Drafting content for a business-centric blog post or newsletter article doesn’t have to be a tedious task. If you own a computer or mobile device with Internet access, writing can be great fun.
I’m not saying your business post or article shouldn’t provide mostly serious information. All I’m saying is: For stickier content, blend the perfect combination of informative and entertaining copy. You will have to do a little digging, unless you happen to be a savant of random information.
There is no better way to liven up business content than by inserting a bit of related trivia. (This is especially true for professions typically considered “dry,” like superglue epoxied to an appropriate surface) Trivia is interesting. Trivia is enjoyable. Best of all, trivia can infuse your content with dollops of desperately needed levity.
Where to find all these bits of information your online readers and visitors won’t think trivial? Prepare to spend a wee bit of time bookmarking these trivia resources in a folder entitled “My Spice Rack of Content Trivia”:
Who Knew Fun Trivia Could Make Business So Much, Er, Fun?: Fun Trivia claims to be the “World’s Largest Trivia Website.” It has a special page for those of us who get turned on by revenue projections and the online version of the Wall Street Journal.
Do you create marketing content for blog posts, e-mail blasts, or e-newsletters? If so, Fun Trivia is the mother lode of business trivia! Business-related quiz categories include: Accounting, Consumer Protection, Economics, Marketing, Actuaries, Corporations, Insurance, and the Stock Exchange. (I know–unbelievable, but true.)
The Business World trivia page was updated as recently as 3/4/15, which I find impressive. Carve out some additional time to skim Fun Trivia’s Home page and you’ll see the following teaser:
“From Harry Potter to particle physics, Fun Trivia is home to 110,000 trivia quizzes, 2,000 crossword puzzles, and hundreds of other trivia challenges. That’s 1.5 million trivia questions in over 2,00 categories.”
In other words, if you can’t find it here, don’t bother looking! For more information about Fun Trivia, read this overview. To join its community of quizzical gamesters, here’s access to the registration page.
Trivia Cafe Is a Well-Organized, Tasty Resource for Content Creators: I’ve had Trivia Cafe bookmarked for quite some time. The Trivia Categories page is an eclectic mix of the expected (Current Events, Entertainment, History, People, Phrases) and the unexpected (Currency, Labor, Law, Mathematics, Radio).
While each trivia tidbit is presented in the form of a question (most trivia sites use this format), you don’t have to run the (quiz) gauntlet. You merely click on the “Show Answer” button for instant gratification. Victory!
Some of the categories aren’t as deep as I’d like, but hey, Trivia Cafe is a free, bookmark-worthy resource. This is one cafe you can visit frequently without gaining a pound of excess weight.
Using Quizewise Will Sharpen Your Trivia Acumen, One Quiz at a Time: As its Home page states, “Quizwise is a general-knowledge quiz site for serious trivia enthusiasts.” Unlike Trivia Cafe, this website does require you to answer the questions in its many quiz challenges.
Quizwise’s By Subject page offers quiz challenges organized by seven categories: Geography, History, People, Science, Entertainment, Sports, and the intriguing Wildcard. You’ll take your chances (and spend more time) prospecting for trivia gold via the Wildcard category. After all, sourcing trivia for your content is like a box of chocolates…
When you’re not racing against a looming content-creation deadline, peruse the site’s Daily General-Knowledge Quiz Archive. It extends all the way back to January 18, 2009. Quizwise also includes a page with handy hyperlinks for a variety of trivia books and games (via Amazon). How conve-e-e-e-enient…
One of Trivia Bug’s Creepy-Crawly Categories Is Strictly Business: This site is a relatively new find for me. It’s becoming one of my favorite trivia sources, due to its grab-bag array of unusual business quiz questions.
You can amuse yourself by plowing through the list of business-related topics question by question. Or, suspend your suspense and click the kindly provided “Reveal All Answers” button.
Other categories available on the Q&A Quizzes page include Art and Culture, Food and Drink, General Knowledge, Literature, and Science & Nature. Depending on your selected topics for upcoming articles or blog posts, you might get lucky (regarding your pending trivia needs) via Trivia Bug’s Ten Latest List Quizzes.
(While I’m drafting this post, the Literature List Quiz is attempting to divert me from my task with a shiny bauble entitled “Jane Austen.” It might be necessary for me to squash this bug and move on. Uh-oh, too late…)
The Cool Links page provides access to additional trivia and/or general knowledge quiz websites, dragging you further down into Alice’s rabbit-hole adventure.
Interesting piece of trivia: A footnote on the Trivia Bug website identifies Wikipedia as “…the source for most of the ideas in the quizzes.” Hmm–that’s a bit carefully worded, isn’t it?
(Final FYI: It seems this website’s owner stopped adding new weekly quizzes in December 2014. Additionally, the gentleman was a December 2010 Jeopardy! contestant. No matter–Trivia Bug is still a handy trivia resource.)
Mix Your Business (Trivia) with Pleasure (Trivia) at Triviacountry.com: Okay, I’ll fess up: I wasn’t aware of Triviacountry.com until I researched this blog post. Visually, it’s not the prettiest of websites. The website’s “population” (get it?) includes approximately 40 different trivia categories. They’re listed alphabetically on the right-side navigation bar.
Triviacountry offers you questions and their immediate answers, quizzes for which you supply the answers (unless you decide to scroll down the page), and multiple-choice questions. The Business Trivia category contains five sets of random questions, with answers provided.
At the very bottom of the right-side navigation bar are hyperlinks claiming to be trivia blogs; they’re really additional quizzes that are part of the Triviacountry site.
FYI, there’s American Trivia, and then there’s Random Ameirican Trivia. Yes, you read that correctly. Despite this flagrant typo, I deem Triviacountry.com a bookmark-worthy site.
The Only Thing Absurd about Absurd Trivia Is…Um, Nothing: This website contains a lot of trivia intended for enthusiasts of entertainment and celebrity trivia. But once you scroll down and click on the Top General Knowledge Trivia link, you’ll see additional categories (probably) more to your liking.
If you don’t know what you’re looking for, the General Mixed Trivia Quizzes page is a good place to start.
Most/all of the quizzes are multiple choice; you will have to play to snag the correct answers. Honestly, I’m not sure why this website is named Absurd Trivia. I happen to think it’s great that the site is a community-based resource–the members create and rate all Absurd Trivia quizzes.
To join the Absurd Trivia community and compete with other members, register for your free account.
When drafting your online posts or articles, is your format strictly business, or do you work a bit of fun into your content? If you’ve never included industry-relevant (or even random) trivia in your online content, have I convinced you to start experimenting with it?
What other trivia resources are you aware of that I didn’t mention in this post?
Being creative can be an effective way to lure more eyeballs (and the people who own them) to your content-marketing parlor. Consider adding a touch of trivia to your next blog post, e-mail blast, or newsletter article!
Lori Shapiro is the owner of By All Writes LLC, a business-to-business (B2B) writing, editing, and research company in Marlton, New Jersey. She revels in shielding her clients from the pain of writing their own print or web marketing and educational copy. Please call Lori Shapiro at 856-810-9764 or email By All Writes LLC at lori@byallwrites.biz for a no-obligation project quote today!
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