If you’re a blogger, I’m sure you’ve tried your best to gain the notoriety of have thousands of blog post views on at least a few of your posts. Well, unless you’re really lucky, or really good at writing, well known, and use social media, that’s probably not always going to happen. There are lessons you can take away from those who do get those huge audiences who view certain blogs.
Citation Is Good
When citing other information that helps back up your content, citation is a good way to go. One thing to realize is that when you compare your content to a research paper, your content won’t get discredited if there isn’t a link back to an external information source. On the Search Engine Watch, Eric Enge wrote about just this.
One key tip that you should take note one is, don’t link out to low quality sites. This is just like quoting Wikipedia in an essay. Getting peer approved before people read your post isn’t required, so if you find that there isn’t anybody you can link to, that can be good. If others are covering the same topic as you are, there isn’t a real reason you should get all t he links. Try writing about something that isn’t being covering yet, if possible.
Solving Problems, Or Highlighting Them, Is Good For Content
When you are creating content, whether it’s a blog post, or something as simple as a tweet, sharing an unsolved problem is a good way to get others to read your content. By sharing this information with others, it allows them to empathize with you, because they are probably having a similar problem. Solving a problem can work well to, as those who haven’t found the answer to that problem can come to you for help. Everybody wins.
What Are People Looking For?
A great way to get hits on your blog is to write content on something that people are actually searching for. A great way to find out what others are doing searches on, you can use the Google Complete to help find content topics.
In Google, start typing a question into the search query box, but don’t hit enter. You’ll see several listings underneath the beginning of your partially written question. These listings will give you exactly what others are looking for. From there, you can start writing.
Searching Twitter is another source for finding out what problems need to be solved. Using Twitter also shows you who is actually having the problem.
Finding The Right Soapbox
When finding a place to put your work, you need to be sure it’s in the right place. When writing content on a particular subject, you have to think about where you are going to be posting it, as some sites will likely disapprove of your content due to what is written. So, you have another choice. Either fix your written work and dry it out, or place it on another site on their behalf. Reworking your content to fit brand guidelines can potentially dull the impact of your writing.
If you’re going to be writing content that can cause issues like this, find a host that will be ok with this content. This should go along with the content that is being written on behalf of your clients as well.
Write For The Readers, Not You
One thing that is pretty universal is that everyone seems to have been taught to write for an audience. This is a pretty solid foundation in content marketing. In the SEO industry, everything your write about will come from experience. When you’re in school learning about search engine optimization, you’ll have likely found out the hard way that by the time you’ve actually gotten into the field, all the stuff you learned will be totally obsolete.
Make sure that you’re up to date with what other people are actually reading. You don’t want to be putting up content on sites that no one will be reading, such as article marketing websites. If that is where your placing your work, then you’re not writing for your audience.
Don’t Write For Your Client
If you feel that you have found a topic that could be hot, and you’re client isn’t very thrilled with being associated with it, it’s probably good to not push it. But, one thing that should be understood is that controversial content gets links, although there is a certain amount of press that will come with those links.
Content Needs To Be Link Worthy
In order to have people read your content, it needs to be worthy of the links that people create. If you’ve got the chance to write for a great site, but then fall short of the mark when it comes to the content you wrote, then that site probably won’t ask you back for a second chance.
The Correct Landing Pages Are Important
A basic content marketing strategy for building links is making sure that you point people to the correct page. If you’ve decided to tweet about a specific blog post or article, don’t lead them to the homepage of that content. This means that those who followed the link will either have to manually search for the content they were looking for, which is a pain in the rear, or they will simply bounce.
Make sure that the link you’re providing is pointing to the page that your audience is expecting to see when they click on it.
When Writing Content, Use Humor Or Insight. Not Both.
When you generate blog, make sure you’re careful about how you approach writing your content. It can be great to use humor in your posts if you’re writing about the right subject matter. But if you’re writing something for a firm that isn’t really looking for humor in your writing, mainly because what they’re looking for is important and insightful information, then it’s probably a good idea to stick with that form of writing. Make sure that your tone of voice is taken into account when you write. Companies do have guidelines that writers need to follow. They’re much more interested in their brand guidelines than the links you’re trying to get for them.
Don’t Do it For The Links
As you write, a good frame of mind to keep is to do it without the intention of getting links. If you post a piece of content on your blog every few weeks or months, you can’t expect them to get picked up. It just won’t happen. This is not content marketing. It’s just content. It won’t matter how good your stuff is.
When you look at your content, look at it, and analyze it. Think about how to make it better next time. There’s no need to over analyze each post before it goes out. Just think about how to improve on what you’ve got, so when you write your next article or blog, it’ll make outreach that much easier. If you have an article or blog that did really well, how can you go a step better next time? Even if you can’t, it’s ok. Keep improving.