It’s not always easy to find content inspiration.

We’ve talked about a few different ways you can stay up to date on the hot topics of the day, and find inspiration for your next post, but some days, it will be a struggle and you know that you need to find something to get your creative juices flowing. Earlier today, I was reading a piece on 5 Unexpected Places to Find Inspiration for Your Blog Content. These were pretty far out of the box, and I could just picture the faces of my own lawyers if I tried to suggest any of them find inspiration in a stock photo site for their next post.

But it did get me thinking about two places lawyers CAN find inspiration for their next post – they’re not unexpected, but you will find them legitimate, I promise. 

JD Supra

If you aren’t already familiar with JD Supra, today is the day you get on board.

JD Supra is a daily source of legal intelligence on all topics business and personal, distributing news, commentary & analysis from leading lawyers & law firms.”

You should already be using them as a distribution tool for your content, but have you also thought about using them as a place to find inspiration for your next post? They are offering expert commentary, insight, and intelligence on a variety of topics that you can drill down on, so that you’re looking right at the most relevant information to you.

Here’s a look at their home page:

You’ve got some hot topics, and the latest updates, right at your finger tips, or you can scroll down a little to follow other popular topics that relate to your area of expertise. Let’s say that you’re interested in staying on top of what the NLRB is up to (at least what others in the industry are saying about them).

At your fingertips, you have videos, the latest posts, the ability to narrow further by topics, and to explore related categories. Immediately, you have sources that you can quote in your own blog posts and link back to, topics and themes you can expand on with your own commentary, and the ability to subscribe so that you’re always staying up to date for future inspiration. You can also socially share any of this content, which will help to build your reputation as a thought leader in the subject areas that you care about.

While premium distribution and analytics for JD Supra are available only for paid subscribers, the ability to access this information is available to you free of charge [Amendment to my earlier post: to upload your content, you must also be a paid member for JD Supra]. So head on over there without delay. It doesn’t hurt either that Adrian Lurssen, Aviva Cuyler, and their team are also some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and are incredibly knowledgeable about both content marketing and the legal landscape.

LexBlog

You may have guessed, since this post is being written on a LexBlog powered blog, but I am a LexBlogger. But I’ve been a fan of Kevin O’Keefe and his team since long before I joined LexBlog, and continue to be.

LexBlog helps legal professionals showcase expertise in meaningful ways online to drive and expand business through blogs and other social media channels.”

But in addition to being a solutions-based company, they also provide a lot of marketplace insight through their authors, and that’s where the inspiration side of things comes into play. For inspiration, what you want to check out is LXBN:

Exciting legal stuff happens every day. LexBlog clients are writing about it, the public is interested and press is following. This is networking and reputation-building in action. LXBN is covering all of it.”

LXBN is open to everyone, not just LexBlog clients, and here you can find a showcase of LexBlog’s top legal blogs, their daily trending topics, video coverage of hot topics, and in-person coverage of legal industry conferences.

As you can see, you get a quick overview on the main page of what the trending topics of the day are, while on the lefthand side, you can drill down by practice area as you prefer. Let’s continue with our Labor example:

Here, you can see the latest posts from the LexBlog network in labor law. The two downsides here are that the results are limited to those in the LexBlog network (obviously, it’s a client value to be showcased in this way, so LexBlog limits this to their clients), and secondly that it’s less easy to drill down on a topic. While we can subscribe via RSS to the Labor & Employment channel on LXBN, in order to drill down on the NLRB, for example, we’d either have to find a post tagged with it, or search for the tag ourselves. It’s easy to do, but just a couple of extra steps. Here’s a sample of the results you’d get for that search:

So when you’re panicked and looking for inspiration, you don’t have to get too out of the box and uncomfortable to find it. Head over to JD Supra and LexBlog, and drill down on your area of expertise, and you’ll quickly find the most recent and some of the best industry commentary and insight on the topics you’re interested in. Then you can use this to add your own insight and commentary, as well as engage with other thought leaders in your field of expertise.

How do you see inspiration when you’re hitting that writer’s block?