3 Content Types Crushing Blog Posts Right Now

_{Day 43/100}

Hey - It's Tim.

Now, let's talk content formats.

Estimated read time: 2 minutes 7 seconds. Quick one today.

Everyone's writing blog posts. Everyone's reading AI-written blog posts. Everyone's sick of blog posts.

_{The irony of “Tim, didn’t you found an AI blog SaaS?” is not lost on me….
The difference is, I know how to do it right. Jus’ sayin’}

So what works now?

Three content formats beating blogs in 2025:

1. Interactive Calculators & Tools

People want solutions, not just information.

A mortgage calculator gets more traffic than 100 "how to save for a house" articles. Why? It's useful. It's reusable. It solves a problem right now.

We just made our Blog Title Generator completely free. Why? Tools create repeat visitors.

It’s still a little in beta. As per usual, you wonderful people get first access. Enjoy!

One client's calculator drove 40% more leads than their entire blog combined.

People share tools. People bookmark tools. People return to tools.

2. LinkedIn Posts (The Right Kind)

A single LinkedIn post brought me more subscribers to this newsletter in the last 2 months than anything else.

Not the fluffy "I'm so grateful" posts.

Not the "here's 10 AI prompts" posts.

Just authentic, value-packed insights that solve real problems.

The formula? Simple:

• One clear insight

• Backed by actual experience

• Zero fluff

• A subtle CTA

Optimize for engagement first, then redirect that attention.

3. Newsletters (You're Reading One)

You're reading this. If you're not capturing email addresses, what are you doing?

Blogs are for Google. Newsletters are for humans.

The numbers don't lie:

• 22% open rate (average blog gets what, 0.5% return visits?)

  • You crazy amazing people are opening this one at ~43%

• Direct line to your audience

• No algorithm changes to worry about

• Actual relationships that lead to business

Stop building your house on rented land.

I wish I’d started sooner. Like, 5 years ago.

Why Blogs Still Matter

Blogs aren't dead. They're just not enough alone.

They still excel at:

• Long-term SEO value (those 2015 posts still bringing traffic)

• Comprehensive coverage of topics

• Building topical authority

• Link acquisition

The smartest strategy? Use blogs as your content backbone, but feed the demand for these alternative formats.

That's it for today.

Will AI kill content marketing? No.
Will it kill lazy content marketing? Absolutely.

See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim "The blog post is dead, long live the blog post" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

P.S. I’m on Twitter now. I refuse to call it X. Come say hi - https://x.com/TI_Hanson
Do I do 100 days of Twitter too?

Probably should.

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