Savvy Affiliate

Day 35 of The 100 Days To Building A Great Website Guide

In the several months that I have been blogging, I have found that most of my hits, and the vast majority of my trackbacks have been the result of only a few posts.  3 posts in particular, out of approximately 275, are responsible for 30% of my traffic and 70% of my backlinks.  I got a large number of links with Top 5 Tools Every Blogger Should Use, part of Problogger’s group writing project, randomly scored a minor stumble hit (for me) with I Stumble Over My Mistakes Again, and have been getting a lot of backlinks (you can debate their value) with ViraLink

What’s Your Point?

My point is that, for bloggers, the vast majority of the traffic to your site can be driven by relatively few posts.  Given the nature of social networking, 1 Great Post is much much better than 10 Good posts.  Although the 10 Good posts are effective at keeping subscribers reading, and getting visitors to return, if you want a spike in new visitors you need a great post.

How Can I Write A Great Post?

Here are some tips on how you can change your post from Good to Great

1) Don’t Rush - A good post you can do on the fly.  Great posts take time.   Figure on writing a great post in 2 sittings minimum, 3 more likely.   You need one sitting to get your initial idea down.  You need another to edit your post and weed out the junk sentences and any ideas which don’t cut to the point, and finally you need a third to tidy everything up and make sure it is perfect.    Compare your posts to when you were doing a report in school.  Sure you did work at the last minute, and every one said “I work better under pressure”, but the reports that actually turned out the best were the ones where they were started in plenty of time, and given a thorough proofreading and revision.

You can’t write a great post if you are just trying to get out content.   In order to even have the time to write a great post, you need to be ahead on your content generation requirements.  If all you are trying to do is get out today’s blog post, you won’t take the time necessary to take it from good to great.   If you have an idea you think has greatness potential don’t work on it as part of the daily grind.  Set it aside and give it extra attention.

2) Don’t Copy - A great idea isn’t great if someone else has done it.   It can still be “Good”, you can still put a new spin on it, and impart new information, but if you really want to create the kind of buzz which can drive a lot of traffic, you need to be original.

Being original is difficult, which is why it is so rewarding.  If you really want to be original, look elsewhere for inspiration.  Look at resources other people aren’t using.  Don’t go to Problogger looking for new ideas, because if you see them everyone else has, check out your library.   You might be surprised at how few people take the time to look up information that isn’t on the internet.  But when you think about it, before the 1990’s there was virtually no information on the internet.  By looking for ideas in printed works you have decades of information at your hands that most of your audience may never have seen.

One example, go to your library and check out a couple of books on entrepreneurship or running a small business.  Any ideas in there you haven’t seen before?  Then chances are your readers haven’t either.  You just found yourself a fresh and relatively original post idea.

3) Don’t Doubt - One problem I have had is that when I have an epiphany and get a really good idea, I immediately assume that other people must have thought of the same thing.  I hurry up to try and get my idea out first, only to later realize I would be better served by taking my time.  If you have a great idea, don’t doubt yourself.  Chances are if it is a good original idea no one has done before, then no one will do it in the time it takes you do to it right.   Take your time to get all your ducks in a row when you have a great idea, they don’t come all that often, so you can’t afford to mess them up with self doubt.

Want some more info on writing great posts?  Daily Writing Tips is a new site by the makers of Daily Blog Tips, and has tons of great information.