Types of Content for a Blog: Be a Blogging Wizard!
Written By: ShaneWebGuy on October 7, 2020
Contrary to what many people believe, the excellent blog is not dead. It never died, despite the popularity of social media platforms. Blogs will continue to be relevant in the coming years because they provide useful knowledge to users.
Unlike Facebook posts, you can structure blog posts to become in-depth and well-researched sources of information for different industries. WordPress users publish, on the average, 70 million new blog posts monthly. Users also post seventy-seven million comments in response to these blog posts.
What better way to boost your site’s traffic than by having a functional and well-updated blog?
Here are all the dominant types of blog content that will send your customers flocking to your blog.
How-to Guides and Tutorials
Guides are considered the foundation of blogs. These are ‘simplest’ in terms of structure, but don’t let the appearance fool you. Site owners find guides easy to write. Guides are more comfortable writing because these blogs involve information that you already know very well.
Break down guides into doable steps. When there are steps, people will find it easier to follow the guide. Users will love your guides more if they are easy to read and apply. Users will also become more inclined to share the content with their networks.
“Easy to follow” doesn’t mean simplistic. When you simplify content to benefit the most people, the resources become more genuine and valuable to all.
Industry News
By being mindful of industry changes, you will show users that you are progressive and updated. They will trust your branding more because you are not just focused on your products. Focus on the big picture, which is just as crucial as molecular details.
Hard-Hitting Issues and Opinion
While hard-hitting issues should not be the centerpiece of your blog, it does pay to speak your mind about things that affect your market and everyone else. We saw this trend when COVID-19 struck. Twitter has been blogging about what they believe are the best company policies for their employees. If you have something substantial to share with customers, don’t shy away from writing a thought piece.
Checklists
This type of blog is called a “cheat sheet” because users can consume the information quickly. Tips can be applied fast without having to read too much information. Our recommendation is to be very specific with what the cheat sheet attempts to solve. For example, you can write something like “10 Powerful Hacks for Finding Cheap Deals Online.” There has to be a definite outcome. The desirable outcome is going to draw them into the article. How do checklists differ from how-to guides? With checklists, we leave a bit of space for interpretation and discussion. With how-to guides, the information is given directly, with the idea that they should follow the information as best they can, in the sequence presented to the readers.
Infographics
Infographics can convey statistics faster than any other format. This type of content is usually done to dispel myths and put information at the forefront of truths and facts. You can reproduce any data as an infographic. That’s the true beauty of this content.
Remember to make your infographics look more professional for more impact. Nevertheless, if you don’t have anyone on board yet who will provide this type of graphic work, don’t lose heart. You can make infographics just as easily by using services like Canva or even good old Microsoft Powerpoint. Make the infographic engaging and relevant to your audience.
Case Studies
Case studies are published mainly to provide social proof. Social proof validates the claims of business. Social proof also builds tremendous trust in both old and new customers. If your business involves providing a specialized service to clients, case studies can easily make your business more relevant in your niche.
Gather information by interviewing past clients who have succeeded with the use of your service. Remember that case studies are formal, but these would have to be structured in an easy to read document that anyone can read and understand quickly. Case studies are read by decision-makers and company staff who report to decision-makers.
Interviews and Advice
Interviews and expert advice catch viral fire quickly because everyone wants to know what experts think. Discussions are a refreshing type of content that will easily ignite interest in your blog. There are so many ways to structure interviews and expert advice.
For interviews, you can transcribe the content of a video or audio interview. You can also create a separate article that discusses the content of a conversation. The meeting can be an add-on or rich media for the blog post. You may post either a video of the interview or an audio podcast.
For advice articles, you can create a listicle of common problems related to a broader subject and write down what experts believe are the right solutions. You can flex your knowledge of the topic by combining what the experts say with what you know of the issues, too.
Product/Service Reviews
What you are going to review will depend primarily on what type of site you have in the first place. Compare products from your website with other products found in other locations. You can also just review the products that you have and highlight their pros and cons. People prefer genuine reviews, so if you can make your reviews as fair as possible, that will boost people’s trust in the information that you present.
Vlogs and Podcasts
Vlogging has been all the rage for the past couple of years, and so is podcasting. These two media continue to be normal channels for different kinds of businesses. YouTube is a comfortable place to publish new videos and audio podcasts. You can also use services like Spreaker if you feel better publishing audio podcasts.
Summary:
Blogging centralizes information and draws organic traffic toward your site. Depending on how you design your blog, it can become the seat of much traffic that you can convert to sales. Call me if you are interested in refining your blog and improving your site’s organic traffic and relevance with blogging.
