In 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, Darren talks about writing a list post, and eases you into understanding the various types of blog posts you can put on your blog or website. I liked Day 2’s teachings a lot because it can stretch you from just the typical ramble-on-for-five-paragraphs-and-call-it-a-post blog post type. There are several other types of posts that can be important for readers.
Yaro Starak has a great philosophy about the Pillars of Blogging and he talks about the main types of blog posts that every blog should have. I wrote about them for another group I was working with and want to post that here for you. It will help you see the several different types of posts that each blog should have at least some of.
A Pillar blog post is an informative, core content piece – think this post. Or like the Ten Habits post which got expanded into a full series, and later a blog conference session. These meaty posts become the core pillars upon which your blog success is built.
The List Post is a Pillar Post
So what are these types of blog posts that become pillars for traffic, readership and audience engagement? Well Day 2 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog covers one type very well – the List Post. If you haven’t yet read my overview of how to write a list post on your blog, or checked out the ebook, you’ll want to do that.
How-To Posts for Solid Blog Content
The second type of pillar post, and probably one of the most common for many websites, is the how-to post. Untrained Housewife is built almost entirely of how-to posts just because of the goal and mission of the site. These are posts that solve a problem. That provide step-by-step information or tutorials.
Some of my most popular how-to articles include:
- Relieve Morning Sickness – Cope With Nausea
- How to Grow Your Own Dried Beans
- How to Fix Bad Credit for a Higher Credit Score
- How to Treat a Child’s Fever Naturally
- How to Grow Rosemary: Plant Profile
- How to Increase Your Blog Traffic
- How to Set Up AutoResponders for Your Blog on MailChimp
All of these popular how-to articles are good examples of the core quality of content that Yaro calls how-to pillar pieces.
How to Use a Definition Article or Blog Post
The next type of blog post Yaro describes as pillar content for your blog are the definition articles. No, not a glossary or dictionary type entry. A post where you, the one who knows the lingo, takes the time to explain a more complicated topic in a way that is easy for others to understand. By putting your personal twist on the information, you create a compelling piece.
Let me show you some examples of these kinds of posts and how you can structure them.
In this post about understanding ectopic pregnancy I not only show a reader what a tubal pregnancy is, but identify risk factors and emphasize the importance of seeking medical attention.
This article compares and contrasts types of online payment – not only defining terms like “affiliate” and “revenue” but also comparing these types of money making techniques to eachother.
This gardening article that a colleague contributed to Untrained Housewife is another type of definition article – the differences between two similar things. In this case, highlighting the difference between oriental and Asiatic lilies.
Look for terms, lingo or things in your topic areas that create confusion, questions or uncertainty and help define these things for your readers in a way they can understand.
The Theory or Argument Posts
These posts are the types I tend to use less often, focusing more on how-tos, but I find that these posts can bring in more comments, traffic or buzz than other types. In fact, it was one of these types of posts that generated a very negative comment on my blog – which generated a huge amount of buzz, readers, subscribers and ultimately lots of fodder for posts. Ultimately setting the tone for this blog long-term.
Sometimes, as my example above, a post isn’t intended to be an argument until the comments start coming in. Other times, as in my next example, an argument post is purposefully “argumentative” in that it is written in response to a specific event, post, or happening.
This post was an argument or counterpoint I wrote specifically in response to a New York Times article that was dismissive of “mommy bloggers” and made some assumptions I found insulting.
Create a Resource For Your Readers
That would of course be what I’m doing here. This blog series is being provided free of charge for you all here on my blog as a true e-course. Very in-depth and meaty information that will hopefully bless you in your blogging efforts. Ten Habits was the same way, and it’s no surprise that my first Ten Habits index post is one of the most linked-to posts on the entire website.
In a future post in this series I’m going to talk about brainstorming entire article SERIES – ebooks worth of content. That is the type of resource you can create for your readers that will bring them back to your site, and get them talking about your site to others.
What printable, learning course, or other resource would be relevant to your readers?
Your challenge? Evaluate the current content on your blog and see where you are weak. Maybe you’ve never created an argument or response post. Maybe you’ve never thought about what resource you can provide in your topic area. Guess what? That time has come.
Which pillar is missing from the foundation of your blog? What steps can you take to remedy that?
Bah! My entire site is void of any of these (except maybe the list… I have lists somewhere). I guess it’s time to up my game huh?
Really great tips Angela. A quick mental search of my blogs shows I’m lacking in several of these and need to change that for 2011!
I made a real effort in 2010 to fill my blog with resource posts like you’ve done here. It’s harder than writing timely, quick posts, but I am happy to have them to refer back to and I find that I can use the content in different ways when writing for other sites.
My goal for 2011 is to do more definition posts. Now that I’m 3+ years in, I find that I’m assuming my audience has been there all along and automatically knows the definitions or backstory, but they don’t. I need to remedy that.
Looking forward to the rest of this series!