Soliciting Ideas for Monthly Topics - 2012

Question

From today's Own Your Community SE blog post:

Adopt a “Topic Challenge” to encourage a continual flow of new content about interesting topics.

Coming up with interesting questions which haven't already been asked is something I've had a hard time with - particularly because Webmasters questions start to overlap with ServerFault, DBA, and StackOverflow topics as they narrow in scope to particular software or practices - so perhaps this suggestion from the SE blog could help others, like myself, who are on the fence about posing new questions to the Webmasters community.

This activity could also segue nicely into finding and closing historical duplicates for commonly-asked questions of which there are many (particularly where novice users do not know the correct terminology for what they're asking about).

Will update this question with ideas - a few topic ideas to get started:

• DNS - migrating domains between registrars, moving services between servers, using services hosted by third-party providers

• Auditing - "How To" audit questions for SEO, security, and performance

• Troubleshooting - "How To" for troubleshooting problems related to DNS, search engine indexing

• Shopping - "How To" questions which describe the process of searching, comparing, and testing web hosting and domain registrars

• News - Whenever a topic which concerns webmasters comes up in the news (like SOPA, as suggested by Toby) it is fair game for questions

• Tools - Questions could be used to highlight popular tools or services and commonly-requested functionality (analytics, keyword research, user feedback solicitation, etc) - i.e. "How do I use Google Analytics to track X?"

• Advertising - Questions concerning content monetization, how to implement and test banners and AdSense, how to optimize CPC/CPM campaigns

• Current Affairs (as suggested by Toby) - At least one week per month could be devoted to trending topics like recent legislation, Google Webmaster Central news and press releases, etc

• Resolved Issues (as suggested by Christopher) - Problems that you have struggled with and found a good solution.

• Webmaster Tools (as suggested by toomanyairmiles) - Questions regarding signing up for webmaster tools, usage and best choices.

• Community Administration - "how to effectively ban trolls", etc.

More SEO Topics:

• Schema.org

• Link building/directories - how to get good links, DMOZ, etc.

• Page Titles - what makes a good title

• Defining SEO Terms - like "what is hotlinking?"

Answer 1

I don't know what the blanket term would be, but maybe something like current affairs so at the moment maybe something in and around how SOPA would affect webmasters.

Maybe this would come under a more specific topic Legal - Questions relating to legal issues for websites (copyright, fair use, trademarks and terms of service)

Answer 2

There are a couple i'd like to answer concerning signing up for webmaster tools, how to ensure google can get in touch with you if it detects malware on your site and basic wordpress security. This response sums up some of it.

Answer 3

A new topic could be past resolved issues. Little tips and tricks that you've already figured out, but took you a while or maybe a miracle to do. Just because YOU have the knowledge, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be asked. The whole point of SE is to provide good quality questions and answers not just for the asker, but for others who might stumble upon SE in SERPs or in trying to ask a questiong itself. And while asking, you might find out a better or different way to do it.