App Review: Answer the Public

If you've ever said, "I can't think of anything to blog about," then this post is for you.

Answer the Public

This website is a different kind of animal. To see how it works, go to Answer the Public.

On the free plan, you get a a limited number of searches per day, and the paid plan is pricy at $99.00/month. It's worth using a couple of times a day on the free plan.

You may be a little disconcerted by the man staring back at you. He really looks as if he's staring at you, waiting for you to speak. It is a bit unnerving.

You can speak, but he won't hear you. Instead, type at least 2 words into the search box and click Search. The app starts working. In a minute or less, you'll have your results. You can view the results in 2 ways: visualization or data.

Visualization is the default. I entered blog post in the search box, and this screenshot shows the 55 results for that phrase.



Unfortunately, you probably can't read the print on the image that looks like threads emanating from the center. Each "thread" is a suggestion from the words blog post. From the center, the threads are labeled how, which, where, why, will, who, when, wat, can, and are.

The threads start with one of those words and branch into questions. Some threads have only a couple of questions. Some have several. These are all thought-provokers you can use to find a subject about which to write.

Some of these topic suggestions are:

• Can blog posts be republished?
• Are blog post titles italicized?
• What are blog post tags?
• How long should a blog post be?

In all there are 55 suggestions. You can do this with any phrase.

Click on Data, and you can cycle through the myriad suggestions in a list format. Or, within that list, click on Style and see a graphical representation of the data.

But Wait There's More

Keep scrolling down the page, and you'll see the same phrase for which you searched with other "lead-in" words: Prepositions, Comparison, Alphabeticals, and Related.

If it's your first time visiting Answer the Public you'll be offered a tutorial to get the most from the website.

Takeaway Truth

Try it the next time you're stumped for a blog post topic. It's a great brainstorming tool.