Sooner or later every webmaster, freelance writer, and small-time stringer faces a blank page and asks the age-old question, "What should I write about?" It's best to pick a subject you're familiar with. Some webslingers seem to ignore that rule, but there's nothing to say you can't do some research and actually learn something in the process.
Assuming you've already covered your fascination with 9th-century B.C. Etruscan pottery, the latest political scandals, and your cat "Fluffy," you might try standing the question on its head: "What do people want to read about?" Presumably you are writing to be read by others, and not just for the typing practice. Why not find out what people are looking for?
Yahoo! Buzz, is a great place for that. It's a more-or-less daily (6 times per week) summary of the most popular searches performed at Yahoo! There you will find some topics that are here today but destined to be gone tomorrow, some that are (charitably speaking) totally goofy, and some that would obviously require a fully staffed news organization with deep pockets to cover. But somewhere in that pile there should be a story you can pick up and run with.
Google's similar Zeitgeist presents fewer topics less frequently, but is also a good source of ideas. Checking both sources and comparing them over time is a great way to find out what's hot in the world of internet search. From there it's not hard to pick several of the top articles, take a few notes, and then -- summarizing not plagiarizing -- come up with a story somebody will want to read.
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