Blogging tip #7: Content formats and content types

bysmartketeer

6.8K followers

Updated 6 years ago

In the previous tip I was talking about visual elements ... Today we are going to cover two other important factors of your content strategy: ...

A. Content formats and content types

Before you actually start to craft outstanding content masterpieces in order to earn money with a blog or to make a living with blogging it’s very important to consider, what content formats and what types of content are you going to create. Let’s take a quick look at these two issues:

1. Content formats

I strongly recommend you to choose your preferred content formats from the very beginning. Making an early decision about what formats are you going to create and publish, will help you to plan your content creation process, and to craft a more efficient content calendar. And will also allow you to allocate the necessary budget to make each content format successful. Let’s see what options do you have:

• text; obviously, it’s the most common and easiest format to produce if you want to earn money with a blog or to make a living with blogging; the web is text-based, so all you have to do is to publish it, and your content will be found, indexed, shared, etc

• graphics; images are becoming more and more important; why? because, “a picture is worth a thousand words”; because, using them strategically in your content you can increase the value and the impact of your content; because, there’s a social platform called Pinterest; because the infographics are becoming more and more popular; because, …

• video; a properly produced an really informative professional video can be more efficient than any well-written article; in fact, video is quickly becoming as important as text on the web, because an easy-to-digest video content requires less “work” on the part of the user; if you want to make videos part of your content strategy, don’t forget to allocate proper funds for video production, to find some handy ways to include links and branding elements in your videos, and to provide high-quality transcriptions in order to help both users and search engines

• audio; audio always has been part of the web and nowadays is becoming more and more popular thanks to the existing and constantly emerging sharing platforms; depending on your niche you should consider using podcasts, radio shows, audio-books, etc as permanent elements of your content strategy; don’t forget the required funds and the transcriptions!

2. Content types

Once you have defined your preferred content formats, you’ll have to find the best ways to present your content. In other words, you’ll have to decide what types of content are you going to produce. Needless to say, different content types will generate different impacts and results. With different content types you can target different audiences and different objectives. You’ll have to identify the most engaging content types, that are really suitable for your target audience and your blog’s purpose. The only limit is your imagination: news, tutorials, Q&A posts, interviews, webinars, tips and tricks, online courses, cheat sheets, white papers, etc. But, don’t forget: always focus on value! Both social and interactive!

B. Brand voice

Building brand awareness involves reaching a high search engine ranking, as well as developing an active online community of interested readers. So – putting aside the obvious SEO efforts -, you’ll have to build an active social presence across multiple different channels. But, each social platform has its own rules and particularities, and you’ll have to find a way to communicate the very same message emphasizing your unique style, tone and brand voice through every single piece of social content – or any other type of content – you are going to create. Your goal is to show the world how you really are.

Also, if you are going to use internal or external contributors to create content for your blog, be sure that they are marching with your flag in their hands! They can – and they probably will – have different tones, but they should all pivot from one, and only one brand voice.