RSS Feeds: How to Produce Great Content
Before I list the methods I use to produce great content, I want to emphasis what Darren Rowse recently wrote. He shared a secret to finding new subscribers for your blog. He was, of course, referring to RSS feed subscribers. He's convinced that readers subscribe due to the sense of anticipation your articles create. Anticipation, based on your past articles, can convince readers to subscribe because of what you may write about in the future.
I didn't pay much attention to feed subscribers until I learned that more feed subscribers means more traffic to my blog. How can that be? Feed subscribers are reading from a feedreader and not from my blog, right? Based on my own feedreader usage, as well as usage by some of the regular readers of my blog, people will move from their feedreaders to my blog in order to comment or find related articles. Feedreaders display content sequentially and that's not how most people normally read. People normally read related topics and feedreaders just don't have that capability yet.
Readers need to be compelled, however, to make the transition. When you consistently produce great content, readers will make the transition.
Some Methods To Produce Great Content (in no particular order)
- Examine questions from your commenters. Can you answer in a sentence or do you find that you need to write article-length replies in order to fully explain the answer? Instead of writing a huge comment that will only be seen by those who read that particular article, why not write a new article for the benefit of ALL your readers? You can always reference the comment that inspired you to write it.
- Read other blogs. I can't emphasize this enough. By reading other blogs, you can be inspired to write similar articles or articles that look at a topic from an alternate point of view. Be careful not to regurgitate and rehash the exact same information.
- Listen to what others are saying. It can be with both your ears and your eyes. You can finish writing a completely new and unique article before anyone else catches on. Sources can be friends, relatives, email messages, online forums, etc. Explore the meaning of a new catch phrase.
- Dig through your archives. If you've been writing for more than a few months, there may be gold in your archives. Consider recycling old articles or expanding old articles into new ones.
- Browse through the topics at social networks. You may not have time to read the articles of every topic you see, but it takes minutes to view the titles. Compile a list of topics that you may want to write about later.
This list is merely the tip of the iceberg and it's just some of the ways I find to produce great content. I'm sure you have your own methods. Would you like to share them?
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Another useful blogging tips. I like the recycling and expanding tip and I'm going to do it in my succeeding posts.
Thanks RT.
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Thanks, Rocky.
i agree about digging through archives since it keeps you focused as to what your readers expect you to write. archives actually define your niche.
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I wouldn't quite agree that it defines your niche, but it can help to focus on what the readers want.
One thing I've found that works is to start coming up with series of posts. For example, every Friday I do a widget of the week. It's not "great content", but it gives me easy inspiration and keeps some people coming back.
Shhhh.. that's a topic for another day.
RT, I can only add that at least for me personally, having a compelling post title to pull me over to the blog makes all the difference in the world.
I've lost count of how many blogs I'm subscribed to via RSS feed, but I'm much more likely to pop on over and read the entire post and comment based solely on the title of the post.
The title of the post needs to clearly state what the post is about. Titling a post "In Hindsight" doesn't tell me anything about the article is about so I'm highly unlikely to click on over.
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I agree, short and succinct, yet accurate post titles can make a huge difference. Some people aren't good at it, so they have to be good at getting to the point in the first two sentences — the part that most feedreaders display.
Again, that's a complete topic in itself.
Titles have never been my strong suit. I'll waiting for that post
Heck, just for that, I'll make it my last post of the day (which should appear before 9 am U.S. Eastern time).
Fun Fun Fun.
Thank you for the tips. I am always looking for better ways to create traffic. I am just getting into blogging. I just started a condo blog, I need all the advice I can get. Speaking of answering questions in a blog. Could you explain how spinning works. My seo guy says I need to read up on spinning to help create more traffic.
I think he meant "sphinn". Check sphinn.com – it's a social website.
Cool thanks I will check it out.