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There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills: Finding Hidden Content Treasures for Your Blog

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After blogging for a year or two, you likely have a rich library of evergreen content. Your blog is just bursting at the seams with these high-quality posts, but what gets the most attention? Whatever you’ve posted most recently. Some of your best content might never see the light of day again.

This content is gold. Older blog posts can be absolute treasures, helping you create new content and drive new readers to your blog. You just have to dig it out, dust it off, and repurpose it in the best way possible.

The Inspiration Bank

Since new content often gets the most attention, maybe it’s time to repurpose some of your old content into brand new posts. I keep a list of the very best posts I’ve ever written, and this is my inspiration bank. Even posts that are timely (i.e., not evergreen) can be part of your bank. What was most popular in the past and why? How can you replicate that success? Think about the topic matters you’ve covered and consider doing an update on them to create a brand new post for readers.

For example, let’s say you’re a political blogger. You probably covered the 2012 U.S. Presidential elections pretty closely. A year from now, it probably seems like those posts aren’t relevant – but they are! Posts that discuss candidates’ promises or predictions from yourself and others can be turned into excellent follow-up posts on the topic.

You can also use this kind of “updating” technique to produce high-quality guest posts. With guest posts, people are often more likely to visit specific posts you mention in the text rather than a general link in your bio at the end.

Build Your Mailing List

Old content – or should that be gold content – can also be extremely helpful in building your mailing list. Instead of writing a free ebook from scratch, are there post series that could be combined, edited, and formatted into a short ebook to give away in exchange for mailing list sign-ups? Or, you might be able to expand upon a post, breaking down your advice into more detail so you can turn the post into a longer format giveaway.

You can also look to see which posts were most popular and then offer a free webinar or e-course on the topic. Use your older posts as a jumping off point for this kind of education. It’s much easier than starting from scratch.

Reshare Instead of Repurpose

If a post is truly evergreen, repurposing it might not make as much sense as simply resharing it. The key is to share it with a new audience. For example:

  • When you first published the post, were you active on Pinterest or Google+? If not, share them with these communities.
  • Have you ever shared the post with your mailing list? Maybe it’s time to promote it in one of your newsletters.
  • Was the post shared at a certain time of day? Change things up and share it at a different time of day to hit different time zones.

Breathe some new life into that old content!

Of course, to have great evergreen content in your library, you have to be adding new evergreen content to your blog regularly. For blog content creation tips, check out our upcoming Blogging Track at NMX in Las Vegas 2013!

Photo Credit: Bigstock

Guest Posting 101: After Your Guest Post is Live

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Over the past week or so, we’ve been talking about guest posting. We’ve gone over writing the post, linking within the post, and pitching your ideas to other bloggers – but the work doesn’t end there. Many guest posters make the mistake of moving on to the next guest posting opportunity right away, but if you want the most bang for your buck, it pays to take some time to do a little work after the post is live.

Step One: Social Network Promotion

As soon as your post is live, please take a moment to promote it to your network. I get it; the reason you do guest posts is to find new fans, but taking the time to promote it yourself is a “thank you” to the blogger to posted it. I like to promote the guest post at least three times – once right when it is posted, once later in the day when different time zones are awake, and once a few days later.

The added benefit is that your peripheral friends might be really crazy fans of the blog that posted your guest post. If they see you mention it, you create a common bond. Hey, you wrote a post for the BlogWorld blog? I love the BlogWorld blog! We have something in common! Let me make an effort to get to know you and check out your home blog as well!

Step Two: Blog Promotion

Some people announce on their own blogs when they’ve done a guest post. That’s really up to you, and in my opinion, it should depend on your post rate. For example, I only post one long-ish post per week on After Graduation (maybe two if I’m feeling fiesty), so it doesn’t really work well to have every other post be a guest post announcement. If you post several times every day, mentioning a guest post spot might make more sense.

What I do recommend having, in any case, is some kind of “As Seen On” page or list of links on your sidebar. When people who are new to your blog are checking you out and determining whether or not to be subscribers (or even advertisers), seeing that some of the bloggers they already know and trust have featured in you increases the likelihood that they’ll be back. In a non-terminator kind of way.

Step Three: Respond to Comments

One thing that really annoys me as a commenter is when I leave a comment that asks a question and no one responds. I’m of the mindset that bloggers don’t have to respond to every comment, but if you write a guest post and there’s a comment that demands a response, please do so. On guest posts, I actually recommend trying to respond to as many comments as possible, even if you aren’t that response-happy on a new blog. You’re new to the party, and people are introducing themselves. Say hello.

I will say that after some time (about a week in my opinion), the responsibility to respond to guest post comments isn’t really on your shoulders anymore. You don’t get notifications as to when they’re received, so at that point, I think it’s the responsibility of the home blogger to either respond or to email you that you should think about responding. Don’t worry about wasting oodles of time checking every single guest post every single day!

Step Four: Follow Up with the Blogger

Congratulations! You now have a working relationship with the blogger. Don’t let that connection fizzle out. Make sure you’re mutually following one another on Twitter, friends on Facebook, or otherwise connected via social media and keep the love going. Stop by their blog to comment from time to time, and if your first experience did well, consider pitching another post in the future. Bloggers who post your content have already raised their hand and said they like you. Don’t let the conversation end.

That’s all I have for the guest posting series! I’d love to hear about your guest posting experiences. Here are the rest of the posts in this series:

Are You Overlooking Niche Networks?

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Facebook and Twitter rule social networks. LinkedIn is definitely in the game too, and Google+ is certainly a contender. These are all general networks, though, and while they can bring you tons of traffic, don’t overlook what niche networks can do for you.  Sometimes, with just a fraction of the effort, you can get just as much traffic.

Superfans

When you blog in a specific niche, like parenting or food, your most loyal readers are going to be niche superfans. Superfans, as I’m using the term, means people who live, eat, breathe the topic. They’re mom of the year, they’re obsessed with food, they’re the biggest fan of whatever your niche may be.

Superfans are always on the lookout for what’s hot and new. They use general social networks, but they also use niche networks to satisfy their need for information. By joining niche networks, you can more easily connect with these superfans. And once they know you exist? They’re extremely likely to become subscribers, even before they know if they like you as a blogger, simply because they want to read anything written about the topic. It’s up to you and your good content to keep them subscribed, but they’ve taken care of the hard part themselves.

Other Bloggers

Niche networks are also great for connecting with other bloggers in your field. You aren’t alone out there, and that’s a good thing. When you connect with other bloggers, you can start linking out to each other’s posts, promoting one another on more general social networks, guest posting for one another, and more.

It’s also a good way to get on the radars of a-listers in your niche. These are smaller networks where it is easier to get a response when attempting to contact an a-lister, or even just to get noticed by helping to promote what they post.

Some Niche Network Tips

Lastly, I wanted to go over a few tips for using niche networks. Keep in mind that this includes niche-specific bookmarking sites, niche-specific forums, and official fansites in some cases (like if you blog about a television show). Here’s how to make the best use of your time:

  • Don’t spread yourself too thin. No matter what your niche, there are a lot of networks out there. Pick a few and be very active, not a dozen that you only visit once a week.
  • Use the same avatar across all networks. You want your fans from other places to be able to find you.
  • Stick to niche-specific stuff. If you’re on a football site, talk about your football blog, not other projects. On niche sites, you have to stay in the niche or people will start ignoring you.
  • Do more than just promote. Help people. If all you do is promote your own stuff, you’ll just come off as a spammer. In other words, treat a niche-specific network the same way you’d treat Facebook or Twitter. Don’t be a jerk.

For those of you out there who blog within a specific niche, I’m interested in your experiences with niche networks. I’ve found unexpected success with these sites – have you?

Guest Posting 101: Link Like a Champ

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Yesterday, I talked a bit about Penning the Perfect Post if you want to start guest posting, but there’s one element I left out – adding links to your post. When it comes to linking, especially when talking about SEO, someone could probably write a whole book on the different linking theories and practices. I’ll just tell you what works for me – and if you write guest posts, add a comment at the end to tell us all what works for you!

Some SEO Basics

Before I get into the meat of this post, let me first go over a few SEO basics for beginners out there. When you include a link in your guest post (or in your posts in general), it is important to pay attention to the words you actually link. These are your keywords, and they should be the words you’d imagine someone typing into Google to actually get to whatever page you’re linking. So, for example, say I wanted to promote this post in a guest post I was writing for someone else. I might link using the words “guest post linking” or “using links in your guest post” since those are words people might type into Google that are relevant to my post. Some people spend a lot of time doing keyword research. If you want to do that, great. If not, even being a little mindful of it and using keywords instead of stuff like “click here” or “my blog post,” you’ll be ahead of the game.

Link Overload

When you’re writing a post for your own site, you might want to include tons of links back to your own work or to blog posts that you’ve read and enjoyed. When you’re writing guest posts, you have to be a little more discreet. Everyone knows that guest posts are all about promoting your own blog, but if you do too much promotion – even if your links are relevant – you’re going to have a hard time placing the post on another blog.

Bloggers agree to post guest posts because they want cool content for their site. Most are happy to give you credit and even some links back to your site, bit too many links starts to get unattractive to them. Remember, every link you include is sending people away from their blog. If a post is full of extremely good information, but includes tons of links, most bloggers won’t accept it.

So how many links should you include? Consider:

  • Length: In general, the longer your guest post, the most links you can include.
  • Niche: Some niches are more link-friendly than others.
  • The Proposed Blog: Some bloggers are more link-friendly than others.

Your Bio

Almost all guest posts include a bio at the end (or at the beginning – depends on the blogger’s formatting style). Your bio is your chance to shine. You want it to entice people to learn more about you and what you do on your own blog, and from a linking perspective, you can go hog wild.

Well, kind of.

You still don’t want to include a billion links, especially since bios are typically only about two sentences long. Still, it is more than acceptable to include two to three links. Some bloggers who post guest posts actually request that you not include any links within the body of the article, giving you only your bio for linking. I actually recommend at least two links: one for SEO purposes and one that appeals more to actual readers who might want to visit your site.

Want an example? Check out the bio I include at the end of my BlogWorld posts. It might change in the future, but here’s what I have right now:

Allison Boyer is a writer for BWE’s blog and the owner of After Graduation, a site for career advice and motivation. She works as a freelance writer and would love to connect with you on Twitter (@allison_boyer). Allison is also working on a super secret blog project, which you can read about here.

After Graduation is my site name, but also the keyword that a lot of people use to find the site, so that makes sense. “Freelance writer” is linked for SEO purposes. I want people who are looking for a freelance writer to get to my freelance writing site. The other two links, to my Twitter and to my blog project, are not going to help me with search engines, but they (hopefully) appeal to people reading my content who want to learn more about me.

Four links is probably the top I’d include in any kind of guest post bio (these are not exactly the guest posts here at BlogWorld, but it’s the same basic concept). Splitting them evenly between links for SEO and links to entice readers is what works best for me.

Okay, that’s my best advice for linking within guest posts. Check out the other posts in this series and give us your best tips in the comments below!

Guest Posting 101: An Introduction

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I get a lot of questions to my inbox about guest posts. I actually do a lot of guest posting on behalf of a client of mine – I’ve help him build a great blog, and now I’m helping him spread the word through guest posts. Guest posting is a way to get some major traffic to your blog – if you do it correctly.

So, I wanted to write a short series here at BlogWorld about guest posting based on the success I’ve had in this area. This post is an introduction to guest posting – but scroll to the end to find other posts on writing, pitching, and promotion.

There are two main goals with guest posts:

  1. Gaining traffic through readers who enjoyed your post and want to read more from you.
  2. Gaining traffic through SEO by linking good keywords back to your site.

In my opinion, a good guest post considers both elements. If you write an awesome guest post, but don’t consider SEO at all, you’re missing out on traffic that you could have had without compromising the integrity of the guest post. On the other hand, if you write a crap guest post just for SEO purposes, not only will you have a hard time placing it, but you’re also losing traffic because potential readers won’t click through to your site. If you’re going to the trouble of writing and pitching guest posts, make sure they’re optimized for both types of traffic!

There’s a third benefit to guest post that is somewhat hidden and there’s no way to measure the benefits, at least not in terms of traffic numbers. I can tell you from my own experiences that it exists, though! The advantages I’m talking about is name recognition. As you begin to guest post other places, even if people don’t click through to your site, they start to recognize your name. If you want to be an authority in your niche, people have to know your name. Maybe they don’t check out your site after reading this guest post or that guest post…but if your name keeps popping up with blogs they do read, it is only a matter of time before their curiosity gets the best of them and they become a reader.

Don’t forget that guest posting, at the very least, puts you on the radar of the blogger who posts your work. Sometimes, this is the best way to make an a-list aware that you exist. They otherwise might not realize that your blog is awesome – but if you propose a guest post that is a good fit, they’ll head to your site to check out your other work.

I’ve even gotten jobs this way. People needing writing done in a certain area sometimes peruse the big-name blogs to look for contractors. It’s actually an ingenious strategy for finding up-and-comers to write for your projects.

I hope you’ll give guest posting a try. If you’re new it the idea, stick around – in the next post, I’m going to talk about penning the perfect guest post. When all of the posts in this series are live, you’ll be able to see them at the follow links:

Could Your Blog Survive Without Facebook and Twitter?

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Earlier today on Twitter, Mike Stenger posted a link to an infographic on Soshable about what life would be like without Facebook. With 600 million users (as of Jan. 2011) who average 130 friends each and create an average of 90 pieces of new content (pictures, status updates, notes, etc., suffice to say that Facebook plays a significant role in our lives. And with 70% of local businesses using pages to connect with fans, everyone is beginning the realize the power of this platform. If it was suddenly taken away, it would be pretty jarring.

Twitter might be lingering behind Facebook, but I imagine that a life without it would be just as jarring. At least, it would be for me!

Today, I have a little challenge for you – think about what your blogging world would be like if Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist. Of course, they do exist, but I think sometimes we use them as crutches. We rely on people to share our links via Facebook and Twitter, so we don’t do much other promotional work. We don’t have to.

But just because you don’t have to doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. You could be missing out on thousands of readers by not promoting your blog anywhere but Facebook and Twitter.

It’s a little exercise to stretch your blogging muscles – think about some of the well-known and creative ways you could promote your blog (and individual posts) to find readers who might miss what you’re doing on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter might be your old standbys, but if you mix in some other techniques now and then, you can reach out to completely new readers – and that should be an exciting prospect to any blogger.

I’ll start by listing off some non-Facebook/Twitter ways to promote your posts. I hope you’ll add to it by leaving a comment at the end!

  1. Other General Social Networks (like LinkedIn)
  2. Niche-Specific Social Networks
  3. Social Bookmarking (StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, etc.)
  4. Emailing Your List
  5. Guest Posts on Blogs in your Niche (check out My Blog Guest)
  6. Comments on Other Blogs (especially those using CommentLuv)
  7. Guest-Hosting Podcasts
  8. Being an Expert Source (try HARO)
  9. Do Interviews (like Meet the Blogger)
  10. Hosting Webinars or Live Chats via Ustream
  11. Submitting Articles to Directories
  12. Include Links in your Signature on Forums
  13. Install a “Related Post” Plugin on your Blog
  14. Link to Old Posts within New Posts
  15. Include a Link in your Email Signature
  16. Buy Advertising
  17. Write a Press Release (if relevant to your post)
  18. Pitch your Story to Mainstream Media
  19. Create a Free WordPress Theme with Your Link in the Footer
  20. List your Blog in Blog and RSS Directories (like Technorati)
  21. Participate in Blog Carnivals (like Brilliant Bloggers)
  22. Email Friends Who Might Be Interested
  23. Upload Pictures on Flickr and Other Stock Photo Sites
  24. Upload a Video on YouTube and Othe Video Sites
  25. Attend Conferences like BlogWorld

Your turn – what are some non-Facebook/Twitter ways you promote your blog and your individual posts? Leave a comment below!

14 Reasons People are Ignoring Your Tweets (part 2)

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Earlier today, I gave you the first seven reasons people are ignoring your tweets. The title promises 14 tips though, so here’s the other half of the list. This half is just as important as the first half, so make sure you read both posts!

  1. You tweet too much. There’s nothing wrong with tweeting often. Heavens knows that I send out dozens of tweets some days. But you don’t have to tweet every single time something happens in your life. Tweet stuff that’s important or interesting. If you’re just a constant stream of “Going to the library. At the library. Looking for books at the library. Man, the library sure is quiet. I shouldn’t be tweeting from the library. Oh, finally found my book at the library. The librarian checking me out is very nice. I should come to the library more often. Time to walk home from the library. Home from the library. That was a nice trip to the library…” people start to tune you out because you’re boring them to death.

  2. You said something offensive recently. Twitter is a great place to speak your mind, but at the same time, just because you’re on the Internet doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have any kind of filter at all. Say your piece, but always have class.
  3. You have a really varied following. It’s cool to have lots of interests, but it pays to have followers interested in your blog’s niche making up the bulk of your followers. If you run two blogs in vastly different niches, you might want consider having two different Twitter accounts. People interested in your sports blog aren’t going to retweet links to your fashion blog in most cases.
  4. The tweets you’re sending aren’t high-quality. Are your blog posts high-quality? Sadly, many times I’ll click links people are tweeting and their blogs just…aren’t that great. Boring. Full of errors. Hard to read. Old news. If you’re going to tweet about it, it better be good. Otherwise, that’s the last time I’ll care about a link you tweet.
  5. You tweet at weird times. If you’re tweeting when most of your readers are sleeping, you won’t get as many retweets or replies. That’s just a fact of life. While I personally don’t like scheduling tweets, it is an option.
  6. Your tweets are hard to read. You should make amble use of hashtags and @, and I even understand using Internet language (leetspeak like “u” instead of “you” for example) to keep your tweets under the Twitter character count. Just keep in mind that readability of your tweet matters. Sometimes. I have to read a tweet two or three times to understand what the person it trying to say.
  7. You ignore people. I understand that it is difficult to keep up with every single follower, but when someone directly talks to you through a DM or @ reply, don’t ignore them. Not every message needs a reply, but make an effort to respond to people when appropriate.

Because I made you wait for the second half, here’s a bonus twitter tip for you: If you want people to retweet your links, be approachable. In my opinion, the number one way to ensure this happens is to avoid using Twitter as your personal outlet for complaining. When someone is always in a bad mood on Twitter, constantly complaining or being negative, it makes me less likely to interact with that person. Be happy! Be positive! If you’re a likable, approachable person on Twitter, people will want to be your friend, and they’ll want to retweet everything you say.

Allison Boyer is a writer for BWE’s blog and the owner/manager of After Graduation. She’s currently twoting all over the place. Don’t you twitter-stand?

14 Reasons People are Ignoring Your Tweets (part 1)

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It’s hard to succeed in blogging without using social network. You can blog your heart out, but without social networking and active promotion of your blog, the best blog writing tips in the world won’t help you take your site to a professional, higher level.

Have you ever tweeted a link to a really original, awesome article in your niche and were met by crickets chirping? Nobody replied to you. Nobody retweeted. Heck, nobody even clicked on the link to check out the post. You have roughly 902,813 followers, and every single one of them flat out ignored you. Guess what? There’s a reason people are ignoring your tweets.

So why do you have a bunch of followers who seemingly hate your guts?

Actually, it’s very rare that your followers don’t like you at all, though I can say from experience that ex-girlfriends for some reason love to stalk the current girlfriends of guys they aren’t yet over. Unless you have 902,813 crazy female followers, there’s probably another reason your tweets are passing without notice. Let’s look at some of the top issues:

  1. You tweet sporadically. When’s the last time you even logged into Twitter? Unless you’re on vacation or in the hospital, you need to use Twitter every day to be in any way successful at it. One tweet per week will typically go ignored.
  2. All of your tweets are links. I understand that you want to promote you blog, but if every tweet is a link to your blog, it starts to be white noise. If people want to read every post on your blog, they subscribe to it. They follow you on Twitter to get to know you beyond the blog posts. Remember this is social networking. Socialize!
  3. You only tweet about your own blog. If you want people to retweet your links, you have to retweet their links from time to time. Don’t tweet just to get tweet love back – tweet links that you actually find interesting. Think beyond what other bloggers are tweeting. Whenever you read something you think your followers would like, share it, whether you found it through a tweet or not.
  4. You tweet the same link a million times. Please, by all means tweet your link once. I even understand tweeting it again later that day, and will let it slide if you tweet it a third time the following day, especially if you’re launching a product or have a post you’re really trying to promote. But if you tweet the same damn link ten times within an hour, I’m going to start ignoring you.
  5. They’re afraid a retweet or reply will lead to spam. It’s fine to thank someone for retweeting a link or even send them a DM, but just because someone likes something you’ve posted doesn’t mean they want an all-out assault of you sending them tons of links trying to promote your blog or sell your products.
  6. They don’t know you and feel weird interacting with you. It isn’t always possible to to get to know every follower on a personal level, but at least be inviting so that readers feel like they can connect with you. A great way to do this is to ask for advice via twitter. Don’t forget to reply to other people as well to make them feel comfortable replying to you, even if they don’t personally know you.
  7. Your followers stink. This sounds a bit harsh, but have you gone about setting up a Twitter account in the right way? If you aren’t careful, your followers might be 99% people who auto-followed you or are just trying to sell something to people in a certain market. Build a quality list of followers, and that starts by 1) sending quality tweets and 2) following quality people that really interest you instead of auto-following a huge list.

To be continued…

Allison Boyer is a writer for BWE’s blog and the owner/manager of After Graduation. She has never stalked an ex-boyfriends current love interest. Ok, maybe once. Don’t judge me!

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