Blog Tipz

A new trend is arising (although it’s been present for quite some time), and that is that many bloggers aren’t focusing on the long-term and instead focusing on what will immediately generate the most page views, new readers, and income. This isn’t the path that you should be headed in, even if you want to see these benefits right now.

Content is something that needs to stick with your blog. As it grows, you should be able to continue emphasizing on what you’ve published in the past. News blogs that only cover what is happening now and not what really “matters” rarely, if ever, return to topics that have been covered in the past – unless of course, there are major developments related to the same story.

Much like timeless content, writing valuable content means that you are stressing the importance of getting traffic spread out over the long-term. This type of writing includes topics that don’t go out of style, that don’t rely on current events, or marketing appeal from companies to get readers to visit your blog. These posts come rather naturally, many largely inspired by life events that you want to relate to your blog.

Let’s put it this way: A single post that has been well-written, ranks fairly well in search engines for the specific topic, and is able to inspire people to leave comments can bring in more traffic than a hundred three hundred to five-hundred word posts about news or products. Would you rather sit down and write the 100+ posts, or a single post that can deliver the same, if not better results?

Now, wait a minute. I want to address the “monetary” issue of this. When you look at page views and readership, I assure you that the more is better philosophy will pay off, as readers actually want to see a more frequently updated blog, and advertisers may like to see more page views and refreshes, rather than unique visitors. In these respects, you could aim for more total posts, but then again, where is the valuable content?

Value 1: Inspiration

Posts that inspire people to do something, change their habits, or rethink what may have been popular belief will likely be valuable to whoever may be reading the content.

Changing the ways of someone can be a positive experience for the reader, especially if you or your blog can be looked at as a model for what their lives should be. You simply can’t replace this, as this feeling will stick with you forever.

In another sense, you could provide visual inspiration. Many valuable posts consist of images or a visual design format that helps set the scene for the actions that your readers should be taking.

Value 2: The Take-Away

Evident in valuable content is the take-away factor. With this, you are providing your readers something that they can physically take away from your blog. Now, in a literal sense, this means providing them something for free, such as a blog themes, or eBook, but in another sense, it means that they have some new thoughts and ideas placed into their heads.

Beyond inspiration, this consists of tutorials, instructions, and methods for doing something that they previously didn’t know how to do or weren’t comfortable doing.

The main concern that I have is that many of these articles aren’t put into the limelight, the writer often avoids adding the value aspect and the post often becomes a muddled mess of instructions the end-user doesn’t know what to do with or how to formulate what hte author wanted them to achieve.

The key in adding this value is making sure it is clear what you want them to have after they leave your site.

Value 3: Return-ability

The best posts I read I like to save, even though I might not need to reference them again. SImply, this is to ensure that I can return to them in the future, for inspiration (a value already expressed) for future pursuits, especially if the post deals with real-life events.

Valuable content adds the return-ability factor. To do this, make sure that you let your readers know that you want them to return. Although it isn’t quite that simple, you have to make sure that you don’t mess up the opportunity to create content that is placed at the top reading list of everyone that enjoys the particular subject you are writing about.

Don’t forget to include your readers in the conversation. When your readers feel comfortable sharing their thoughts with you, there is less of a chance that they will leave, not taking anything from your site.

Resource posts, in which you compile the most important knowledge about a more wide-reaching topic than your readers are used to can help increase the return rate, in addition to decreases in bounce rates.

Don’t include dates or references to current events. Prevent your readers’ desire to look elsewhere for content that might be more up-to-date than yours.

Value 4: Something New and Unique

Have content that everyone else has? Just forget about having a high-ranking, well-linked to post. It is difficult to “outpace” the competitors, and even if you do, it will be just like theirs, only with your thoughts and ideas mixed in.

When you step back from the entire perspective of things, your content is just like Person B and Person C who are standing right next to you, waiting in line for their turn in first position. A rough analogy, but this is a simplified perspective of how it all works.

New content, especially on topics with a few search engine results can help market yourself as a leader in your niche. Being first rarely hurts.

Value 5: Interactivity

Interactivity is a wide-branching topic that I have to mention. There are a few specific items that have to be addressed when adding interactivity, as follows:

• Updates – As the administrator of a website, you are responsible for replying and returning emails and any comments you receive related to a post. No matter what the person says (that is, legitimate comments), you should present an idea in return, even if that is a simple gesture thanking him or her for visiting your site.
• Comment Support – A few dozen times, there have been posts on the web that don’t allow comments of any form. Now, it could mean that there was a huge influx of spam, but most likely, they turned off the ability to communicate and interact with the post and site owner/other readers.
• Extended Purpose – Beyond comments, what type of support does the blog support, whether that be in the form of a forum, better comment support, or Twitter/chat account/area. These all help you to add more value to your content, as comments help go beyond what you’ve already stated.

Conclusion

Even though there could be thousands of other ways to focus on adding value to your site, the above five help clearly demonstrate a few basics on creating value. Think about this topic and whether you can add any thoughts in the comments.

A difficult subject to approach, value-rich content can yield enormous results if marketed and promoted correctly. Initially, there will be more work, but you’ll soon find that traffic and reader satisfaction rise as your begin adopting a new plan for posting (resulting in traffic/readership increases).