There are many varieties of blog posts. This post is a rough guide.
First, there are plenty of online sources that try to outline and discuss the different types of blog posts:
One good place to start is Darren Rouse of Problogger.net, who outlines the "20 Types of Blog Posts" [link]
Can you write a bad blog post? You betcha. Rob Beschizza from the excellent website Boing Boing offers super observations and advice in his "Top 10 Worst Types of Blog Post (and how to fix them)." [link]
Does writing good blog posts increase traffic, or visitors, to your blog? You betcha again. Marketing guru Seth Godin thinks so. Read his "How to get traffic for your blog" on his blog. [link]
What follows below here is your instructor's list of the different types of blog posts, with input from others.
Lists, lists, lists. Numbered, bullet-pointed, check-listed. You name it. Blogs and online writing in general loves a list. Why? It's short, snappy, readable on a screen. Sure, that Boing Boing link above calls them tired and even "evil." Godin cites lists as his number one way to increase traffic to a blog. The bottom line: we humans love our lists. Try to write interesting ones.
Personal reactions to breaking news. A classic trope of all first-person journalism--called everything from personal journalism, literary journalism, gonzo journalism, the New Journalism, even the New New Journalism, and personal essayists before them--is to write from a personal/autobiographical point of view to current topics brings immediacy and energy to the news.
It's not much of a stretch for a certain type of writer, then, writing in a certain kind of blog, to write blog posts in the form of nonfiction and/or factual reporting using those narrative devices used mainly in fiction: scene-setting, dialogue, and point of view. (See longtime Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff, in his piece "In Praise of Personal Journalism" [link].)
Indeed, this is the bread-and-butter post of most blogs. It's also what we tried to do ourselves in The First-Person Journalism/Blogging versus Journalism Assignment.
The Manifesto post. The manifesto is a kind of writing that has a rich tradition and history, well before the dawn on online writing--look no further than the excellent anthology Manifesto: A Century of Isms, edited Mary Ann Caws, for proof of that.
A manifesto usually speaks on behalf of a group of people with like interests and needs that addresses a problem or makes a complaint. Sometimes a manifesto announces a new movement; others times a manifesto sets forth a list of solutions.
Examples:
David Carver's "Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship" [link]
Robert Scoble's "The Corporate Weblog Manifesto" [link]
Brett Gaylor's documentary Rip! A Remix Manifesto [link]
The Rant post. A close sibling of the manifesto, the rant is the bread-and-butter of a certain kind of blog that doesn't set out to endear or attract readers, but to preach to the readership-choir. Still, even on a well-thought out blog, the rant has its place, both for difference in tone and to create a little excitment.
The Open Letter to People or Entities Who Are Unlikely to Respond post. The name of this post variety, lifted entirely from a very funny feature on the McSweeney's website, is akin to the manifesto. A blogger uses the soapbox platform of the internet and the conceit of the open letter to address a particular group of people, not expecting a response. Sometimes the addressee does respond, so be aware.
My assignment for this post, with examples of Open Letters [link]
The Review post. Another bread-and-butter kind of post, the review comes in many shapes and sizes.
One kind of review appearing on a blog might be similar to an academic journal-length review, one with links to works cited and a tone one might encounter in academic journals. (Indeed, some peer-reviewed journals, are, in effect, blogs, or powered by the same software as blogs.)
Another review--one more likely to be seen--is a magazine-length first-person take review. This where blog reviews really shine, in your instructor's opinion--a blogger with a definite point of view refracted through a review. In a print magazine, the personal quirks of this review might be edited out, along with a certain kind of overpraise or rant-ishness (yes, these kinds of blogs overlap).
Of course short, aphoristic reviews abound as well.
The expert how-to. Say you know something about something. Anything, really. Jumping rope, making soap. Tell us how to do it, make it, write it, read it, play it. One of the beautiful things about the internet is you can search for anything and find someone who knows how to do something. To share your expertise, however rarefied or insignificant, is to join the blogosphere's conversation.
The super link, link list, or link round-up. A post that brings together links from various online sources, often with an essayistic thread or commentary. It's a "great way to hype something that you really like, an under-appreciated author, artist, or musician, or greay piece of writing" Stephen Elliott, editor of The Rumpus, notes.
Examples of super link, link list or link round-ups:
Ron Silliman's links
The Rumpus Notes
The Morning News Headlines feature
Heeb
The Art of Manliness
Jewish Women's Archive
Live blogging. A post or series of posts at a live event such as a conference, TV broadcast, political rally, or concert. "Tips for Conference Bloggers," offers advice on how (and what) to blog during a live event such as conference [link] [PDF]. See The Liveblogging an Event Assignment.
The aphorism, bon mot, proverb, or adage post. A short, clever witticism, often one sentence long. It could be a review, rant, manifesto, observation. The demands of the blog--with its dynamic content and hunger for often constant updates--makes this kind of writing perfect for a post.
Ongoing post: Lists. This is a post that a writer goes back to regularly to update. Poet and critic Jordan Davis, for example, keeps an ongoing anthologies of writing he likes--literary journals, books and poems--and puts them on a single blog post.
Ongoing post: Updates. In this scenario, the blogger goes back to a previous blog post and offers a clarification, update on a story, crossed-out item on a list, or correction to the content of that post. This is where blogging offers the particular opportunity to show the evolution of an idea or piece of writing in a single text. A blogger might offer an edit to the wording of an
See the Dawn Goldberg's Write Me Well's post on "Strikethroughs in blogs."
Some names and definitions of other blog post varieties, as submitted by this class:
Coming soon!
