7. Profiles and Interviews

Profiles and interviews allow your readers to become familiar with the essential people in your industry. They also enable readers to learn valuable insights and expert secrets.

What’s the difference between a profile and an interview?

In a profile, you highlight a person without actually interviewing them. This could be an important, established person in your industry, an up-and-comer, or a relatively unknown person.

There should always be a reason why you’re profiling the person:

● Why do you want your readers to know about this person?
● Are they going to disrupt your industry?
● Have they written a series of books that your audience should read?
● Are they pioneering a new way of doing things?

Ensure that it’s clear to your audience why you’re profiling a particular person.

In an interview, you ask questions directly to the person. This allows you to get much more up close and personal with them. It enables you to tap into their expertise and extract the secrets of their success. You can find out what makes them tick, what drives them, and how they’ve achieved what they have.

Before you interview someone, ask yourself, “What would my readers want to know?” Then try to get that information throughout the interview.

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6. Case Studies

Case studies are incredibly valuable to readers for several reasons.

First, they let the reader see what’s going on behind the scenes of your business. Readers love being taken behind the scenes, and by writing a case study, you give them a look at how things work in your industry. You show them the inner workings of your business, which can provide valuable insights to your readers.

Second, they provide valuable lessons regarding how you achieved success in a particular area. For example, let’s say that you tripled your sales in six months. You get to walk your readers through exactly what you did, why you did it, how you did it, and the results. Your readers can then implement similar steps in their own businesses.

If you don’t have a personal case study to write about, you can write about how you’ve helped one of your customers. In other words, write about how you enabled one of your customers to achieve massive success.

Look through your customer list and determine which one(s) has successfully used your products or services. Then email them and talk through how they used your product or service to grow their business.

When writing your case study, try to provide as much concrete, actionable material as possible. You want your readers to be able to take your case
study and apply the lessons in their
own businesses.

5. Listicles

We all love lists. That’s why magazines are continually publishing articles like, “10 Ways To Lose That Stubborn Belly Fat,” and “5 Ways To Be Happier Now.” Lists are easy to quickly skim, allowing us to take in an entire subject in just a few moments.

Additionally, they make us feel like we’re taking in a lot of information in a short period of time. Nothing is quite so satisfying as skimming a list of 73 different items.

Finally, listicles make it easy to break down a more significant subject into smaller, more digestible pieces. It’s easy to read part of a listicle, stop, and then pick up where you left off.

You can take advantage of our love of lists in your blogging efforts. Write “listicles” in which you list a large number of items related to a particular subject.

For example:

● 27 Ways To Quickly Build Your Email List
● 9 Easy Ways To Generate Leads
● 7 Ways To Burn Fat and Get Shredded
● 19 Ways To Overcome The Fear of Speaking

Generally speaking, the more items you can include in your listicle, the more appealing it will be to readers. Bigger listicles can be more thoroughly cover a subject, making it seem more valuable to the readers.

So, for example, “101 Ways To Build Your Email List” will appeal more to readers than “27 Ways To Build Your Email List”.

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4. Checklists

We are forgetful, which is why we use checklists. Checklists help us remember everything we need to about a particular subject. We use checklists to help us remember what to take on vacation, get specific projects done, and even in the operating room to ensure that everything goes smoothly.

Checklist blog posts can be hugely valuable to your readers. You can help them remember everything they need to around a given subject.

For example, let’s say you’re in the photo industry. You could create a checklist blog post of everything that needs to be taken to a photoshoot.

Or maybe you’re a real estate agent. You could create a checklist of things a person needs to do to get their house ready to sell.

Or maybe you’re a fitness coach. You could create a checklist of all the exercises in a particular workout.

To create the perfect checklist, take a common task (such as selling a house) and break it down into much smaller sub-tasks. Just make sure that your checklist is thorough and complete.

Checklists also present you with a unique opportunity to build your email list. You can offer a downloadable, nicely formatted checklist that people can access in exchange for giving you their email address.

This method of email list building is often called offering a “content upgrade.” Your readers can “upgrade” the content they get from you (the downloadable checklist instead of just the blog post) in exchange for their email address.

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3. Controversy

It’s no secret that controversy sells. There’s a reason that people love to read the tabloids and that reporters are always chasing controversial subjects. If you’re smart, you can use controversy to your advantage when it comes to blogging.

Consider writing about different controversial subjects within your industry. These types of posts are guaranteed to interest readers and generate a response from them.

Notice that we said to write about controversial subjects within your industry. In other words, primarily focus on issues in which you have expertise.

Avoid simply writing about any controversial subjects. Your goal is not to become a tabloid. Your goal is still to be informational, educational, and entertaining. You’re merely using a controversial subject to achieve that.

When blogging about controversial subjects, be smart. You don’t want to alienate your readers or drive them away with your opinions. Instead, you want to carefully, thoughtfully analyze a controversial subject. Your goal is to provide thoughtful analysis of the issue without offending people unnecessarily.

Granted, you can’t please everyone with your writing. But aim to write in such a way that people will come away informed, educated, and minimally offended.

One simple formula that allows you to write about controversial subjects is the “This vs. That” formula:

● Mac vs. PC
● The Health Benefits of Coffee vs. Tea
● Keto vs. Intermittent Fasting
● Using MailChimp vs. ConvertKit

You’re simply comparing two different, popular things and then giving your opinion about which is best.