Types of Posts To Incorporate On Your Blog

It doesn’t matter how many blogging ideas you’ve got stacked up. Sometimes you just get in a rut. You feel like you’re writing the same thing over and over again. You feel like you’re not providing any value and you’re so bored with what you’re writing that YOU don’t even want to read it, let alone anyone else. So what do you do? How do you get back in your blogging groove?

You put some spice back into it by getting out of your comfort zone and incorporating different kinds of blog posts. You give readers something fresh and that they maybe weren’t expecting.

Here are some different blog post varieties that you can count on to put some flavor back into your blogging.

1. Lists: List posts have become something of a blogging cliché because everyone does them. But they do them because they work and readers respond to them. These posts are attractive to bloggers because they’re quick to write, have an easy structure and they allow for a bit of fun. Readers love them because they provide information in bite-sized, scannable chunks. If you’re looking to quick start some fun in your blog, write about the 10 things you can’t live without, the top 5 mentors who have inspired you or the 20 things you’d like to see happen in your industry this year. The possibilities for what you can write about in lists post are endless. And that’s why they’re great.
2. Rants:  Rant posts allow you to let your hair down a little and talk openly and honestly about whatever is on your mind. If you’re worried about causing a stir, your rant doesn’t have to be overly controversial. Maybe, as a florist, you just want to rant about Valentine’s Day. Or perhaps you want to ‘rant’ about how much you love a certain type of flower. Rants give you the opportunity to get a little fired up and a whole lot passionate about whatever it is that’s on your mind. And when you get fired up, you give your audience license to do the same. They’re sure to jump start conversation.
3. How-To Guides: Creating a How-To guide for your industry helps build authority, attracts links and extends your reach in the community. These posts are often instructional in nature and explain, in detail, how to do whatever it is you’re an expert at. How-To guides are different from regular posts in that they can usually stand the test of time, meaning that they become evergreen content pieces that your audience can bookmark and continually look back on. It gives you a chance to offer free information to your community, while also branding yourself as the go-to person for that topic.
4. Conduct Interviews/ VIP Profiles: A fun way to add some life back to your blog is to introduce new voices to it by conducting interviews or profiles on people who provide value to your audience. When looking for people to interview or profile, don’t be afraid to step out of your immediate bubble. A person doesn’t have to do what you do in order to be relevant to your conversation. The more differing voices you can add, the better.
5. Collaboration Posts: An offshoot of doing interviews with noted people in your industry is to ask a bunch of people a series of questions and post their responses as a collaboration post. The work involved in putting it together is fairly minimal (you just come up with the original questions) and in return you get a bunch of new voices for your blog and some added exposure through their communities. And if you’re worried that people won’t want to participate – don’t. The Internet loves talking about itself. Promise. 😉
6. Reviews: Even if they’re not related to your business, you use products every day to help make you more efficient. Well, your audience does too and sometimes they may need advice on which are the best ones to buy. Why not break up the monotony by writing reviews about your favorite ones? Doing so will increase your usefulness to your audience, and may also bring you new customers who are searching for [keywords + review]. Review-based searches are notorious for bringing in high search volumes.
7. Personal Posts: If you’re in a rut and having a hard time feeling inspired, consider blogging about it. Or if not about that, blog about something else that’s personal to you. Opening up your blog and getting personal every now and then is a good way to recommit yourself to your audience and to let them feel closer to you. It helps spice things up after you’ve been nothing but business for the last month. After all, you’re supposed to be creating relationships, right?
8. Video Posts: Some people find it a lot easier to talk to their audience than to write something out. And thanks to the rise of low cost video equipment, we’re seeing more and more bloggers adopt a multi-media approach to blogging. Just because you typically write your posts  doesn’t mean you can’t fire up the Flip camera and post a quick video hello to your gang. Actually, it means that you probably should. Changing mediums is a fun way to spice things up and lets your audience connect with you in a new way. Maybe a video tour of your audience is in the works for today. Or a quick chat with a new employee. The office dog, perhaps?
9. Link Posts: I’m a sucker for a good link post. In fact, over at my other blog, Outspoken Media, we do link posts every Saturday morning to share content that our readers may have missed otherwise. A link post isn’t much more than a collection of links from around the Web. It could be stuff related to your industry, things they should be aware of, or even just a silly list of things to laugh about at the end of the week (that’s what we do on Saturday’s). I’m a big fan of Link posts because they can help expose your audience to content they may not have seen otherwise.

The posts types listed above are the ones that I know I can always turn to when my blogging is feeling a little tired. Which ones work for you? Which can you not believe I missed and can’t wait to correct me on?