Generate More Blog Traffic With These 9 Types of Posts

Show me the traffic!

Whether you’re new to blogging or you’ve been at it for a while, if you aren’t welcoming a steady stream of visitors on a day-to-day basis, you’re probably found yourself screaming that phrase a couple of times. (If you’re doing so out loud, I don’t blame you.)

Not much can be more disheartening for a blogger than seeing red numbers or declining graphs in Google Analytics.

There are, of course, various factors that come into play when it comes to generating traffic, but at the core of it all is the content. Maybe you’re publishing great posts but you’re still not getting the eyeballs you expect. Maybe, you ought to take a closer look at your posts and do some dissecting.

Are your posts more or less the same format? Are you writing about the same thing over and over again without really adding anything new? Are your posts too shallow, not giving readers something practical to take away?

In this post, we’ll deal with the first question and check out different types of posts you can use in your blog. By mixing and matching, you not only provide high-quality content but you also hook your audience in via the presentation method.

9 Blog Post Ideas To Ideas To Generate More Blog Traffic

1. Post series

A series of posts is excellent if you’re writing about a complex topic that requires in-depth analysis. You can always argue for writing a single long-form article, sure. But, why do that if you have a lot of material to work with – material that can easily create a short novella? Creating a post series has two main benefits.

• The concepts are organized better and broken down into more digestible chunks.
• Readers will want to see the next in the series, giving you repeat visitors.

2. List posts

This one’s a no-brainer. No matter how saturated the web is with list posts, they won’t disappear. Despite the negative connotation the word “listicle” has, list posts work. Our brains love list posts (science says so).

Pro tip: don’t jump into the listicle bandwagon because it’s the easy way out. If it sucks, it won’t do you any good at all. Just like with any other post, take time to do research and plan out your post.

3. Link roundups

Publishing link roundups helps your readers discover new material, and it can also put you on the radar of the right people (hint: influencers you link to).

In theory, it is even simpler than writing a listicle, but the key lies in curating the links that you include in your post. You may choose to put together a bunch of links to articles you found interesting that week, or better, you can choose a theme for the week and share links revolving around that theme.

Model post: Fetching Friday – 30 Posts on Marketing and Productivity

4. Social media embeds

A close cousin to link roundups, social media embeds are a more visual way to present recommended reads/shareables. With the embed options most social platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. – have, you can easily put together a post about any theme.

I like to use this post type for trending topics – they’re the perfect match. Look at Twitter, for example, you simply have to search for trending hashtags and variations. You can then curate the tweets you want to use in your post.

Model post: Writing Tweets That Will Make Your Day

5. Interactive infographics

Infographics are always mentioned in a list like this. Just as listicles are sometimes frowned upon due to their pervasiveness, infographics are sometimes looked at as if they were a virus. In spite of that, they continue to flourish. That’s because we’re visual creatures!

There may be a glut of infographics, but if you make sure that you use – better yet, create – infographics that are excellent (content and design-wise), then you have nothing to fear, only everything to gain.

Go one step further and use interactive infographics. Our visual-hungry side won’t be able to resist – and your on-page time will skyrocket.

Model post: The Complete History of Social Media

6. Hacks

Hacks are uncommon – or ‘holy crap, why didn’t I think of that?’ – solutions to common problems.  With the amount of hack content we see online, it seems we have way too many problems. I’m sure you’ll find one or two that you can provide hacks for.

Thing is, you need to really bring your game. This post type “market” is so crowded that you need to stand out – find mind-blowing hacks, create eye-catching videos, or make attention-grabbing explainers.

My suggested resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/lifehacks/. Don’t kill me if you find yourself not getting any work done after clicking that link.

7. Giveaways

What’s the one thing people can’t resist?

Freebies.

Partner up with businesses in your niche and run giveaways. Provided you do it right, this is a surefire way of getting social shares and eyeballs.

Tips:

• Pick the right partners. Don’t give away “freebies” that aren’t worth anything to your readers. Make it enticing so the word gets ’round.
• Make it easy to join, but not too easy. For example, simply ask for a tweet (with your account tagged) as a requirement. You get mentions, and it doesn’t take a lot of effort from your readers.
• Provide additional incentives. Offer more entries in return for following your Twitter account or leaving a comment.
• Use Rafflecopter. It will take care of all of the above.

8. Quizzes

You’ve seen ’em. You’ve probably answered more quizzes than you would like to admit (it’s okay). Sure, Buzzfeed can get under your skin, but hey, who’s raking in the traffic and money?

Love it or hate it, online quizzes are a goldmine. They pander to human nature. And, they don’t have to be “useless” either.

More so, it doesn’t cost much – if anything – to create quizzes. You can build wonderful-looking, easy-to-make quizzes with tools like Qzzzr and SurveyAnyplace with content that you choose. Content that is up to your standards and that fits your blog perfectly.

9. Quotes

If quizzes get people clicking, quotes get us reading and sharing. And, creating a quote post is simpler than creating a quiz post.

What you need to do:

• choose a theme
• do research – find relevant quotes, verify
• put the quotes in a list

You can publish a text-based quote post, but if I were you, I’d also go the visual road. Creating images with quotes is not a problem using tools such as Buffer‘s Pablo and Canva – trust me, I don’t have a single designer’s bone in my body and I have been able to make more than decent (ahem, ahem) visuals using them.

Here’s a recent quote post I created: 15 Quotes About Rejection That Will Give You Strength

Final Thoughts

With the different types of posts I’ve shared above, you can create countless variations to ensure that your readers – and you – don’t get bored of your content.

However, not all of these post types will resonate with your audience. While some audiences devour infographics week in and week out, your audience may shun you for using infographics more than once a week.

As always, the key lies in knowing your audience and what they want/need. Play around with the different kinds of posts. See what works, and don’t be afraid to ditch what doesn’t.