Last weekend I had the honor of being invited to teach a local workshop on content creation for blogs and social media. As a presenter, it's easy to think that you know what will be the most helpful. For this workshop, I thought the most helpful part was going to be that we were creating a year of blog post ideas and the system I taught them to create a year of content.

I'd love to say I was right, but I was very wrong!

While I was working on the presentation, I added a short list at the last minute. And when that slide came up the whole conference room got out their phones and cameras to grab a reminder of for the future!

(I was so surprised!)

The list that got the attendees so excited? It was a list of different types of blog posts.

Suddenly, after seeing that list of different types of blog posts, the room exploded with ideas!

It was a lightbulb moment for everyone, myself included. It was a great reminder of something I always work on with my business strategy clients: we dig deeper, because how you understand your customers or reader's problem might not be the full story.

Before we started the exercise, when attendees said, “I don’t know what to post about.” I heard them on the surface level. I understood that they didn’t know what to say to their audience.

The deeper level of their problem that I saw when their cameras started flashing was, “I’m not a blogger. I don’t have enough context about this world to understand what types of blog posts there are, so it’s hard for me to picture how to share my ideas.”

Well, message received!

Today, we're going to look at a ton of different types of blog posts you can share as a small business owner or blogger.

You might be a pro blogger, starting your 10th blog or a total beginner, but seeing a list of different types of blog content is an inspiring way to see how you can add a fresh new take on your topic. And it can only help you and your audience to share your ideas in a new way.

75 Types of Blog Posts to Get The Word Out & Grow Your Brand:

1. 1. 1. Tell a story about a lesson learned that applies to your audience.
      2. Top ___ posts: As in Top 5, Top 10 etc.
      3. Share a quote and your response to it.
      4. Resource roundup posts: Curated list of helpful posts on a topic, with links to the source posts.
      5. Photo an hour: Take your audience behind the scenes with you for a day.
      6. Checklists or to do lists on your topic.
      7. Share a crucial concept to your work, and why it’s important.
      8. Tutorial: Teach a skill in a step-by-step way, with text and photos.
      9. How to video: Teach a skill in a step-by-step way, on video.
      10. Progress post / how it's made: Document what it’s like to create your next product, client project, etc. piece by piece.
      11. Goal setting: Prompt your readers to set a goal. Share yours and your progress on them afterward to build community & personal investment in your work.
      12. Book summaries or reviews: Share what you’re reading, and a summary of why it could be helpful.
      13. Favorite things (Products/courses/services): Share the products, courses, and services that have been most useful to you recently.
      14. Case study: Share the story of someone who has been helped by your work, in a step-by-step way.
      15. Editorial / Opinion post: Share your opinion or commentary on an industry trend.
      16. Interview: Text/audio/video interview with someone who has insight or solutions related to what your audience struggles with or aspires to.
      17. Essentials: Share the best tools/ techniques/items that are helpful for solving a job or problem your audience wants to have solved.
      18. Community Profile: Shine a spotlight on a reader's business or blog, as a resource to others, a way to share their work and the community you're fostering.
      19. Seasonal content: Tie in your work with a holiday or seasonal trends (i.e., Spring cleaning for bookworms).
      20. Big questions: Ask your audience to take a moment to reflect and answer a big question about the big picture of how or why they do something.
      21. Personal results: Try something new, document the process and then write a post that shares your before / after.
      22. Product/service hero testimonial post: Take a webinar or download a lead magnet and then use it’s technique fully for several weeks. Document the process along the way, then write a post that shares your before / after and share your results. (Don’t forget to email the post to the product/service creator, they’ll be thrilled!)
      23. Share the missing point of view: Write a post that responds to a trend, news story or timely event by drawing attention to a voice or perspective missing from the conversation. Share the different viewpoint.
      24. Long-tail SEO bait post: Search for keywords and phrases in your industry, and then create strong, valuable content based on it so you can grow your organic search traffic.
      25. “If you do one thing…” posts: Share an important action, examine why it’s helpful and then directly ask your audience to take that action after reading your post.
      26. Income reports: If you’re the tell-all kind of blogger or love sharing behind the scenes access, share a breakdown of your monthly earnings & expenses. (Not for the faint of heart!)

1. 1. 1. Motivational or Inspirational posts: Get your audience pumped up, and seeing new possibilities!
      2. Challenge a misconception: What thought do you wish you could re-program for your audience? Challenge their misconceptions to help them get ahead.
      3. Guest Expert: Share a guest post from a trusted expert or peer.
      4. Beginner’s Guide To ________: Share everything a beginner would need to know to get started, make the first decisions and accomplish something concrete.
      5. Visual round-up post: Make and share a group of images of your choosing, arranged by theme.
      6. Share your vision of success: Share your bigger vision for your client’s success that they might be having trouble seeing at this point in their journey.
      7. Trend analysis: Assess a trend in your niche or industry, share why it’s happening (if you can) and project it’s outcome.
      8. Long list posts: Long list posts to other content can generate links back to your content from the sources you include, which is great for SEO. Go big to make this work for you!
      9. Share a personal story of a “lessons learned” moment, so your readers can experience it first.
      10. Review a product, service, book, etc. and share your take on the material.
      11. Podcasts: Create a blog post for your podcast episodes to make sure you're sharing them with your audience and that they're easy to find online.
      12. Periscope videos: Sign up for the free service Katch.me to have your Periscope videos saved & shared again later. Then share your videos on your blog to get more mileage from them.
      13. News and curated niche content: Help others stay up to date with what's new, beautiful or trending in your world.
      14. Infographics: They're so sharable! (
      15. Links & tool posts: Share the tools of the trade.
      16. Debunk: Share a popular opinion or assumption, and respond to it directly.
      17. Definitions: Share the definition of terms specific to your niche.
      18. Share a presentation & slides, through a webinar or images in a post.
      19. Share an invitation to a digital or in-person event
      20. Memes: Share a meme or create one.
      21. Guides: Create a step-by-step walkthrough of a particular skill or technique. Like a tutorial, but these tend to go further than just the steps to make something such as suggesting the way in which to prevent errors and answers to common questions.
      22. Restyle old posts and create new content upgrades to give old ideas new value.
      23. Things to stop doing: an opposite take on tips/resources and guides.
      24. Meet the expert: Share the ideas of an expert you look up to, a few lines from their bio and share why their perspective is helpful. Great way to build relationships, and introduce your audience to your savvy friends.
      25. Go more professional: Share ways to step up your game and take your business to the next level.
      26. Research-based posts: Instead of opinion, let your research and data tell the story.
      27. Authority builders: Share recent experiences of being a leader your niche, your guest post on an established website or share your insight and position yourself as an expert.
      28. Showcase: Posts about the results of your work with major clients.
      29. Upcoming event invitation: Have a webinar coming up? A Twitter chat? Invite your subscribers, so they know what’s happening in your world and get the added value of your insights.
      30. Comparison posts: As a review, but featuring two products or service that you compare and contrast.
      31. FAQ posts: Answer Frequently asked questions about your field.
      32. Parody posts: if it fits your brand, share your perspective using humor.
      33. eBooks / Workbooks: Write and share yours with your community.
      34. Polls / Surveys: Get insight into your audience.
      35. Social media response posts: Start a conversation on social media or Facebook, then embed a selection of the answers on your blog and respond to it to add context.
      36. Crowdsourced posts: Like an expert roundup post, but gather opinions or experiences from your community
      37. Contests: Give highly targeted prizes away. The trick is to choose something that attracts your audience & that won’t appeal to people outside your target audience. Contact a sponsor and see if they’d like to be part of the promotion.
      38. Controversial posts: Get into the fray and make some waves! Take a Devil’s Advocate position and see what buzz you can stir up. If you don’t mind getting angry emails, that is.
      39. Who's who: list blogs or social media accounts in a related niche to follow for inspiration
      40. Challenge: Offer a “___ day challenge” to help your audience get some of the results they’re after.
      41. Milestone/anniversary: Share a milestone or anniversary that you’re celebrating, and what your big takeaways are.
      42. What's in my….: Share a peek into your life literally or figuratively. Lifestyle bloggers can share what’s literally in their purse; beauty bloggers can share what’s in their everyday makeup drawer. Or you can go more figurative; real estate agents can share what’s in their open house kit to make the day a success no matter what happens, financial advisors can share what’s in their bank accounts to talk about the essential kinds of accounts and savings tools they advise as a baseline for their clients.
      43. What I wish I knew when: Hindsight is 20/20. What do you wish you knew when you were a beginner in your area?
      44. Scripts / Prompts: Help your readers find the right words through copy & paste prompts they can use in hard conversations. Alexandra Franzen offers fabulous email scripts for client situations and asking for testimonials, and Erin Flynn has an entire (amazing!) .
      45. Gift Guides: Great for some holiday-themed content.
      46. Solve a mystery: Pose a question to your audience, and ask them to guess the answer. Help them fill in the gaps and reveal the answer at the end of your post. It’s like Serial, for your niche.
      47. End of month/year reviews: Share your progress on goals or what you’ve posted.
      48. Tours of your home/office: Give readers a tour of a physical or virtual space. A lifestyle take would showcase your living space to build a personal relationship with your audience, and entrepreneurs can share virtual tours of what it’s like to work with them as a client, of their digital products, or of their routines (i.e., A “tour” of your Twitter account.).
      49. Old content re-mix! This technique is one that we should all be using, all the time. Take an old content idea, re-work it to make it new. Bonus points for submitting these as guest posts to other blogs.

Remember the way you deliver your message is less important than having something to say and being able to help people. Be useful first, and have something to say. From there, pick the types of blog posts that will amplify your message. Meaning first, clever presentation later.

I hope these spark some inspiration and help you get your next post started!