10. Contest and Giveaways
Most people enjoy competitions, and everyone loves a free gift. Maybe you are about to launch a new book or ebook, or you are incentivising membership to Wealthy Affiliate or your blog with a free giveaway.
Perhaps you are giving away someone else's book - maybe the copy you've been sent or donated by the author or publisher to review? Whatever the situation, free gifts and competitions can generate a huge buzz amongst your audience.
There are also some great free tools online to help manage your giveaways - including their promotion, their integration into your email and and social media campaigns, and much more. The tool I'd recommend is Rafflecopter, which can help you deliver a really successful giveaway campaign at no absolutely cost at all.
One word of note... If you are thinking of running a competition, it's probably worth 5 minutes of your time just checking your own country's advertising regulations first, as this may have a bearing on what you can or can't say or do.
11. Offer a prediction
As a recognised thought-leader in your niche, your opinions matter. You will no doubt be one step ahead on all of the industry news, trends and any future developments. And so prediction type posts are a great way to put your audience ahead of the game.
A good example of this can be published early in the year, or in December of the previous year, with "This is what we predict for the year ahead" type posts. But that's just one example. Get out your niche crystal ball and create posts that are based around known key dates within your niche - such as a routine product launch (like the iPhone), or a regular industry event.
Then, six months later, revisit your predictions and write another post about what you got right.
12. Ask for help - a dilemma post
A Dilemma Post is essentially a call for help. Perhaps you have some kind of niche-related issue that you need some opinion, feedback or advice on?
While you may be the expert in your niche, it is still OK to ask your audience for help. It can also be beneficial in a number of ways. Firstly, you're acknowledging your readers' value and giving them the opportunity to show this in your post comments. It will also show you in a more honest light and demonstrate that you're a normal human being, just like everybody else. Asking for help will actually enhance your relationship with your audience, and will often be returned with their loyalty and that much sought after 'human connection'.
So there you have it. Twelve top ideas to generate blog posts with real engagement value. If you enjoyed this tutorial, or found it useful, please LIKE it below. Furthermore, leave me a comment - it always makes my day when I read that people find my tutorials helpful and that they are making a real difference.
Kindest regards,
Sean
Reply
I have struggled quite a bit to shape my articles just the way I wanted, and these clear guidelines detailing different "post types" have really helped me a lot with content creation; it's taken much of the uncertainty out of coming up with a new post! I have now created a content plan with different stages, from creating interlinked posts to a round up, and I think it will result in a much better affiliate marketing experience for me and my readers.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks too for your very kind feedback. I really do appreciate it and am glad that you and others are finding it useful.
You say that you created your plan. Hopefully my tutorial on creating an editorial calendar helped there too? If not, feel free to take a read. I think I added it to this tutorial, but here it is again for ease: How And Why You Should Create An Editorial Calendar . I also suggest in it a handy Wordpress plugin tool called Editorial Calendar that I find invaluable.
Anyway, I'm so pleased you liked it. Thank you again.
Kindest regards,
Sean
