Stuck for something to blog about? Tired of writing the same sort of blog posts over and over? Here are 32 types of blog posts to use for inspiration. You’ll never be short on a post idea again!

1. A list post

Suggestion: Write a bucket list, a must-see or must-do list, a list of 10 reasons to (or not to…), a list of your top 15 fave places/movies/travel destinations, a list of lessons you could learn from Celebrity X.

2. A pros and cons post

Suggestion: Pick a topic/subject/object and research it the best you can. Write down its qualities and present this information to your readers under two headings: its pros and its cons. Ask your readers which is the stronger argument.

3. An A-Z post

Suggestion: Write an A-Z on your blog’s niche. For example: An A to Z of cleaning tips, make-up tips, travel tips, cooking tips, photography tips (or in this blog’s case: the A-Z of blog tools & resources!)

4. A profile

Suggestion: Write a profile post on someone you know, a blogger you admire, a public figure who’s caught your interest or even the type of reader your blog is aimed at. Make it detailed and discuss why you chose that person or people.

5. A tutorial or how-to post

Suggestion: Are you skilled in carrying out a particular task? Or, is there a task you want to learn (that others would likely want to know how to do too?). Turn it into a step-by-step tutorial using video, photos or screen casts.

6. A comparison

Suggestion: Compare two topics, subjects or objects (workout videos, writing courses, fashion books etc) and write the key features of each side-by-side. The exercise will not only prove interesting for your readers, but may help you finally choose between two things you’ve been debating over!

7. A review or critique post

Suggestion: Document your experience and thoughts on a particular hotel, restaurant, plane ride, car you’ve test-driven, new website, cosmetic or cleaning product, new film or TV show, e-book, adventure or game.

8. A makeover or before-and-after post

Suggestion: Show the before and after images of your haircut, wardrobe tidy-up, bedroom wallpaper, kitchen makeover, diet or exercise results and more! Readers LOVE the power of these images! They give hope and inspiration!

9. A guide-to… post

Suggestion: Write your tips, tricks and hints readers would find useful for experiencing a place (a country or city), trying something new (an exercise regime), using a product or service (eg: adding the Pinterest “Pin It” button to your blog), or attempting something you may be skilled in (writing short stories or purchasing the right camera).

10. A diary entry

Suggestion: For the blogger who’s open to revealing their more honest side, a diary-style post will do just that! Talk freely about an experience, what’s on your mind, your hopes or plans for the future or a funny story from your past.

11. A quiz

Suggestion: Use a quiz to entertain your readers (Which Sex And The City character are you?) or to help them understand a topic (How much do you know about colour?). Try Free Online Surveys for a quiz tool or the WordPress Quiz Me plugin.

12. A news story

Suggestion: Scour the news headlines or press releases you’ve received to write a post on a current topic that your readers will be interested in. Bloggers who are quick to jump on news stories may be well-rewarded traffic-wise.

13. A glossary

Suggestion: Write a post defining the popular words used by bloggers in your niche. Promote it as a go-to, must-book mark resources for those new to the topic, emphasising how hand it is for them to refer to often. Use The Alphabetizer to quickly put the words in order.

14. A live-blogging post

Suggestion: Live blogging a conference event can be a very quick and easy way to grow your audience and gain new Twitter followers fast! Not going to an event? Try doing the same with a popular TV show – choose one that “everyone’s talking about” and make use of its hashtag to attract traffic.

15. A case study

Suggestion: Case studies are great ways to convey information (statistics, results, data and so on) in an interesting way. For example, if you blog about ways to save money, you could experiment with switching off certain appliances for a month and comparing the electricity usage and costs with the previous month.

16. A vlog

Suggestion: If you want to mix things up a bit, try making a video of yourself for your blog. Some readers like words, some like sound and some like video. Give them all three and you’re sure to please! Here are some vlogging tools.

17. A best-of post

Suggestion: Perfect for when you’re short on time or trying to prepare posts before heading on vacation, a best-of post highlights your top 5, 10, 15 (up to you!) posts for the week, month or year. It also makes a great starting page for new readers who want to see what’s been popular on your site without trawling through archives.

18. A survey

Suggestion: A survey can be used for numerous reasons. Create one to find out what sort of content your readers enjoy or to get feedback on an issue that you can then turn into another post. Tools such as Wufoo can be used to create surveys you can embed into posts.

19. An interview

Suggestion: Interviews are great way to add interesting content to your blog. Find someone your readers will be interested in learning from, and share their info in Q&A format. Also? Try interviewing yourself to share your own thoughts on a particular topic.

20. A giveaway or competition

Suggestion: Giveaways or competitions are popular with bloggers as they can really drive traffic. Make use of some of the many blog competition and giveaway tools to make running and drawing a winner easier!

21. An open letter

Suggestion: Open letters are another way you can produce content in an interesting way. Whether you’re a parenting blogger writing to your child (Dear Johnny…) or a fashion blogger writing to Anna Wintour, open letters are suited to all blog niches.

22. A webinar or live broadcast

Suggestion: Host your own talk show! Use a platform such as Vokle to embed the video into your post and “take calls” from your readers. Lots of fun and a different way to interact with your audience right on your blog.

23. A timeline post

Suggestion: A timeline can be used to in many situations. You could try “A day in the life of…” listing how your subject’s day starts and ends, and what happens at different points during the day. This format can also be used to cover, for example, the opening of a business, or the launch of a product.

24. A carnival

Suggestion: A blog carnival is a great way to connect with other bloggers, but also to drive traffic. Either start your own or participate in one that’s running. Check out the blog carnival tools and resources.

25. A link round-up

Suggestion: A link round-up is useful to create when you’re short on time (or suffering blog-writer’s block!). Simply write a list of links you think your audience would find interesting. Give it a theme to create interest such as 10 tutorials you discovered, 15 posts from other bloggers in your niche, or the five most-interesting news stories you’ve read.

26. A guest post

Suggestion: Letting others guest post on your blog can be beneficial for so many reasons: it saves you time, it gives you the opportunity to network with others, you could receive traffic from the poster’s readers, and your audience gets to enjoy a different style of writing. Check out My Blog Guest for guest-posters.

27. A FAQ

Suggestion: If you find your readers are constantly asking you the same questions, turn your answers into a frequently-asked questions post! Link to it from your navigation or sidebar so that new readers can quickly and easily find it too.

28. An audio post (podcast)

Suggestion: Tired of typing? Want to speak freely about a topic? Have recorded content (such as an interview) you could make use of? Offer your readers a podcast! Try AudioJungle for music and sound effects and edit it with Aviary.

29. First person story

Suggestion: No special tools or resources required for this one! Simply recount a story to your readers. Think of something that’s interesting that might educate, motivate, inspire or make your readers laugh. Easy!

30. A visual (pictorial) post

Suggestion: Make a post entirely out of images from apps you may use such as Instagram. Try theming them (e.g.: “A day in my life…”, “What I pack for a weekend away”, “What I keep in my camera-gear bag”) or creating a collage. Turn your collage into an image map with Image-map.com.

31. A cheat sheet

Suggestion: Think carefully about your blog’s topic. What would your readers love to read in the form of a cheat sheet or quick-reference guide? Think of creating something they can book mark for quick reference. For example: hard-to-pronounce dishes or fashion labels.

32. A commentary post

Suggestion: Is there a piece of writing that has you incredibly fired up? Use snippits of it to provide the frame work for your post, and add your own thoughts to each paragraph. Explain why you do (or don’t) agree with the author.

Got any other suggestions? Which style of post works best for you?

This post originally appeared on Blogger’s Domain which is now part of The Blog Stylist. Check it out here.

Today I’m delighted to have guest posted over at Tessa Needham’s blog! You may remember Tessa from a recent post here: Ask the expert: Beginnger WordPress tips by Tessa Needham. She wanted to know my thoughts on how to jazz up your blog, so I shared eight ideas that are not only easy, but FREE!

Here are three of them, be sure to check out her site for the other five!

1. Lose the plain fonts!

One of the quickest and easiest ways to freshen up your blog with little effort is to change its fonts. There are numerous sites that offer web-friendly fonts you can use, but if you’re after a free selection, check out Google’s Web Fonts. They’ve got a pretty good range to choose from (241 font families) and you can also download them for use in Photoshop and more.

2. Import images from other sites

Use Flickr? Pinterest? Instagram? You can easily incorporate the feeds from these sites into your blog by installing the relative WordPress plugins. Having the pictures appear in your sidebar not only gives your readers something else to look at, but provides other ways for them to connect with you off your blog.

3. Try a new colour scheme

You don’t need to be an artist to come up with a new colour scheme. With tools such as Color Scheme Designer and sites such as Colour Lovers, finding new hues is as simple as point and click.

Don’t forget the other five! Read them here.

I had some free time this afternoon. This is rare. My plans got rearranged, and rather than tackle my three-page long to-do list, I thought I’d do something fun and go through my list of Twitter followers, check out their blogs and leave some comments. Good times!

But my commenting experience quickly jumped on the fast train to Annoyed And Frustrated with stops at all stations before reaching I Can’t Be Bothered. Here are seven things I discovered and why I want my ticket refunded.

1. You didn’t give me a link

I clicked through the profiles of about 100 Twitter followers and was surprised at the number of people who call themselves bloggers, yet provide no link to their blog in their Twitter bio. Two words: why not?

2. You want me to sign in

I have over 300 online accounts. Yes really. Imma geek and I’m proud of it. If there is something new, hot and popular, I want to be part of it (especially if I’ve read about it on Mashable). That means 300 usernames and passwords. Just remembering my e-mail password is sometimes hard enough, but when I have to go fishing for login details to leave a comment on your blog? Um. Nope. Not gonna happen.

3. You tell me my comment is too short!

Well. Pick me up off the floor and call me Fred. I find a blog that interests me, type in what I have to say, and am greeted with a pop-up box saying: “Your comment is too short”. OK. I will take my comment and leave it somewhere size doesn’t matter!

4. You want me to be bilingual

In CAPTCHA speak, that is. Is that a 1 or an I? An O or a 0? Hang on – where are my glasses? And am I supposed to be copying it exactly? That is, am I going to have to make three attempts if I do or don’t include that hyphen that may or may not be a hyphen? Who knows? It could be a smudgy thing to trick me into thinking it’s a hyphen when it’s not! Oh, happy days!

5. You want to moderate what I have to say

There! My literary work of genius! I wrote it! I read over it! I checked it for typos! I hit submit! I’m about to see my name in lights! And…. you want to approve it first. Cue disappointment. And now I have to bookmark your page and remember to visit it later if I want to check it (that is, if you didn’t provide a “subscribe to comments” option). And if I forget and you reply? I may not see it, which means your reply is wasted.

6. You may as well be the Tooth Fairy

I click through to a new blog and… I have no idea who it is by. There is no picture. There is no name. There is no about page. So I go back to check out your Twitter avatar. But it’s of a shoe. C’mon! Gimme something! I get that some people are shy online, and like to be anonymous (and there’s nothing wrong with that – honest). But it only takes a few sentences of info to connect with your readers – why would I leave a comment with Ms Nobody? At least tell me what your blog is about and why you started it. Use a pseudonym if you have to.

7. You’ve left me with nothing to say

I can talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles. Seriously. I’m rarely left without something to say (I make the perfect dinner date – there are no awkward-silence moments with me!). But… when you post those snaps of your beach vacation with little information, I am really grasping at straws to think of something to write. “Uh… nice sand?”.

And, after voicing my opinion Twitter about the trouble of leaving blog comments, it seems I am not alone. Here are the comment pet-hates of some followers…

Anything I can’t do on my iPhone. Quite seriously, most of my reading is in bed putting kids to sleep. If I can’t do it on my phone I’m not that likely to load it up on the computer later. Oh and Disqus is a nightmare! – @katesaysstuff

When some sites won’t let you leave your URL – have to go thru google. Annoying! @belindagraham

Signing off each comment with your website address (including HTML) – that’s what the ‘website’ field is for! – @frockandroll

I hate it when people are cruel with comments but too gutless to put their name to it. – @danimezza

disabling links / email addresses & having to log in to wordpress/google/whatever – @xdivx

you can set your blog to be your openID server. but I still prefer using name/url – @becbeautiful

Hate having to log in, verify and pop up comment windows. – @ponikuta

captcha does my head in. Also no options for putting yr own URL. I mean, what is openID?? – @xyling

ugh. Thats one of my biggest turnoffs. Right up there with indecipherable verification codes. #isthataUoraV – @counterobsess

I hate those captcha things or whatever they’re called! – @vanessacollins

Oh and the people who use a template that cuts off the enter button of the form. You can’t comment at all! – @frillyhills

went through hell to leave a comment on a blog because it was on Blogger & none of my OpenID accounts wanted to work… – @ittakes10years

Agreed! Comments are meant to encourage discussion + build a community, which makes up half of what blogging’s about. – @margaret_tran

Yes please. I hate it when it needs a certain number of words. Or there’s too many hoops, or I can’t use my name/url. – @suzsspace

yep simpicity is key when leaving comments thats why i like wordpress commenting system. It usually autofills my details 2 x – @fuyumeuk

Hate verification codes and then comment is awaiting approval. If moderating, no real need to verify. – @ampersand_dsign

sometimes I write comments when using my mobile but when I have to log in AND enter a verification code it takes ages – @pinkdivamua

I hate ones that don’t have open URL. They want me ‘sign in’ through something. Can’t I just leave my name as a link? – @ladysmaggle

and when I can’t read the captcha word.. – @julaberry

Since I’ve already asked on Twitter what your comment pet-hates are, I’m now going to ask the opposite: What makes you to WANT to leave a comment?

I used to be a website producer. It’s how I got into blogging. Producing online content started when I worked for a women’s magazine as their online editor, continued when I ran a beauty website, and has carried on since I’ve been doing my own web projects.

And I will admit: I’m a bit of a geek. OK. A lot of a geek. There was little more I enjoyed than the thrill of monitoring my site’s traffic. Watching it go from zero page views on the first day of the month, to millions of page views by day 30 or 31 was, to say the least, super exciting! (See? You should totally invite me to your next party. I’d be the life of it.)

So I thought I’d put together my top tips things I used do on a day-to-day basis to bring in the traffic. Yes, these tips were for websites that belonged to a network*, but they can apply to blogs as well. Here goes.

1. Look for timely opportunities

This goes without saying. Covering New York Fashion Week two weeks after it has finished ain’t going to win you readers. You want to cover it at the time, if not before. Build anticipation, let you readers preview the kinda goods you’re going to deliver when the event comes. Do a post on your predictions, or an outline of what you have install. Be first, put your own spin on it, and promote the pants off it.

2. Create an editorial calendar

This is something I hope to go into much more detail on, but in simple speak for now: get thee a spreadsheet (I use Google Docs), create a column for each month, trawl the net for events you can cover and write down when they occur, including URLs to official sites. That way you know exactly what’s coming up that you can write about and you can prepare for it in a timely manner.

3. Try to break stories first

This is not always easy as a blogger – most PRs will reserve their big news for mainstream media. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be the first in your circle to write about the latest news. Did I get a personal fax from Victoria Beckham’s hairdresser** alerting me to her cropped ‘do when she ditched her “pob”? No siree. But I did jump on the story as soon as I found out about it – and was the first among my colleagues – creating a post that got thousands of visitors.

4. Look for your own ways to cover news events

What did one of David Beckham’s trips to Australia, or Barack Obama winning the US election have to do with a beauty website? Zero. But they were all over the news, and I wanted to jump on that bandwagon. Hence: I did a gallery on David Beckham’s ever-changing hairstyles, and a story on the beauty side of the election (for example: the rise in Sarah Palin-inspired wigs. For realz.). True, they weren’t exactly going to win me journalism awards, but hey, they were timely, light-hearted and kept my site looking current.

5. Make the most of inbound links

When I knew I was getting an inbound link to one of my stories, I’d go to the page and analyse it. I’d ask myself: If I was a new reader, what was going to catch my attention first? And – should the particular story not catch my attention – was there anything else right in front of my face that I could click on, rather than going for the back button, or heading to another site? If I was concerned the story wasn’t particularly strong, I’d add in two or three links directly under the first paragraph to articles that I knew would catch people’s attention. That way, if my readers didn’t like what they read after the introduction (the point where most people stop) they were given a couple of strong reasons to stay on my site. It worked brilliantly.

6. People like before and after pictures

They give inspiration and hope. It’s a no-brainer. It’s also why renovation, weight-loss and cosmetic-surgery shows will continue to be popular. One of my galleries on cosmetic makeovers brought in more than one million page views on a single day. Enuff said.

7. The devil is in the details

I am sometimes a little OCD. I will check and re-check a post to make sure it’s perfect. Do I get it right all the time? HELL NO. But I try. Here is a simple example: If you’ve ever copy and pasted text from a doc into a post, it might not show up in the same font as the rest of your blog. Take the time to fix this! It only takes seconds, but can make your blog look a whole lot more professional.

8. Strong images are a must

Nothing makes me cringe more than seeing a slightly blurry or pixelated photo. Granted, we are not all Annie Leibovitz, but, if it’s not great, look for alternatives (Flickr Creative Commons is a good image resource). And here are three tips for including images: 1) If it’s going to be by itself, make the image the same width as your column post. It looks far, far nicer than having a small image in the middle of the screen with masses of white space around it IMO. 2) If it you don’t want it to be quite this big, align it to the left or right (not middle!) and wrap the text around it. This also looks good IMO. 3) If you’re intent on putting images in the middle, make up for this fact by only including ones that look so good you want to lick the screen (beautyeditor.ca does this well) or arranging them in a pretty collage (beautyeditor.ca also does this well).

9. If in doubt, blog about hair

I’m a woman, and I like getting my hair done as much as most other gals do. But… the power of hair-related stories on the internet is nuts. And to be honest, I’m not actually sure I get why. Regardless, if you’re scratching around for traffic, try this: Do a big hair story, add lots of pictures, make sure “hair” or “hairstyles” is mentioned in the headline and submit it to StumbleUpon. You can thank me later.

*Bloggers can form their own network! Find nine other bloggers to team up with. Comment on and promote each other’s posts! Run a weekly “Top ten stories” with links to the nine other sites (and one to yours). It’s fun, it’s like a group version of blogging buddies, and it can help you grow your site.

**Random fact about me: I have had my hair cut by Victoria Beckham’s hairdresser. Yes, the one responsible for her “pob”. He was in Australia for some kind of promotion and I contacted his publicist. Did I get a “pob”? Uh, no. I went for my “safe” hairstyle: long layers. Do I regret it? Hell yes. I should have let him cut me a pob when I had the chance. Oh well…

What are your best blogging tips? Do tell!

What’s the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? I wish I had a dollar for each time I’ve been asked that…

So, in the name of keeping things very simple, here is the major difference:

WordPress.com is a free blogging platform. You do not have to pay for hosting. You sign up for it much like you would Blogger. You’re given a URL with “wordpress” in it (e.g.: yourblogname.wordpress.com).

WordPress.org (actually known just as WordPress but I always add the “.org” to try and save some confusion) is also free - you simply download the software from the site. BUT: you are then required to register a domain name and set up hosting to use it.

Which should you use?

There are pros and cons for each, though serious bloggers tend to steer towards WordPress.org for the features it offers (check out the blogger profiles and you’ll notice most use the “.org” option). If you are considering making the switch to WordPress.org, register for a free WordPress.com account first, and have a play around with it. Its functions aren’t exactly the same, but it’s enough to give you a bit of an idea before you pay for hosting.