Here’s a really good question: what kinds of posts should I write to get more links and traffic?
It’s a question every blogger asks themselves. I want to answer it here by outlining 7 content methods that seem to work wonders on social media while also generating a lot of grassroots in-bound links.
Can you bring these powerful post types to your own blog?
1. Resource lists. The useful list of resources requires two ingredients: time and a good eye for quality. If a resource list seems useful many readers will bookmark or vote for it on face-value alone. If your blog is struggling, a useful resource list can be an effective way to spark up your traffic and links. Here’s an example of a well-done resource list:
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2. Lists of tips. Quantifiable lists of tips are really attractive to readers because they explain in just a few seconds what a visitors stands to receive in return for their attention. You see them everywhere — and that’s because they work. Here’s an example of a good list of tips:
3. Good advice. A quality advice-post generally sticks to one topic and provides in-depth info on it. In order to maximize the benefits, you’ll need to provide advice people are hungry for. Avoid over-saturated topics and try to work out what your audience wants to do but doesn’t yet know how. A good advice post can bring you a lot of success. Here’s an example of one such post:
Photo by Steve Webel.
4. Arguing a popular point of view. People like to have their world-view affirmed. If you can articulate something a lot of people agree with, those who agree with you will champion your post. Those who disagree will probably still link to you, because their response won’t make sense otherwise.
This method works best when the topic isn’t too divisive. A reader won’t abandon your blog simply because you like Facebook and they like MySpace. They might abandon ship if you argue that capital punishment is necessary and that view is something they strongly disagree with. Make sure you’re not going to lose as many readers as you gain. Here’s an example of this method done well:
5. Anything with a killer headline. When others link to you, it’s usually done in the space of a paragraph or even a single sentence. Bloggers don’t want to have to spend too long explaining what a post is about. Your headline should do most of the work for them. Sometimes a really outstanding headline is all it takes to get traffic and links. Of course, you’ll receive much greater rewards if the headline is matched by a great post. Here’s an example of this method in action:
6. Q&As with high profile people. Interviews with well-known bloggers always seem to get links, comments and traffic. The nice thing about this method is that the only work involved is writing questions and approaching bloggers. The success rates for getting interviews are pretty high as most bloggers love talking about themselves! Here’s a clever example of this method in action:
7. Best-of lists. At this time of year you’ll see a lot of ‘Best of 2007’ round-ups, though best-of lists seem to work well at all times. They’re effective because people are constantly searching for the ‘best’ of everything. It’s a term that promises high quality. It also generates interest because ‘best’ is subjective — what’s best for you might be mediocre for others. Ranked lists always seem to generate links, traffic and debate. Here’s a good, recent example:
Can you think of any other types of blog posts which always seem to get links and traffic?
Read more posts like this one at Skellie’s blog, Skelliewag.org and track her posts here at ProBlogger by subscribing to our RSS Feed.
Recipe for success = create a list of items with links and pictures + blog it + submit it to digg
Excellent post, Darren. Very useful.
Great post Skellie – This is an excellent resource to refer to when we’re stuck for something to write on our blogs. And many people will bookmark it, because it contains great info that you can keep referring back to.
Darren, all of your post no matter what subject get links and traffic.
I think Review Roundups are very good for getting traffic.
Hi,
Darren i want to know if you can tell me, how did you redirect your problogger.com to problogger.net domain?
I have the same problem but i do not know how to do it…i hope you can help me on this….greetings from the dominican republic
I wrote a post over the summer titles “The Ethos Scam.” It was about the water that Starbuck’s sells that supposedly sends tons of money to help other countries get fresh water.
It turns out that I’m not the only person aware of its shadiness and there are tons of people Googling “ethos scam.” Since there isn’t much written about it, all that traffic got pushed to me.
Because of the popularity of the post, I revisted the topic a couple months later and saw the hits spike from search engines again.
Principle: Revisit very popular posts to tempt the old blog hoppers to stay.
i have tried a few but these more room for improvement
Also I always make sure that the post has some meaning. And has 3 same “key words” in the description. That give’s you more chances to be no.1 on google.
Great list of tips, Skellie (don’t worry, I’ll give you credit for your post). You really covered the bases. Of course, a high-level thinker is going to combine those traits into one post with a dash of reason thrown in for good measure.
How good is a post with a good headline compared to a highly debatable article with a killer headline? You can see the clear winner.
In my corner of the globe, gossip, rumor posts, scandals and boy-who-cries-wolf are the ones that really rake in traffic and links.
Main stream media would even pick it up.
Something good to know is that if your blog is new and fresh, you have to take into account really carefully what kind of content you put on it ….
I’ve got some really in depth articles on my blog, but truthfully, the more simplistic and easy to read posts seem to attract most people …..
Lex – http://www.newmediatype.com
Some great ideas here. I’m going to add “write killer headlines” to my resolution list.
Great Post Skellie — i really like this.
I guess the lists work for me.
Hello Skellie,
It’s is always nice to read your article.
Sometimes, giving away goodies is a good way to get traffic on a fresh blog, especially for the design community… it significantly increased my number of visitors.
And the length of the article does not always matter.
All of those were very good ideas and I do agree with them. I’ve found though, that it helps to have fresh ideas when creating lists instead of posting yet another “10 best WordPress Themes” list or anything like that.
One that helped a lot was a 5 blogs I visit daily post I did with link to the blogs and posts in the blogs…
This is really good post! My opinion that creativity and contest post will attract more traffic & links.
Nice job Skellie
I had fantastic result with resource list. It boost my blog traffic and get tons of link back from it.
http://bloggers-journey.com/tools-resources/51-rss-button-for-your-blog/
This is the post I did
Your #6 “Q&As with high profile people” when combined with my structured editorial calendar has helped me to get some more quality exposure for my site.
Plus, as an added bonus, it has provided me with some GREAT networking opportunities.
1- Intriguing Pictures – either by themselves with an overall theme – or accompanying an article. Space or odd nature photos appear to be a mainstay.
2- Comedy Videos – sometimes a collection will have impact. if they have to be short and load easily – due to the limited attention span of many users.
3- Google Revelations – usually search or ranking tips that are well thought out and detailed.
Usually people caught in an embarrassing moment.
Nice list Skellie. I was thinking about this topic too as well. My site has benefited greatly from making tutorials (fall under #3).
Seems like cheatsheets, free ebooks, and downloadable pdf are usuallycategorized under #1-#3. The only thing else I can think of that gets a lot of attention are humorous images/videos.
Great use of #2 (List of Tips) Darren ;)
Hot headlines is what really does the trick. A hot, attention-grabbing headline brings people in for my http://www.TexasRealtyBlog. Then, the first three lines will keep them on the post. Since my posts are longer, my web guy also thought I should have a “continued here” link to de-clutter my front page.
With my Typepad template, you have to click on the title of the post to make comments, so I was getting far too few comments. Once I moved to have a “continued” format, I got more comments. Plus, more users can quickly see if they want to continue reading the current article or if they prefer to keep scanning down the front page.
I’m still working on it, but figured I throw that tip out there for Typepad users.
Great post and this ties in very well with copywriting and marketing in general. nice list to consider when deciding what goes on your blog!
Great post! I always enjoy a fresh perspective on the types of content readers are interested in.
This is one powerful post and one of the best for a long time. It should now be really popular :P
digg is not the only place where you should submit the article. You should also submit it to digg like sites, like http://diggsamachar.com
Free giveways and contests generate tons of traffic.
I wrote a blog post about Best Mac Apps for the new switcher, (a best-of) list, and got 50x what I usually get, traffic-wise (I got dugg, was popular on del.icio.us, and got stumbled). I want to write a resource list next. I’ve had the most luck with different lists so far :)
Thanks for the tips!
hey.. don’t forget the most MISSION CRITICAL.. SEO. not only your title but the URL should reflect your article.
Also to use words in your title that would be in most searched for topics… goto google’s zeitgeist list.
And/or go http://www.quasipreneur.com/ :)
Thanks for the comments everyone, I appreciate them! I think a few people have highlighted a really important point: making a list of resources isn’t enough — it has to be a list of fresh and interesting resources that people actually want!
Hopefully you can use some of the post ideas here to write something really popular :-).
I could use a few of these tips. And posts that contain lists definitely seem to go over better with readers. A lot of people will scan an article quickly to see if it’s worth reading. You should at least have bold headings throughout so people know what the post is about before actually reading it.
I like to run a poll, then discuss the results after it is over. The poll keeps people returning to see the status. And the results at the end are always interesting.
Michael
Are we all forgetting about the all important technique of backlinking?
This definitely lends itself well to gaining Page Rank and just by posting on other blogs, you can gain notoriety for your own blog.
When talking about tech blogs, product reviews usually bring a lot of new visitors. And these visitors like to comment their experiences when using the product.
@ Orion: Backlinking is important, but it’s not really a “type” of post ;-).
@ Fiscal Musings: Emphasizing the important parts of your content is really essential practice, I think. Good point.
excellent post. good ideas
Thank you Skellie. This list will be useful for me. I have one question. Do you recommend using all different types on one blog, or sticking to one (or a few) type(s) for all posts on a blog? Cheers, Arne
I think using mybloglog is usefull technique to increase traffic.If you can solve the problem using powerful idea and everybody will visit your blog everyday because you are great in that problem.
Create best solution of certain problems and see the traffics jump to you.
Its only my opinion.
Thanks.
Whenever I write anything about a celebrity on one of my marketing blogs, I get a lot of comments.
For example, I wrote a post about Beyonce’s new B-Phone on Brandcurve questioning it as an effective extension of Beyonce’s brand, and I couldn’t believe the number of people who called me a ‘hater’.
The only problem with these types of comments is they’re not usually from people who visit your blog frequently, but even regular readers have a tendency to comment on posts about celebrities. It’s interesting how celebrities can stir up conversation.
[…] morning I noticed some nice traffic coming into StumbleUpon from this post. When I went to its StumbleUpon page to see how it was going I noticed a familiar face as the person […]
Absolutely agree..! But i think the topic of the post it self is also important. I’m sure that a popular topic will give you more traffic..
To add to that free give aways. Like “I got no work to do so I will review your blog for free. You just need to leave a comment.”
A free giveaway always attracts people and above headline was just a example.
I also happened to write an article on how to “earn” traffic for our blogs. I would love it if you read that and suggest me something about that.
I wrote about my experience with a certain company and I got hundreds of comments from other people that experienced the same thing or were researching the company. It’s the most commented post on my entire blog
Can you think of any other types of blog posts which always seem to get links and traffic?
Yes.
Contests
(and ones that ask the user to participate by ending in a question. Everyone likes to answer a question!) ;~P
Great post, but I wonder what exactly are resource lists?
thanks for the tips
Darren and Skellie – I blame both of you for getting me into blogging :) Both of you have blogs that I read constantly. Thanks for the amazing content, again (and again ….)