By Deborah A White
Ever sit at your computer and stare at that blank screen and wonder what you’re going to write about? I have to confess I just did that very thing. As any marketer knows, content is truly king. So, where do you find content when you need content for your blog? Well for me today it was the blank computer screen I was staring at and wondering what I was going to write about. I started thinking about all the things that you learn in a day, tweets or posts you’ve read, or a webinar you might have attended. Did you read a self improvement book or have an interesting discussion with a friend about your work? Any and all of these things are absolutely loaded with wonderful things you can use as topics and content for your blog.
Sometimes I’ve just been sitting outside drinking a nice glass of wine, staring at the stars, having random thoughts about nothing specific and hit on some great topics that I thought might interest my readers. Another good way of finding content is to ask! Ask your customers, ask your readers what do you want to read about? Post a poll on your blog, tweet and post questions on Twitter and Facebook asking your readers for their input on what they need answers to. After all, that’s what you’re blog is about. It’s there to provide value to those readers. You can write any number of things but if no one is reading because your not writing about what they need, your visitors will go bye bye and not come back.
Have you wondered how many types of blog posts there actually are? Well here’s a list and I’m sure this can get those creative juices flowing. Some basic types are:
- List Post: create a list of things that your market can use. It may be books, software, resources could be anything!
- How-To Post: describe how to do something related to your niche. For instance in the internet marketing world how to do SEO or write killer ads, or market like a pro are always great subjects.
- Case-Study Post: outline and examine the details of a project, webinar or process.
- Problem/Solution Post: Define a problem in your area of expertise and provide a solution.
- SAQ Post: This is the “should ask” question type of blog post where these are questions your customer should ask but don’t.
- Research Post: Do some research in a topic familiar to the niche you work in
- Best of Post: Create a new blog post highlighting the best blog posts you’ve done over a period of time.
- Product Tips Post: This is a very powerful and useful type of post. It can be promotional as well with you creating content that helps your customers be more successful.
- Reaction Post: It’s just like it sounds. Write a post reacting to content by someone else.
- Review Post: Yes, this is a popular tool and I personally think quite abused but it’s effectiveness cannot be underrated. Write a review about a product that you are familiar with that may be of use to your readers.
So, these are just a few examples of the many types of posts you can write and there are many more. So many in fact that I am already considering a follow-up post to list additional sources. So happy writing!
