Guide to Content Hunting and Gathering – How to Always Find and Share the Most Interesting Stuff on the Internet

Find great content

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Every week I send out a roundup email of the 5 most interesting pieces of content I've found online. As silly as this sounds, finding great content like this is a valuable skill and fortunately, it's one that can be easily learned.

Why is it important?

For me, it's important because I need fuel for my readers. I simply can't write or film enough interesting pieces every week to fill the queue. Sharing great content is equally as valuable and in many cases, when I share content from people who know more than me, it's even better.

I made this for you

Even if you're not a content marketer like me who needs great content to enhance your own content and literally relies on keeping followers engaged, there is real value in being an expert content hunter.

Aside from the great feeling of always being "in the know," it's just wildly fulfilling to regularly find things that interest you. I recommend you join my weekly round up mailing list, but if you have very niche topics of interest outside of business, health and self-development, you'll want to learn my tactics for content hunting and gathering.

Here are the 5 steps to effective content hunting and gathering.

#1 A.B.S (Always Be Searching)

Part of finding great content is just having the presence to notice it when you see it. It's all around you if you're mindful enough to see it.

Also, being a regular consumer and spending time actively searching for great content on sites like Pinterest or Medium will easily result in consistent great finds.

Let yourself wonder. Most of the most interesting, share-worthy content is deeper than the top of Yahoo.com or traditional news sites. Go deeper.

#2 Have the Tools for Gathering

How many times have you found a great piece of content but didn't have time to read it or forgot to share it? I'm guessing quite a few.

You need to have a method to store the interesting things you find. There are an endless number of ways you can do this and the best method is the one that you actually use consistently.

Here is what I do.

Store all articles in pocket

I do pay for a premium account that costs $44/year. You can use the free plan if you're just saving casually but I like the options of being able to save content for life without limitations.

Pocket Reading Storage

Store everything else in a tool like Evernote 

This includes quotes, screenshots and other miscellaneous content. If you don't like Evernote, Notion.so is just as powerful and many productivity junkies prefer it. Again, use whatever works.

Be sure to have your storage tools handy across all devices. This means installing the mobile apps and Google chrome extensions for the tools you use. Make it easy to click and save without many steps.

#3 Know the Tools for Hunting

There are a lot of content research tools available.

I use AHREFs content explorer to see what is trending for certain core search terms I follow.

Other great programs include...

You don't need more than one tool, especially if you spend the big bucks on AHREFs or Buzzsumo.

I updated this article recently because I needed to include ExplodingTopics

It's a big dashboard that shares the hottest trends. It's like Google Trends but curated to just show the most interesting things. 

Read my article here about it.

#4 The Hyena Approach

Hyena

Hyenas are smart. They eat well but rarely need to actually kill their own prey. They follow other, larger predators and eat with them. They thrive as a result.

Side note, I chose hyenas over vultures for this example for imagery reasons 😂

You'll want to follow the big hunters on...

Social media (especially Twitter) and turn on notifications for their posts

RSS feeds for their blogs (I use Feedly for this)

Their newsletters. Be sure to whitelist their emails and even consider creating a filter that stores all of the hunters you follow in their own folder. There are also tools like Unroll.me that will help you filter and keep old emails from the newsletters you follow.

#5 Set Traps

Tools like Google Alerts help us receive notifications when certain terms are mentioned. This can be especially helpful if your following a topic like a certain cryptocurrency that changes extremely quickly.

Google Alerts

In the example above, I can get notified about content that includes information about something Elon Musk tweeted. I'll be the first to know if he makes the news with something crazy he said or did.

These sorts of alert automations will make sure you cast a wide net and never miss an update on a topic of interest.

Final word

Content hunting and gathering is a skill you can learn if you want to. Be mindful, have the tools and be consistent and you'll become one of the most informed and interesting people on the internet.

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