What types of blog posts attract the most targeted traffic the fastest?
The advice I usually hear tells us to create video and infographics or write 10,000+ word blog posts.
All three of those can work great. They can also be extremely time consuming and/or expensive…
So thankfully, there are faster, easier types of posts which work amazingly well to attract readers like crazy.
Here’s my tested list of 7 blog post types that allow you to:
- create valuable content
- save tons of time because they’re easy
- build relationships with influencers
- get lots of traffic!
I encourage you to give these blog post types a try and see what happens!
1. Expert Interviews
An interview with an expert can be fun, education, and a great source for traffic.
Brainstorm a list of the experts and colleagues you’d like to interview.
Then write up a request for a quick interview with them – video if possible, but audio or written can also work.
Once you’ve secured the interview and scheduled the date and time, reach out to your social media following, your list, your clients, and ask – what questions would they like you to ask…
Brainstorm/compile your list of questions so you’re ready for the interview.
After the interview, have your video or audio transcribed (I like Rev.com or Fiverr for this). Then share on your blog and around the web.
Power tip #1: Once the interview is published, target their fans with ads on Facebook.
Power tip #2: If you can’t get an interview with the expert you’d like, you can also create a “case study” style post where you research how they achieved result X (use their blog, other interviews they’ve done, etc) and share a profile of them on your blog. Or do something cool like this… click here and look for the “10 Rules” series.
2. 10x Guru Advice
If promoting a post with one expert’s advice is powerful… imagine the results if you 10x that?
Here are two great examples of this type of post:
- How To Stand Out Online: 43 Experts Share Their Top Tips by Blogging Wizard
- 108 Experts Give Advice to New Bloggers by Blogging Thing
How to do it:
- Choose a topic to write your post about and make a list of 25 or more gurus/experts on the topic.
- Decide the angle you want to approach your topic from and what the most asked questions are related to the topic.
- Write up a short, sweet request for answers to the question – be clear that you consider the person you are asking an expert, and that you’d like to feature their answer in a write up, including credit and a link back to their website.
- Now send out the message via the best channels to reach each expert (customize the message first, to fit each person).
- As answers come back in, compile them into one super valuable blog post. Do give people at least 3-4 days to respond.
Once you’ve published the post, send a nice follow up note, thanking them and sharing that the feedback on the post was great (if that’s true – and it should be!) and how much you appreciate their time to reply. Be sure to include a link and invite for them to share the post if they’d like.
Power tip #1: You can also create this type of post by searching for quotes from the gurus/experts you’d like to feature.
Power tip #2: Turn your expert advice list into a YouTube video like Evan Carmichael does on his “Modeling the Masters” YouTube Channel.
3. Resource Round Ups
What are the top five tools or resources your audience should know about because they’ll save your readers time, money, or energy?
Create a resource round up post that begins with why this type of tool is useful, then shares a short review of each of the options, and wraps with a summary including which one you most recommend.
Here are some excellent examples of this type of post:
- 26 Plugins for Social Media Marketers by Social Media Examiner
- Metrics Roundup: All You Want to Know by Grow Map (this one creates additional value by adding a relevant infographic)
Power tip: Do check if these tools/resources offer affiliate programs you can join.
4. Guest Posts
Don’t argue with success.
The #1 most trafficked blog in the world as of July 2016 is… The Huffington Post.
And… what type of content is there? Lots of guests posts and collaborators!
Invite people to post on your blog as a guest, then encourage them to share their featured post with their own audience and fans.
Power tip: This works the other way around, too. Go pitch bloggers with more traffic than you’ve currently got, on ideas you could write about that their audience would love. Get featured on their blogs.
5. Checklists and Cheat Sheets
We’re all looking for clear, simple guides to achieve the results we want.
Be the answer for your readers.
Create checklists and cheat sheets.
Share the step-by-step.
When you do this, not only will readers appreciate that you’ve boiled it down for them into something EASY to follow, they’ll be happy to share you with their friends and colleagues.
Examples of checklists and cheat sheets:
- The Ultimate Copy Checklist: 51 Questions to Optimize Every Element of Your Online Copy [Free Poster] by Copyblogger
- A Guide to Perfect Social Media Posts (Infographic) by Entrepreneur.com
And if you knew what NKOTB meant… we’re probably about the same age. ;) Don’t tell, okay?
6. Popular Product/Service Reviews
What products or services does your audience need? Who are the current, trendy or new providers?
Choose a product or service to do a review of and begin thinking like your readers… what questions would they like answers to?
- Do you have personal experience with it? (If no, stop and choose something else to review)
- How/why do you use it?
- How does the product or service work?
- What’s the cost (monthly or one time)?
- Are there other items you need to make it work?
- What should they know/do first?
- How is it different from the competition?
- What’s fantastic about it?
- What’s not-so-fantastic about it?
- Who does it work best for?
- Who will it not work for?
- What are your 3-5 best tips for making it work better?
- What are your 3-5 best tips for what NOT to do with it?
- How can they get access to it?
Wrap those answers up into a post where you share video and/or images, and you’ve got a super helpful post that can attract search engine traffic and help your readers.
7. Capitalizing on Controversy
This is one you write yourself… but let’s be honest… if the topic is controversial and gets you excited, it’s easy to write, right?
Stop and think of the last 5 conversations you had (in real life or on social media) that you had a passionate response to…
Cartoon Credit: http://xkcd.com/386/
Now, do be careful to choose a topic that makes sense.
For example… I’ve got plenty of thoughts on the current US presidential race, gun control, and why we should invest more heavily into space exploration…
All of which I could write a 10,000+ word blog post about. But none of which would make all that much sense to share with you here.
Topics that could make sense for my blog:
- Why social media automation is (or isn’t) evil…
- What I really think about network marketing…
- What guru marketers are teaching you that’s causing you to FAIL at blogging…
Get the idea?
Find something within your niche that’s controversial and write about it.
Support your case for what you believe.
Invite a debate in the comments, if you dare. ;)
Which of these post types have you tried? How did they work for you? What will you try next? Leave a comment below and let’s chat!
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Greetings Michelle, it’s João from Nomad Revelations here. I love the way you easily expose effective ways of getting high traffic out of our blogs. Indeed you point out the la crème de la crème concerning this topic. Interesting that I personally used some of the techniques you refer on your article, and have to say you are totally right – they do work! Greetings from Sahara Desert, south Morocco.
Hey João, thanks for reading and commenting. Love to hear that these tactics have worked for you, too!
I’ve used some of these with great success, especially the 10X Guru Advice one, so I heartily agree. And you’ve inspired me to try some new ideas here, too. Now I’ve got to go find something controversial that I can write passionately about : ) Thanks Michelle!
Awesome, glad to hear that Dawn! And have fun writing that controversial post… :)
Hi Michelle,
I found the content of this Blog post terrific. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and I did learn a lot.
I’m using several of the techniques you’ve mentioned and they definitely work, driving focused Blog visitors and engagement.
However, there is one piece of information that does not resonate with me fully.
Quote:
2. 10X GURU ADVICE
108 Experts Give Advice to New Bloggers
UnQuote
My personal experience as been, when such a large number of ‘Experts’ gather together to deliver ‘Advice’.
Advice that consists of about 8 to 10 lines max, from each individual. There is a lot of froth, repetitions, and some downright dodgy advice thrown together.
Whether this comes out of Huffington Post or elsewhere, the content delivered by 108 people usually make a newbie’s head spin, as it does mine.
I recommend a newbie checks out one (maybe 2) authority Bloggers and follow their posts, engage with them via comments, ask questions and learn from them.
I know, this is my personal experience, of large groups of ‘Gurus’ posting on a topic, but I suspect hat this kind of feeling is not restricted only to me, but if fairly universal.
I just thought I’d share my experience here and perhaps get an insight into what others feel as well.
Thanks for sharing this brilliant, educative post Michelle. I did enjoy it thoroughly.
Warmly,
Ivan Bayross
Hey Ivan, that one comes down to editing… obviously 108 “experts” saying the same thing is likely not a very valuable post.
But I actually love seeing 10-25 different experts take on a subject I’m studying and learning about. Gives me a chance to see which 3 or 4 of those experts I resonate with and want to follow and learn more from. :)
Always enjoy the valuable tips and strategies you share Michelle. Giving anyone some ideas on how they can be creative with content to attract their audience. I have used many of these strategies, but you once again got me thinking and being inspired with more ideas! Thanks for sharing.
Yay! Love to hear that Lynn. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Nice, concise ideas there, Michelle. I just sent this to my Kindle using my latest favourite Chrome extension; Readability. I’ll probably be reading it over and over – what seem like simple ideas sometimes need time to sink in and become second nature habits.
Looking forward to more,
Dave
Cool – I’ll have to check out that Chrome extension. I’ve got a Kindle but haven’t been reading blogs on it. Thanks for sharing it.
And I agree on the habits. Takes time and focus.
Hi,
These days expert opinion blog posts are a hit many bloggers a writing such posts. Most of them take opinions of many many bloggers and post it.
I wonder if anyone reads such posts.
Thank you for the tips. :)
Love the information here, but I do have a question. When it comes to Guest Posting, what is the best way to approach this? I have considered opening this up on my blog but I don’t want to risk copyright infringement. I had someone send me an article that was mostly copy and pasted information so I am super cautious about this now.