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When creating your blog, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “just create useful information”.
The concept of “useful content” is a very personal thing – for your readers; not for you.
Allow me to explain:
Every person who lands on your blog does so with a unique set of expectations. One person may come there to find the solution to a problem, the next one may arrive searching for a guide, and the next one comes there trying to validate information that he or she obtained elsewhere.
In addition to that, if you can satisfy those expectations, he or she will continue to browse, and possibly find more useful content (from his/her perspective).
Not all niches lend themselves to all types of posts, and not everyone is comfortable doing all of them – but as long as you keep all of your options open, you will never be short of ideas or options for creating your next blog post.
Here are the most common types of blog posts:
1. Tips.
The internet wasn’t called the “information highway” for nothing. Most people are trying to accomplish something (from getting rid of acne to becoming millionaires), and any useful, sensible tips you can offer will be useful to some of them.
2. List posts.
The moment you create a list of useful facts or tips, more people seem to take note. It can be a short list (3 tips to grow your Twitter following), or a long list (100 ways to deal with insomnia). If you have a look on – for instance – Pinterest, you will find that a lot of the top pins in many niches are either pins with a list of items, or pins linking to blog posts with some sort of list.
3. Link round-ups.
Instead of offering the information yourself, you can offer a resource – and show people where they can get the info they want. For instance: “The top 20 blog posts about Facebook for this year.” Or something like: “12 free, effective tools to use for keyword research without relying on the Keyword Planner from Adwords.”
Note: Just make sure you have every link set to open in a new tab/window. That way your blog will remain open in the visitor’s browser, increasing your probabilities of getting the optin.
4. Guides.
How-to posts are always popular. Even the simplest of tasks are alien to some people out there, and they need to be taken through it. You’ll be surprised how many people get stuck on things that seem trivial and basic to you.
5. Infographics.
If you can create your own infographics, great. If not, there are plenty of places on the internet where you can browse infographics which you can embed on your blog. Simply write an intro end conclusion for it, and you have a unique piece of content. Infographics are also very popular, and are easily shared on social media.
6. Reviews.
When a customer goes through the buying cycle, he or she will first browse 9for possible solutions to their problem), then do research to validate the solutions they have found, and then buy. When someone is searching for reviews, they are already seriously considering buying the product – they just want to be sure.
As such, reviews, and even more so, comparison reviews, are considered to be useful content. Just make sure your reviews are “real” (not biased towards the product you want to sell).
7. News.
Depending on the niche of your blog, your audience may find news to be useful – for instance, people who want to lose weight will find it useful if you can offer information from new research that comes to light. If you blog about making money online, people may want to know about upcoming product launches, new online services, etc.
8. Opinions.
You are entitled to have an opinion, and voice it. In some cases, controversy can attract a lot of readers (or you standing up and differing from a guru in public). Just be careful not to alienate your own audience.
9. Interviews.
You can conduct an interview with anyone in your industry that has information that your audience may find useful, and write about it. Publishing an interview with a recognized authority in your niche also elevates the reader’s perception of YOU.
10. Blogger spotlights.
If you write about a guru in your niche, chances are that people will want to read it. In some cases, you will even find that the blogger or guru mentions the blog post – especially if you portrayed him or her in a favorable light.
In conclusion:
Don’t be stuck in a rut – there are LOTS of ways to present information, and lots of ways to make your content useful to different people. The more different types of blog posts you create, the less likely it is that you will ever wonder what to write about next – because there will always be new possibilities to explore.
