Having put together over 500 blog posts since 1 January 2009, I’ve found it especially interesting to monitor which of my posts get most of readers’ attention.
It appears that certain types of blog posts are destined to become more popular than others, even though the content in those “others” can at times be significantly more profound and original. I’ve arrived at 5 types of blog posts that consistently get a lot more attention than others:
- Lists — This, in my opinion, is by far the most popular type. The main reason for this is that lists are easy to follow and digest. This is precisely why this very post comes in a form of a list as well.
Examples: 7 Market Research Twitter Accounts to Follow || 20 Affiliate Plugins for WordPress - How-Tos — How-tos have always been popular, and blogging (be it text-, video-, or both types of blogging together) is an excellent way to explain how things work, or how to do something.
Example: Online Guide to Affiliate Marketing - Breaking News — These get especially popular when in your blog post you’re not merely bringing the news to your readership, but draw fresh conclusions, providing new perspectives.
Example: 6pm.com Loses $1.6 Million in 6 Hours, Handling it Gorgeously - Contests — These always draw a lot of attention, and some bloggers make a living off contests. I do them for the fun of it, and always get a lot of response.
Example: 400th Day Contest: Computer & Internet Jokes - Interviews — They are great, and provide value to all three parties involved: the interviewee, the interviewer, and the readers.
Example: Interview with John Ferber, Founder of Video Affiliate Network
Have I missed any of the ones that have been working especially well for you? Feel free to post about them in the “Comments” below.
Geno, I’m going to print this post and stick it on my pin up board. I have a huge list of titles in my swipe file to blog about. I’m going to categorize the titles this way. Come to think of it… most of the titles are How To’s and Lists. Adding contests would be fun for my visitors.
Glad you’ve found this post of use, Swarup. Good luck applying the knowledge! 😉
Thanks Geno :). Do you mind if I ask you a question. There might already be a blog post about it, but here goes… What’s your daily routine as an internet entrepreneur running high traffic sites, speaking at events and personally replying to comments on your blog like? 🙂
Swarup, thank you for the question. It has indeed already been answered in the interview that had appeared in the Summer 2010 edition of Revenue Performance. I’ve blogged about it here, and there’s also a PDF of the interview in that blog post. Enjoy!