Do you ever run out of ideas for your blog?

If you’re stuck, try writing a different kind of post. There are so many possibilities from which to choose.

How-To: Chances are you know how to do something that not everyone knows how to do. It might be related to your college major, your job, your hobby, or the theme of your blog. Break it down into steps, and phrase it as if you were teaching your best friend how to do it.

List: These are fun to read and fun to write: 3 Best Colors This Season. 10 Reasons to Invest Now. 25 Things I Now Know That I Wish I Knew When I Was 25. The possibilities are endless. The topic can be something that you have expert knowledge about, something you have strong opinions about, or something you’d like to research.

Interview: The advantage to interviewing someone for a blog post is that if your SEO is spot on, you’ll attract interested readers to your post for years (and maybe they’ll check out the rest of your blog, too). The hardest part is coming up with appropriate questions. Certainly, you’ll have questions that you’d like this person to answer, but will they be enough for an article? I usually conduct my interviews via email. After the subject has agreed to the interview, then I generate the questions. I try to come up with 15, and ask to person to answer any 10 or more. (If I’m stuck, I’ll google questions to ask authors or whatever category the person falls into.) I also ask for pictures of the interviewee and of his or her work.

Personal Experience: Tell a story about something that happened to you. The best personal experience pieces show how a person has overcome a hardship or found a solution to a problem. (The tone should be helpful or hopeful, but not preachy). Funny stories are also popular.

Review: You can review any kind of product or service, from books to makeup to restaurants to libraries. Try not to trash anybody. Although a harsh review may give you momentary satisfaction, soulless corporations have deep pockets and could drag you to court for slander; or you could cause a smaller business to experience a downturn, negatively impacting all the employees’ families. An honest rave review will put quality products on your reader’s radar. Temper less-enthusiastic reviews by balancing the unsatisfactory features with those that are more exemplary, such as: several typos and formatting issues detracted from the otherwise stellar storytelling.

Quotes:  Everyone loves a well-expressed thought. A single quote makes a quickie post. I post a quote every Monday. But you can also post a collection of quotes from one person, or quotes from many people about a certain topic. Just be sure to cite your sources.

Humor:  In my opinion, humor is the hardest kind of blog post to write. It’s also my most favorite to read. I’d love to add more humor to ARHtistic License, but I’m not that funny. If you are, add a link to one of your pieces in the comments below so we all can enjoy it.

Profile: A profile is a narrative about an interesting person’s life and/or work. It can be an interview, or it can be a researched biography. I like to write profiles of long-dead famous composers and artists, because it’s easy to find information about them, and most illustrations of them and their work are usually in the public domain. Of course, if you have friends who are artists, they may be happy to let you use photos of themselves and their work with proper credit.

Quiz: There are serious quizzes, and there are fun quizzes. Unless you are an expert on the topic of the quiz, go for a fun quiz, like this one to determine whether you are a cool senior citizen or not. Try not to make it too hard to get a good score.

Challenge: Issue a challenge for readers and/or other bloggers to do something—like come up with a joke a day for a month, or take a photo with a certain theme, or write a poem a day for a month. Then determine how participants will submit their responses, generally by posting on their blogs or social media, and leaving a pingback or a link in the comments section of your blog posts. Warning: It’s much easier to be a participant in a challenge than a coordinator. I once ran a challenge, and nobody came. I get it. I participate in a lot of challenges, but not nearly as many as I’d like to. So many challenges, so little time. But don’t forget—if you participate in challenges, they generate blog posts as well. If you’re looking for a challenge to enter, check out my friend Cee’s lists.

Now it’s your turn. In no way does this list exhaust all possible types of blog posts. Which kinds of posts are your favorites? Share in the comments below.