Every blogger knows how crippling the dreaded blank screen can be and that coming up with new blog post ideas can be challenging, to say the least. This is why this article is so important. These blog post types can be applied to both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) blogs.
The key to defeating the blank page is understanding that there are actually many different types of blog posts. After you understand the formats through which you can deliver blog content, you’ll never have writer’s block again.
In this article, we reveal a list of 65 blog post ideas that should keep you from ever running out of blog post ideas again. We also cover, in detail, three blog post types that are quick and easy to create while still providing you with stellar content your company can be proud to promote.
Table of Contents
Useful Content Blog Post Ideas
When people do research, they search for useful content on the Internet. They look for how-to guides, case studies, and resources that can help solve their problems, inspire them, or point them in the right direction.
Writing content that is both free and useful endears you to your market and establishes you and your business as the authority in your niche. The following sections offer 16 types of useful blog post ideas that any brand can use.
1. List post
The list post is simply that, a list. Some may affectionately refer to it as a “listicle.” A list post is one of the easiest to put together and can be very versatile. Not to mention that people just love lists — they’re helpful and quick to read. On your blog, create a list of books, tools, resources, or any other topic that your market finds useful and is also relevant to your call to action, like DIY Projects does.
Typically, list posts have quick introductions and then get right to the body of the post. By their nature, list posts are text heavy, which can be intimidating to readers. Be sure to use images wherever you can, which helps to break up the text, making your post easier to read and more likely to be shared.
2. Case study post
Case study posts outline and unpack the details of a project, event, or process and show you how it turned out. The term case study makes your article sound like it has more value than a regular blog post.
Case studies carry weight; your audience knows they’ll learn something from a case study post because such posts always open the hood on something people are curious to know more about.
The firsthand experience expressed in these posts makes them extra valuable because they show real-life examples. Also, you can use case studies to highlight your successes in a way that helps you turn a prospective customer into a customer.
In the case study post, get specific and talk strategy. Outline and unpack the details of something, such as a project, event, or process. Tell your story from start to finish, including the failures and “speed bumps” that you face; doing so offers authenticity to your case study post and makes your brand more relatable because it proves that your brand is composed of humans with faults, just like the rest of us. Finally, be sure to include real numbers, graphs, and figures that back up your examples.
3. Frequently asked questions (FAQ) post
If you get repeat questions from customers or prospects, there is a good chance they are typing these same questions into Google and other search engines. So, writing a FAQ post is a great way to bring traffic to your site and to provide value to your audience.
You can also use online tools and keyword tools to figure out what questions your customers have. For instance, Answer the Public is a keyword tool that visually displays search queries. With free and paid versions of the tool, you can use it to see what people are asking Google and then write a FAQ post around it.
For example, at DigitalMarketer, we’re big fans of using Quora to help create FAQ posts ate. On Quora, people ask questions and anybody can answer them. You can search for digital marketing (or any relevant keyword for your business) and see the most commonly asked questions on that topic. Then you can create content around these topics.
4. Should ask question (SAQ) post
The SAQ post is a variation of the FAQ post. This is a question that customers or prospects don’t ask — but they should. What are your customers always overlooking that you can shine a light on? For example, a real estate company could create a post called “Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring Any Realtor.” Your SAQ post should center around questions that customers should ask before they buy your product, or questions they should ask to learn more about your industry.
5. Checklist post
As the name suggests, a checklist post lists the steps a person should take to complete a specific task. For example, an airline blog might post a checklist containing the items people should bring when traveling abroad, or what parents should bring to keep young children entertained on long trips.
If you can break your content down into a checklist, it often performs better. People like the checklist format because it’s easy to digest, and people find taking action easier when you itemize the content in this way.
6. Problem/solution post
This type of blog post has an easy format: First, define a problem; then present the solution. The solution to the problem might take the form of a product or service you sell, or it may be something that people can freely obtain. The problem/solution post is a valuable piece of content because people are always looking for ways to solve their problems. If you can provide a real solution for someone, that person will be grateful to you.
The problem/solution post can cross over into the territory of other blog post types such as the FAQ post, the how-to post, or the checklist post.
7. How-to post
The how-to post is another staple blog post type. In the article, you describe how to execute a process and use images, video, or audio to enrich the post and make it as easy as possible for your reader to take action. For instance, your how-to post could be about how to play a particular guitar chord, like the wikiHow article.
A how-to post has a quick introduction and then gets into the details of the process you’re presenting; you might outline your process in the intro in the form of a bulleted list before going into the body of the post. This can help break the how-to information in the piece’s body into steps, phases, or categories so that your readers can digest the information more easily.
8. Research post
Conducting your own primary research around a topic in your niche is one of the best ways to build blog content that gets attention. That’s because primary research is hard to gather and extremely time-consuming.
Collecting all the research for someone and providing it for free all in one place is a great way to endear your brand to prospects as well as establish your brand as an authority on a particular topic.
That said, you don’t have to do all the research yourself. You can simply curate research from third parties and pull it together into an article, infographic, or other type of content that your market will find valuable and intriguing.
9. Stats post
This post (like the research post) works best when you can use statistics that you have produced because it adds to your authority. That doesn’t mean you can’t use third-party information, but if you’re looking to build awareness and clout around your brand, using your own statistics is the way to go. That said, don’t ignore other resources altogether. Consider pulling together stats from multiple locations to create a very solid, well-rounded statistics post.
10. Ultimate guide post
The ultimate guide post is just what it sounds like: a detailed, comprehensive post on a topic in your niche. An ultimate guide post done right is an article that people will bookmark and continuously return to, so don’t skimp here — take your time and deliver the definitive post on the topic. This type of post helps to bring people back to your site, establish you as an authority in your market, and prove that you know what you’re talking about.
The idea behind the ultimate guide is that the reader shouldn’t have to go anywhere else to gain more information on this topic. This post will be long, with thousands of words and many figures and examples. If people can read and digest this post in ten minutes, it’s probably not the ultimate guide.
11. Series post
Look for opportunities to break a topic into a series. An exceptionally lengthy or complex piece (such as the ultimate guide post) is a good candidate to be broken into parts and distributed as a series post.
Announce in the introduction of the post when readers can expect the next article in the sequence to be published. Also, you should have set days when you publish the series. For instance, make it each day over the course of a week, or every Monday over the next month.
By announcing and having a set time frame, your readers know when to expect the next part, which helps to maintain engagement in the post. Be sure to link these articles together as you publish them. That way, if people miss the first or the second part of the series, they can easily find the post(s) needed to catch up.
12. Definition post
In niches where there might be complicated ideas or confusing terms, the definition post is an absolute must. As the name suggests, it’s an article that defines a topic, and it works well in industries and markets that have their own terms and lingo.
Don’t forget — just because you know a lot about your industry doesn’t mean your customer does. For the definition post, you can create content around a particularly confusing or complex topic and then explain and inform your readers about that topic.
You get bonus points if you can logically define something in your market that is unique, unusual, or controversial. Presenting one or more of these aspects helps you stand out while also creating engagement in your post.
13. Video review post
This post leverages a popular video (think YouTube) to create stellar content. Simply review a video that’s relevant to your audience. To create this article type, take screenshots at different stages during the video and add text explanations. Then embed the entire video into your post. This is a super-fast and easy way to create high-value and engaging content from video.
14. Tips post
A super easy way to create a blog post is to compile a list of tips for your audience. These can be tips on how to do something better, tips for getting a good deal on something, or tips on any other relevant subject for your audience.
15. Tools post
Like the tips post, this is an easy way to stay useful with your audience. Post a list of tools your audience will find helpful. You can rate them, review them, or just make it a simple list.
16. Pillar post
Think of a pillar post like the columns on an ancient Greek temple. Not only do they hold the building together, but they are massive and striking to behold. A pillar post is like that for your business and blog.
It’s a piece of content you’ll use as a foundation for your blog, linking back to it often and referencing it in other posts you write on your blog because the pillar post is that fundamental. And in that way, the pillar post is like a Greek column, holding up other blog posts. Backlinking like this can also help create a consistent source of traffic for you and your business.
A pillar post can be helpful if you are just starting out with your blog and need a foundation of good content. The ultimate guide post that we mention earlier can cross over into a pillar post.
You can always have more than one pillar post. Robust blogs that have been around for a while and generate lots of traffic often have several pillar posts. But keep in mind, there is no right number of pillar posts to have; the best number depends on your business and the needs of your blog.
Promote Others Blog Post Ideas
One of the easiest ways to grow your blog is to be generous by promoting other people. When you promote others, they promote you; it’s mutually beneficial.
Call out and link to businesses and influential people in your market who are doing something worthwhile. You can use other businesses as an example for your readers to learn from. Following are nine ways for you to create generous pieces of content.
17. Profile post
Write a profile or bio of an influential person in your niche. You don’t have to ask his or her permission first, but you can if you want. Be sure to notify this person; don’t expect the person to telepathically know you wrote a post on them.
Tweet them, tag them on your Instagram story promoting the article, tag them on Facebook, email them, and if you can, call them. What you’re aiming for is that they see your profile and share it with their audience (so you both get more traffic).
18. Crowdsourced post
In this post, ask three or more experts in your industry the same question and aggregate the answers into a single article. For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, you might reach out to top physical trainers and ask them to outline their favorite cardiovascular workout.
Then aggregate the responses of the experts into a single post to create an article with multiple opinions. For example, we had 14 digital marketing experts tell us about their best campaigns and marketing strategies.
The content from a crowdsourced post is top-notch, easy to put together, and will be shared by many of these influential people. Not to mention, this type of post draws large numbers of the influencers’ followers to both your blog and your site. In our experience, when you get ten influencers to give you about 100 words each on a single topic, you’ve got a powerful blog post.
19. Interview post
For the interview post, reach out to influencers in your market and create a post around the questions you ask them. You can write the post in a typical newspaper or magazine style, or simply list each question asked and give each answer verbatim.
Even the most influential people are surprisingly willing to give you an interview — even if you have a small audience for your blog.
The easiest way for an extremely busy influencer to give you an interview is through an audio recording. Text interviews are time-consuming, and video interviews can be technically challenging, often requiring the influencer and the interviewer to be in the same location. With audio, you can record the interview over the phone or use a tool like Skype.
20. Link roundup post
For this type of post, you gather multiple pieces of content from outside sources that your audience will find relevant and interesting. Provide a description of the content and link to it. It’s that simple.
The articles you link to may not even have a common thread other than they’d be relevant or interesting to your readers. This content can take the form of what your company is reading and then link to different blogs, articles, and books you’ve gained value from. Another option is to use a tool like BuzzSumo to find the most socially viral content on a given topic and aggregate it into one post.
A post like this can work well as a series that publishes once a week or once a month. Remember to notify those that you link to via email or social media to give yourself the maximum opportunity to get the post shared by the people you’ve included in your link roundup.
21. Quote post
Quotes are inspirational and thought-provoking, which is why they make for an excellent blog article. Pull together quotes from multiple influencers across a specific topic to create a quote post.
Again, if applicable, be sure to notify those you quote that you have included them in your post. You don’t have to put the quotes in a numbered list but rather take the time to make the quotes visually appealing and uses images that make the post more engaging.
22. Best-of-the-web post
Similar to the roundup post, the best of the web often includes content, tools, and other resources you are willing to put your name behind and call the best. In the post, curate, link to, and briefly describe what it is and why it’s the best.
This post might take the form of your favorite blogs or your top picks for website design. It’s another great way to provide value for your readers while also promoting influencers whom you want to work with.
23. Pick-of-the-week post
Going off of the best-of-the-web post, the pick-of-the-week post is a series post that is fairly popular among bloggers. This blog article might be your favorite blog, podcast, tool, or other item of the week. The content is usually relatively short and describes a single article, tool, or other resource that you curate, link to, and describe.
24. People-to-follow post
In this post, you recommend which experts or businesses your audience should be following. Collect a list of influential people, describe them, and provide links through which your audience can connect with the influencers via their website, social media channels, events, and books.
25. Content-aggregator post
This is a hybrid form of the list post that uses other people’s content. Find the most socially viral content on a given topic and aggregate it into one post.
DigitalMarketer does this often with our blog. For instance, we’ll pull different Instagram video ads from other companies to show you what they’re doing right and, in some cases, what they’re doing wrong.
Fun Blog Post Ideas
When people come across content that entertains them, they’re likely to share it on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. Producing entertaining content can be difficult, but if you can make it work, it can be a very effective type of blog post. Following are five blog post types that entertain.
26. Story post
Stories are engaging, which is why they make effective blog posts. In this article, you tell a story that would entertain your market. Story posts don’t have to be epic pieces of content; not all stories have to be complex. For example, commercials create entertaining stories all the time in fewer than 60 seconds.
27. Satire post
In the satire post, be humorous through the use of irony or extreme exaggeration. This kind of content works well with timely issues such as politics or sports. The Onion, which is a farcical newspaper featuring world, national, and community news, is a prime example of a digital media company creating satirical content.
28. Cartoon post
For the cartoon post, center your article around a cartoon that makes your audience laugh and think about issues and events in your niche. This type of post works well as a series, and you can run it daily, weekly, or monthly. Newspapers and magazines do this often.
29. Meme post
Memes are humorous pieces of content that spread virally across the web. A meme post can be similar to the satire post or the cartoon post. In the post, you create your own meme or pull together a curated set of memes from across the Web.
30. Parody post
In the parody post, you create content that imitates a well-known person, product, or media property in your niche. Be sure to exaggerate the person’s or item’s strengths and shortcomings in your content.
Timely Post Ideas
Timely posts detail the latest information on a subject. You need commitment to stay timely in some niches, but if you can pull it off, timely news is among the most effective blog content you can create because you will be one of the first to have new information out there.
If you find that keeping up with the latest news and trends is too daunting a task, consider creating a series of posts that publishes timely information once per week. Following are six blog post ideas that deal with timely content.
31. Review post
Center your content around the review of a product, event, or anything else you have access to while it is newsworthy and relevant to both your industry and target audience. For best results, rather than paint everything in a positive light, be as honest as possible in your review.
32. Survey post
To create a survey post, choose an interesting or newsworthy topic and survey your audience about it using email, social media, or in-person events. Then pull the results together into a blog post.
33. News post
Same as a news outlet, you can create content on your blog about events as they happen. Although you don’t need to “break” the story, for best results, be sure to add a perspective that your audience will find valuable or entertaining.
34. Trend post
Some content creators can predict trends as they happen. If you’re a trendspotter, create posts on your blog that ride that trend as it becomes popular.
35. Issue post
Choose issues that affect your audience and create content about these issues while they are timely and relevant to your readers.
36. Takeaways post
For a takeaways post, you react to an event, presentation, or experience, and then list out your top takeaways from it. This should be done shortly after the event since you want to remain timely and capitalize on that event’s popularity.
Being Personal Post Ideas
Be human in your posts. Show that your brand isn’t some faceless, unfeeling corporate entity — display your human side to create trust and connection with your audience. Use blog content to help show off the people who work at your business, as well as your company’s personality, with the eight posts we tell you about in the following sections.
37. Inspirational post
Some of the most effective content on the web is neither informational nor entertaining — it simply inspires. The health and fitness industries often use this approach. Inspirational posts can work well as a story post, a profile post, or a quote post, among others.
38. Guard-down post
In this post, the author opens up about a private moment in his or her past. And when done right, this post will lead your audience to feel more connected to you and your company. Some of the best content on the web is created by a content creator who lets his or her guard down by delivering a deeply personal experience that the audience can relate to.
39. Behind-the-scenes post
People love to peek behind the curtain and see how something gets done. If you have a loyal following, many will want to see what goes on behind the scenes of your business. Create content around this idea. You might show a day in the life of one of your managers, or show your approach to putting a video together. In this post, provide images and videos that enhance your written examples.
40. Off-topic post
Throughout this section, we emphasize the importance of staying relevant to your niche. Going with the idea that any attention is good attention, you might create a post that is completely different from what you typically post on.
This maneuver can be risky, but if you have a loyal following who has become accustomed to you covering a specific set of topics, this kind of post can surprise people and evoke a great response.
41. Rant post
The rant post shows your human side by revealing your passion and anger about a topic that’s relevant to your audience in an op-ed style. Although the rant post isn’t for everyone, the right blog and the right audience will respond well to a rant.
42. Home runs post
It’s human to celebrate when things go well. Share your company’s home runs in a blog post so your audience can see what you are doing that is working well. This works well as a yearly reflection or an event wrap-up.
43. Bloopers/mess-ups post
Just like it’s human to celebrate, it’s human to mess up and learn from it. This post can be a video blooper reel of goofs you made on camera or a refection post on mistakes your company has made. Showing your customers that you mess up helps them see you as human, and they will feel more connected to you.
44. Holiday post
Some blogs go dormant on popular holidays, not publishing and letting a holiday that doesn’t directly apply to their business or a product they sell pass them by. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Holidays are a great way to display your company’s humanity. Use the opportunity to deliver well wishes and create holiday anticipation with your audience.
You can also get creative with the holiday post; you don’t have to recognize only the major holidays. Some obscure holidays may apply to your niche, such as National Hat Day on January 15, International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19, or Write a Friend Month in December.
Promotional Post Ideas
Some organizations use their blogs in a promotional way; that is, the blog clearly sells the company and its products or services. Although this type of blog might come across as pushy in some industries, promotional content can work very well for the right company. Here are nine instances of promotional blog content.
45. Comparison post
As the name suggests, the comparison post is an article that compares the features and benefits of your product to a competitor’s solutions. For best results and to build trust, include cases for which your product is not the best solution.
46. Project showcase post
Similar to the behind-the-scenes post, the project showcase post explains how the company completed a project. Use your blog to outline a specific project that you or your organization are working on or has completed. Detail the process and strategy behind the project, and if possible, share the results.
47. Income report post
In the income report post, open the books and show your audience a breakdown of the money you and your organization are making. Show people exactly how much you’ve earned, where it came from, and (most important) the lessons you’ve been learning in and around your business. This sort of transparency builds trust with your audience.
48. Company update post
You can use your blog to let your customers and prospects know of new employee hires, acquisitions, major contracts under way, or other changes at your company. As with the income report post, this is a great way to build trust with your readers.
49. Product update post
Similar to the company update post, for a product update post, you create content around new products or services that you’re offering or the updates coming to existing products or services. If you have rabid fans of your products and services, you might be surprised by how well an announcement post of a new product or a new feature will do on your blog.
50. Products tip post
Create content that helps your customers be more successful with your product or service by offering tips and how-tos about one of your products or services. This post type is both promotional and useful as well as very powerful for the right blog and audience. Prospects read product tip posts, too, which can help to convert them.
51. Presentation post
You can publish presentations given by employees that contain interesting and valuable content for your audience. Within the post, consider embedding the video from the presentation to accompany the text. Be sure to include the slide deck from the presentation so that readers can follow along.
52. Best-of post
Unlike the previous best-of post, here you create a blog article that pulls together and links to the most popular blog posts you have published over a period of time. Select content that has really resonated with your audience, driven lots of traffic to your site, or sparked good comments.
53. Year-in-review post
You can showcase all the things your company has done or made over the year in this reflection post. It not only serves to show your current customers what you have done, but it can give prospects a snapshot of who you are. These posts do well and are timely in December and January, at the end or start of a year.
Controversial Post Ideas
If it fits your brand, you can take a stand and turn out controversial articles. You can get a lot of traffic on controversial posts — nothing goes viral as quickly as rousing posts that encourage debate. Just make sure that this type of post fits with your brand’s personality. Here are the six ways for you to be controversial on your blog.
54. What-if post
This type of blog post speculates on potential events or circumstances. The success of this type of post rests on your ability to choose a “what if” that is interesting and debatable.
55. Debate post
Many people enjoy sparring. With this post, use your blog to present one side of a debatable argument. You might also find someone who disagrees with you and present both sides in the same post.
56. Attack post
In your post, pick a fight. Starting an argument with the right person or organization forces your audience to choose sides and can draw a great deal of attention. Be careful with this one, though, because you’re likely to create enemies with the attack post. When done right, however, the attack post can also produce die-hard fans.
57. Predict post
Post about what you think will happen on a given topic or situation. If you take a debatable and speculative approach, a prediction post can get a great response. It also generates curiosity as people like to know and speculate on what’s going to happen in the future. This post can work well as a post for the new year or for changes in an industry.
58. Reaction post
Use your blog to react to content created by someone else. The content you react to might be a blog post, book, or presentation. Post your feelings on this subject.
59. Embed reactor post
In this post, embed a resource such as a video, presentation, or infographic, and then provide a reaction or a rebuttal to that content. You can find videos to embed on YouTube, presentations on SlideShare, and infographics on Visually. Although this one is similar to the reaction post, the content you are reacting to is embedded in this post, which may not be the case with the reaction post — a subtle but notable difference.
Start with a quick intro to set the stage. Then give your reaction underneath the embedded resource. The titles of these posts are usually a variation of the title of the resource you are embedding.
When choosing the embeddable resource to which you will react, look for a video with lots of views or an infographic or presentation with lots of social shares on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. Then add your reaction to this popular piece of content below the embedded content. When you do this, you practically guarantee that your post will be well received.
Engaging Post Ideas
It pays to create an engaged audience who regularly tunes in to your content. Although engagement isn’t necessarily the end goal, it’s hard to deny the power of content that pulls a reader in. Here are the final six blog post ideas that help to create a captivated audience.
60. Question post
Similarly to the FAQ post, the question post answers questions that your audience asks on social media, forums, or in the comments section of your blog. In contrast to the FAQ post, though, the question post may be about something that isn’t commonly asked, yet is an engaging question to build an article around.
61. Answer post
The answer post is the sister of the question post. In this post type, you simply ask a question and allow your audience to answer it in your comments section. This type of post is generally very short, allowing your audience to create the bulk of the content through a discussion in the comments. This type of article works well if you have a blog with an engaged readership that comments often.
62. Challenge post
Use a blog post to pose a challenge to your audience. For example, BuzzFeed challenges its readers to eat cleanly for two weeks and posts the steps and recipes to follow to reach that goal. This post can work well as a series, with periodic updates that feature participating audience members.
63. Customer showcase post
Use your blog to feature a customer or project that you and a customer have worked on. Although this type of blog post type is partly promotional, it also builds engagement.
64. Freebie post
Use a blog post to allow your audience to access a relevant giveaway. The giveaway can include a free download, case study, or one of your products or services, for example. Center your blog post around this promotion.
65. Contest post
Announce a contest on your blog and then list the rules, tell how readers can enter and describe what people can win. A contest post can work well as a series with updates featuring contest results.
Final Words
I have listed some blog post ideas that might inspire you to create some new and creative content for your blog. I hope you find this post useful.
In the end, even though the ideas haven’t changed, how you present them to your audience and engage them is up to you.
I hope you found this article helpful. Once you have settled on your topic, it’s time to learn about some expert SEO tips.
If you need more guidance, sign up for my online business coaching.