Variety is the spice of life. And it can add a little spice to your business blog as well. Your 400-word information articles may be great and helpful, but readers would not mind if you wrote something difference once in while. By different, I mean learning how to blog and to write something besides a general informational article. Here are few other types of posts you could try on your blog to deliver the goods to your readers:
- Lists - Readers LOVE lists. It's an easy to read format that offers a lot of creativity. A list also provides the information in a way that's easy to remember. If you're going to do a list, remember to title the post something like, "5 Ways to Do X," "7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Y" etc. Make it obvious that you've written a list.
- How To - Show your readers how to do something with an article that takes it step-by-step. This is a great opportunity to add pics or video to the post, so readers can see how each step takes place. If you're going to show your readers how to do something on the computer, a great multimedia tool to use is Screenr, a web-based screen recorder that shoots a quick video of whatever your doing on the computer. Speak up so the microphone catches your voice, and you have a screencast to show your readers, just like that!
- Reviews - Take the time to review something related to your blog niche, whether it's a book, a product, a service, a movie, a website. The options are endless. Provide the pros and cons, and summarize why the reader should, or shouldn't, read this book or buy this product. Do a good enough review and you might even attract the attention of the company that offers the product or service.
- News Reactions - If there's breaking news in your niche, do a reaction about it. If there's breaking news that you can tie into your niche, do so in a blog post. If someone wrote something that you agree or disagree with, offer your own insights on the topic. These are often really easy to do because they are timely and they garner a response to whatever what said or done. A response can often encourage us to write or to say something.
- Photo Albums - If you attended an event and took a ton of pics, have a post to showcase them! If you have a Flickr account, you can do a teaser of one or two pics, and then provide a link to the rest of the album.
- Interviews - Are there any great thinkers or prominent people in your niche? How about interviewing them and posting their answers? You could also do a profile of the person, getting beyond their credentials and professional standing. I mean, if that author who's in town is also a competitive ballroom dancer, that's pretty neat. If that company CEO also volunteers on the weekends, that's something people want to hear about. These are the kinds of golden nuggets you can learn about in an interview.
Whew! That's a lot to start with right there! This certainly isn't an exhaustive list, but it's a start to adding some variety to your blog.