“5 Simple Ways to Discover What People Are Dying to Read” plus 1 more |  |
| 5 Simple Ways to Discover What People Are Dying to Read Posted: 08 May 2012 01:03 PM PDT This guest post is by Brad Smith of FixCourse.com. Blogging doesn’t have to be hard. It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance, but it’s not technically difficult. Anyone can (and should) do it. One of the hardest challenges to overcome is figuring out what your audience wants to read. You know, the type of epic content that gets shares, links, and traffic. If you read through any blogger’s archives, you’ll notice that their writing evolves tremendously. But it’s not just the topics: the tone changes, the style changes, and even the format changes. And if you look even closer, you’ll start to see a pattern of what people want to read. You can do the same thing on your blog. You just need to know where to look for it. Here’s how. The successful formula … and the clues you need to findMost successful blog posts follow a formula. Here are the key elements that you need to get right. Topic + Theme (USP) + Style + Format
Your job is to pick up on these clues, and try to string them together in every blog post you write. Here are five ways to start finding and using what works well, while avoiding what doesn’t. 1. Start with your own most popular postsStart by looking at your own blog. Which posts have been the most popular, and why? Sometimes you think a post you’re about to publish is definitely going to go viral … and then it flops. Other times you’re afraid to publish a post because you hate it, and then people can’t get enough of it. The truth is that you don’t really know what’s going to work before you try it. So learn how to innovate and start making little bets or experiments. Then let data be your guide, and see how they worked. Take a look at your blog analytics and focus on a few key metrics. You can find the most popular posts by looking at visitors, views, social sharing, and comments. If you have a large, active Facebook audience, then you can also use Facebook Insights to determine what people like. Focus on the engagement metrics and you’ll start to see the same patterns. Now comb through these popular posts, and try to determine why they were so successful. Did you write more persuasively and go into greater detail? Maybe your use of storytelling made the lesson easy to connect with. Or maybe your topics were simply more popular. Whatever the reason, you should start to see patterns emerge that you can carry over into future posts. 2. Scan the popular posts of big blogsWhenever you’re stuck, go back to the most popular blogs in your niche. Take a few hours to scan through their popular posts, and take notes on what they write about and how they write. You can also start incorporating some deliberate practice to learn from the best and improve your writing. In the book Talent is Overrated, you’ll find that deliberate practice is one of the main reasons Benjamin Franklin became such a great writer. He literally took the best examples of writing that he admired, and began copying them word for word to pick up on the author’s voice and style. Then he would try writing the same passage in his own words, and compare the two. This was hours of painstaking work. But he was determined. The reason he became such a successful writer was because he isolated the specific elements that he wanted to improve, and then worked tirelessly. Take a look at your favorite blogger’s popular posts. Print them out, and sit with pen and paper to write it out word by word. Then try rewriting it in your own voice and compare the two. Before long, you’ll start to internalize these lessons, and your writing will improve dramatically. 3. Submit your posts to social voting sitesVoting sites can give you insight into what people like, and what they don’t. The good stuff will be voted up quickly, and everything else will be ignored. Each time you hit your blog’s Publish button, submit your posts to different voting sites. After some success, you’ll start to come across a certain topic or style that resonates with people. And if the post does take off, then you’ll know you found a winner. Here are a few social voting sites that you can use today:
4. Write an article you know will be sharedThere are certain types of posts that always do well. So before you even start writing, you should know if it will be successful or not. Let’s look at two of these post types: the how-to and the tactical article. How-to articles How-to articles are always successful because people love step-by-step detail. However don’t confuse length with depth. You should go over each section in great detail, but don’t just write fluff to fill space. Instead of just telling readers about a specific technique, show them your thought processes, the actual implementation, and a real-world example. Use images and statistics if they help prove your case. Valuable how-to posts have a level of attention to detail that makes the information easy to understand, and lets readers take action on the advice. Focus on providing value first, and the length will take care of itself. For more information on the elements of a how-to post, read this great article from Neil Patel. Tactical articles People love tactics. They want that idea they can use today, or a secret shortcut that will save them from hard work. That’s why a post called “5 Twitter Hacks” will do well, even though these kinds of posts are so common. People are bombarded by messages all day long. They want simplicity. They want instant gratification. So what’s an easy way to come up with these kinds of posts? Just think about your daily routine. How do you update Facebook, and why? The actual process and routine that you ignore could be helpful to other people who are struggling or just starting out. Show them a faster, better, or more beneficial way to do something, and they’ll love it—and likely share it with their friends. 5. Focus on topics using simple keyword researchPeople are already looking for specific content around your topics. You just need to give it to them. Start using keyword researchas a quick guide to figure out what topics are popular. The easiest solution is to head over to the Google Keyword Tool, and start writing your major topics and keyphrases into the search box. Then switch Match Types from Broad to Exact,because you want to narrow down the suggested keyphrases to the closest matching options. Now start looking at Local Monthly Searches to get an idea of how popular these phrases are. All you’re looking for is the relative number ranges (because this data isn’t completely accurate). Here’s how the results might look. Create a list of relevant, long-tail keyphrases (with about 500 Local Monthly Searches or less) and start creating content around these areas. If you want to take this strategy one step further, then read Ian Lurie’s execellent post on data-driven content strategies. ConclusionBlogging takes determination and perseverance. But it’s not brain surgery. You can use these five simple techniques to quickly discover what your audience loves and wants to read more of. Remember: the key to building a successful blog is doing more of what people like, and less of what they don’t. Brad Smith is a digital marketing consultant who focuses on lead gen for businesses by getting more traffic, leads and sales online. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 5 Simple Ways to Discover What People Are Dying to Read     |
| 5 Unexpected Benefits of Adding Podcasts to Your Blog Posted: 08 May 2012 01:01 PM PDT This guest post is by Carol Tice of Make a Living Writing. Are you having trouble keeping your blog readers interested in what you have to say? If interest is waning, it may be time to add some variety to what you’re giving readers, besides just writing blog posts, week after week. Back in July 2011, I started doing monthly live training events for participants in my membership community, which I record. Then, I began editing down short excerpts from those hour-long events and using them as blog posts. I’d write a short intro, and then just let people listen to a short podcast of five minutes or so. Free software such as Audacity and free webcasting platforms such as Anymeeting make it easy to record your voice and create short audio trainings for your audience. If you’re on WordPress, the Audio Player plug-in also makes it super-easy to install a podcast right inside a blog post. All of which definitely helped me, since I’m not technically gifted. In short, if you’re intimidated by adding video interviews to your site—maybe you don’t feel you’d make an attractive, poised talking head?—podcasting can be a great way to go. Adding podcasts achieved my goal of helping me keep readers and grow my subscriber base—I added about 1,000 new subscribers in the first six months after I began podcasting. But I’ve gotten much more from podcasting than a bigger, more engaged readership. I discovered there are some powerful fringe benefits of podcasting, too. Here are five unexpected benefits of podcasting. 1. Stand out from the crowdInstantly, when you add podcasts, you have separated yourself from the unwashed masses of bloggers. You’ve got more going on than most—you have tasty audio recordings people can listen to. Since some people learn best through listening rather than reading, you can capture another segment of readers who might otherwise might not be interested in your blog. 2. Make useful new friendsMost good podcasts aren’t one person talking, but two or more. I’ve found that as a podcaster, you can approach nearly anyone about appearing, and many top bloggers will agree. Once you’ve featured them on your recording, it’s often the start of a deeper relationship that may lead to any number of additional interactions, including your guest posting on their blog. Since hosting them on my podcasts, I have appeared on the blogs of many of my podcast guests including Renegade Writer Linda Formichelli and Successful Blogging’s Annabel Candy. Many A-listers may not have time to give you a written guest post, but you can post their podcast or an excerpt of it on your blog, effectively turning your well-known guest into a guest poster on your own blog. 3. Create productsEvery time you create a recording, you have a new product in your hands. There are myriad ways you can make use of this valuable property, including:
4. Get interviewedOnce you have audio samples of how great you sound doing audio podcasts, it positions you as a strong candidate for being interviewed on others’ podcasts. For instance, I ended up featured on Blogcast.fm. This can help expose you to new audiences and also bring in more readers. 5. Gain affiliate opportunitiesI believe my podcasting success led to my receiving several offers from top bloggers to affiliate-sell their lucrative products. These were situations where only a handful of affiliates were given the opportunity. I made over $2,500 selling just one of them. How does podcasting help here? Bloggers know one of the best ways to get readers interested in a paid product is to first offer them some valuable training in a related topic through—you guessed it—a live podcast or Webinar. With demonstrated podcasting experience and an audience that’s been trained to consume live information, you’re in a better position to get these sorts of exclusive affiliate-sales offers. How are you keeping readers interested in your blog? Leave a comment and let us know. Carol Tice writes and podcasts on the Make a Living Writing blog, and serves as Den Mother of the writers’ learning and support community Freelance Writers Den. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 5 Unexpected Benefits of Adding Podcasts to Your Blog     |
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