a perfect gift!

51. Freecycle

Freecycle is another online group where members give away items for free. Check it out and see if there’s anything that you might want.

52. Craigslist

Search Craigslist for people giving away free clothes, toys, furniture or household items. As always, watch out for scams!

53. Kijiji

If you’re in Canada, check Kijiji for free listings.

54. Ebay Classified Ads

Ebay Classified Ads might also have free items you can claim — it never hurts to check!

55. Reddit

Look at Reddit’s Barter, Recycle and Gift Card Exchange communities for free gifts.

56. Freebie Sites

Use our list of 101 great freebie sites for gift inspiration.

Some of the items are more experiences than gifts — think of them as something you and the recipient can do together.

57. Free Baby Products

If someone on your gift list is a new or expecting parent, here’s how to get free baby products.

58. Retailers Offering Free Gifts

You know the free makeup bag that comes with your cosmetics purchase? Gift it to someone else.

Retailers often offer free gifts around the holidays as an incentive to get you in the door. Buy what you want and pass the free gift to a friend!

59. Gifts Purchased With Gift Cards

We already mentioned regifting gift cards, but what if you kept the gift card and bought five gifts with it instead?

60. Amazon Trade-In

Amazon Trade-In allows you to trade in old items for new ones.

Turn your old stuff into new gifts!

61. Pet

You can almost always find someone giving away free kittens or puppies.

Note: Make sure it’s a gift the recipient wants and the recipient is ready to handle the responsibility of caring for a pet. The kitten may be free, but pets need time, money and love.

Creative Work

Are you skilled with a pen, guitar or paintbrush? Here’s how to turn free holiday gifting into a work of art.

62. Art

Draw it, paint it, sculpt it, gift it.

63. Kid Art

If you have kids, ask them to draw or paint special pictures for their grandparents and other relatives.

64. Original Music

Record yourself performing an original song you wrote for someone you love.

65. Cover Album

Are you more of a musician than a songwriter?

Make a “mixtape” of you playing covers of the recipient’s favorite tunes. Or, gather the whole family to sing holiday favorites.

66. Poetry

The original classic (and free) gift.

67. Audio Poetry

Record yourself reading original poetry or old favorites. (“How do I love thee…”)

68. Audiobook

Read a short story or classic text aloud.

For example, you can read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in just a couple of hours.

69. Audio Goodnight

Far away from grandchildren?

Make them an audio goodnight tape. Tell a story, sing a song, wish them goodnight and send your love.

70. Coloring Book

Get blank paper, a marker and create a coloring book for a friend.

Draw pictures of items you both enjoy (pizza, Netflix) or memories you share.

71. Hand-Drawn Paper Dolls

Here’s how to draw a paper doll — draw the body first. Then, put a sheet of paper over the body (so you can see the drawing underneath) and draw the clothes to fit.

Color the paper doll, or leave the outline for the recipient to fill in!

72. Comic Strip

Draw four panels, then add yourself and your friends enjoying a comic scenario.

73. Crossword Puzzle

Create a crossword puzzle where the majority of the clues are about the recipient.

74. Word Search

If a crossword puzzle sounds too complicated, make a word search!

The Gift of Labor

Trust us, some people will appreciate these gifts more than anything else they receive this year.

75. Handywork

Offer a friend or relative a weekend of your time to do all of their little house projects.

76. Housecleaning

Can you clean a house until it sparkles? Gift your talents.

77. Car Wash

If you have kids or teenagers who need to come up with gift ideas for aunts or uncles, have them offer car washes.

78. Massage

This free gift is classic for a reason. It’s best reserved for significant others and spouses, though.

79. Babysitting

Do you know how much a night of babysitting costs these days? This free gift is actually really, really valuable.

80. Petsitting

Give your friends peace of mind by being their designated pet sitter for a long weekend — or for every vacation they take next year.

81. Other Skills

If you know how to alter clothes, upholster furniture or wallpaper rooms, there’s a free gift idea.

The recipient has to come up with the clothing, the furniture and the wallpaper.

Holiday Crafts

Let’s end this list with a collection of holiday crafts.

As with the food and drink section, these gifts are only free if you already have the supplies — but we bet you’ll have enough to make at least one of these!

82. Soap Bubbles

Have a little dish soap and a cute container? You’re on your way to making a batch of soap bubbles.

Check out Apartment Therapy for a list of soap bubble recipes. Make circle and heart-shaped bubble wands out of pipe cleaners.

83. Playdough

Flour, water, salt, oil and a bit of food coloring are all you need for this classic toy. PBS has the recipe.

84. Bathtub Crayons

Use grated soap and food coloring to make crayons for bathtime fun. Get Rich Slowly has instructions (#94 on their list).

85. Sidewalk Chalk

If you have plaster of Paris and tempera paint, you can easily make sidewalk chalk. Martha Stewart will show you how.

86. Framed Book Illustration

Cut out and frame a page of text or an illustration from a classic book.

87. Secret Compartment Book

Cut a hole in the center pages of a book to form a secret compartment. The Art of Manliness has a how-to guide.

88. Book Into Purse

You can also turn a hardcover book into a purse or clutch. A Beautiful Mess has the instructions.

89. Mason Jar Tea Lights

If you have a mason jar and some tea lights, decorate the outside of the jar with glitter, lace, ribbons, decoupage or plain ole’ permanent marker.

Put the tea light inside and you have a gift to light up anyone’s holiday.

90. Teacup Candle

If you have a half-melted candle and a mismatched teacup, combine them into an attractive gift. Get Rich Slowly has the details (#31 on their list).

91. Scrabble Ornaments

Take your Scrabble game out of the closet and turn the tiles into handmade ornaments. Spell “peace,” “joy,” “love” or anything else you like.

I Heart Naptime has instructions.

92. Scrabble Necklace

Or, turn your old Scrabble tiles into necklaces. Running on Happiness has the tutorial.

93. Hand Warmers

Combine scraps of fabric and uncooked rice to make hand warmers. Just pop ‘em in the microwave, then take them out and warm up those hands!

Rae Ann Kelly has a how-to guide.

94. Sweater Mittens

Turn your old sweater into new mittens! Check out Creme de la Craft to learn more.

95. Sweater Pillow

Old sweaters also transform into soft, fuzzy throw pillows. PopSugar has a no-sewing-required guide.

96. T-Shirt Pillow

Turn old T-shirts into throw pillows.
Take a look at DIY Network’s guide — and if you don’t have pillow batting at hand, use an old throw pillow’s batting!

97. T-Shirt Quilt

If you have a bunch of old T-shirts and an old fleece blanket, stitch them together into a new T-shirt quilt.

Use Wellness Mama’s guide — unlike other T-shirt quilt guides, this one doesn’t require extra batting or material.

98. Sock Monkey

Got a sock, thread, embroidery floss and polyfill stuffing? Make a monkey.

Urban Threads has the instructions. This type of project can be easily adapted. If you don’t have buttons for eyes, stitch on colorful fabric scraps or make the eyes with embroidery floss.

99. Sugar Scrub

Make a simple sugar scrub out of ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.

I Heart Naptime’s lemon sugar scrub recipe only requires sugar, coconut or almond oil and a lemon.

100. Handmade Card

Lastly, anyone can make a handmade card with a heartfelt message inside. Use cardstock and fancy materials, or printer paper and crayons.

All that matters is letting the recipient know how much you care about them, and wishing them the happiest of holidays.

Need More Free or Low-Cost Gift Ideas?

Although many of the items on this list are gifts I’ve either given or received myself, I also used the following posts to find great free options:

• 100 Frugal Gifts You Can Give This Christmas The Expanded Great Big List Of Homemade, Creative And Frugal Gifts at Bible Money Matters

• 101+ Inexpensive Handmade Christmas Gifts at I Heart Naptime

• A DIY Budget Christmas 99 Great Gifts to Start Right Now at Get Rich Slowly (which we blogged about earlier this year!)

• Tight Holiday Budget? 10 Free and Low-Cost Christmas Gift Ideas at The Penny Hoarder

Your Turn: What’s your favorite free holiday gift? Will you be using any of these ideas?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

Nicole Dieker is a freelance writer focusing on personal finance and personal stories. Her work has appeared in The Billfold, The Toast, The Write Life and Boing Boing.

The post 100 Free Gifts Your Friends and Family Will Actually Want to Receive appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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7 Ways to Find Better Content Ideas

The simplest things are often the most difficult.

How hard should it be to come up with a single content idea?

Considering it’s a few words, you’d think it would only take a few seconds.

You and I both know that there’s a lot more that goes into a good content idea than the first few words that come to mind.

As content marketing becomes more popular and properly utilized, marketers will be producing more and more content.

Currently, 91% of B2B marketers have started using content marketing. In addition, 77% of marketers plan to increase their content production over the next year.

A single good idea every now and again is not enough…you need several.

And if you’re working efficiently (in batches), you should be coming up with at least 50 at a time, but then writing about only the best ones.

When you start a new content marketing campaign, ideas are relatively free flowing. You can write about just about anything in your niche.

But once those “easy” ideas are exhausted, most marketers struggle.

They spend hours only to come up with a handful of mediocre content ideas.

Not only is it a huge waste of time, but it is also mentally draining and frustrating. Most content creators struggle more with ideation than they do with the actual content creation.

I don’t want you to be one of them.

In this post, you will learn 7 highly effective ways to find great content ideas—quickly.

While there can be some abstract thinking behind idea generation (which is the hardest part), you can minimize it by sticking to any combination of these tactics.

Let’s dive in… 

1. Take good ideas and make them great

This method is by far the fastest way to come up with solid content ideas.

The basic idea here is to monitor your competitors.

When they publish a piece of content, you want to see if you could improve upon the idea or make it better.

Some might call this stealing, but no one owns an idea. I’m not telling you to copy that article, but you can certainly create content on a similar topic but do it from your own perspective.

If you get an idea to improve upon a Quick Sprout post, then by all means, go ahead and create it. This is innovation, and it’s how most things (including content and education) get better over time.

There is one big limitation to this tactic: you limit yourself on what you write about because you’re relying on competitors to give you ideas.

If they ignore important to your readers topics, you could easily end up missing out on some great content ideas.

That’s why I recommend you use at least a few other content idea generation tactics along with this one.

With that in mind, here’s the step-by-step breakdown of how to use this method.

Making monitoring competitors easy: If you like to do things the hard way, you can just visit all your competitors on a regular basis and see if they’ve published anything new.

But that seems like a big waste of time to me.

A better option is to use an RSS reader such as Feedly. You can check it once in a while and instantly have an easy to browse list of recently published posts by your competitors.

Create an account, and then click the “add content” button in the left sidebar:

You can search by a keyword, use a specific competitor’s URL, or choose from one of the starter kits (organized by category).

The goal is to find all of your top competitors as they’re the ones who are likely producing content around solid ideas already.

I searched for “marketing,” which brought up a list of marketing blogs.

If you’d like to add one to your RSS feed, just click the green “+” button:

It’s up to you how many you add, but around 5-10 will be sufficient for most.

Once you’ve done that, you can click the “all” label in the left side bar (or a category if you have multiple):

This will bring up all the articles published by those sites that you selected with the newest articles at the top.

After that, you can click a title to expand it so that you can see the text. 

For now, start by noting down interesting topic ideas.

For example:

• How to use “story-selling” and modular content to drive sales
• How to repurpose your content correctly

Then, you’ll need to figure out a way to improve upon the idea or look at it from a different angle.

In general, there are 3 common ways for you to add more value to your content…

Way #1 – Make it longer: If you’ve read many of my posts, you know how I feel about length.

In general, longer is better, which is why longer content ranks better in Google.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

Say you find an article such as “7 Tools to Level Up Your Content Promotion Game“.

How could you make it more valuable? Look at more than 7 content promotion tools that your readers could benefit from.

While I haven’t written about that exact topic yet, I’ve created list posts on similar topics, and they often contain a number of items much greater than 7:

If you match the detail provided in the original article about each tool, but double, triple, or quadruple the number of tools reviewed, your article automatically becomes much more valuable.

Way #2 – Make it more in-depth: Sometimes, you’ll find content that is already pretty lengthy. Maybe it’s a list of 30 tools.

However, those articles typically lack any real depth.

They mention the tool name, maybe include a picture, and that’s it.

But there’s no overview of important features, pricing information, or guidance on who would benefit from each tool.

By adding more depth on valuable aspects of each tool, you add a ton of value to the content idea.

Here’s an example:

Marketing Profs published an article “Five Quick Tips for Thinking Like a Marketing Revolutionary.”

And when they say “quick”, they aren’t kidding. Most of the sections have 100-200 words:

This is useful to a very small percentage of marketers.

Most would find the content much more valuable if it was more in-depth.

Adding examples, specific action steps, and even some explanatory pictures to each section would dramatically increase the value of this content.

Way #3 – Make it more practical or readable: Finally, you’ll come across some content that has a lot of value, but only to certain people.

For example, Seth Godin is one of the best known entrepreneurial and marketing writers. He is known for his extremely short, strategic blog posts:

They are often under a few hundred words.

They always contain a good message and something to think about.

But only some marketers want to think or have the background knowledge to make the message useful.

If you catered to a different type of marketer, a beginner marketer, you could write on similar topics as Seth does but make them more accessible.

Spell things out, give as many examples as possible, and make the content as actionable as possible for beginners.

Your content wouldn’t have as much value to his audience, but it would have much more to yours.

You can also make your content more readable by using pictures and formatting (see example in way #2).

2. Content ideas should serve as answers, so find the questions…

The basic purpose for all content is to solve problems for the audience.

People consume content because they’re trying to make their lives better.

What this means is that if you could identify the problems your audience has, you could create content around the solutions to those problems. Your content becomes the answer to their questions.

And you can do this by finding the questions that your audience asks.

There are many ways to find these questions, but I want to point you to two sources in particular.

Source #1 – blog comments: Probably the best source of content ideas is your readers themselves.

If they take the time to express a problem that they are having in a comment or email – listen!

That not only means that it’s a significant problem, but it also means that many other readers in your audience are also having it.

Here’s an example of one that I quickly pulled up from Joel on a Quick Sprout article:

Firstly, he’s expressing that he likes the header pictures I use on Quick Sprout (credit to my designer). This is something I’ve heard many times (but never too many times!).

The most interesting part of his comment is the next sentence/question:

Have you ever thought about doing an article on how to find just the right art?

Boom! Great content idea right there.

Just from that comment, I could easily come up with a few different angles to explore it from:

• The complete guide to creating featured images that WOW your readers
• 10 sources of mind blowing art that will capture your readers’ attention

There’s one potential problem with this source…what if you don’t get many comments?

It takes time to start getting multiple comments on each post on a regular basis, so it’s not your fault. I’d suggest starting by reading my guide to getting more comments on your posts, and then moving on to source #2 for now.

Source #2 – forums/Q&A sites: If you can’t find out what problems your readers are having using comments, the next best thing is to find your target audience on other sites.

You could look at the comments on a competitor’s site for content ideas. More reliably, find a niche forum to browse, which will enable you to come up with hundreds of content ideas quickly.

Start by searching for “(your niche) + forum”:

For 95+% of niches, the top few results will be active forums.

From there, just browse through the thread topics.

From the top garden forum result, I spotted 3 threads that were updated recently:

The content ideas are pretty simple to come up with from there. For example:

• “Do you really need to prune Ficus Lyrata?”
• “The complete guide to pruning: Which plants need and don’t need it”
• The definitive guide to fern identification

The tub one would depend on whether you specifically wrote about gardening or covered other “home” topics as well.

Regardless, you can easily find over 100 good content ideas in under an hour from a good forum.

3. Have just a single 20-minute talk with your target audience member

This tactic might scare you…

Most marketers don’t like talking on the phone, let alone to an actual member of their target audience.

But it’s the single most effective way to not only come up with great content ideas but to create better content as well.

Where do you find someone who will be willing to talk with you for 15-30 minutes?

Here are a few potential ways:

• find a friend who is in your target audience, and ask for a favor
• email your existing email list, and offer free coaching or a product discount in exchange for the talk
• go to a local meeting group (find through Meetup.com) of your target audience. Approach one of the members after, explain your goal/purpose, and offer to buy them lunch if they’ll talk with you

As long as you come off as someone who genuinely is trying to add to your community, you’ll find quite a few people who are willing to help.

This one short interview could make you thousands of dollars in the future.

Once you find someone to talk with, what do you do?

The main thing is to listen. If they’re passionately talking about your topic of interest, don’t stop them.

Ideally, record the interview (ask them if that’s okay) so you don’t miss anything.

Otherwise, write down every single problem they mention. Afterwards, create content ideas that would solve those problems.

If they’re not sure what to talk about, use questions like these to ignite conversation:

• why do you find (topic) interesting?
• what major problems have you faced when it comes to (topic)?
• what are you currently spending your time on when you have time for (topic)?

Anything that gets them talking about your topic or industry will start to reveal problems and frustrations that they’d like to see solved.

Some interviews will obviously be more fruitful than others, which is why I recommend doing these on a regular basis as frequently as possible.

4. Answer the questions that other posts leave readers with

This method picks up where #2 left off.

In case you didn’t read about that tactic, the idea behind it is that most of the best content ideas are the solutions to the problems that your target audience is having.

The tough part is finding those questions.

With this method, we’ll be finding those questions by using your competitors.

And there are 3 basic ways you can do this.

First, you can find strategic posts: In general, posts can either be tactical or strategic.

Strategic content focuses on overall best practices and goals, while tactical content focuses on specific ways to accomplish specific things.

Think of it this way:

You may have a content marketing strategy that encompasses how you’d like to approach content marketing. Inside that strategy, you will have many tactics that you will use to accomplish your strategic goals.

Big problems are typically solved strategically, while small problems can be solved tactically.

The point is to identify writers in your niche who write strategic posts.

These will typically be thought leaders. Seth Godin is the perfect example once again (note that some writers may write both kinds of posts):

His posts are very general and meant to provoke thought. They would help you create better business strategies.

I already showed you that you could simply take the same topic and make it more practical.

But in addition, you can easily pick out parts of a post that might leave readers with questions.

From that above post (read it here), I can quickly find a couple of areas that leave readers wondering:

• how do you make a non-salesy sales pitch?
• how do you come up with your product presentation strategy?
• how do you get your product in front of people in the first place? (the skeptics and customers)
• how do you create something that is above average?

Those are 4 questions (read: problems) that most readers of Seth’s article would be interested in having answered, which means they would make great content ideas.

Just make sure that your competitor’s readers are the same ones you want to attract.

Secondly, you can look at comments: Comments are powerful because they come from real readers. There’s no guesswork about what a reader is thinking.

We already looked at how you can get content ideas from your own content, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t look at your competitor’s comments.

For example, here’s a comment on one of Derek Halpern’s blog posts:

If you created content for entrepreneurs, you could turn that comment into a content idea like:

How you can leverage selling information products to sell more physical products

Thirdly, you can read any article from the reader’s point of view: In the first option, I noted that you could specifically target “strategic” content because it’ll always reveal multiple content ideas.

However, you can get ideas from any piece of content, whether it’s your own or a competitor’s.

Here’s how you do it:

Read through a piece of content from the perspective of your reader. What questions do they have while reading? Can you create content that answers these questions?

Below is part of an article published on the Content Marketing Institute site:

I put a box around an important line.

Some readers might be able to formulate a hypothesis, but I would bet that many  won’t.

For a reader, the question is:

How do I make a good hypothesis?” or “What does a good hypothesis look like?”

You could attempt to create content to answer this question from a few different angles:

• How to come up with a better test hypothesis to get more meaningful results
• 20 Examples of great test hypotheses (that result in more effective content)
• 15 Tools that will help you come up with more informed hypotheses

The better you can get into the head of your typical reader, the more of these questions you’ll spot.

Over time, you will improve, and you’ll be able to get 5-10 solid content ideas from a single post you come across.

5. No two niches are equal, you can learn a lot from others

All niches become their own echo chambers at times.

All the big blogs in your niche will, at  times, seem very similar to each other.

They all cover hot topics, and they market using the same tactics.

It’s hard to be different if all your input is from these sites in your niche. However, this is also easy to solve.

If you analyze how authoritative sites in other niches are doing their content marketing, you can often take ideas from them and adapt them to your own niche.

Let’s go through an example…

Say I really love how The Cat Site creates content. I see that they’re getting a ton of traction with their gift guides:

If you look at any of the top marketing blogs right now, none of them have any content related to gifts.

I could create my own content ideas by adapting this type of content for marketers:

• 10 Marketing themed gifts that will make your coworkers jealous
• 10 Great gifts to give to clients and customers to show your appreciation

These aren’t amazing content ideas, but they’re interesting. More importantly, they’re unique.

This is one way to stand out from all the other sites in your niche. And this technique pairs very well with the very first method of generating ideas that we looked at.

Doing it on your own: It’s very difficult to just pick a random niche and study the effectiveness of the top sites’ content marketing.

Instead, start observing sites in other areas that interest you.

Aside from marketing, you have other interests, right?

Whether it’s entrepreneurship, cooking, decorating, sports, etc., you can learn from the top sites in any niche. 

And since you’re interested in the subject (and are a reader), you have a better feel for which types of ideas those sites are using that are truly being effective.

Be aware that not every single tactic you see a site in another niche using will adapt well to your audience. So if you produce ideas (like the ones I came up with above) that just aren’t quite good enough, don’t hesitate to toss them away.

6. Find questions that no one wants to answer

This tactic won’t reveal a ton of content ideas, but it will reveal ideas of the highest quality.

In every niche, there are difficult questions to answer that many readers have.

These often get asked on forums (if there is one for a topic) but are typically ignored or danced around.

Because of this, no one really has a good answer to those types of questions. And yet, readers still want them answered.

If you can produce a great answer to any one of those questions, it will get a lot of attention and basically promote itself in the future after you’ve done your initial promotion.

There’s a catch: The reason why no other top bloggers answer these types of questions is because they are hard to answer.

You’ll have to create exceptional content to answer any of these questions. Why?

Because other bloggers have probably tried to answer the question but couldn’t do it. They end up with a mediocre post that, again, dances around the question and provides no concrete answer.

How much does a swimming pool cost? The best example I’ve heard of using this technique comes from Marcus Sheridan, a pool installer.

Years ago, if a homeowner wanted a pool, they’d have to get a quote to have any idea of what it would cost.

Typically, this would also come with aggressive sales tactics.

And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that potential customers were not thrilled with this setup.

All they wanted to know was how much a pool would cost.

Marcus published the first of many articles to come that helped answer the questions of his existing customers and potential customers.

This content in particular focused on breaking down the cost of a swimming pool installation in as much detail as possible.

He gave the numbers that he would use when estimating the cost of a job and explained why things cost as much as they did.

Most homeowners looking for an initial estimate found this really helpful, and it wasn’t long before he started to rank for some impressive terms.

Back to you: It didn’t take long for Marcus to write the post that got him much attention, but it did take him years to gain the expertise to be able to answer the question.

Think about areas where you are an expert. Then start paying attention to questions that your readers want the answers to (on your site, competing sites, social media, etc.), but no one will answer.

These are the questions that will form the basis for extraordinary content ideas.

7. Use your expertise to predict the future

The goal for most content creators should be to become a thought leader in their industry.

You can’t do that if you’re always writing about the same topics that everyone else is writing about.

Thought leaders not only produce great content on those topics, but they also pave the way for innovation.

As you become one of the more knowledgeable experts in your niche, you will likely be able to guess how certain aspects of your industry are going to change in the future.

You can’t do these types of posts all the time, but they are another source of great content ideas that you can use to make up 5-20% of your posts.

What if you’re not an expert? That’s okay! You can still use this tactic. However, you’ll have to leverage the knowledge of the true experts in your niche.

For example, an SEO writer, Trond Lyngbø put together a great article on the future of SEO. He got in touch with several experts to get their predictions:

This is probably more valuable than any single expert’s predictions since you can compare them with each other.

I left this idea generation tactic for last because it’s the most difficult. You’ll need to either have an expert level of knowledge or be able to get responses from influencers in your niche.

Even then, you need to be able to know the areas of your niche that your readers are interested in knowing the future of.

For marketing, as an example, readers are interested in the future of:

• SEO
• Link building
• Email outreach
• Effective types of content
• Content marketing tactics
• Product creation
• etc.

I could create multiple articles for the future of every single one of those—spread out over time, of course.

Conclusion

Great content ideas give you the potential to produce great content.

But coming up with enough content ideas isn’t always easy.

That’s why I’ve given you these 7 highly effective tactics.

Start with just one or two of them for now and practice. When you get good with them, try out some of the others.

At first, you will probably struggle a bit. I hope the detail I’ve provided is enough to limit that struggle.

But over time, you will develop your “idea muscle”, and it will get easier and easier to come up with tons of great content topics. Persistence is key, and it will pay off.

If any of these tactics work well for you, or you have any questions at all, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below.

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5 Ways Active Managers Steer Mutual Funds Effectively

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Why Payment Protection Insurance Is a Growing Necessity for Investors

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Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy

The core principles of personal finance success are really, really simple. Spend less than you earn. Find smart ways to cut spending, especially on big stuff. Invest the extra money, first in an emergency fund, then into paying off debt, then into diversified investments. That’s really it – everything else is just nuance.

The thing is, you can say something very similar about other life changes. For example, the core principles of physical health success are really, really simple. If you’re wanting to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn. Exercise allows you to burn more calories and makes day-to-day physical activity easier. That’s pretty much it – everything else is just nuance.

But here’s the thing. 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. More than two thirds of Americans are overweight.

The truth is that just because things are simple doesn’t mean that they are easy to achieve. If simple meant easy, then we’d all be millionaires and at a perfect healthy weight.

Simple just doesn’t mean easy.

The question is how exactly do you make progress on a change in your life that seems really simple but is actually really hard to put into practice? Financial change fits here, as does health improvement, independent learning, and on and on and on – almost any positive habit or routine change that a person might want.

I’ve tried to make lots of different changes in my life. Sometimes, they’ve been successful. Sometimes, they haven’t. What has been the difference between success and failure?

I think it comes down to five things.

First of all, you need to break things down to today – nothing more, nothing less. Success is about today, period.

Yes, it’s fun of dreaming of having a bunch of money or about having a thin body, but those things are simply not going to happen tomorrow or the day after or even next month. Those are long-term things.

The only way you’re going to get there is by taking one single day at a time. What can you do today to move in a positive financial direction? Or in a positive direction in terms of your health?

Today is all that matters. Succeed today and you can feel good, because you know it’s a step in the right direction. Then, just repeat it tomorrow. Do that again and again and you will find the results you want.

Second, track your progress, but don’t fret over day-to-day oscillations. I keep careful track of my finances (using You Need a Budget) and even today I notice that sometimes after a month where I felt like I made a bunch of good financial choices, I’ll find myself barely budging my net worth.

A similar thing can happen with your weight, especially if you track it daily. Sometimes, when you completely don’t expect it, you’ll find that your weight actually went up from your previous measurement and you have no idea why.

There are lots of reasons for the financial slowdown: the stock market had a bad month, or we had a big unexpected expense like an annual property tax bill. Similarly, the weight thing can be explained by changes in water intake or weighing at different times in the day.

Still, that doesn’t change the disappointment when you feel like you’ve made good choices but they don’t seem to have an impact on the numbers.

That’s why, although I record numbers like that, I don’t sweat the day-to-day numbers too much. I look at averages instead. For example, is my average weight for June less than my average weight for May? If so, I’m going in the right direction. I also like to compare numbers over a longer time frame than just a week or a month. Is my net worth in June better than my net worth last June? If so, I’m going in the right direction.

Third, spend time with people who are achieving or have achieved the thing you want. If you’re struggling to cut spending, spend time with frugal people and spend less time with people who spend money like water. If you’re struggling to lose weight, spend time with thin people who naturally eat a healthier diet.

Surrounding yourself with people who are achieving or have achieved the thing you most want in your own life means that you’re naturally surrounded by life choices and behaviors that lead to those achievements. If you hang out with frugal people, you’ll see how frugal people live and you’ll also be in situations where the crowd is making the frugal choice, making it feel less confrontational and a lot more natural. If you hang out with people who have a healthy weight, you’ll see how they eat and you’ll also be in situations where the crowd is making a healthy consumption or exercise choice, making it feel less confrontational and a lot more natural.

Take the time to seek out people in your life – and in your community – that are achieving (or have achieved) the things you want and then try to just spend time with them. Over time, their patterns in life will seem more and more natural to you.

Fourth, go extreme, but listen to your sense of burnout. A lot of people suggest that the best way to achieve your big goals is to go with moderation, but I’ve personally found that this doesn’t work well at all for me. When I go moderate, the progress is very slow and I get disheartened. A much tougher, more extreme approach to personal change tends to work better for me.

Take my own personal finance change. I didn’t do it lightly, not even at first. I dove head first into extreme frugality and I’ve largely stuck with it ever since. Sarah and I spend roughly half of our income – no joke – and bank the rest of it.

Why did that work and a more moderate approach (say, spending 10% less of our income) didn’t? The big reason was that an extreme approach started showing us results very quickly, while a moderate approach doesn’t show results for a while. However, both approaches make you feel the pinch of giving up things and both pinches hurt – the extreme approach might hurt a little more, but you’re seeing results much more quickly and the real results make the pinch easier to handle.

What about burnout? One thing I’ve learned about burnout when it comes to a major change in your life is that it usually isn’t caused by the overall picture, but by some relatively small detail. For example, if you go all in on frugality, you might start feeling the pinch really strongly about never spending any money, but if you look deeply at your feelings, you might find that it comes from your choice to spend evenings at home alone and you’re really just feeling some social isolation and blaming it on finances. The solution? Don’t sit at home. Hit meetup.com or your community calendar and find some interesting things to do that don’t involve spending money. When you look deep at burnout, it’s often not the broad sweep of changes that’s causing a problem, but one detail. If you find that detail and address it, the change just keeps rolling along.

Finally, never, ever celebrate your success by undoing your progress. This is the stupidest step you can take, and it’s one that’s undone a lot of my progress.

If you’re trying to improve your financial state, don’t celebrate your success over the last few weeks by spending money. If you’re trying to improve your health, don’t celebrate your success by eating a giant meal or a whole Sara Lee poundcake. If you’re trying to learn something new, don’t celebrate your success by “taking a break” from the learning.

Celebrating your short term successes and achievement of milestones is a fantastic way to feel great about how things are going, but that celebration needs to not undo the progress you’ve made.

Simple doesn’t mean easy. Fixing your finances is simple. I can explain everything you need to know on the back of five business cards.

However, it’s not easy to actually do it because the choices you have to make are hard and often run against the current of modern culture and the patterns of your life. There’s a reason that 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and it’s not that personal finance success is complicated. It’s not complicated at all. It just isn’t easy.

Of course, the easy road is usually the one that puts you in a place where you don’t want to be. Perhaps it’s time to try the harder road… and you may just find that the harder road isn’t quite as hard as you thought.

Good luck!

The post Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Career-Boosting Resolutions to Make Right Now

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Tips for Conscious Holiday Spending

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Playing With Money Helps Me Make an Extra $100 a Week. Here’s What I Do on a Typical Day

I’m always looking for new ways to use money to make more money, or to spend less.

I have 11 bank accounts, 21 credit cards, 12 store loyalty cards and a pile of gift cards — and I use them all in one way or another to make or save money.

For me, playing with money is a game — one that’s legal and profitable.

For example, I’ve made more than $2,000 from credit card sign-up bonuses this year, and more than $1,200 in bank bonuses.

Then there are the routine cash-back and reward points, and I’m not counting airline or hotel perks I haven’t used yet. (At the moment, I’ve got four free flights anywhere in the U.S. and several free hotel stays.)

But before you jump in the game, you should know it takes work, organizational skills and some money, too. I have thousands of dollars tied up in all those bank accounts.

Every Sunday, I plan my week by reviewing a bulletin board with index cards. I don’t want to miss a deadline for a required “spend” on a credit card (what you need to charge to earn a bonus) or forget to use a bank debit card enough to qualify for a new account bonus.

As an example of the work involved, here’s what I did on a recent Monday…

Earned Money Over Breakfast

I went online and discovered a post about a Santander bank bonus. I made a note to open an account there by the end of the week to earn a $150 new account bonus.

Like most Mondays, I planned to head to the public library to play chess at noon. I love chess and cheap entertainment, and this costs me nothing but the gas to get there.

Used an Amex Offer

On the way to chess, I stopped at Dollar General and bought a $25 gift card for Olive Garden (my wife and I both enjoy their unlimited soup and salad deal).

I paid with an American Express card I had loaded with one of the recent Amex Offers. In this case, I got a $5 statement credit for spending $25 at Dollar General, effectively a 20% discount on our next meal at Olive Garden.

Ate Lunch for $2.67

Then I stopped for a veggie Subway sandwich. Thanks to a coupon for a six-inch sub for $3, it came to just $3.21 with tax.

I paid with a Subway gift card I bought on sale for 15% off. I had paid for that with a 2% cash-back credit card, so my real cost for the sandwich, after deducting 17%, was only $2.67.

Doubled Up on Gas Savings

Afterward, I stopped for gas at the cheapest place in town.

The gasoline was $2.13 per gallon, but my Fuel Rewards Network card knocked off 3 cents per gallon.

I paid with a Shell gift card I bought at Home Depot using my Discover card. Discover was paying 5% cash back on home improvement store purchases and doubling all cash back awards at the end of the year for new cardholders like me.

So I saved 10%, bringing the cost down to $1.89 per gallon — a total savings of $2.88 on the 12-gallon fill-up.

Worked on a Bank Bonus

Inside the station, I bought a large soda for 79 cents — a dollar less than a small drink at Subway. I paid with my Seacoast Bank debit card, because I need 15 purchases on it within 60 days to get my $200 account-opening bonus.

I use this card for small purchases so I don’t waste “spend” that could be earning valuable points on my reward credit cards.

Played Chess

I used to make money playing chess, but, sadly, nobody here likes to bet on games.

Liquidated Debit Gift Cards

On the way home, I stopped at Walmart to liquidate Visa debit gift cards.

To “liquidate” cards is to spend them on necessities or convert them back into cash. You buy them to earn points, cash back or promotional gifts.

I loaded five $200 cards onto my Bluebird card account using the automated kiosk. (There is no fee to do this.) I bought them a few days earlier at Sears with my Discover card at a total cost (with a $6.95 fee each) of $1,034.75.

Discover was paying 5% cash back at department stores that quarter, and doubling everything after my first year with the card, so I’ll get 10% back, or $103.47, which gives me a profit of $68.72 after fees.

Discover 5% categories are only good for up to $1,500 in purchases per quarter, so I have to watch what I spend.

Had I already spent that much, I would have received just 2% cash back (1% this month and 1% more at the end of my first year), in which case I would have lost $14.06 on the transaction. It’s easy to make a mistake like that.

Used PayPal to Earn Plane Tickets

At CVS, I bought two $500 PayPal My Cash cards for $1,007.90 (the fee is $3.95 each). That finished off the $2,000 spending requirement on my Southwest Airlines Visa, earning me a bonus of 40,000 points, good for about $700 toward airfare.

I loaded my PayPal account with one of the My Cash cards that night and another the next day, since there’s a $500-per-day limit. Then, I used my PayPal debit card to pay a water bill, earning 1% cash back on that transaction.

Saved Three Ways on Pizza

That evening, we bought pizza at Dominos. They offer a large, three-topping pizza on weekdays for $7.99.

I paid with a gift card I bought for a 15% discount with a 2% cash-back credit card. The total cost after taxes, a buck for the kitchen crew and a 17% discount, was $7.92 instead of the normal $14 or so without the promotion and discounts. Plus, we get two meals out of a large pizza.

Moved the Money

I logged onto my Bluebird account that night to be sure the loads went through properly — no problem. I used Bluebird Bill-Pay (no fee) to make a payment of $1,147.39 on a credit card.

As you can see, the money just keeps moving around, making a little more along the way.

And I never pay interest because I always pay my credit card balances in full every month.

Well, unless I have a zero-interest card. In that case, I leave the money in the bank earning 1 to 5% interest and pay the minimum on the card.

Made 5% on Savings

I spent a few minutes checking out various other accounts, and moved $4,500 from a checking account to a savings account connected to my NetSpend card.

Now it has $5,000 in it, which is the maximum for the 5% interest rate. The NetSpend “pay as you go” plan has no monthly fees, and I don’t use the card, so I pay no other fees.

I just have it order to qualify for that 5% interest savings account ($250 per year, on even that small balance).

Watched Cheap Movies at Home

While we ate our pizza, my wife and I watched streaming movies and shows on Amazon Prime. I paid for the service when it was on sale for $67 per year, but it’s normally $99.

I used my Discover card to pay, because Amazon.com was one of the 5% cash-back categories. Since that’s doubled, my net cost for Prime is about $60, or just $5 per month for all of the benefits it offers.

After a year, I’ll cancel and wait for another sale.

Is Playing With Money the Right Game for You?

Here’s some of what I did on that Monday (it’s my busiest day for these activities):

• Earned a $5 statement credit for buying an Olive Garden gift card

• Saved $4 on a sandwich

• Saved $3 on gas

• Used a debit card to help meet the requirements for a bank bonus

• Made $69 buying and liquidating Visa debit cards

• Made $700 toward airfare by finishing a credit card spending requirement

• Saved at least $6 on pizza

• Finished funding a savings account that pays 5% interest to make about $195 per year more than in the 1.1% account the money came from

If I tally just the finished “projects,” I made $774 and saved $13 on that Monday.

I aim for $100 in profits and/or savings each week with my little money games, and I beat that goal by 50% most weeks. I probably earn $40 to $50 per hour chasing bank and credit card bonuses, but closer to minimum wage for small money-saving schemes.

In any case, it’s a profitable hobby I treat like a chess game. I happen to love making money from home doing something I like.

And then I get paid to write about it — something else I enjoy. 

Your Turn: Do you like playing with money to make more and spend less? Or do you find the process too tedious?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).

The post Playing With Money Helps Me Make an Extra $100 a Week. Here’s What I Do on a Typical Day appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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