What type of content helps to build a popular blog? Today Jurgen Appelo from Noop.nl shares three types of posts to help you grow your blog.
There are many ways to build a popular blog, and each blog author has his own ideas on topics and style of writing. In this post I will tell you about my personal recipe for blogs. I call it sugar, spice & vitamins.
Vitamins
The vitamins are the blog posts that are important for regular readers. They are about becoming a better manager, making life more joyful, having a less stressful job, or learning all there is to know about guinea pigs, motorcycles, Britney Spears, or miniature villages made of toothpicks. In short, the vitamin posts are the essential ingredients for your blog to build and grow around a certain theme or niche. My own blog is aimed at software development managers (probably a smaller niche than miniature villages made of toothpicks). So my “vitamin posts” have topics like How to Select a Fine Technical Manager and To Motivate People… Balance Your Practices.
But how do I get people to consume vitamins?
Well, just imagine that you’re trying to interest consumers in eating savory pies. Waving at people with healthy carrots and sticks of celery will probably not be received with much enthusiasm. People might care about vitamins, but what really gets them motivated is usually something else…
Sugar
People might say they are interested in your important blog posts, but it’s easier to get their attention with sugar posts. Your blog should have just the right amount of sugar to get people interested. The sugar in your blog are the posts that make people’s mouths water from pure delight. You write these posts with the sole purpose of making your blog easier to consume. Some of my “sugar posts” were Top 100 Best Books for Managers, Leaders & Humans and Top 100 Blogs for Developers.
But why always the number 100 in these posts?
Because 100 is bigger than 25. And bigger than 50. And it’s the first number to require no less than three digits. The posts I mentioned here have been huge traffic generators for my blog. I believe that list size and traffic volume have a non-linear relationship. A top 100 list doesn’t give you four times as much traffic as a top 25 list. It gives you ten times as much! (I even created an article called How to Create a Top Blog List, so that you can enjoy similar results for your blog.)
You can think of other and better ways of attracting new readers. But remember! We’re talking about sugar posts here. They only exist to attract new consumers and to make them digest the vitamins as well. Go easy on the sugar! You don’t want your blog to turn into a cotton candy machine.
Spice
You may notice that vitamins and sugar will not be sufficient to keep people interested for long. You need a finishing touch. Something to spruce up your endless stream of healthy and sweet content. I call this last ingredient the spice posts. The spices give your blog flavor and personality. These are the blog posts that can trigger heated debates. Everyone likes sugar, and nobody dislikes vitamins. But it’s the spices that will have people talking about you. Some of my “spiced posts” were Thank You, Stupid Americans and Professionalism = Knowledge First, Experience Last.
But won’t these posts scare away my readers?
Yes, some of them perhaps. I’ve written posts that made people laugh, scream and cry. Figuratively speaking of course. (And some of their replies made me laugh, scream and cry.) It’s the spices that will divide your readers. Some people will hate them. But many will come back for more, because they won’t find those particular flavors anywhere else.
Sugar, Spice & Vitamins
Exactly one year after I started, my blog now has 2,500 feed subscribers, and 1,000 visits per day. That’s not bad for a blog about an extremely boring topic like software development management. And I attribute the success to my sugar, spice & vitamins recipe. The sugar attracts new readers, the vitamins keep everyone healthy, and the spices make it all the more interesting.
So… have you figured out what kind of post this is?
Images by Fred Armitage, Darwin Bell and Riv.
Excellent example. A good recipe is only as good as the ingredients. Fresh, quality content rules. :)
I loved this post! Those certainly are the three crucial elements to a successfully continuous conversation in the basement of your blog. Sugar is what you’ll find at our blog today, but vitamins and spice are always abundant as well! :-) Eric
It is interesting that the food analogies have been circulating around of late.
I think this is a good analogy, and that you are definitely right about having a varying mixture of these elements. I would be interested in what you feel a good % breakdown for each element would be. Perhaps 70% vitamins, 15% sugar, 15% spice?
Obviously, you could make a good case that it really depends on your audience and the content THEY want.
There might be something said about the people who just create the content their consumers want and do not necessarily evaluate the actual breakdown (though I suspect most successful bloggers do to some extent whether they admit it or not.)
I’d be interested to hear you weigh in on this as well.
Solid post, great contribution to Problogger.
Sugar is important. Well, actually, all three are, but if people enjoy your site they are more likely to return again and again again. For me, nothing has added more to my quick blogging success than big giant spoonfuls of the stuff.
Never thought about this blog posting style.
Thanks! ^_^
I think this post is a Sugar Post……. :) anyway the article was a great Out of the Box Article with 3 tastes. I love the way you have applied those flavors into your post.. But one thing has to be clear here “Software Engineering is not a Boring Topic or a Subject”…..
I still don’t have my blog up yet, but I appreciate your insights. What a unique way to look at blogging. Vitamins, Sugar, and Spice. I’m curious if you’ve stumbled upon any kind of ratios for how many sugar posts you write as opposed to vitamins and spice. Any thoughts?
Thanks again,
– Dave
I prefer blog posts like my men, spicey — lol.
Seriously, spice keeps things from getting too stayed, too relaxed. Spice is the variety of life, to turn the phrase around.
Sugar and vitamins — I do that too, but not so much.
Great analogy. Thanks for the opportunity to share.
Jurgen, you have articulated your strategy very well.
To continue the gastronomic theme I would say that a well presented website should show your sugar, spice and vitamins in way that it’s easy to see them all on the landing page – like a restaurant menu.
Actually your post has made me quite hungry.
Patrick
Ok, I’m gonna shoot for a spicy-sweet chock full o’ vitamins post today.
I’ll let ya know how it turns out!
Nummy.
George
GREAT article! I post a lot of “sugar” posts and never any “spice” ones. I think I serious need to start doing that.
The idea of the vitamin posts is fabulous! Never would I have thought to do that.
Thanks for giving me “food for thought”.
This post was a Sugar + Spice post. LOL. I think spice is very important for a blog.
I think I started my blog in a rush and have ended up doing ‘rice cake’ posts – They don’t taste very good, don’t offer a lot of nutrition, but if push came to shove, you could use one as a coaster!
I think I should try not posting unless I can categorise as Sugar, Spice or Vitamin – at least for a while!
I too would be interested in your thoughts regarding ratios of each ingredient.
Thanks
I place my token on vitamin post. As it is stated:
vitamin posts are the essential ingredients for your blog to build and grow around a certain theme or niche.
I found this way of looking at blogging very enlightening. I know about the spice and vitamins use it in my blog. But I had to think about the sugar and how making your readers water at the mouth for more. I suppose this would be what some call bringing value or enhancing the readers world in some way. This is what we bloggers constantly work on enhancing and bringing more value to our readers.
Great Article and excellent tips. You have just inspired me to improve my posts and drive more traffic. Thanks.
Dilip
Darren, as someone who does a lot of promotion on digg/reddit/stumble I think your article nails the kinds of content that do well in social media.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to giving readers what they will either enjoy or be edified by.
We usually feed our readers all three types simultaneously in one post and watch them throw up. It works.
This was a very helpful article! Thanks for posting it!
If this post were a meal it would be a Thanksgiving Dinner with Turkey and Dressing and all the trimmings! Great succinct post about how to make your site enjoyable, relevant, and enticing.
Great tips in this post, Jurgen. It really got me thinking though – what about the beef? I mean the stories that really feed your audience. I think in their haste to post something every day, too many bloggers leave out the meat. If you don’t have something worth reading its probably best not to post until you have time to write something more meaningful.
Great post yet again Darren :)
I love this one especially, what is a good ratio do you think between all these posts? Or maybe a better question is what do you think your ratio is with these 3 kinds of posts?
I think for my blog, its about half and half vitamins and sugar (lot of news, and lots of rumors/videos which equate sugar in my mind) and every now and then for the social media outlets (massess) some spice…
In terms of spice – I imagine that the number of readers you lose will pale in comparison to the number you will gain. Even if people disagree, they are often more interested in the drama that is generated than in having everyone agree.
I definitely need to work on the spice for my site!
Thanks for the post.
My guess is this: a healthy post filled with vitamins yet sprinkled with sugar to get your attention. It worked!
My next goal on my freelance writing blog (www.onthewriteroad.com) is to come up with a “100 Best Something” list.
Helpful post, thanks
Adrienne
I started out writing about all things “parenting” which is my passion and also my expertise but recently I have been adding my own personality and flavour to my blog and I really love writing it and I look forward to writing it every day so this post has been invaluable in re affirming what I had just started to do naturally so I really hope it inspires others to do the same – and be themselves too !
Thanks,
Sue
http://www.positive-parents.com
Great metaphor of a post! I saw this title on my feeder and I thought, “what on earth is this going to be about”. Drew me in nonetheless, and ended up being very useful!
I write a few articles on my blog about content writing, writing good blog posts, etc. I think this post summed up the types of posts you need rather well, and why.
Great job
Hey, cool post!! What a great way to think about it. I’ve read Jack Humphrey’s stuff, and he’s always talking about “linkbait” posts and “utility” posts, but I really like the vitamin, sugar, and spice analogy. It adds a whole new dimension and focuses on the reader. Thanks!
P.S. Is this a vitamin post? (Maybe a sugar?)
Love the idea of Sugar, Spice and Vitamins.
Best 100 – I’m exhausted just thinking about how to find the time to do a post with 100 items! I need to seriously figure out how to keep up with blogging without burnout. Every day my list of things to do grows and I get only a few items checked off. I’m not talking about little things here, I want to migrate to WordPress, maintain/upgrade posts that are getting the most search engine visitors, check for broken links, refine my writing style, write articles that are part of a series I already started (these are longer articles that take me about 1.5 hrs to write), and learn how to make the most of my posts for SEO. I’ve got to fit all this around homeschooling, housework, taking exercise, developing a local business, upgrading my two existing websites, figuring out how to cut my budget for 2009, launching websites at 4 domain names I already paid for, and helping my teen daughter to launch into selling her graphic work. Oh yes, and my husband does need just a little attention.
Couldn’t you stop giving me great ideas for a day or two Darren? Please?!!!! Or maybe tell me how to clone myself?
I need to get back to my vitamin posts. Good breakdown. I think my readers are missing a bit of nutrition.
This post is definitely a mixture of vitamin and sugar.
Very funny and helpful at the same time.
I’m quite sure that spices will attract more readers than they scare away. Being a bit of controversial is always a good thing to attract some attention, but as you say overdoing it is dangerous.
Sounds like the Power Puff Girls to me ;) !
I think its more of a vitamin post, but maybe one of those sugar coated vitamins. They coat them with sugar so kids will swallow them.
As an avid lover of food an as a person who choses to NOT just eat to live but loves the experience, this post really brings these elements home for me!
Great explaination of the types of posts you use. I will def. use this!
And here I thought to have a successful blog I had to spam people and make threats. I even put up a picture of a fish with an ostrich head. So much for my ideas.
http://www.thedan.us
This is awesome advice. For whatever reason, the whole cooking metaphor really hit me and made sense. I like how it satisfies so many things important to blogging: you get to write important and meaningful posts, you get to write easy fluffier pieces that drive traffic, and get to pour your heart out about something that means a lot to you (or maybe just pisses you off). There’s something for everyone, and it’s a good way to keep from getting stuck in a writing-rut.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for the nice comments!
What I didn’t mention in the article is that individual posts can have all 3 ingredients at the same time. I don’t often combine sugar and vitamins in one post, but there’s almost always a hint of spice in them.
The ratios differ from post to post (with some very spicy ones among them). But on average I would guess 20% sugar, 20% spice and 60% vitamins.
Hope to talk to you again later!
I Think this is sugar post
This was surely a sugar. I think all bloggers do this some time or the other but thanks for outlining the differences so clearly.
Now I will surely know what category each of my post falls into..
Now this catchy title caught my attention!
But better still, I love the analogy that you’re using here and am planning to go over my blog and see how much I have of each, and therefore, where I should ‘spice up’ my blog.
I have been focusing too much on vitamins, I guess…. We’ll see. I’ll report back.
Great suggestion. Thank you!
Sugar.
Thanks for the advice. Learning about good post content is my goal right now.
I think it is a vitamin (and a very good) post.
A fresh content makes your site to look more healthy…..lol
Quite possible the best post I’ve read on content production. Seriously. I love the way you’ve described. This is going to be one of the cornerstone article I recommend new bloggers read. Thanks.
Thanks you so much for this post! Even though I read al ot of articles about how to write good content – this one did realy help me understand … I am now on my way to re-visit and may be to re-write some of my scheduled articles!
Great work – brilliant metaphores, really did work for me!
Thanks for the tips – I’m now busy trying to think of a Top 100 list for my blog….
Good post…but I was wondering how would you create that mix on a blog like mine? Because I don’t write articles and just do pics everyday would there be a way to do a spice post?
It’s got me thinking
Thanks
I’m so soooooooooooooooooorry, but this post is simply B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T!
In about 5 minutes, I’ve learmet so much.
I already have a site and about to launch a new one within a few weeks and i will sure have a nice little mixture of vitamins, sugar and spice in order to end the year strong.
I’m hoping to get more traffic that our mentor for this lesson because my new site won’t be about borring software creation ;-)
Thanks again for sharing these incredible and valuable tips!
Miss Gisele B
You don’t know exactly what your visitors like. Mixer of post methods as suggest can hold your visitors interest. By this way you can satisfy all type of visitors.
Certainly will keep these in mind while writing posts on my blog. Does the same theory apply to a gadget blog as well?
http://www.newgadgetsguru.com
Some excellent content here and a nice writing style too – keep up the great work!
Hmmm…that’s great tips there…I want to follow that then, anything that would help to boost my traffic.