“When you share a well-written, relevant, helpful article, it’s like a bright flash that lights up the online world for a moment, an hour or a day. There are links, tweets, retweets, accolades, introductions, referrals and maybe even a sale or two. Then, in the span of a moment, an hour or a day, someone else shines their light and people move on. Good writing is pointless unless you’re doing it consistently.” – Content Creation Manifesto #3
Another benefit of building a mountain of high-quality content happens long after your brief moment of fame, retweets, comments and emails. And that’s when people stumble upon your blog posts on their own.
I experienced a nice example of this last week when creativity coach Sue Mitchell posted a link to a blog post I wrote in December 2010 (her tweet is the third one shown below). The next thing you know, TWO people from her network posted the same link to THEIR networks. What a wonderful way to introduce my work to a new audience – the best way, in my humble opinion.
Here are five ways to produce “forever” blog posts, and help them be discovered, re-discovered and shared for years to come:
- Balance your blog – Aim to write at least one “how to” or thought leadership post per month, and then build on that with connective connect to consistently keep in touch with your readers.
- Connect the dots – Speaking of connecting, be sure to include links to other posts you’ve written about the topic – I also use the service LinkWithin, which automatically displays and links to similar stories at the bottom of each post. This step will help your readers find your earlier work so you can continue the conversation.
- Be green – While you can find inspiration for new posts from seasonal themes or current events, make sure that most of your content will be relevant no matter when someone sees it – we call this “evergreen content.”
- Say the same thing in different ways – Some of the most popular blogs cover the same topic many, many times, so don’t worry about repeating yourself. You just never know which analogy or collection of tips will finally help someone say, “Oh, NOW I get it!”
- Check your work – Don’t let typos or grammatical errors linger out there for the world to see. Remember to use this simple and effective proofreading strategy.
Want to write more “forever” blog posts? Contact us today to learn how we can help.
And by the way:
