I like to read articles by people who feel they have something that's important to say. If you don't know what you should to write about, then anything you write is probably going to be pretty uninspiring. Good writing comes from a place of passion and urgency, a real drive to inform people about something that the author thinks is worth reading.

This might be an answer you don't like very much, but seriously, all the best articles that I've read and shared in the past have been been things that the author would probably have felt compelled to write even if no one bothered read their work. I can't imagine that soliciting for ideas really works.

I think this is the main reason why I've always failed to be the blogger I aspire to be. There are few subjects that I care enough about to write consistently on. It's weird, because I post on the web a lot and I feel like I'm pretty passionate about web stuff. It just doesn't manifest in the form of blog posts though.