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If you’re stuck for a blog topic or article pitch, there’s an amazing resource you’ve probably never heard of, or if you have, you’re likely underutilizing it: Reddit. For the uninitiated, Reddit is a social platform where users submit links, photos or videos or write their own posts. People engage by up voting or down voting posts and by commenting.

Although it sounds a lot like Facebook, it’s not even close. In fact, redditors hate on Facebook. They hate on a lot of things, actually, and no one gets away with posting facts that can’t be backed with proof. It’s an international community of snarky, clever, witty sub-communities that has become my go-to place to get information about everything from SEO information and legal advice to TV suggestions and general news.

Reddit is the 4th most popular website in the U.S. and 8th in the world, with 14 billion monthly pageviews and almost 900,000 subreddits (specialty communities) like World News, Ask Reddit and Personal Finance. There’s a subreddit for any topic you can think of. Over 3 million redditors submit 11 million posts each month, leaving almost 3 million comments daily.

So, what does this have to do with your blog or article ideas? Everything. Unlike Facebook which is largely memes, marketing, pets and babies, Reddit is overflowing with article topics. The level of engagement and the types of comments is an indicator of how popular the topic is. Granted, redditors are 69% male and 58% are 18-29. But there are a lot of subreddits what certainly skew female—TwoXChromosomes and Makeup Addiction comes to mind.

But all that doesn’t matter. Good topics are good topics. If you really want to know if an idea is hot (or perhaps overdone) head over to Buzzsumo and see who’s been sharing what where. Buzzsumo is an online tool that helps you find out what content is popular and being shared the most on social media platforms—including Reddit.

One way I find blog ideas on Reddit is simply to go to my front page, which is comprised of the most popular posts from the subreddits I subscribe to. The first post I see is from Ask Reddit and it’s a good one: “What discontinued or outdated product do you wish was still currently available?”

There are a few ways I could go with this story:

  • What redditors miss most, based on the near 18,000 comments (so far).
  • A story about discontinued products in general, like what’s been discontinued over the years and why.
  • How products are chosen to be discontinued.
  • Why Ford is discontinuing its car line.
  • Why Mountain Dew was discontinued and will they ever bring it back.
  • What cars are being discontinued in 2018?
  • Fast food items discontinued last year

I could keep going. The point is, I would never have thought of doing a story on discontinued anything if not for that Reddit post. And I know if I keep scrolling, I will find at least one more solid lead before I even click to page two.

The only danger of Reddit is getting sucked in and having too much fun. Most writers I know are information junkies. And Reddit is full of nicely organized information with lots and lots of community feedback. Experts regularly weigh in on Reddit offering advice. Influencers, Hollywood stars, musicians, authors, scientists…they’re all on Reddit. President Obama and Bill Gates are among the many elites who have done an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. Reddit has clout and the information and stories you find there will amaze you.

Sign up here. It’s free.