The thing about blogging is that there are no rules. Of course, there are some things you must respect like having a good orthography and responding to your readers comments etc. but there are no rules about whether you should or not be objective or subjective; like a journalist. There are no rules about whether your blog should be with two-columns, three, four or completely black and if you want to write two sentences articles; you're free.
You are your own publisher and you can say whatever you want. Your blog could create a motion expressing the protest of the people. Yes. Yes, really. You can write stuff like "I fuck you all, dickheads", in another media, you couldn't. You'd be fired the very next day. Your blog is your responsibility and you do whatever you want with it.
Still, I believe there are different types of bloggers.
20 Types of Blog Posts
• Instructional - Instructional posts tell people how to do something. I find that my Tips posts are generally the ones that are among my most popular both in the short term (ie loyal readers love them and will link up to them) but also in the longer term (ie one of the reasons people search the web is to find out how to do things and if you can rank highly with your tips post you can have traffic over a length of time).
• Informational - This is one of the more common blog post types where you simply give information on a topic. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of some aspect of the niche that you’re writing on. This is the crux of successful sites likewikipedia
• Reviews - Another highly searched for term on the web is ‘review’ - I know every time I’m considering buying a new product that I head to Google and search for a review on it first. Reviews come in all shapes and sizes and on virtually every product or service you can think of. Give your fair and insightful opinion and ask readers for their opinion - reviews can be highly powerful posts that have a great longevity.
• Lists - One of the easiest ways to write a post is to make a list. Posts with content like ‘The Top Ten ways to….’, ‘7 Reasons why….’ ‘ 5 Favourite ….’, ‘53 mistakes that bloggers make when….’ are not only easy to write but are usually very popular with readers and with getting links from other bloggers. Read my post - 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog for more on lists. One last tip on lists - if you start with a brief list (each point as a phrase or sentence) and then develop each one into a paragraph or two you might just end up with a series of posts that lasts you a few days. That’s how I started the Bloggers Block series.
• Interviews - Sometimes when you’ve run out of insightful things to say it might be a good idea to let someone else do the talking in an interview (or a guest post). This is a great way to not only give your readers a relevant expert’s opinion but to perhaps even learn something about the topic you’re writing yourself. One tip if you’re approaching people for an interview on your blog - don’t overwhelm them with questions. One of two good questions are more likely to get you a response than a long list of poorly thought through ones.
• Case Studies - Another popular type of post here at ProBlogger have been those where I’ve taken another blog and profiled them and how they use their site to earn money from their blogging (eg - one I did on Buzzmachine - the blog of Jeff Jarvis). Sometimes these are more like a review post but on occasion I’ve also added some instructional content to them and made some suggestions on how I’d improve them. Case studies don’t have to be on other websites of course - there are many opportunities to do case studies in different niches.
• Profiles - Profile posts are similar to case studies but focus in on a particular person. Pick an interesting personality in your niche and do a little research on them to present to your readers. Point out how they’ve reached the position they are in and write about the characteristics that they have that others in your niche might like to develop to be successful.
• Link Posts - The good old ‘link post’ is a favourite of many bloggers and is simply a matter of finding a quality post on another site or blog and linking up to it either with an explanation of why you’re linking up, a comment on your take on the topic and/or a quote from the post. Of course adding your own comments makes these posts more original and useful to your readers. The more original content the better but don’t be afraid to bounce off others in this way.
• ‘Problem’ Posts - I can’t remember where I picked this statistic up but another term that is often searched for in Google in conjunction with product names is the word ‘problems’. This is similar to a review post (above) but focusses more upon the negatives of a product or service. Don’t write these pieces just for the sake of them - but if you find a genuine problem with something problem posts can work for you.
• Contrasting two options - Life is full of decisions between two or more options. Write a post contrasting two products, services or approaches that outlines the positives and negatives of each choice. In a sense these are review posts but are a little wider in focus. I find that these posts do very well on some of my product blogs where people actually search for ‘X Product comparison to Y Product’ quite a bit.
• Rant - get passionate, stir yourself up, say what’s on your mind and tell it like it is. Rants are great for starting discussion and causing a little controversy - they can also be quite fun if you do it in the right spirit. Just be aware that they can also be the beginnings of a flaming comment thread and often it’s in the heat of the moment when we say things that we later regret and that can impact our reputation the most.
• Inspirational - On the flip side to the angry rant (and not all rants have to be angry) are inspirational and motivational pieces. Tell a story of success or paint a picture of ‘what could be’. People like to hear good news stories in their niche as it motivates them to persist with what they are doing. Find examples of success in your own experience or that of others and spread the word.
• Research - In the early days I wrote quite a few research oriented posts - looking at different aspects of blogging - often doing mind numbing counting jobs. I remember once surfing through 500 blogs over a few days to look at a number of different features. Research posts can take a lot of time but they can also be well worth it if you come up with interesting conclusions that inspire people to link up to you.
• Collation Posts - These are a strange combination of research and link posts. In them you pick a topic that you think your readers will find helpful and then research what others have said about it. Once you’ve found their opinion you bring together everyone’s ideas (often with short quotes) and tie them together with a few of your own comments to draw out the common themes that you see.
• Prediction and Review Posts - We see a lot of these at the end and start of the year where people do their ‘year in review’ posts and look at the year ahead and predict what developments might happen in their niche in the coming months.
• Critique Posts - ‘Attack posts’ have always been a part of blogging (I’ve done a few in my time) but these days I tend to prefer to critique rather than attack. Perhaps it’s a fine line but unless I get really worked up I generally like to find positives in what others do and to suggest some constructive alternatives to the things that I don’t like about what they do. I don’t really see the point in attacking others for the sake of it, but as I’ve said before this more a reflection of my own personality than much else I suspect and some people make a name for themselves very well by attacking others.
• Debate - I used to love a good debate in high school - there was something about preparing a case either for or against something that I quite enjoyed. Debates do well on blogs and can either in an organised fashion between two people, between a blogger and ‘all comers’ or even between a blogger and… themselves (try it - argue both for and against a topic in one post - you can end up with a pretty balanced post).
• Hypothetical Posts - I haven’t done one of these for a while but a ‘what if’ or hypothetical post can be quite fun. Pick a something that ‘could’ happen down the track in your industry and begin to unpack what the implications of it would be. ‘What if….Google and Yahoo merged?’ ‘What if …’
• Satirical - One of the reasons I got into blogging was that I stumbled across a couple of bloggers who were writing in a satirical form and taking pot shots at politicians (I can’t seem to find the blog to link to). Well written satire or parody can be incredibly powerful and is brilliant for generating links for your blog.
• Memes and Projects - write a post that somehow involves your readers and gets them to replicate it in someway. Start a poll, an award, ask your readers to submit a post/link or run a survey or quiz.
Teenie Blogger (Teenoger)
Percentage of blogger population: 22%
Hours spent blogging: 28/week
Habitat: Suburbia
Average Age: 12 (actual age doesn't matter as most of these bloggers tend to emulate a 12 year old.)
Favorite hangout: The mall
Last Book Read: What's a book?
Favorite Offline Activities: Gossip, boy bands, gossip about boy bands, boy bands about gossip.
Mode of Dress: Varies wildly, but you will notice it will have some b
rand name of some company predominantly displayed.
Psychological profile: ESFP
Typical post: 10/24/02 5:43 p.m. So, like today I was in the cafeteria talking about Shelly's stupid blog, ok, and then Josie like totally walked up in my face and said my blog was trash and I was like, noo way, talk to the blog, ya know, cause i'm cool and I don't play that. So anyway, I need to go eat dinner now. I'll blog on it later.
Techie Blogger (Togger)
Percentage of blogger population: 20%
Hours spent blogging: 56/week
Habitat: Usually a messy desk type area with lots of caffeine nearby. Techie Bloggers have been known to be nomads, though, with the advent of wireless internet technology. You may see them anywhere as a result, although most tend towards urban areas.
Average Age: 20 something
Favorite hangout: Slashdot
Last Book Read: Understanding the LINUX Kernel: From I/O Ports to Process Management
Favorite Offline Activities: Microsoft jokes, computer swap meets, hacker conventions.
Mode of Dress: Varies wildly, but you will usually notice at least one obscure reference to linux ruling and microsoft sucking.
Psychological profile: INTP
Typical post: select extract('epoch' from now()) as unixtime; Recompiled the kernel from CVS today. Blech. While waiting for it to compile, I worked some on my project to turn GIMP into an auto-dynamic IP range modifier for my Sega Dreamcast box. The boxen are doing ok, but the 486 piece of crap is pulling too much juice and overheating so I'm thinking of rerouting the fan and mounting it inside my refrigerator. Yeah, yeah, I saw the /. article, but mine is going to be way cooler. More later, my Mac is beeping...
Trailer Blogger (Trogger)
Percentage of blogger population: .5%
Hours spent blogging: 25 minutes per week
Habitat: Trailer park. Sometimes a double-wide, sometimes just a pre-fab. Somehow a few AOL disks found their way into the 'park' and some people ended up signing up for the 1,000 free hours and managed to accidentally put a blog together. (come on, it's not that hard. Side note: What would happen if AOL gave everyone a free (so easy to use!) blog with their AOL discs?)
Average Age: 18
Favorite hangout: McDonalds
Last Book Read: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beer
Favorite Offline Activities: Barbecues, drinking Pabst, harrassing the neighbors.
Mode of Dress: T-shirt and jeans with frayed ends.
Psychological profile: ESFJ
Typical post: Friday, October 2002 - Had to put the Chrysler up on blocks today. Thing is, I had to use the blocks from the Toyota because I was outta blocks and Tim across the way had no blocks either. I don't think they have a store that sells blocks, so I just took the blocks from uner the other car and now i have to find some blocks for that car. Not running, though, so I guess it's ok there with no wheels for now. I might be back next week to post .. hold on, sounds like Bob's at the door with some beer...
Blog Blogger (HasTooMuchTimer)
Percentage of blogger population: 12%
Hours spent blogging: 56/week
Habitat: Anywhere. This type of blogger is traditionally a nomad as well, always having a way to update their blog and get the latest bloggerific news on their cell, pda or pager.
Average Age: 22
Favorite hangout: Internet cafes so they can blog in real-time while interacting with other bloggers re: blogging.
Last Book Read: Essential Blogging
Favorite Offline Activities: Meeting other bloggers in real life to talk about blogs.
Mode of Dress: They change themes several times a day.
Psychological profile: ENTJ
Typical post:4:30:59 p.m. - Update to post below, bloggerific's blog is splitting into two separate blogs! Bloggerific indeed!!! Stay tuned for more...
4:30:45 p.m. - Nothing new yet, but I thought I'd blog it in case someone wandered by and wondered if I'd forgotten to blog the update or if there was any new news, which there isn't, but that's ok.
4:30:29 p.m. - No updates yet. waiting...
4:30:23 p.m. - Ok, here's the update to my previous update: bloggerific's blog has been moved from blogger.com to blogfodder.com, but he may be moving it back soon. I'll keep you updated.
War Blogger (Woggler)
Percentage of blogger population: 18%
Hours spent blogging: 40/week
Habitat: The warroom, of course.
Average Age: 46
Favorite hangout: The shooting range. NRA meetings. The woods.
Last Book Read: Fascism and Resistance in Portugal: Communists, Liberals and Military Dissidents in the Opposition to Salazar, 1941-1974
Favorite Offline Activities: Survival training for the coming apocalypse.
Mode of Dress: camouflage anything.
Psychological profile: ESTP
Typical post: 4:30:23 p.m. - Stupid right wing commie nuts like X and Y really upset me. This country was founded on the principle of guns and happiness or something, wasn't it? What's all this peace crap? We're the best. Love it or leave it. Semper Fi, my boy, never surrender!
Hippy Blogger (Bippy)
Percentage of blogger population: 2%
Hours spent blogging: 3/week
Habitat: Cute little bungalows in low rent districts across the U.S. with picket fences and groovy colored houses.
Average Age: 42
Favorite hangout: Wherever they are, they are.
Last Book Read: Leaves of Grass
Favorite Offline Activities: World peace, grooving, hanging, smoking the peace pipe.
Mode of Dress: Hemp anything (including under garments depending on how hardcore of a hippy they are.)
Psychological profile: INFP
Typical post: 4/20/02 at 4:20 - Whoa, dude, it's 420 on 420 that must be like some way groovy cat somewhere making it so synchronistic or something. Gotta go. Peace.
Goth Blogger (Glogger)
Percentage of blogger population: 5%
Hours spent blogging: 20/week
Habitat: Somewhere dark, with the shades drawn.
Average Age: 18
Favorite hangout: Coffin in the basement.
Last Book Read: Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark Culture
Favorite Offline Activities: Crying, moping, staring off blankly into space.
Mode of Dress: Black anything (including undergarments and skin depending on how hardcore of a Goth they are.)
Psychological profile: INFJ
Typical post: x1/x1/x2 -- 3:20 a.m. - i want to die. why are there so many happy bright blogs out there? Why do none of my questions get answered? Why does no one leave comments? Why do I even try anymore? Here is some poetry about my situation.
So, after you read that, you may be wanting to start your own blog. Remember that:
There are no rules.
You're the master yet you must be careful.
You're live (fast), more live than any other media (tweeting is micro-blogging but it's blogging).
You're mobile.
You're international.
You're real-time.
You can write on watches, wine, waitresses or webs (made by spiders) on the same page.
