The 4 Types of Blog Content On My Niche Sites

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all types of blog content or blog posts, just the ones that I use the most. I have 4 active sites, 2-3 partially active, about half a dozen sitting with content, and over 1k articles live on the web at the time of writing this.

The 4 article types below are what I publish the most across all of my sites and allow me to be a full-time blogger, and make 5 figures/month doing it.

I have a certain way that I do each one and I choose specific types of topics for each one. Each type may have different variations based on the topic and search intent. Below I’m just going to talk a little bit about each one of these types of posts and how I utilize them on my sites.

The 4 main types of blog content I use on my websites

I haven’t combed through every single one of my articles to see what obscure article types I may have come up with in the past, so it’s possible I’m missing something. Having said that, these 4 are my bread and butter. I publish them regularly and have a process for them.

1. Question & answer posts

When I first started out it was these posts that really got me going in blogging. I saw my first success from just answering some questions that people were typing into Google. I don’t do these as much anymore, but they are a great way to find super low competition topics.

People will always type their questions directly into Google, and it will only become more and more common-practice. In addition I think the questions will only get longer and more detailed. So question and answer type articles will always be a great type of blog content to add to almost any site.

As I mentioned, I started out with mostly these article. It’s easy to find the topic ideas, and the articles can be pretty short and still rank if you find low enough competition ones. So I do like them, especially for new sites. At the end of the month though, they don’t earn me as much money as the other types of articles on this list.

2. Informational listicles

For the last couple of years listicles have probably been my favorite types of blog articles to add to my sites. If you don’t know what a listicle is, I’ll explain and give you an example.

An informational listicle is an article that has a list of different items and descriptions about them, within a certain category. So if we’re in the pets niche, then a possible listicle may be “8 cat breeds that are great for apartment life”. In this fictional article we could give a list of cat breeds, along with pictures and descriptions.

We’d discuss how each one fits in with the topic of the article. You get the idea.

Anyhow, I’ve found great success with these list posts. I have a spreadsheet with hundreds of viable topics for all my sites. Once you nail down your own format and style, they’re also easy to outsource and scale up your business. Because of this, I make the majority of my display ad income from this category of posts.

3. Product roundups

Product roundups are like listicles in some ways. They are the “best posts” that almost every affiliate site has. “Best running shoes for people with wide feet” would be an example. Then you give the reader a list of running shoes that you think are suitable for them, describe why you think this, and ultimately tell them the best choices.

The goal of this type of blog content is to get the reader to click your affiliate link to an e-commerce store and make a purchase, so that you can get a commission.

In the early days of my blogging career I also did many of these product roundups, I still do some. Just not nearly as often. The competition on the commercial side of blogging is usually way way tougher and the revenue is less passive because of it. You will always have someone trying to outrank you, products will go out of stock, new models will come out, links will regularly need to be checked and updated.

With informational content, it’s pretty much publish it and forget it. With that in mind, product roundups can be very lucrative if the right offers are promoted. If you have the skills and this is the direction you want to go with your site, by all means do it.

4. Resource articles

The last type of blog content on this list is what I refer to as resource articles. Some people just call them pillar posts or cornerstone content. They can be those things, but not always. I explained it to someone like this.

A resource article usually contains valuable information that a reader needs to know in order to take an action they are planning. This is why HTML tables full of valuable data is a great centerpiece to a resource article. It’s something formatted so that people can easily refer to it and quickly get their information. Google also loves to pull from tables for featured snippets. Once someone clicks onto the page, that’s your opportunity to keep them on the page or sell them something if you want.

They can do quite well with ads, and attract a ton of backlinks. I create resource articles to be organic link magnets. Most of the time one of these articles takes a really long time to put together and ends up being 5k words or more, so you can only have so many on a site or it slows your overall growth way down.

I have some type of resource on all of my larger sites, but I sprinkle them in liberally. I also make sure that they are being linked to from within my site from many other articles, and also linking out to other internal articles. Not only that though, linking out to many authorities within the niche. Just not competitors.

Some other less common types of blog posts

Comparison articles

• This vs That – If you were in the shoe niche you might do something like “Nike vs Reebok” as an article topic. You’d compare and contrast the two brands in detail in the article.
• Pros and cons of __ – Another type of comparison article where you give the pros and cons of a thing or place, basically weighing the benefits against the drawbacks.

What’s the best ratio

I can’t really answer that question for someone else, there are too many variables. I will say that I always publish way more informational content than I do commercial. I like to go heavy on the listicles, maybe you like question and answer posts.

I think product roundups and affiliate content like that are great to have, even on a mostly informational site. I keep this content at less than 20% of my entire site though. If you forced me to tell you my ideal ratio between these 4 types of blog posts, I’d have to go with the following:

• 50% listicles
• 20% question & answer
• 20% affiliate content
• 10% resource articles

The reason I like listicles so much is because they’re great for ads, have endless keyword opportunities, and are super easy to outsource. Easy to outsource translates to easy to grow the site. Here’s some more about the best ratio of informational to commercial intent posts.