Tag: Inspiration

In this 5 part series, we’re examining 5 Different Types of Blog Posts.

One of the more helpful types of post is the advice post. Offering advice is a great way to generate visits to your website. And, when you offer solid advice, it also builds community and trust, which translates into repeat visits and a reliable audience.

Offering advice means identifying a need and then providing an response to that need. The advice can take many forms, including:

• teaching a skill;
• reviewing a product or service;
• conveying a message;
• offering a commentary; or
• demonstrating a talent;

Your advice can take many forms, providing lists, explaining the subject in free text or providing pictures or video. Use the media that makes the most sense for the task at hand. Utilize all of the various tools at our disposal. On the web, we have the ability to post text in our blogs. We can link to video from YouTube and others. We can add pictures from our Flickr accounts. We can even include lists from our RSS feeds. Web2.0 makes possible numerous different methods of generating effective and memorable messages that won’t easily be forgotten.

The important thing when offering advice is to speak from your own experience. Don’t simply regurgitate something that you read elsewhere. Put it into your own words. Apply what you’ve learned on your own. Speak from your own experience. Your message will be more convincing and you’ll be seen as more authoritative on the subject that way. And, don’t forget my 7 tips for Good Blog Content.

One final thing… if your blog post is getting complex, consider breaking it into multiple parts, kinda like this 5 part series.

Good luck and talk soon!

Todd

In this 5 part series, we’re examining 5 Different Types of Blog Posts.

Story posts are meant to convey some sort of message. These posts can be long or short, depending on how much or how little you want to invest in the story at hand. The important thing with stories is to connect with your reader. With stories, you, as the writer, are trying to build a personal connection with your reader. Stories allow you to put the reader right in the middle of the action. Good storytellers will immerse the reader so completely that they feel that they are experiencing the story firsthand.

Thinking back on my undergrad years as a philosophy major at the University of Toronto, I recall a writing assignment I was given in a course called “Modern Atheism”. The assignment was to write a dialogue between a Christian and an Atheist about the existence of God. This assignment took me completely by surprise. I was so used to writing argumentative essays that contained an opening argument, supporting points and a strong conclusion. How was I supposed to switch gears and write a work of fiction, albeit a fiction that contained relevant coursework that we had been discussing for most of the semester?

Creative writing has never been my strong suit. Needless to say, I was glad when the assignment was over. Surprisingly, I did well on the assignment. More importantly though, being forced to write in a way that was so uncomfortable to me challenged me to grow and to expand my writing skillset.

I learned a few things from my atheistic creative writing exercise. Here are some of the important points that I gained from this exercise:

• Engage the reader
• Develop more than just the facts and figures of your arguments. In fact, surround those facts with a personal story that engages the reader.
• Expose yourself in your post. Share some personal information with the reader. This makes them more likely to connect with you and remember you.
• Provide examples that readers can relate to. Stories allow for the sharing of like experiences. This builds relationships and strengthens bonds between people.
• Feed the reader’s senses and emotions.
• Engage the reader. Wait, did I say that already?

Be creative. Wrap your message up in a meaningful story and watch how much more memorable that post will be. Personalizing your facts and figures is a great way to connect with your readers and to have them remember you.

Talk soon!

Todd