MelvinBlog

A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.

What Type Of Blog Post Can Get You the Most Traffic?

What Type Of Blog Post Can Get You the Most Traffic?

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This is the question that I got from a good friend couple of weeks back. I was about to post it last Monday but I got super busy. Anyways back to the topic. So you’re feeling good to write something you think would crush the blogosphere right? You sit down and wrote it, published it and boom, not much traffic. Where do I get wrong, maybe you’re asking.

Anyways first I’d like to answer the question first on what is the best day to post a good article? The answer (I know you’ll be disappointed) is it depends. Mostly and from my experience the best day is either Monday or Tuesday. This is when I mostly post my “pillar articles” as what Yaro Starak calls it. I was also inferred that Friday and Saturday are good days as well but as I’ve said it depends on the behavior of your readers.

So what type of blog post can get the most traffic? Here’s a list based on my own experience as well as some research. No particular order:

Personal posts

I talked about this in my post about personal posts and voyeurism. Again the reason why this type of post gets so much traffic is because people are always interested to know private things about the author and also add the fact that literally everyone can participate in this type of conversation. Once in a while, it’s nice to let our readers know that ‘hey Im human too and I screw up sometimes’ Here are some examples:

“How To” Type of Posts

Arguably and obviously the best way to get it done during high traffic days. “How to” posts are basically like definitive guides wherein you write an article with a minimum or longer than 1000 words. The reason it works well is obvious, it gets people to read more. And if you do this write, you will not only get a lot of traffic, you will also get a lot of links from other blogs in the blogosphere.

I have done a couple of this post in the past few years but this year I’m trying to do it more and more to provide the best value for my readers. Here’s my portfolio of my own how to posts:

Resource Guide

This is another type of post that seems to rake in instant traffic to a blog. Here in this blog, you really will not find that much but I know for most blogs this is usually there main driver of traffic for their sites. The reason this works so well is because people see it as handy, meaning something that they can bookmark or use for future use. And besides people love lists so no wonder why it does well. Ex:

Interviews With Other Bloggers

Actually this goes well specifically for interviewing high profile bloggers in your niche but for this I would like to use bloggers as a general example. This type of post can attract so much traffic mainly because most bloggers, if not all, love talking about themselves on where they’re up to lately! Instead of just you spreading the word, they help you spread the word and if they’re big enough, let alone their massive number of readers do the job for you. Examples:

Contest Posts

Contest posts are the type of posts that can get it done pretty quick. For obvious reasons, contest posts can very much get massive traffic, comments and attention in just a span of an hour. The cons though is that the long term effect and benefit of it is non-existing since people don’t need to read if it’s already done. In short, it’s time-sensitive. Examples:

Controversial Posts

Controversial posts can get an equally massive traction around if done properly. However, never ever do it for the sake of being controversial. Know what I mean? When you expose something or rant on someone, make sure you back up it up with facts, not just speculations. There’s a good chance that the traffic you will get can only do harm for you if you don’t do it correctly.

My favorite guy in doing is a dude named NickyCakes. Nick has been exposing and calling out on people especially if he thinks they suck. The good thing is he always backs it up with facts. But the one thing that you have to keep in mind when doing controversial posts is that you have to be ready for everything, regardless of you’re doing it right or you’re doing it wrong.

Linkbait Posts

Linkbait type of posts kind of like included in each and every type I mentioned above but the reason I had it seperately is because there are some bloggers out there who use compelling headlines alone to get massive traction.

I’m sure you’ve read intriguing titled posts wherein the content doesn’t really fall into the other type of posts I mentioned above. A good example of this are the April fools posts wherein it’s intriguing and that alone get so many people to read their stuffs.

There’s not much return in it because people are gonna either find it nice or they would get pissed off and it could result to a high percentage of visitors just bouncing off.

Conclusion

Those are the different types of posts that can potentially get the most traffic. So far I think I’ve done most of them and this blog post is more from my experience in blogging.

Also when considering on publishing on any of these posts make sure to spend an ample amount of time and work on them carefully. As I’ve said a lot of times already, it could completely go the other way and more likely just harm your blog if not done correctly.

That’s it for now, how about you do you have any types of guest post that works the most for you? or maybe you would want to share your own reason why some of them work so well?

Image credit to: http://hermawanputra.files.wordpress.com

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hey Melvin,

    Nice Post man. List posts or posts that tell some personal story works great for me.
    Thanks for this great Post Melvin. Keep up the awesome work.

    ~Dev

  3. well i have observed that the posts that have my opinion attached with them brings maximum traffic for me…..
    people get to know something really important

  4. hello melvin. I find your “What’s the best gift for a girl post” very interesting so, I left a comment ^_^

    the Personal and contest posts works very well.

  5. I absolutely agree that interview posts are very popular and gets lots of traffic. My top 10 posts in terms of traffic includes 3 interviews. One of them is the interview I did with you.

    Also there are 2 contest posts which are in my top 10 posts. My New Year contest being the leader of all posts.

    Also Blog Marketing Posts – Comment Markeitng which I have done for your contest is also in top 10.

    And surprisingly “About” page is there too.

  6. Melvin,
    Thanks for another great post. I have had the best traffic on my How-to posts (of which there are only a few since I’m so new) but I can verify what you are saying.

    I’m working on a contest concept that hopefully I’ll be able to do soon. Which so little traffic to my blog so far, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of interested people 🙂

  8. Personally I did a post a while back called Real Or Robot that got a good response and a lot of comments.

    I also thought that my monthly experience would gain more exposure than it has which is why I now have a new enhanced section to see if I get get it going a bit faster.

    I’d say doing contests and giving away stuff and doing how to’s definitely sparks some interest as long as you’re interested in the topic at hand.

  10. Quite possibly the most informative posts to me. I am alays struggling to think of topics to write about that will grab the attention of people.

    Obviously I have a personal blog so I keep personal stuff off my MMO blog but I think I could use most of the other suggestions.

    Thanks. 🙂

  12. I’m grateful to hear that. 😉

    Well contest posts don’t do much wonder since after the contest, no one reads them anymore.

  14. yep I agree. For how to posts, it depends on how you carve it out. Some people rush it and the end result doesn’t seem to be that good. Having an interest on the topic definitely helps out in creating long posts especially how to stuffs.

  15. Yep, you’re right! 🙂 But then I categorize them more either on “personal posts” and/or linkbait type of posts. but yeah, humor does attract

  19. Hey Melvin,

    This is my first time here in your blog. Awesome post man! I really like the way you list all the possible best posts you can put. Keep it up and looking forward to your next posts.

    Mabuhay ang mga Pinoy online entrepreneurs! 🙂

    regards,

    Gary

  20. hey melvin,
    great roundup.
    well i personally believe that you get to blog from anything to everything. there are no limitation in the blogosphere.
    Whether the question of getting known is really up up to how you write your contents and market them out.
    whatever post it may be, try to have them stand out. avoid writing typical content that you can practically look for anywhere else online. standing out and being *special* really does has it worth of price.
    most importantly, its about providing value. i mean sure, its also about money but don’t let such thoughts drives you obsessed and blinds you to what you really should write on.
    not giving up is an important attribute too. slowly but gradually you will establish a very lucrative ‘hobby’.
    cheers

  21. These are all great types of posts and each one gets good traffic. The ones I like personally to read are the house “How To” posts, those are the most informative and helpful

  22. awesome post dude! but again after sometime you find thres nothing in life and you just cant find anything to blah about. Thats the hardest part

  23. Melvin, this is a great reference for a newbie myself. My blog is just pretty days old and About Me is the most popular one so far. 🙂 I’d agree “how-to” with great title would be attractive to me as a reader.

  24. Hmm… I believe there is one type of post that really can get lot’s of traffic and comments which is world news, what I mean is news that almost everyone is interested in, for example news like the world cup 2010, death of Michael Jackson or some other news that’s worthy to almost everyone.

    But of course you might think your blog wasn’t about this type of topic, but you also must know this type of news isn’t everyday stuff, so once in awhile writing post like this, seriously will entertain your audience and also get others that previously never knew about your blog to get involve into it too which turns out new prospect for you too.

  26. Mmm, I think what you’re referring to is current affairs or current hot news. That’s something I forgot! Ya, we can leverage on human’s curiosity on current news and events too, to ride the wave. The only issue is that we may need to be super quick and updated to ride this. =)

  28. Hey,
    Some great tips there that I have taken on board. I had written a few personal articles, but I wasn’t sure if they’d be received well. When you put it this way, I may write a few more! I’ve one coming over the next few days!

  29. i just did a post about something which was really on going in my country which was the name list of the National Service participants and i just left a tag there that said”list for 2011 national service names” and within a day I have some new 10000 unique visitors as it is on the first page and first site on google!!!

  31. You put it really well when you were talking about days of the week, and how it depends on what readers you have when your best days are. That logic extends to what types of posts work.

    My feeling is that if one is blogging about blogging, those list posts/resource guides should be churned out on a regular basis. They find their way onto other people’s lists very rapidly. Part of me is almost becoming philosophically opposed to those types of posts; I write them as sneeze pages for my blog, but that’s because indexing is an essential part of blog housekeeping.

  32. Melvin, I agree with you that there there is no specific type of blog posts that can bring you the most traffic. It can be difficult to predict even if you think you know the latest trends and happenings related to the niche your blog is in. I think other factors that we all know of, like SEO related optimization towards a blog post can also have an impact on traffic too

  33. Nice roundup Melvin. I think that seasonal blog posting sometimes worked and a lot of bloggers boosted their traffic by this way. Video marketing also works. Thanks

  34. I think nothing beats a news blog enrolled in Google News. That’s the type of blog that gathers the most traffic. However, you need to update it daily.

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