One popular post can bring your more traffic and links than a month’s worth of your usual content.
In this post, I want to set you a challenge with the potential to launch your blog into the stratosphere.
Make the next post you write your most popular post ever.
The following ten tips form my key advice for tackling this task. I
used all of them when hitting the Digg front page for the first time.
There’s no blueprint you can follow to write an incredibly popular post,
but you won’t have a chance unless you try. I’m confident these tips
will give you a good shot at success.
1. Time is more important than talent. Work on
something for eight hours and you can bet it will be good. You don’t
need to spend that long, however (though that’s how long it took me to
craft the first post I wrote that hit the Digg front page). More time
means you can refine, format and fill your post with plenty of value.
Take the time to really craft your content. It will show in the finished product.
2. Use your best idea. A post will never become
wildly popular unless it fulfills a need, and does so emphatically.
What’s something your niche wants but hasn’t got yet? Can you assemble a
whole lot of really awesome (targeted) resources in one place? The more
your posts helps people, the better it will do.
3. Use formatting to your advantage. These days,
social media is key when it comes to launching your posts into the
stratosphere. Social media users are notoriously spoiled for choice,
however. Use formatting to emphasize the best aspects of your post. Hone
in on your funniest lines, your most profound bits of advice, your best
resources. Make them stand out.
4. Brainstorm headlines. There are probably one or
two bloggers who’ve completely mastered the art of writing headlines for
social media (you’ll know who they are). The rest of us haven’t been
blessed with such skills. When you see a great headline, chances are
it’s option #12 of a dozen choices. Few of us can think of a great
headline straight away. Spend ten minutes brainstorming and you’re bound
to stumble across something that works. A weak headline will cripple
your post’s chances of success. It’s essential that you put a lot of
work into getting it right.
5. Invest plenty of value in your post. Ever
bookmarked or voted for something without completely reading it? We’ve
all done it. It’s because of the ‘Wow’ factor — the presence of enough
promised value in one place gets the reader enthusiastic about the post
straight away. Instead of 5 tips, why not share 50? Instead of 9
resources, why not 40 or more?
7. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If your
post looks good, it will draw readers in. Take the time to add images,
thumbnails and formatting to what you create. Make your post a visual
feast. With so much web content presented in a bland way, your post is
guaranteed to stand out.
8. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Readers
will skip your waffly introduction. You can say the same in less words,
particularly when you’re writing for an impatient reader: someone who
wants to get straight into your tips/resources/opinions. Use your
introduction to highlight why the reader should stick with your post.
There’s a reason my post introductions mainly consist of: “In this post,
I’m going to do this, this and that.” It’s what people really want to know: what am I getting in exchange for my attention?
9. Send messages with links. The best way to get a
blogger to investigate your blog is by linking to them. We’ve got a
natural desire to know what’s being said about us. If your post becomes
really popular, each link inside it should send enough traffic outwards
to be worth investigating. Be generous with your outbound links when
writing your most popular post. It gives other bloggers an incentive to
link to you, because it’s ultimately more promotion for them.
10. Utilize your network. If you want people to
Digg, Stumble or Reddit your post, there’s no reason why you need to sit
back with fingers crossed and hope it happens. Ask them. Your loyal
readers like you. You entertain them, or teach them, or help them. If
voting is a simple matter of clicking a link they’ll be more than happy
to do so. Ask for votes in your post and email readers and social media
influencers. In most cases you will need to get the snowball rolling. After that, others will do most of the work for you.
Bonus tip:
11. Examine what worked before. Study your most
popular posts so far. What’s common about them? Why did they work? What
needs did they address? In creating your most popular post, it’s
important to learn by example and build on what has worked for your blog
in the past. Another good idea is to analyze the most popular posts on
other blogs in your niche. Why did they work? What’s remarkable about
them? You can transfer those qualities over into what you write.
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