One of the best ways to grow your Blog audience it to create tantalizing headlines that will get people curious, clicking, reading and sharing (like the one above).
The truth is that it’s not just a great technique for Blogs. It’s a great technique for anything you do with the written word (be it articles, email newsletters and more). There are countless business books that cover the topic of creating and nurturing a great Blog platform and the content that goes along with it, but most of that content is actually available for free and in two very specific spaces:
Here’s the biggest secret about Blogging and finding the best content:
Spend a few hours trolling through the early years and first few posts of these two Blogs (or any Blogs that you love).
As Blogs develop, so do the Bloggers. They tend to grow with their audience and get tired of repeating what they know. So, the gems that usually drove them to such immense popularity are usually trapped in the first few years of their work. It’s where all the initial fire and passion sits. It’s those early posts that give keys and clues along with real strategies and tactics that can best help you grow and succeed.
Pay attention to those early posts. Save them and go back to them on a frequent basis for inspiration.
The greatest Bloggers and content creators get this. Sometimes they even do their own trolling through the archives and create great compilation lists of relevant Blog posts that, when combined, really provide tremendous value and insight. ProBlogger did just that today when publishing this post: 13 Tutorials to Help You Grow Your Blog Readership Next Year. Along with the great additional thoughts in the comment section comes the links to these 13 powerful Blog posts from the annals of ProBlogger:
- The Myth of Great Content Marketing Itself
- 9 Things to Do to Make Sure Your Next Blog Post is Read by More Than Your Mom
- 5 Ways to Get Your Blog Indexed by Google in 24 Hours
- SEO Tips for Bloggers
- How Not to Promote Your Blog: Top 10 Broken Blog Promotion Strategies
- How to Use Facebook to Promote Your Blog
- The Day 250,000 People Showed Up at My Blog Case Study
- 6 Reasons Your Blog Traffic Might Be Declining and What to Do About It
- How to Promote a Blog with Social Media
- 13 Tips for Marketing Your Business With Your Blog
- A Secret to Writing Posts that Go Viral on Twitter
- 11 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Being Linked to By a Blogger
- My Real Secret to Growing Traffic to a Blog
Check out those headlines too!
So much great content, so little time…
thanks Mitch. great point to think about when learning. It is funny how many new things are derived from the classics. What are the classics you go back to for marketing, branding, and relationship building?
Well, to be honest, I was following a lot of those bloggers in the early years.. and most of it is still kicking around my head.. but, and this is an important but.. when I see a headline like “Blog Secrets Revealed” I usually turn away.. cause its like..
#1 Its like new people trying to pretending they are gurus
#2 I’ve been into social media since 04, so most of the stuff I’ve heard before, and I was bored to tears by it a few years back!
So, why did I click on your twitter link to this post? Well, cause you’re Mitch freaking Joel, and you have awesome content that isn’t just the rehashing of the same old content! So I figure even if you’re using a lame blog tittle post… there’s a statistically higher probability of there being something worth while in there…
But alas, you let me down Mitch! Well.. accept for the part where you curate those old blog posts.. that I’ll have to give a look see to.. 😉
Thanks Mitch. I really enjoyed #9… Often I find myself working angles outside of my home base too much and not focusing on the ‘if’ and ‘when’ a social media outlet goes cold.
The video has helped me rethink some of my strategies moving forward in the coming year.
Thanks for those links I was just thinking the other day on how I should be improving my writing if I want to find work in the new world….
cheers!