Posted by Melissa at Distilled

So you want to get links, but don’t know how to start creating linkable content? Let me walk you through my process for creating awesome linkbait.

1. Identify your target niche.

Start by looking at your competitors’ links.

They are probably more edible than these links:

This is a basic step for SEO, so really it’s something you should have on file already. Look back over your competitors’ links. Have they done anything that was particularly link-worthy? Look at deeper pages. What sort of things are people linking to in these pages? This should start to give you some idea of what sort of niches are interested in what you do.

2. Identify your angle.

When you look at your competitors’ links, you’ll see which bloggers and websites linked to them.

What did they link to and in what context? What else are they linking to? And what’s going to make them link to your stuff? That is, what can you add?

Well, have you ever asked? Obviously, you won’t get an answer from all of your target bloggers and websites, but the ones you get a positive answer from will already be interested in your content before you begin creating it. And people with a vested interest in your content will only be a good thing.

3. Create your content.

There’s not much I can say here. Just create something that answers the above questions. If infographics do well, do that. Photo essays? Well, get your camera out – or get a freelancer to do it if you’re not confident in your own photography skills.

If they want creepy monkeys, well, maybe they’re not worth targeting…

4. Promote your content.

Start with the bloggers you’ve already talked to. As I said above, they helped out with your content, so they have a vested interest. Be sure to point out which bit of their suggestion was used in the content. That way, they can brag about how awesome they are. And let’s face it: the best way to get people to link to you is to massage their egos.

After you’ve got a few links from the people you’ve talked to, then you can go to other bloggers and websites, saying that buzz is building for this content. When you can show that people are interested in your content, it creates a desire within other people to join in. No one wants to miss the boat, after all.

In my own experience, I find less explicit requests are better, that is, saying "I think you and your readers would like this", rather than simply asking for a link, is more effective. I find that it’s better to suggest you’re doing someone a favor instead of asking them to do one for you.

So I’ve done all that. What next?

Let’s say you’re targeting ‘tents’. You’ve already done some linkbait based on what has been successful for your competitors. But there are loads of people who use tents besides hardcore camping bloggers, so how would you go about targeting them?

Well, camping has undergone a bit of a resurgence in loads of markets thanks to the recession, so maybe you can target women who aren’t super into camping. What to these women link to online? Well, loads of things, but there is a bit community of knitters online, and coincidentally, one of your employees loves knitting (isn’t that handy?) Why not create patterns for knitted tent sculptures or other camping-related stuff? Whatever it is, just make sure it’s interesting enough to get attention and useful enough to be worth sharing.

But don’t forget: at this point, you don’t know that knitters are going to link to content like that.

But if they like knitted cake, they probably will like knitted flashlights.

Do you like this post? Yes No

This column is written by Kimberly Turner from Regator (a great tool that gathers and organizes the world’s best blog posts). – Darren

Each week, we look at the ten most blogged-about stories of the last seven days, as provided by Regator (which is turning two years old on Saturday!). Today, we’ll see how several great blog posts looked beyond the basics of these popular stories to give their readers more value and provide unique content. Digging deeper to approach posts in an unconventional or creative way can mean the difference between getting noticed and fading into the background. Let’s see some examples:

1. Proposition/Prop 8
   The basics: Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, was ruled unconstitutional.
   Looking deeper: Daily Intel’s “The Prop 8 Ruling: The Scrutiny Question, and What Will Happen Next?” examines the judge’s methods of scrutinizing the case, how that approach will impact future rulings, and the history of other cases that led to this point. When everyone else is telling readers what happened, do a bit of extra legwork to tell them how it happened.
2. Chelsea Clinton
   The basics: Chelsea Clinton got married last weekend.
   Looking deeper: Conservative blogger Kathleen McKinley’s “Weddings and More. How Two Former President’s Daughters Are Quite Different” looked beyond the bride’s choice of hairstyle and gown by comparing Chelsea Clinton’s wedding to the wedding of Jenna Bush, another first daughter. She then broadened the comparison past the weddings themselves and into the lifestyles of the young women. Use comparisons to create a post that’s more appealing to readers in your niche.
3. Android
   The basics: It was reported that Android phones were outselling iPhones.
   Looking deeper: Rather than taking the figures at face value, Cult of Mac spoke to an analyst in an attempt to put the figures in perspective in “Android Competing Against ‘Dumb Phones.’” Take time to question information you receive through press releases, other blogs, magazines, newspapers, television…well, pretty much any source. Don’t be afraid to do some extra reporting.
4. American Idol
   The basics: Ellen DeGeneres left the show after one season as a judge.
   Looking deeper: While most blogs were awaiting official news about new judges, Pop & Hiss offered ten recommendations and the reasons for each in “Why not hire a music critic as an ‘American Idol’ judge? Ten contestants for the job.” Add your own opinions and recommendations to a story to make it your own.
5. Oil Spill
   The basics: BP finally managed to stop the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
   Looking deeper: Investment blog Seeking Alpha chose the angle that worked best for its readers in “Static Kill a Success; What’s BP Worth Now?” The post hypothesizes on the company’s current value and, just as importantly, explains how the blogger arrived at those figures. Use your expertise to provide value to your readers and information that other types of bloggers cannot.
6. Ground Zero
   The basics: An Islamic cultural center (incorrectly referred to as a “mosque” by some) is set to be built on the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, causing controversy and debate.
   Looking deeper: As the tagline “Answers to your questions about the news” indicates, Slate’s Explainer does a fantastic job of looking beyond the headlines and dissecting issues. “Can anyone stop construction of the mosque near Ground Zero?” which examines the legal and zoning issues around the facility, is no exception. Look for aspects of a story that aren’t being explored and try to tackle unanswered questions.
7. BlackBerry Torch
   The basics: Research In Motion (RIM) launched the BlackBerry Torch.
   Looking deeper: Instead of simply reporting the release, PCWorld’s “BlackBerry Torch First Impressions: Fresh But Familiar Indeed” blogged their first impressions based on the blogger’s brief interaction with the device at the launch event. Going out and employing a hands-on approach will always get you better results than sitting at your desk waiting for press releases or review products.
8. Kanye West
   The basics: Kanye West joined Twitter, spawning memes galore.
   Looking deeper: Vulture’s “What Did It Cost to Be Kanye This Week?” is an extremely creative, entertaining approach to the story. Look for trends within a story (e.g., not only is Kanye on Twitter, he often tweets about his lavish lifestyle) to find unusual and creative angles.
9. Google Wave
   The basics: Google’s much-hyped Google Wave was shuttered this week.
   Looking deeper: In “Why Developers Did Not Adopt Google Wave,” ReadWriteWeb took a broad approach to coverage, discussing reasons Wave may have failed, the future benefits of its brief existence, and previous coverage of the product. Explaining why something happened (as well as how, see example #1) can be just as important as explaining what happened. Take the extra time and effort to give readers more.
10. Lady Gaga
    The basics: Lady Gaga’s cover story in the latest issue of Vanity Fair and record number of Video Music Awards put her on the list this week.
    Looking deeper: Gawker.tv used a combination of techniques we’ve discussed above—namely using comparisons and identifying why something (in this case, Gaga’s popularity) has occurred—in “Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and the Coup d’Pop: A Diva Revolution.” Developing and supporting your own hypothesis is a sure way to ensure original content.

How do you get beyond the surface story to a unique angle that will appeal to your readership? Share your ideas and methods in the comments!

Kimberly Turner is a cofounder of Regator.com and Regator for iPhone as well as an award-winning print journalist. You can find her on Twitter @kimber_regator.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Blogosphere Trends + Digging Deeper

Share This

You can’t ignore video. It’s everywhere online these days – but are you using it well?

Youtube is one of the biggest search engines on the web, almost every product that is launched these days has accompanying videos from the product makers and bloggers are embracing it more and more as a way to communicate with their readers.

The problem is that many bloggers don’t know where to start.

Experienced video blogger – Gideon Shalwick – has this week released a great report to help bloggers through many aspects of using video on blogs to make money. It’s called ‘Rapid Video Blogging: The new Way to Easily Dominate Your Niche through YouTube‘.

Gideon gave me access to his report a couple of weeks ago and I found it so beneficial in my own use of video that the day I read it I created 4 new videos for my own blog AND offered to write the foreword for it!

This 90 page report covers the following:

• 7 steps Gideon has used to dominate niches with video
• How to create high quality videos – fast
• Tips for Setting up a YouTube Channel
• Why Video is better than Just Text or Audio
• How to Optimize Your Videos for Maxmium Impact
• Tips on Videos
• How to Monetize Videos

In addition to the eBook Gideon’s put together 3 videos to accompany it (it wouldn’t’ be an authentic video resource without some vids!).

Also – Gideon tells me that he’s giving away 3 iPads to anyone who downloads his report and leaves a comment on a video on the download page. So far there’s less than 300 comments so you’ve got a better than 1 in 100 chance – pretty decent!

So if you’ve been looking to learn more about using video to grow your online business – check out Gideon’s free report today.

Update: apologies but the initial link I used went to the wrong page – I’ve now updated it.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Discover how to Dominate Your Niche with Video Blogging [and Win an iPad]

Share This

One of the biggest challenges for a new bloggers starting out in an established niche is to find a way to stand out from the crowd and find their first readers. Without existing profile and/or credibility – getting those first readers can be very tough.

To combat this a few years back a number of bloggers started to use ‘Guest Blogging’ as a technique to launch their blogs and grow their brands to new audiences. This technique launched many bloggers to prominence – including Leo Babauta, Brian Clark, Chris Garrett, Skellie, Jon Morrow (all of whom have guest posted on ProBlogger) and many many more.

Much has been written on the topic of how to use guest posting but one of the best resources that I’ve seen lately has been produced by Jon Morrow. He’s just released the first in a series of videos (#aff) on the topic and they are well worth watching.

I’ve seen the complete set of videos for myself and they are easy to watch, actionable and inspiring.

Jon himself has used guest blogging with great success – including this fantastic post on speech recognition for bloggers here on ProBlogger which helped many.

Jon’s first video is completely free (no opt in required) and is well worth watching. His future videos require an opt in but you’ll get a feel for whether they’re right for you from the first one. I watched them all and they’re excellent.

Do yourself a favour and set aside some time today to watch these videos.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Use Guest Blogging to Grow Your Blog Exponentially

Share This

Posted by Tom_C

Paywalls are a hot topic online at the moment. In the UK The Times has recently put their whole site behind a pay wall and in early 2011 the New York Times is set to also go behind a pay wall. Both of these sites will join sites such as the Wall Street Journal which has been behind a paywall for some time already. For those who aren’t familiar with how paywalls work this image might clear things up:

(Image credit)

There has been an awful lot written online about paywalls so I’m going to try and cover new ground in this post and focus exclusively on the conversion rate issues which are unique to paywalls and how news sites might seek to overcome them. Although that’s a pretty niche focus for this post hopefully the lessons and techniques can be applied to many different websites. Firstly, I’m going to look at the difficulties:

Objections To Overcome

In my eyes newspapers struggle with 3 unique problems which sets them slightly apart from other conversion funnels:

1. Micropayments – People are unfamiliar with making small payments online. Much as you and I (being internet savvy hopefully!) are comfortable shelling out small payments and going through the hassle of remembering our verified by visa password, the average joe still isn’t familiar with this.
2. Subscriptions - Again, this is related to the above point but there’s an objection which needs to be overcome which is paying for something regularly. We’re all a lot more comfortable paying once for a single product, paying regularly for access to something is a concept we’re a lot less familiar with.
3. News is free right? – The last, but perhaps most obvious of the objections and the one people vocalise a lot is "surely I can just get my news from a free source?". We’ve been living in a news-free world now for about as long as the internet has been around and certainly the younger generations simply assume news should be free.

So if you’re going to launch a paywall I think you have to consider these 3 factors very carefully. How are you going to overcome them?

Countering These Objections

Since there are 3 objections, I’m going to present 3 solutions!

1. Smooth The Funnel – As one client mentioned to me recently, "we try to smooth the sides of our funnel as much as possible". This approach to conversion rate optimisation I think overcomes the first objection. The idea being that if you’re going to make a micropayment (and certainly if you’re going to make more than one micropayment) then the process should be very quick and very painless.
2. Educate Your Users – Whenever you try and sell something it’s important to answer the question "Why do I get if I buy this?". For ecommerce websites this often results in making sure delivery options are very clear, or ensuring it’s clear which version of a product you’re selling. For paywalls I think it’s crucial to educate very strongly about what exactly the product is that you’re offering. Which sections of the site do you get access to, how long for, what’s in those sections etc. Even though it’s a micropayment, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need long sales pages and a lot of persuasion to get people to buy. Long sales copy is useful not only to persuade people to purchase but also to educate people on what exactly it is they’re buying.
3. Sell The Benefits – To overcome the "news is free" objection it’s crucial to sell the benefits of the content you have. Likely this needs to be something above and beyond "just" news. Consider what else you get, opinion, rich media etc.

Pay Walls In Action

Now, let’s look at some real life examples of paywalls in action and see what we can pick out from them considering the above objections and counter objections:

The New Scientist

One thing I hate about paywalls, is the idea that they are in fact a wall. I think there should be a psychological shift to think of them not as walls but instead as desirable products. I feel the New Scientist does this really well – take a look at the below call to action which appears at the top of an article which you can’t read in full online:

This isn’t saying "you can’t read this article unless you pay", this is saying "look how great it would be if you subscribed to New Scientist!". There are really nice visual calls to action and there’s even a 20% discount in there! Sweet.

Looking further at the actual conversion funnel we see they’ve greased the sides of the funnel nicely since it only takes a matter of seconds to whiz through the clear and simple checkout process.

The Times

The Times is a fascinating case study for conversion – they’ve been doing some things well, some things not so well but it’s a really interesting case study. Firstly, as above the thing I hate most of all about the times website is that you run into the paywall. It’s a wall. A barrier. There’s no way (no easy way) of signing up to The Times unless you try and click on one of the headlines on the homepage. This doesn’t make any sense to me – the only way into the funnel for a user is to click on a headline that interests them, only to be denied access to that article. I think it would be immensely valuable to have a call to action on the homepage to actually subscribe – this means that people looking to subscribe can do so easily and by clicking on something which has the desired outcome.

Once you’ve clicked a news story you’re presented with a pop-up overlay like this:

Now, what I can’t show you with this screenshot is the painstakingly long time it takes for this pop-up to load. This will likely be their biggest source of lost conversions – the popup is so slow that often the page will re-load and nothing will happen for a few seconds before the popup starts to render and even when it does render it takes at least 7-8 seconds for the "already registered?" box to even appear. For a website trying to persuade me to buy a subscription to an online product slow loading technology like this really matters and will put many people off.

Ok, I don’t mean to be too negative about The Times but there’s another very weird conversion killer. When you actually click to subscribe to the site the first page you’re presented with is this single function page:

I find this page very odd. Talking about greasing the sides of the funnel, this is like sandpaper on the walls coated with glue. Why should I enter my email address? What purpose does it serve? There’s not even any security or trust given that my email address won’t be sold to 3rd parties. There’s a reason that websites give those assurances, it’s because users are worried about it! Once you’ve entered your email address the next step of the funnel prompts you to re-enter your email address anyway so this page is more or less totally redundant for me.

Ok, enough negativity – time for some positives! The first thing I really like about The Times is the development of Times+. This website is an entire micro-site dedicated to educating users about the benefits of signing up, along with example pieces of content including videos and articles. This really plays well into point 2 above.

Another aspect I find really intriguing about The Times is that they have the opportunity here to create a worthwhile online community with intelligent comments on their articles. This would genuinely set them apart from other newspaper sites where the comments quickly descend into madness or idiocy or both! The very fact that you’re within a walled garden and the fact that The Times prides itself on intelligent debate should offer them an opportunity set themselves apart. I can see the beginnings of this as a marketing tactic and I can only assume this will grow as the website matures but this is a perfect example of point 3 – overcoming the "news is free" concept.

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal gets quite a nice thumbs up for one specific page they have which is this one:

There are two things I love about this page. Firstly, this type of feature comparison table works very well at driving conversions. It’s clear for users and has nice strong calls to action throughout. The second reason I love this is because of the more subtle perceived value proposition that’s included alongside the Print + Online + Mobile option where there is included a free £20 Amazon voucher. This instantly makes your perceived value of the item shoot up which I think is really clever!

Conclusion

In conclusion, I don’t mind the idea of charging for content online. This has to happen I think as the web evolves. But I really hope we can stop thinking of them as paywalls. I dislike the idea of running into a wall or barrier which prevents a user from getting what they want. Instead I hope that we can start treating this more as a membership service with benefits, bonuses and bells and whistles. Also, I couldn’t write this article without linking to this very ironic page on The Economist…

Note: CRO, is not an exact science. That’s why you run testing. Almost certainly some of the advice I’ve given here will NOT convert better than the current sites. That’s the reality of CRO and it’s why testing is key. Testing testing testing. However, the analysis of the conversion path I think throws up interesting debate so hopefully I’ve at the very least given some of these sites some ideas of what they might be able to test.

Also – final note, thanks to Ed Fry who has been in the Distilled offices the past two weeks on work experience and helped me gather some data and put this post together!

Do you like this post? Yes No

If you’re a blogger and looking to work with a group of other bloggers to improve your blog – then there are two new groups starting up to work through the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook together in the coming few weeks.

They are both for different types of bloggers and both were started in response to my post a couple of weeks back looking at how one blogger put on a version of 31DBBB for his niche and in doing so raised his profile and helped many bloggers come together for mutual benefit.

In that post I offered any blogger who wanted to try something similar a head start by offering their group 25% off the 31DBBB workbook.

There are a number of groups starting in the coming weeks but two that are launched and gathering steam are:

1. Women Bloggers

SITSgirls – this community of thousands of women bloggers are partnering up with BlogFrog and ProBlogger to put on this event for their network (and anyone who wants to join them). It’s kicking off on 19 July and looking at the hundreds of comments on the announcement post there is going to be a large group going through this together. Learn more and join them here.

2. Movie Bloggers

Anomalous Material is running a 31DBBB for movie bloggers. This one is a little more niche focused but also is gaining momentum with quite a few bloggers from that niche signing up. They’re kicking off on 2 August. Learn more and join them here.

Both of these groups have discount codes (25% off) for anyone who signs up to do it with them.

If you’re not a woman blogger or a movie blogger – there is talk of another couple of groups coming together in different niches but as I mentioned in my previous post – if you’re in a niche and can gather a group of 5 or more bloggers together feel free to contact me and I’ll set you up with a discount code too.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Calling all Women Bloggers and Movie Bloggers – Two New 31DBBB Groups Starting Soon!

Share This

Posted by Danny Dover

 This weeks Whiteboard Friday is a little bit different than normal but a lot more awesome. I took the lead this week and am sharing 5 tips that beginners can use to get links from bloggers. This educational video is full to the brim with helpful tips, odd tangents and one very poor impression of a news anchor.

 

---

 

The Beginner’s Guide to Getting Links from Bloggers

Try all of the following tactics and focus on building upon whichever one works best for your situation.

Make Lists of Niche Linkers (and post them) – Most bloggers are by nature marketers. Take of advantage of this by writing material that helps them market themselves. For example, if you wanted to get a link from a blog in the car space, you might make a list of the top 3 Honda Civic blogs. Remember to go niche and avoid stating the obvious (I.E. Techcrunch is the number one tech blog). "The obvious" doesn’t attract links.

Do Interviews – This tactic has two main benefits. First, by conducting interviews you get interesting content to write about. What could be more interesting than what the industry experts are talking about? (Clever interviewers will realize the answer is the stuff the experts don’t want to talk about). Secondly, by getting your name/brand in the head of an expert, you have more chances of getting links from them in the future.

Be Virtually Social – Being virtually social is easy and can provide higher short term ROI than talking to people face to face. (e.g. It is easier to get a link from someone who is in the process of writing something online than it is to get a link from someone who is not at a computer.) I use the following three avenues to do this:

• Facebook – Since Facebook replaced "Fan" with "Like", it is now easier than ever to promote your work via Facebook without being too "salesy". This won’t get you links per say (as the entire process exists within Facebook’s ecosystem) but it can help drive traffic.
• Twitter – Like Facebook, Twitter won’t necessarily help you build followed links but it does help you spread your brand/product/idea around the net. This makes it a good long term strategy.
• Blogs – One great way to get links is to find supporting evidence for a given blog post and letting it’s author know about it. If they use it, they are likely to cite you as the source.

In addition to promoting my work on Twitter, I use the platform to spread Internet awesomeness. (Thus the image above)

Make In-Person Connections – This is the best long term way to get links. When bloggers are trying to come up with supporting evidence for a point they are trying to make, they are much more likely to use a example that is already in their head than they are to go out and search for it. The best way to get into someones head (other than a chisel) is to meet them and spend time with them. (Wait a chisel? Did anyone else read that?)

Send Linkers Demos of Things (Websites, New Products, Games, Etc…) That You Want Links To and Include the Linkers Stuff In It. – This tactic is newer and has been proving to work very well. If you want coverage from a specific blogger, try including their blog in the product demo and sending it to them. This way they can promote themselves while promoting your work.

---

If you have any other advice that you think is worth sharing, feel free to post it in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. As always, feel free to e-mail me if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. All of my contact information is available on my SEOmoz profile under Danny. Thanks!

Do you like this post? Yes No

A couple of weeks ago I had this interesting question from Arlene Crespo from lifeplanweb.com.

I have been blogging since November of 2009 and I really enjoy writing especially about my experiences with life.

My problem is that my age works against me, If people see how old I am which is in my fifty’s they will be turn off. Most of the bloggers are young people in their twenty’s thirty’s forty’s.

What’s one to do when your at this age?

I thought this was an interesting question and one that might generate some good discussion so I’d like to hear your opinion on it. But before I do – let me share a few thoughts:

I’ve not really run into this question before and as a blogger still in my 30’s have not had to face it personally – so I can only really speak from my own personal experience as a blog reader but when I arrive on a blog by someone who is a little more ‘mature’ than myself I don’t think I’m any more likely to read, if anything it could make me think that the person is a little more experienced.

I’m a big believer in trying to use the situation that you’re in to your advantage and to try to turn perceived problems into opportunities – so if I was in this situation I’d probably be wanting to almost use my age as a way to market and brand myself rather than hiding it.

I’d be exploring trying to position myself as someone who has experience in my field, who has faced the challenges that others might not have faced and as someone who can coach and mentor a less experienced person.

That approach may not work in every niche but it’s probably where I’d be starting.

What Do You Think?

• Do you think age matters (on either end of the spectrum)?
• Could being a little older be used as an advantage?
• Have you used your age in some way in marketing yourself (whether you’re younger or older)?

PS: as I’ve written this post I realize I have been asked the question before, but by young bloggers who have asked if they should reveal their age out of fear of not being taken seriously.

I know of a number of bloggers who are still teens who’ve chosen not to reveal their age for this reason – but also have seen a few who have used their youthfulness to their advantage as a blogger by shouting from the hilltops that they’re young. I guess it can work both ways but I’d love to hear from both younger and older bloggers on their experiences with this.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Does A Bloggers Age Matter?

Share This

This column is written by Kimberly Turner from Regator (a great tool that gathers and organizes the world’s best blog posts). – Darren

Hello and thanks for stopping in again for a list of this week’s ten most blogged-about stories! As always, Regator has provided the list, and we’ll use posts about these hot topics to illustrate this week’s tips. In the past, we’ve discussed some formats you can use to add interest and variety to your blog and, more recently, we looked specifically at list posts. Carrying on with that theme, we’ll focus this week on how-to posts. Because they solve a problem and guarantee a benefit, how-to posts tend to be popular with readers. And they can be used for virtually any niche (if the examples below aren’t enough to prove that point, check out “The Biggest List of ‘How To’ Blog Posts Ever Assembled” from one of the older ProBlogger Group Writing Projects). Let’s take a look at how bloggers used how-to posts to address this week’s hot stories:

1. Gulf of Mexico – Sometimes, a how-to post is not a tutorial that readers will follow themselves but rather an explanation of how a larger problem can or will be solved. Cosmic Log’s “How to suck up all that oil” is an example of this sort of post.
2. World Cup – If there is a particular problem or issue that your niche’s readers are concerned about, a how-to post is the ideal way to handle it. World Cup viewers, for example, seem universally irritated by the ubiquitous vuvuzela horns at the games, prompting a large number of sports and tech bloggers to offer solutions in the form of how-to posts. Asylum’s “How to Filter Out Those Annoying Vuvuzelas” is just one of many.
3. Tony Awards – Jaunted’s post on “How To Get Tickets To The Tony Awards” is a classic how-to. It clearly states the benefit of reading the post in its title then delivers on its promise in a succinct and straightforward way. It’s not always necessary to be extremely clever with how-to posts. Giving your readership the information they need is enough.
4. Bob Etheridge – Representative Bob Etheridge, who lost the plot and had a physical confrontation with a student on film this week, must not have read Marshall Goldsmith’s “How to Keep Your Temper at Work (And Everywhere Else).” This post not only gives solid advice, it also establishes authority on the subject matter in a way that is subtle yet effective (the author discusses processes he has used to deal with negative emotions “for more than 20 years”). There’s a good chance you’ve established this authority and trust simply by blogging on your subject matter, but it’s worth taking a moment, as you write that how-to, to ask yourself how new readers know that your advice is worth heeding. It’s possible, through a short bio or brief comment such as the “20 years” line above, to strengthen your authority without tooting your own horn to an obnoxious degree.
5. True Blood – Though Gawker.tv’s  “How to Date a Vampire” is clearly tongue-in-cheek, it has characteristics common to many good tutorials: It lists the materials that will be needed, it presents the process in clear numbered steps, and it keeps the readers’ interest through humor and interesting related tips. Consider these factors when writing your own posts.
6. Helen Thomas – Dumb Little Man’s “How to Recover From a (Big) Mistake at Work” is an example of a how-to idea that was generated by the blogger’s own personal mistakes. Sharing the lessons you’ve learned from your mistakes is valuable and may prevent your readers from making the same errors or, in the worst case scenario, may help them deal with the aftermath of a similar faux pas.
7. Nintendo 3DS – Opposable Thumbs’ “What Nintendo must do to make the 3DS a must-have” uses the how-to format (directed at giving advice to Nintendo rather than readers) to provide commentary and opinion then ends with a solid call to action for readers to share their own opinions.
8. Michael Jackson – When it was announced that the new Michael Jackson video game will teach players how to move like the King of Pop, Gawker.tv gave their readers a head start with “How to Moonwalk,” a video tutorial. There may be tasks, such as moonwalking or knitting, that are better explained via video. Consider whether video, audio, or photos would make your how-to post more effective and easier to understand.
9. Al Gore – Al Gore’s divorce and subsequent rumors of infidelity may have him wishing for a post such as Divine Caroline’s “How to Rebuild Your Life After a Divorce,” which uses subtitles and short well-written paragraphs to clearly outline the post’s advice. Subheadings such as these can help readers skim for the information they’ll find most beneficial.
10. Apple – “How to Pre-Order an iPhone 4 With Minimal Hassle and Headache” from Switched provides continued usefulness to its readers by updating the post as information changes. If you’ve written a how-to that will change with time, the added effort required to go back and update the post will be appreciated by readers.

Do how-to posts work well on your blog? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

One more thing: I’ve received emails from some of you indicating that you’d like to have your blog reviewed for possible inclusion on Regator, but nominations were closed while we finished our relaunch. I’m happy to announce here that nominations are now open and ProBlogger readers are the first to find out. Feel free to submit your blog.

Kimberly Turner is a cofounder of Regator.com and Regator for iPhone as well as an award-winning print journalist. You can find her on Twitter @kimber_regator.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Blogosphere Trends + Writing Great ‘How To’ Posts

Share This

One of the most exciting things to happen to me in the last couple of months is to see a group of bloggers come together to do the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook together.

In this post I’d like to share the story of how one blogger got a group of bloggers collaborating together using the workbook and in doing so grew in his leadership within the niche.

A few months back I was approached by Paul Steinbrueck from Ourchurch.com with an interesting request. He wanted to take a group of bloggers from within his niche (Church/Christian bloggers) through the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook. They were going to tackle it over 6 weeks rather than just 31 days (to give people weekends off) and had set up a forum area for bloggers participating to interact. They were also offering some rewards for those participating, held some reviews of blogs taking part etc.

I was really excited by the idea – while I’ve run live versions of 31DBBB here on ProBlogger before this was one of the first times I’d seen a group of bloggers from a single niche work through it together. The potential for collaboration and encouragement from a group of bloggers all working in the same niche was powerful so I gave it my blessing and offered all those participating 25% off the workbook.

What happened over the next 6 weeks was great to watch. You can see Paul’s announcement post calling people to join here. I’m not sure of the exact numbers of those who participated (I heard early on that it was at least 23 but know that another network of bloggers joined in so there were more than that – and based on those who bought the eBook with the discount code it was around 40).

Over the coming weeks I had emails from quite a few participants feeding back how much they had gotten out of it. Most commented on how much more powerful it was doing it as a group. Not everyone made it to the end (6 weeks is a long time to commit) but it seems that those who did saw some tangible benefit. Paul surveyed bloggers at the start and end of the project to measure the results and here’s what he reported:

For those who read at least half the lessons and did at least half the assignments the results were stunning:

• Pageviews increased 97%
• Visits increased 48%
• Unique visitors increased 67%
• Comments increased 152%
• RSS subscribers increased 13%

Paul went on to report:

“While some of this growth is probably a temporary bump due to the project itself, the most remarkable improvement came in an area that is certain to have a long lasting impact – how participants rated themselves as bloggers.

Those who read at least half the lessons and did at least half the assignments prior to the 31DBBB project rated themselves on average at 3.0 out of a possible 10.  After completing the project, they gave themselves a 6.9 rating, almost a 4 point jump. Wow!

Clearly these folks feel they learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence through their participation in this project.”

You can read more about the results of the project in Paul’s post here.

Run Your Own Niche focused 31DBBB Challenge

In the coming months you’ll see another live version of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog here on ProBlogger. It’s going to be bigger and better than ever before – however it strikes me that what Paul did in this niche focused project could be beneficial to others too.

The idea of joining with other bloggers within your niche is a powerful thing. Not only did Paul’s challenge help bloggers improve their blogs in isolation, it helped them come together and network, collaborate and strengthen their whole niche.

Paul was already fairly established in his niche but in pulling them together Paul also build credibility, trust and authority as a leader within his niche. The project really helped grow his own blog as well as genuinely helping others in his niche.

So while I prepare to release the next live version of 31DBBB later in the year here on ProBlogger – if you’d like to lead a group of bloggers in your own niche through 31DBBB I’d love to hear from you.

As most of you know – the 31DBBB workbook is a process of 31 sets of teaching combined with 31 action items to help any blog improve. It covers a variety of topics which will apply in almost any niche – but they work best when you’re sharing the journey with others (particularly others in a similar niche).

For any group of more than 5 bloggers wanting to work through the workbook together I’m happy to set up a 25% off discount code to help you get started and I’d be happy to tweet out to my own network that you’re running a group and are looking for other bloggers in whatever niche it is that you’re running it for.

You’ll need to coordinate and manage the project yourself by gathering people together and setting up some way for everyone to collaborate (perhaps setting up a private WordPress.com blog or using a social networking tool like Ning) but I’m happy to help out with a discount and by giving it some Tweet-Love.

If you’re interested in this – try to gather together 5 bloggers and then shoot me an email via the contact form here at ProBlogger with your details and the niche you’re running it for and I’ll get it set up for you.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Become the Blogging Expert in Your Own Niche by Running a Blogging Course

Share This

Newer Posts »