Real Estate SEO and Technology Blog

1. Instructional –

a. 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).

b. Make sure you give instructions on interesting topics and you will make your blog posts more compelling to read and more likely to be linked.

c. Instructional blogs are highly recommended and bookmarked. The reason for this is in the nature of wanting to just click back to the instructions rather than take copious notes on how to do something of interest.

2. Informational –

a. This is one of the more common blog post types where you simply give information on a topic.

b. You can give information on any topic of your choice. The better the information that you give here, the more of an expert you appear.

c. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of some aspect of the niche that you’re writing on.

d. This is the crux of successful sites like wikipedia

3. Reviews –

a. 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.

b. Give your fair and insightful opinion and

c. ask readers for their opinion –

d. reviews can be highly powerful posts that have a great longevity.

4. Lists –

a. 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 Favorite ….’, ‘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. One 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.

b. Examples:

i. Resource lists. The useful list of resources requires two ingredients: time and a good eye for quality. If a resource list seems useful many readers will bookmark or vote for it on face-value alone. If your blog is struggling, a useful resource list can be an effective way to spark up your traffic and links.

ii. Best-of lists. At this time of year you’ll see a lot of ‘Best of 2007′ round-ups, though best-of lists seem to work well at all times. They’re effective because people are constantly searching for the ‘best’ of everything. It’s a term that promises high quality. It also generates interest because ‘best’ is subjective — what’s best for you might be mediocre for others. Ranked lists always seem to generate links, traffic and debate.

iii. Lists of tips. Quantifiable lists of tips are really attractive to readers because they explain in just a few seconds what a visitors stands to receive in return for their attention. You see them everywhere — and that’s because they work.

5. Interviews –

a. 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).

b. 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.

c. One of two good questions are more likely to get you a response than a long list of poorly thought through ones.

d. Q&As with high profile people. Interviews with well-known bloggers always seem to get links, comments and traffic. The nice thing about this method is that the only work involved is writing questions and approaching bloggers. The success rates for getting interviews are pretty high as most bloggers love talking about themselves!