Last week I wrote about how to come up with hundreds of blog post ideas in Part 1 of what I shared at Nuffnang Blogopolis blogging conference.
Today I’ll share with you a variety of different post types and title styles that can help you both create and structure your content.
5 Types of Blog Posts
- List posts – we all love a list. From a shopping list to the list we created as teenagers of our ideal man or woman. Writing posts in list format helps people digest the information more easily. It’s broken down, just like this post, into bite size, easy digestible chunks.
- Problem solvers – it used to be, in the early days of the internet and a search engine called Alta Vista (remember that? Or is it just me that’s showing my age) that we’d use one or two words in the search bar. Now we write sentences. Sentences like: How to Figure Out My Body Shape or What Shoes to Wear with Leggings (OK, these are sentences people have used to find my blog, maybe not yours… but you see what I mean). If you can write posts that solve people’s problems, they will eat it up and come back for more, plus you get the benefit of good natural SEO with the title and content.
- Link Posts – I have written nearly 1000 blog posts. I get lots of readers who come by, and ask me questions that I’ve answered somewhere along the way. So rather than re-write, you can create posts where you link to previous content on a particular subject.
- Opinion Posts – Have an opinion? You can share it on your blog. I tend to find that opinion posts get the most comments, and can be the most polarizing. The reality is, not everyone will agree with you in life, and that’s OK. Make sure you’ve decided on your comment policy. Personally I don’t mind if someone disagrees with my opinion, provided they are polite about it, but if their comments are rude or aggressive, I happily delete them. It’s my blog, after all!
- Case Studies – we all love a story. A case study is a story about someone. It’s that real life example that you can relate to, that explains a point.
6 Ways to Write Headlines that Work
- How to …. – these work really well with the Problem Solver posts, but can also be used with List Posts and Link Posts really easily. Even an opinion post can have a How To title. How to is great for SEO as people use this structure to search on information frequently.
- Lists – Ten commandments of …, 7 Habits… or even 6 Ways to Write Headlines that Work, just like I’ve used for this blog heading.
- Keyword Search based -What are the keywords people search and reach your blog on? Here I can see one Best Top to Wear With Skinny Jeans and Boots that I could easily write a post on.
- Curiosity – Have you ever ….? Don’t you love to find out answers to questions? If you can pose an interesting question more people are likely to click and read.
- Saying with a twist or puns on existing book/movie/song titles – Show Mummy the Money, Genius Ways to Wear Jeans
- Alliteration – using the same letter or sound for at least 2-3 words in the headline. Can be catchy and intriguing, eg. Clear Colour Concepts.
These are just a few tips to help you on the way to feeding your blog monster with great content.
What are your best tips for creating content for your blog?
I really enjoyed your session at Blogopolis! I have been suffering from bloggers block lately, and I am putting some of those ideas into practice very, very soon!
Thanks Lisa! I appreciate your feedback. Hope the bloggers block cracks quickly!