10 Types of Blog Posts That Will Help Your Traffic Shoot Through the Roof

Research from Hubspot has shown that businesses that blog receive 67% more leads than businesses that do not blog.

That’s good news, but does it all end with starting a blog? Apparently, your content schedule matters, too.

Data from Hubspot also revealed that 82% of businesses that blogdaily acquired a customer through their blog, compared to 57% of businesses that blog monthly; while both results are impressive, it’s proven that blogging more frequently will yield more ROI.

So how often should you blog? That depends on your goals and budget. Superstar blogger and founder of QuickSprout, Neil Patelrevealed that moving from posting once a week to twice a week led to a quick and sharp increase in traffic to his blog.

If you’re looking to blog more often, you need ideas and this post will give you an abundance of them.

Here are 10 types of blog posts that will help your traffic shoot through the roof:

1. The Resource Article

I’m listing this as #1 because it’s my favorite type of blog post due to the massive amount of traffic it can send; besides being a proven traffic driver, the resource article has also been one of my most profitable types of blog posts.

Resources are effective because they go beyond giving people just tips; instead, they share actual resources that people can take action on.

A good example of a resource article that I’m sure will be a big hit in no time is my recent article here on Blogging Tips, featuring a list of blogs that pay for guest posts; this is a “double resource” because I’m solving two problems; I’m giving people a list of blogs they can guest post on, while also giving them a list of blogs that will pay them for their articles.

A series of resource articles I did on my writing blog have averaged over 100,000 views, and replicating this on my marketing blog resulted in 20,000% more page views than the average article.

I did a full case study on this on Digital Current, and it is linked below:

• 100,000 Views Per Article? Here’s a Proven Formula That Works

2. The Interview

Interviews are very easy to conduct, and the right interview with a renowned industry figure can send your traffic shooting through the roof.

The key to successful interviews lies in interviewing the right people; will their knowledge be beneficial to your audience? Will their insights change the lives of your readers? If you can answer yes to these two questions, then go ahead and interview them.

3. The Expert Roundup

Expert roundups are blog posts gathering thoughts and opinion from experts, or featuring advice/strategy from them, and including it in one article.

You can either ask a group of experts a question and collate their advice into a blog post, or you can scour the web for advice from certain experts on a particular topic and feature it on your blog.

This type of post is good for traffic because most of the experts you feature will be inclined to share it, and this can lead to more traffic from their audience to your blog.

Here’s a good example of an expert roundup I was recently asked to be a part of.

4. Answers to Reader’s Question

This is a blog post format I’m starting to do more of lately, and I’m noticing that the more I do it the more it fosters a sense of community among my readers.

The idea behind this is simple; if a reader asks me a question – maybe via email, comments, surveys or social media – and I see it to be a very common question, I’ll write a blog post based on this and let people know that a reader inspired it.

This type of blog post is very well received because it’s based on a question/concern your readers have. It also fosters a sense of community because readers can see that you are paying attention to them, and they’ll be able to feel that you care for them.

5. A Post Inspired by Your Readers’ Actions

This type of blog post is also based on reader feedback, but the idea behind it is to establish you as an authority by showing people that readers are taking action by following your advice, and that they are getting results.

This type of blog post showcases readers implementing your advice and getting results, and it encourages other people to take action.

Besides being a good source of traffic, I noticed that the social proof factor, when readers see “ordinary” people like them getting results from following your suggestions, can lead to more sales for you.

6. Case Studies

Case studies do more for your credibility than traffic, and this matters a lot on the long run because it ensures you’re not just getting “quantity” traffic but that you are also getting quality traffic.

Case studies are usually designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of an approach you teach, or of a service/product you offer; the idea behind them is to chronicle a challenge, your approach towards solving it and the end result.

7. Success Stories

Success stories are also usually highly received because they make people see what is possible, and they motivate them to take action to get similar results.

From my experience blogging, success stories are usually top performing posts – especially in the short term.

A good example of a successful success story I published on my blog recently was one, by Agota Bialobzeskyte, sharing Oliver Emberton’s success on Quora, and how he leveraged this to build a popular blog. The article was very well received, and it got hundreds of shares and thousands of views.

8. Top List Posts

Top list posts can be very powerful for driving traffic, and you’ll hardly see a list of blog post types that doesn’t include them.

Top lists posts are articles sharing lists of something e.g. “top 10…”, “10 ways to…”, etc.

With sites dedicated to top lists like Listverse getting 15 million readers monthly, the power of top lists posts shouldn’t be underestimated.

9. Ultimate Guides

Ultimate guides are usually comprehensive, definitive guides on a subject; the idea behind this type of blog post is to cover everything readers wants to know about a particular subject inside one article, so that they don’t have to go elsewhere for information related to that subject.

Ultimate guides can also include visuals and multimedia; this includes screenshots, videos, pictures and infograhics.

Due to the comprehensive and definitive nature of ultimate guides, they get a lot of links and shares; this leads to significant direct, social and search traffic.

10. “How To” Articles

How to articles can do wonders for your traffic, and a key source of traffic for how to posts is search engines.

Think about it, most of the time, when you’re confused about how to do something the next step is to go to Google and type “how to…”

It’s the same for your readers, and you can be sure that they will respond well to articles teaching them how to do something they want to learn how to do.

How to Use Demographic Targeting and Infographics to Create Blog Content

Demographic targeting has been used by advertisers long before the Internet was even a thing. Demographic targeting is a compilation of information about a certain group of people that theadvertiser wants to target, such as their age, income, education level, marital status and so on. Advertisers can home in on one group, such as women, to sell their products, and they can use that targeting information to learn more about that group.

Infographics are visual representations of data, ranging from survey results to demographic information. Instead of just listing thenumbers on the page or in a chart, an artist creates images that reflect the data or presents it in an interesting way.

Infographics are a gold mine for blog content, and demographic targeting can help you understand what kind of content your audience wants to read. Here are a few tips for how to use both create your blog content:

Rewrite Infographics Into Narrative Form

Infographics are created for visual learners, but not everyone prefers to process information that way. You can pull the data from theinfographic and write a straight blog post with the information, including bolded words and bullet points to break up huge blocks of text.

Even if you have already published the infographic on your site, you can still write the blog post. Google does not count it as duplicate content because it cannot scan the infographic for the words; it only processes it as a picture.

This is actually being done on a daily basis over atMarketingInfographics.org, where they publish a new infographic every day, along with an original 300-500 word article to help with search rankings.

Explore an Interesting Facet of the Data

Infographics usually explore a topic in depth, presenting multiple interesting points. You can write a blog post that focuses in on just one aspect of the data.

For example, this bankruptcy report shows the highest number of bankruptcy filings by county and by state. You could write a blog post about why Tennessee is leading the state in bankruptcy filings. You might find that a major industry there is drying up or that thesubprime mortgage crisis hit the state hard. You could then tie what you find back to your demographic information, highlighting theinformation that is most relevant to your target audience.

You can write multiple blog posts from one infographic using this strategy.

Identify Trends

When analyzing the data from an infographic, you might find that trends emerge. For example, the bankruptcy report above shows that many of the states with the most bankruptcy filings are in thesouth and themidwest. You could explore why that is and write a blog post or series of posts that explain what’s been happening inthe economy over the last several years.

Google Trends is a great example of a way to look at different data points and demographics that people are currently searching for on any given day.

Compare and Contrast

The data from every infographic has a source. Usually, it’s a study released by some think tank, government agency or corporation. These groups typically have an agenda, and their research may not always be airtight. You may find other studies that present competing information.

Even if the infographic is being posted on another site that isn’t the original, you can usually find the infographic source at the bottom of the article.

Look for other studies on the same topic, and write a post or series of post that compare and contrast the data. Explore why there are discrepancies and what the information means for your target demographic.

Start a Debate

Find infographics on potentially controversial subjects, like this one on breastfeeding, and use the information to start a debate. For this infographic, you could explore why breastfeeding rates have risen, whether it is beneficial, and what more could be done to promote breastfeeding. You could then invite your readers to share their thoughts. Just take a look at the social shares surrounding this post and topic.

These types of conversations can spark huge debates that will channel plenty of traffic to your site and make your readers feel more engaged.

Infographics and demographic information are a treasure trove of data that you can use to create dynamic content for your blog and grow your readership. Explore all the ways you can use them to create content.

PTEngine – Advanced Web Analytics at Your Finger Tips

As bloggers and site owners, nothing is more important than getting visitors to our sites. Remember when you first started your blog and there was nothing more exciting than seeing those little numbers (site visitors) increase over time? Yea, we all remember those days… however, as our sites grow in size, we start to fade away from the interest in site visitors and start looking at other areas like how to monetize our sites and getting people on our mailing lists.

Good news — the days of looking at fun and interesting stats are here once again! This time in the forms of advanced web analytics and amazing heatmaps that actually show where people are clicking on your site, what they are viewing and why the end of leaving.

All of which is provided through the advanced web analytics and heatmap platform at PTengine.com. In the rest of this article we are going to be taking a look at why every site owner should be using their services and how you can better understand, monetize and engage with your audience in the process.

PTEngine – Everything You Need to Better Understand Your Site Traffic

As mentioned, the days of just knowing ‘how many’ people are coming to your site are long over — now it’s all about digging deep into your analytics and seeing where you audience is coming from, how long they are spending on your site, what they are clicking on and even seeing heatmaps and recordings of what users are doing while they are on your site.

PTengine has created an amazingly powerful, yet easy to use solution for site owners to better understand their traffic and how they are using their sites. Knowing what your audience is doing when they are on your site isn’t just a vanity play, it’s actually being used to increase page views, time being spent on a site and monetization.

Think of it like this… if you could see people coming to your site and that a good majority of them end up clicking on links that send them away from your site, wouldn’t you want to remove these distractions from your site? Of course you would!

It’s little things like this that add up to huge swings in performance, engagement and conversions — all of which can be achieved through PTengine’s tools and platform.

Best of all, it’s free to setup an account and start monitoring your traffic right away!

The Many Benefits within PTengine’s Platform

While the concept of advanced site tracking and heatmaps is nothing new, it’s becoming more common to find providers that specialize in multiple forms of site tracking. PTengine is one of these services, which offers a wide range of tracking methods like the ones below.

• Real Time Data: No one wants to wait around for site data reports — everything needs to be instant these days, and if you can’t provide instant, your customers will go elsewhere. PTengine provides real time data of people that are on your site right now. Want to see if visited over the past few weeks or months? That’s also an option as well.
  
• Multi Domain Monitoring: Many of us already have multiple sites and blogs that we manage. Nothing is more frustrating than having to setup multiple accounts for each of our sites, or being limited on how many we can setup. Once setup with your PTengine account, you can add all of your sites from within one account.
• Group Analytics: Gain control of your analytics and detailed tracking, by setting up group tracking so you can report for different areas for your site. A good example of this would be if you had an ecommerce site, that also has a blog and even your landing pages as well. All tracked separately to provide you with the best results possible
• Fully Responsive Website Support: Whether you aren’t sure how to setup a tracking code on your site (which can easily be done through the use of their WordPress Plugin), have a question about the members area or maybe you even think you came across a bug in the system — the PTengine support team is always available to answer your questions and provide the best support possible.
• Click Heatmap: Heatmaps are simply one of the best ways to get a deep understanding of how your visitors are navigating through your site. With a heatmap you can clearly see the hot points of where people are clicking and the cold areas that are getting ignored.
  
• Attention Heatmap: Similar to a heatmap, the attention heatmap will show you how much time is being spent on different areas of your site. While we all know that the majority of people will see the top portion of your page, how far does the average visitor scroll down before they end up leaving your site?
• Funnel Conversion Tracking: More web sites and blogs are using funnels for lead generation than ever before. PTengine has built in conversion tracking so you can see how many people are going through your full funnel process, while also giving you the ability to discover key areas you can clean up to increase conversions.
  

This is just a handful of the features and benefits available through PTengine, to see a complete list and visual examples of each, click here.

I also recommend taking a look at the case studies found on their site. Here you will see how many other big name sites and brands are currently using PTengine to increase performance and engagement around their sites.

PTengine Pricing Structure

It’s free to setup an account with PTengine, as long as you don’t surpass their 20,000 monthly page view cap. Should you pass this level or have a site with a lot of traffic, you would then need to upgrade your account to actively have access to all areas, tracking and reports.

Even with an upgrade to your account, you are still looking at only $39 a month, which includes up to 50,000 page views per month and up to 20 domains tracked. The more traffic you have, the higher level account you would want to go after.

The good news is that you can setup an account for free, have everything up and running, and then decide later on if you would like to upgrade or not. If your site is receiving over 50,000 visitors per month, these low monthly costs shouldn’t be much of an investment compared to the amount of data and knowledge you will be learning about your traffic.

You can see a full list of their plans and pricing that are available here.

PTengine Referral Program

As bloggers, word usually spreads quickly whenever we come across a great new service or product that is helping us with our sites on online marketing. Just like you, I’m probably going to share it with my friends, site audience and social followers. Should any of theserecommended services have an affiliate program, even better!

Good news! PTengine has an affiliate program of their own as well!

This is a great opportunity for other bloggers and online marketers to share the word on PTengine and benefit financially in the process. As a partner of the PTengine affiliate program, you will earn a commission every time you send a new visitor to their site, who then ends up becoming a user — which is dead simple since it’s free to setup an account!

How to Start Tracking with PTengine

There is a good chance that you have a visitor or two on your web site or blog right now. As you are reading this, your Google Analytics counter is racking up the numbers… but you are still only getting a fraction of the reporting and data you could be getting if you were using PTengine.

I’ve laid all of the benefits and features out there for you. Now it’s time for you to take action and sign up for your free account and know your traffic and audience like never before!

101+ Actionable Expert Tips to Grow Your Blog

One of my favorite things about blogging and running a business on the internet is that you can connect with anyone around the world at any given time. This holds true for both connecting with your blog audience, but also with entrepreneurs, mentors, business experts and more.

This is completely different from the traditional world of business and advertising in that everyone is so willing to share information and help others around them. Think if you ran a local business and wanted to get the advice from other competing local businesses in your area — they would probably laugh in your face and tell you to leave.

However, in the world of online business, everyone is going out of their way to not only help those around them, but also willingly sharing their own success, failures and everything in between. That is exactly why the internet has progressed to what it is today.

In the infographic below, which was originally featured on ZacJohnson.com, we get to share 101+ actionable tips from leading experts and authorities on the internet today, with a few of my favorites listed below.

Neil Patel @neilpatel (podcast episode)

• Analyze your competition and replicate what’s working for them.
• Learn from other businesses mistakes and avoid making the same ones.
• Break down your goals into bite sized tasks, which will help increase your odds of achieving them.

Ian Cleary @iancleary (podcast episode)

• Build relationships.
• Set goals every day.
• Get your first customer asap.

Yaro Starak @yarostarak

• Growth can only come when you know whom you are trying to reach.
• Identify your 80/20 tasks – activities that deliver the big outcomes and ignore the rest.

Kristi Hines @kikolani

• Creating and distributing a lot of content with freelance writer in my author bios.
• Engaging on social media networks and groups with freelance writers in my social profile bios.

Sue Anne Dunlevie @sueannedunlevie

Guest blogging. My mentor, Jon Morrow, says to do 4 guests posts a month. Blog commenting.

Chris Guthrie @chrisguthrie (podcast episode)

• Reinvest. Don’t be afraid to reinvest profiles back into the business.
• Hire early. Personal expense reduction.

13 Platforms Where You Can Turn Your Blogging Skills Into a Successful Freelance Writing Career

You always loved expressing yourself through blog writing? You are constantly full of new inpsirational ideas and thoughts you want to share with your readers beyong your blog? Guess what: you can turn that passion of yours into an aspring career. It’s time to start making your contributions elsewhere, level up your connections and reputation, and bring new insightful audience to your blog.

There are two types of platforms which pay for your submissions as a freelance writer: websites that pay a fixed price per article and revenue-sharing services that pay a variable amount of money, depending on the number of views you get, as well as the clicks on the ads featured in your post. Both types of services offer great opportunities. The important thing is not to get all over the place. You need to explore the freelance writing market first and see which website would be most suitable choice for your writing style. The following list of 15 well-paying services will help you with that.

1. Listverse
   Everyone loves reading listicles. If you have an idea for such a post, you can get it featured at this website. Listverse accepts articles in several categories, so you’ll surely think of something appropriate to write. You’ll get $100 for an article of 1500+ words.
2. WorldStart
   This website publishes the most awesome tech tips. If you follow the trends in technology and computer, then you should definitely apply to write for this service, which pays $25 – $50 per particle. The best part is that you’ll get the content read by a knowledgeable target audience that will help you gain more computer skills through its feedback.
3. Writers.PH
   This service offers freelance writing opportunities in several categories. You may choose one of the following skills and interests when you register at the website: literature reviews and writing, legal consulting, custom online research, business reviews, case studies, and research reports. Once you register and select your specialization, you’ll be able to select the projects you like. The average monthly earnings are $700 – $800.
4. Pukitz
   This service constantly searches for niche bloggers. If you are a native English speaker and a US resident, you can create an account and start contributing articles with minimum length of 500 words for product reviews and 1000 words for other types of articles. You’ll get only $0.50 per post per month, but your content will reach a great audience.
5. FreelancerCareers
   You would waste a lot of time if you were looking for websites that would pay for a single article. A service like FreelancerCareers is more beneficial, since you’ll get a constant work flow and regular monthly payments. This service offers freelance writing jobs that pay from $7 to $31 per page. Resume writers and technical writers are especially appreciated, but you can get jobs in other categories as well.
6. iWriter
   This service gives you a chance to write for clients that pay around $1.25 for an article of 150 words. It’s important to try really hard to meet the clients’ preferences, since your reputation depends upon their feedback. They are not obligated to pay for the articles you submit; they may ask for revisions or reject the content if they don’t like it. If you manage to get 4 stars for 30 articles, you’ll be promoted to a premium writer and you’ll start getting double payments. 30 articles with 4.5-star reviews will make you an elite writer with even greater earnings.
7. AsiaWriters
   This website matches Asian writers with freelance jobs suitable for their skills and interests. You need a Bachelor, Master’s or PhD degree to start writing for the service. Once you sign up (for free), you’ll be able to pick a project on a topic you understand. The community is quite competitive, so you’ll get inspired to write better content. The payments are flexible, so you’ll get an appropriate amount depending on your productivity and the quality you provide.
8. About.com
   First of all, you already know this website is really popular, so note that you can get huge attention with your articles. Writers can choose from hundreds of positions in various micro-niches. It’s not easy to achieve popularity on About.com, but you’ll get great exposure and decent income if you manage to do so.
9. EssayWriters.net
   This service is mostly focused on academic projects and resumes. You can earn up to $30 per page, so this is one of the best-paying websites on our list. All you need to do is sign up (make sure to provide accurate information), pass the grammar test, and complete a trial writing assignment. You need to get an approval notification before you start working on actual orders.
10. Textbroker
    This is another website that accepts only native US writers. If you fall into that category, don’t hold back and register at Textbroker (you need to submit a sample article at this stage). The staff will take that article as foundation for your rating. Depending on this score, you’ll earn from $0.007 to $0.05 per word.
11. ShoutMeLoud
    This blog covers the niches of WordPress, SEO, blogging, social media, affiliate marketing, online earnings, and other topics related to the web. If you start offering contributions, you’ll get your content featured in front of 650,000+ subscribers. How do you get paid? You place your Google AdSense code on the articles you submit. When you have access to such a great audience, the payments will add up.
12. Bubblews
    This is a social and revenue-sharing network in one. Take a look at the posts provided by the contributors; they are really amusing. If you write an engaging article, the payment will add up, since you’ll get $0.01 for every view and $0.01 for every comment you get.
13. HubPages
    Okay, this website hardly needs an introduction. HubPages is the most popular revenue-sharing service on the web. You can simply join the community and start providing your submissions. The staff should approve your article before it gets featured, but that’s not hard to achieve if you submit grammatically-correct content of 700+ words. Then, you’ll start earning through your own Google AdSense account.

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A Small Orange Coupon Codes and Discounts

Web hosting is something every site owners and blogger needs, but not something we really want to mess around with after setting up our initial sites and blogs. For this reason alone, it's very important to make sure you pick the right web hosting service the first time around. In this article we are going to be looking at the A Small Orange hosting service, why it's been getting so much attention lately and some money saving coupon codes and discounts in the process.

A Small Orange is a hosting company that has been getting a lot of praise and attention lately, not only for their services offered, but also for their superior support, low prices and environmentally friendly energy plan as well.

The low pricing of A Small Orange is something that will immediately stand out to new bloggers, as start up costs are always a big concern when starting a new project or trying to make money online.

While most web hosting services are making the move to require new signups to pay for a year in advance to get low cost hosting or a free domain name, A Small Orange has made it their mission to provide minimal setup fees and monthly hosting to anyone, and also allowing them scale their online presence as needed.​

A Small Orange Coupon Codes

To start a web site or blog with A Small Orange, you are looking at only $5 per month for hosting, and this price drops even lower when you pay for a full year (or more) in advance. To drop this monthly price even lower, you can implement our exclusive coupon codes found below.​

• Use coupon code "BLOGGINGTIPS" to save 20% on your initial order
• Use coupon code "BLOGGING5" to get $5 off your 1st month of hosting

Before heading over to A Small Orange and placing an order to setup your hosting, I want to first break down each of the coupon codes and when they should be used. Note: Each coupon is good towards your initial purchase.

How to Save 20% Off on Your Hosting Plan

The 20% coupon is definitely the best one to use, and should only be used when ordering a full year of hosting in advance. This means you will save 20% off your initial order, which is $50 for a full year -- but after the coupon, this would go down to $40 per year... which is less than $4 per month!​

For anyone who is serious about blogging and willing to put in the time and effort, the 20% off coupon code "BLOGGINGTIPS" is the best way to go.

How to Get Your First Month of Hosting Free

If you are just starting with your first web site or blog and still not sure of how much money you have to invest in it, you may want to go with the $5.00 off coupon code "BLOGGING5", which will give you an instant $5.00 off your initial order. Since hosting is only $5 per month, you are getting the first month free!

This $5.00 coupon code can be applied to all hosting plans. If you are going to pay for a year in advance and want to save even more, I recommend using the "BLOGGINGTIPS" 20% off coupon, as this will save you at least $10+.

How to Get Your First Month of Hosting Free

In addition to the instant money saving coupons, there are many other benefits to hosting your site through A Small Orange as well. Each blog or site owner of their service receives the following benefits:

• FREE Site Building Tools with Drag & Drop Website Builder
• FREE One-Click Installs of WordPress
• FREE Shopping Cart Software
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
• Screaming Fast Solid State Drive (SSD) Servers for 15x Performance
• 24/7/365 Expert Support Based in the USA
• Unlimited Domains*
• Unlimited Email Accounts and Mailing lists

There are plenty of options to choose from when using A Small Orange, but I recommend setting up WordPress on your server with their simple one-click install process and getting your blog live asap.

Another great incentive is that A Small Orange also allows you to setup unlimited domains on their shared hosting accounts that are just $5 per month. Other hosting services usually make you sign up for their higher end hosting plans to add multiple domains to your server. This means you can create and add as many sites and domains you like under your one hosting account.

What Other Sites are Saying About A Small Orange Hosting on Social Media

A Small Orange is well known for their customer support, which has made them stand out from the crowd. When they get a message through social media (Twitter), they will usually reply and follow up at a fast pace. Here are what some of their customers have recently said about them on Twitter.

I also mentioned earlier that A Small Orange is different from other hosting companies because they've always focused their business model on loyalty, community and giving back.

In the video below you will learn more about A Small Orange, what makes them a different hosting company and how they are matching their own energy consumption with 150% renewable energy of their own.

Of all the benefits and key data points I've highlighted in this review, I would have to say that support times, uptime and costs are the three that stand out most. If you can find a host that excels in all three of these areas, then you will likely never need to change your hosting in the future.

For those who are looking for those A Small Coupon code codes, I've listed them for you again below.​

• Use coupon code "BLOGGINGTIPS" to save 20% on your initial order
• Use coupon code "BLOGGING5" to get $5 off your 1st month of hosting

Just a reminder, go with the 20% plan if you are going to pre-pay for the year and the $5 off coupon if you are paying on a monthly basis.