⚡6 ways to uncover unique content first

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Top of the morning, Inbox Hackers. Glad to have you here. 

Let’s start the week off with six fresh tips for digging up cool stories to cover or mix into your content. The types of stories with the potential to attract a big audience, but not so big that large news outlets or top bloggers beat you to it first. 

After these tips, you can dive into our Monday Marketing News. And tap the poll below on your way down…

How to Uncover Juicy Stories First

Good stories sell. So, it’s nice having amazing stories to mention in your content or feature in your articles, podcasts, videos, infographics, etc. 

But how can you beat the competition to the best stories? Especially when the competition has goliath resources you may not have.

The 6 tips below help you even the playing field.

#1 Analyze Local News and Trends

Regularly read local newspapers, magazines, and news sites. You’ll often track down stories about local heroes, unique businesses, or historical events you can expand on. Google Trends is another path to finding good stories first, especially if you can use a regional story in a unique way for a different audience.

#2 Engage with Communities

Do interviews with folks from a variety of backgrounds to uncover issues that matter to them. This can lead to discovering underreported stories and interesting topic angles. Local events can provide good material for stories. Chatting with attendees can reveal personal stories that haven't been covered by major outlets.

#3 Alternative Sources

Look into specialized news outlets that cover stories overlooked by major media outlets. This site has a long list of independent news sources, including a state-by-state breakdown.

Use platforms like X to identify trending topics and hashtags. Join small Facebook groups or Reddit forums to find unique story ideas. Better have a legit battle plan to avoid the million distractions on those platforms, though.

#4 Be Observant and Curious

Observe your surroundings. Yeah, it sounds ridiculously simple. Regardless - stories can be found in everyday life. Become curious about the people and places around you. Most people are NOT naturally curious but anyone can work on this skill.

Also, gobble up a variety of content, from new e-books to out-of-print paper books to blogs to documentaries. It’s guaranteed to spark ideas for stories no one else has in their head yet.

#5 Weaponize Online Tools

Set up Google Alerts for specific keywords to stay in the know about fresh stories and trends. Stop! These alerts are no good if you don’t set up a time to actually look at the alerts on a regular basis. Distractions will neutralize these alert tools and the result is the hot news will get covered by a major content producer before you.

Exploding Topics and similar tools help you identify trends before they become mainstream, providing insights into unique story ideas.

#6 Network and Engage with Readers

Encourage your readers to share their thoughts and ideas. Fears and struggles they’re facing. You have to ask consistently, though. Because only a small percentage of your audience will respond (just like the old talk radio days where thousands of listeners still meant having very few call-in-fans).

Collaborate with content producers in different niches than yours. Alert them about news you think they’d like to cover and vice versa.

Is there a specific playbook for digging up and covering topics no one else is?

3 News Breakers to Emulate

1. Coffeezilla may be huge now, but at one time, he had limited resources. And still, he broke stories no one else was covering.

2. UpperEchelon focuses on exposing hidden truths and shedding light on lesser-known stories, such as this “AI poison pill” — first time I’d heard about it.

3. Tim Worstall is a lesser-known journalist who seems to pick apart news articles and public documents to find news nuggets and new story angles to tackle.

Bonus tip at end of email for uncovering stories before anyone else does (via Writer’s Digest). Monday Marketing News coming up…

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Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus tip for uncovering unique story ideas: Eavesdrop IRL. “Grab a book, magazine, or your laptop and sit in a coffee shop for a few hours and casually listen to conversations around you, without being creepy and ‘stalky’ of course. What are people talking about?” ~Writer’s Digest

ICYMI: 🤠6 personal branding tips

Any specific marketing topic you want me to cover? Reply to let me know.