5 Proven Types of Blog Content That People Flock to Read

It’s hard to believe it but at MyKidsTime we have been blogging for 10 years! It took a while to work out how to get people to read the content we were writing so today I want to share 5 Proven Types of Blog Content That People Flock to Read. And in my opinion, these are by no way unique to the parenting sphere.

Over time I have discovered five things about blog content that make people take action and read your blog. I don’t think these five things are unique at all to the parenting sector. There’s a reason this type of content is read and it strikes at the heart of being human. Whether we are a parent or a business owner or a customer, we like to be touched, inspired, we like to save time and solve problems, and we definitely aspire to becoming better people.

So here are five types of content that people will definitely click on and read:

#1. The content is emotional

What do I mean by emotional? I mean a story or something that touches emotions. An example is our Last Time Poem which has had over 800,000 views on Mykidstime.com. But the content doesn’t need to be sentimental, it could be

• something that makes people laugh. You can see this as people share funnies all the time
• something that makes them annoyed. Nothing like a bit of controversy to get shared and noticed.
• something that touches them. This could be a story about one of your customers. Or one of your employees. Or it could be how your business or brand is helping in the community in some way.
• something that makes them curious. Without encouraging a clickbait approach, you can pique people’s curiosity with your title.

Emotional content works because people like to be touched, whatever the emotion may be.

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#2. The content inspires them

People love to be inspired. I believe people actively look for inspiration when they are on social media or online. Take the small business owner who wants to become better at their digital and social media marketing. They look for inspiration from experts or people who have trod the same path.

Or you only need to look at Fitspo themes on Instagram to see how many people are looking for and engaging with health and fitness accounts for inspiration for themselves.

Inspirational quotes are a good example of content that’s shared all the time. I know this might seem a bit of a cliché at this stage on social media but I still believe that authentic inspiration has a role to play and people still love it. We like to feel inspired.

You might also like reading 5 Things I Learned About Content While Creating an Award Winning Blog

#3. The content helps people save time.

Why do you think X Hacks or Y Best Tools to.. articles or How To videos are shared so often? People like to save time and they also like to share that type of content with others to help them.

This doesn’t mean you have to create original content if you don’t have the time or bandwidth. Curating useful content that saves people having to look for it themselves is also a win for you and a win for them. Just make sure you credit the curated content and NEVER steal other people’s content. If you are going the curated route, here are some tips:

• Check the blog you found the content on to see if they have a stated policy on sharing their content and images.
• If they don’t then contact them to ask permission – this is a nice thing to do and it also means you are not breaching copyright.
• Don’t reproduce their blog post on your piece, just copy a little bit with one image and link to their blog post.
• Tell them you’ll share the piece on your channels and you may find they will share in return for being included.

If your content can save people time, it will be read and shared. 

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#4. It solves a problem.

Your customers have all sorts of problems in their lives. If you create content that helps them solve a problem, again it’s a win for them and a win for your blog, and your business starts to be perceived as one they can trust to help them.

• Think about the types of questions your customers ask you and turn that into problem solver content.
• Put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes and think about what hassles and problems they face in their lives and how your content could help them solve those.
• Ask your social community. Create polls on Twitter or in your Facebook group.  Or pose some questions on your Facebook page or Instagram account to try to get some ideas on what types of things they’d like to read to help solve things.

You might also like reading Are You Ready to Make the Commitment to Quality Content Creation?

#5. It makes them a better person.

Human nature means that we all want to become a better parent, or be a better business owner, or be a better PA or a better photographer or whatever it is. Writing content to helps people achieve this is another winner.

Here’s where you can create list content, like we did on Mykidstime with 20 Things to Tell Your Daughter. Don’t forget about reverse psychology too e.g. 25 Things Good Parents Shouldn’t Do.

Or create infographics that talk people step by step through a process. Then you can embed the infographic onto a blog post as well as sharing it directly on social channels.

Or make videos that show people how to do something better. Then put the video onto a How to blog post as well as sharing it directly on social channels.

I hope this has inspired you to think how you too can content that people will definitely read. When you have your content ideas ready then before you create the content, just run it through this 5 way lens – are you hitting at least one of these 5 winners?

Over to you now. What’s your experience of content that has really worked for your business or brand? I’d love to hear your experience in the comments below. 

If you need help with content marketing, I work with businesses to help them with their strategy and processes to drive results. Contact me today to have a chat.