Types of Blog Posts

1. The Resource Article

I’m listing this as #1 because it’s my favorite type of blog post due to the massive amount of traffic it can send; besides being a proven traffic driver, the resource article has also been one of my most profitable types of blog posts.

Resources are effective because they go beyond giving people just tips; instead, they share actual resources that people can take action on.

A good example of a resource article that I’m sure will be a big hit in no time is my recent article here on Blogging Tips, featuring a list of blogs that pay for guest posts; this is a “double resource” because I’m solving two problems; I’m giving people a list of blogs they can guest post on, while also giving them a list of blogs that will pay them for their articles.

A series of resource articles I did on my writing blog have averaged over 100,000 views, and replicating this on my marketing blog resulted in 20,000% more page views than the average article.

2. The Interview

Interviews are very easy to conduct, and the right interview with a renowned industry figure can send your traffic shooting through the roof.

The key to successful interviews lies in interviewing the right people; will their knowledge be beneficial to your audience? Will their insights change the lives of your readers? If you can answer yes to these two questions, then go ahead and interview them.

3. The Expert Roundup

Expert roundups are blog posts gathering thoughts and opinion from experts, or featuring advice/strategy from them, and including it in one article.

You can either ask a group of experts a question and collate their advice into a blog post, or you can scour the web for advice from certain experts on a particular topic and feature it on your blog.

This type of post is good for traffic because most of the experts you feature will be inclined to share it, and this can lead to more traffic from their audience to your blog.

4. Answers to Reader’s Question

This is a blog post format I’m starting to do more of lately, and I’m noticing that the more I do it the more it fosters a sense of community among my readers.

The idea behind this is simple; if a reader asks me a question – maybe via email, comments, surveys or social media – and I see it to be a very common question, I’ll write a blog post based on this and let people know that a reader inspired it.

This type of blog post is very well received because it’s based on a question/concern your readers have. It also fosters a sense of community because readers can see that you are paying attention to them, and they’ll be able to feel that you care for them.

5. A Post Inspired by Your Readers’ Actions

This type of blog post is also based on reader feedback, but the idea behind it is to establish you as an authority by showing people that readers are taking action by following your advice, and that they are getting results.

This type of blog post showcases readers implementing your advice and getting results, and it encourages other people to take action.

Besides being a good source of traffic, I noticed that the social proof factor, when readers see “ordinary” people like them getting results from following your suggestions, can lead to more sales for you.

6. Case Studies

Case studies do more for your credibility than traffic, and this matters a lot on the long run because it ensures you’re not just getting “quantity” traffic but that you are also getting quality traffic.

Case studies are usually designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of an approach you teach, or of a service/product you offer; the idea behind them is to chronicle a challenge, your approach towards solving it and the end result.

7. Success Stories

Success stories are also usually highly received because they make people see what is possible, and they motivate them to take action to get similar results.

From my experience blogging, success stories are usually top performing posts – especially in the short term.

A good example of a successful success story I published on my blog recently was one, by Agota Bialobzeskyte, sharing Oliver Emberton’s success on Quora, and how he leveraged this to build a popular blog. The article was very well received, and it got hundreds of shares and thousands of views.

8. Top List Posts

Top list posts can be very powerful for driving traffic, and you’ll hardly see a list of blog post types that doesn’t include them.

Top lists posts are articles sharing lists of something e.g. “top 10…”, “10 ways to…”, etc.

With sites dedicated to top lists like Listverse getting 15 million readers monthly, the power of top lists posts shouldn’t be underestimated.

9. Ultimate Guides

Ultimate guides are usually comprehensive, definitive guides on a subject; the idea behind this type of blog post is to cover everything readers wants to know about a particular subject inside one article, so that they don’t have to go elsewhere for information related to that subject.

Ultimate guides can also include visuals and multimedia; this includes screenshots, videos, pictures and infograhics.

Due to the comprehensive and definitive nature of ultimate guides, they get a lot of links and shares; this leads to significant direct, social and search traffic.

10. “How To” Articles

How to articles can do wonders for your traffic, and a key source of traffic for how to posts is search engines.

Think about it, most of the time, when you’re confused about how to do something the next step is to go to Google and type “how to…”

It’s the same for your readers, and you can be sure that they will respond well to articles teaching them how to do something they want to learn how to do.