The best blogs have tons of followers, relevant topics and creativity flowing on a daily basis. No matter how effortless the end product might look, it takes time, hard work and struggle to achieve blogging success.
For beginning bloggers, one of the biggest challenges is trying to develop content that will drive an audience to follow on a regular basis. Creating follow-worthy content requires dedication, research and creativity.
Apathy can be a leading cause of flat content, which in turn can mean a lack of followers. To keep a blog fresh and inspired for a long period of time takes passion and planning. Interacting with readers is a great way to develop contacts as well as glean ideas for new content. Instead of writing a long piece of content, post a simple but pointed question about a topic or ask followers to offer suggestions as to what they would like to know more about.
Another option is to review old posts for new ideas. If there was a particularly hot topic, look at it again to see whether there is another angle that could be explored. Developing a series also can lead to new blogging interest. Take a larger topic and offer information over the course of a week to provide the opportunity to go deeper into a subject and to freshen up the blog.
Once a blog is moving forward again with responses from followers, new topics or a series, then it is time to develop a long-term plan to keep blogging. Consider these tips:
- Strive for Originality – Instead of simply writing about what everyone else is writing about, look deeper. Don’t rely on your news aggregator for the best topics or sources. A good deal of the work of a blogger is to find the news that no one is talking about and offer an opinion on it; don’t just offer commentary on work that has already been done. Getting out of the comfort zone is an excellent goal for a blogger.
- Create Great Work – So many bloggers are more concerned about how their blog ranks in terms of Internet marketing than they are about the content that is on the blog. Remember, if the content is notable, readers will find their way to the work and so will the indexes.
- Variety Creates Interest – Instead of linking your blog back to the same sources again and again, offer your readers more options. Variety is the spice of life. Giving readers the opportunity to visit more sites is a critical step in developing your blog’s voice and point of view.
Other options for increasing traffic include commenting on other blogs and sites that have readers you would like to attract.
Be sure also to link your blog to Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook. With a presence on those and other social networking sites, your blog can attract more interest from those who know you as well as from those who are connected to people who know you. Leveraging social media is a smart way to get referrals to your blog.
Creating follow-worthy content is much more than just figuring out how to achieve a top ranking on a search engine site. By taking steps such as offering in-depth original work and promoting their blog on social media sites, bloggers can lay the groundwork for developing new followers.
[note]This guest post was provided by University Alliance and submitted on behalf of University of San Francisco. USF offers online marketing certificate courses including SEO training, search engine marketing, social media training, mobile marketing and more. To learn more about University of San Francisco’s certificate programs visit www.usanfranonline.com[/note]
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Pete Goumas
I agreed with you, varity is the spice of a blog and people interact more with your blog if they find varity in your posts also blog commenting and guest posting increase your content following.
Becca
Blogging has showed me that there are many other things worth learning and doing. Also when I start blogging I realized how big the online world is and how many opportunities it can offer.
Jim Antoine@freelance writer
In my own blog (not the ones that I manage) I try what you suggested and pursue interactions with my readers. I do this through answering requests they give me through comments and from emails. One notable example is an article written about a product I reviewed. Some people asked me to review another model which was less expensive. They came back and even left comments, created links to forums they follow and the usual.
Joe Boyle
I think creating follow-able content is as easy as putting the effort in. Actually sit down and plan out the article. Make sure it’s easy enough for the most basic of your niche to follow. The most important step is what happens after you write it – the editing. I like to follow the quote “Write drunk, edit sober”. I see all too many posts filled with unintentional grammar and spelling mistakes. If it’s part of your style to use bad grammar, that’s on you, but on behalf of most of the internet, it just makes you look unprofessional.
Call to actions work great in making readers follow and share your content. You have to give them a reason to keep the article alive or contribute – people are generally unmotivated and won’t do things without a cause.
Aasma
Well, If you’re running any kind of informational blog then you find it difficult to make it different from others. In this scenario, your writing style and conversation skills play vital role and helps you create unique post.
Anton Koekemoer
“Content is king” – Everyone has heard the saying before…. But quality and Unique Content – no Search Engine can refuse to index… Without quality content most SEO strategies will be sure to fail….
Great post , Thanks for sharing.
Great article Francisco. Whatever your chosen niche is you have to be creative so your visitors will come back and read more, engage and contribute with their experience too. I am trying this with online backup solutions and I would love to have people on my site talking more about it and sharing their experiences… Thanks for sharing.
John
sanjay
Just to add on originality, do some in depth research on the article and provide reference. The deeper the research the high quality your article would be, Good read!