9 Types Of Blog Posts That Will Boost Traffic

9 Types Of Blog Posts That Will Boost Traffic You work hard on  every blog post. Word by word, line by line to make your blog posts perfect. You even attach shareable images, break them into digestible paragraphs, and do the best outreach marketing process you can do. But still, sometimes they  just dont deliver the traffic, shares, and leads you were hoping for. Its simply because your audience doesnt like the blog posts  youre publishing. The solution to  this problem is also simple- just publish the content your audience wants.  You need something that can not only save you time but can also guarantee results. Its time for you to identify the types of blog posts  that will give you results.  The content that gave your competitors an edge over you. The content that made a common person a huge  influencer in  your niche. Lets explore  these winning types of blog posts that the big marketing influencers are rocking right now that have helped them get  huge followings and grow their businesses. 1. Publish  Long List Posts To Get More  Backlinks No arguments. List posts are the best. And no, I’m not talking about only list posts; I’m talking about LONG list posts. These guys  are the ones that: Attract audience attention by their obscure number. Show your expertise. Are immensely actionable  for your audience as they read your content. Are super informative. Are easy to read and scan for the  big takeaways. Not to mention, list posts overwhelm your readers. A lot of folks may  need to read these  posts a few times just to learn all of the information you have to provide. In fact, there's a huge market of read-it-later apps like Pocket and Instapaper  because of long posts like these. Without any hesitation, I’ll admit that I still visit Jon Morrow’s list of 317 power words. I’m that dull. ;) Copyblogger- one of the most influential  content marketing blogs- has so many list posts among its popular posts. And they're still regularly publishing them. Here's a headline from Copyblogger. Just take a look at how many shares this long list post is pulling in. Look at Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko, who attracted lots of eye balls through his 9th post called 200 search engine ranking factors. And according to Brian, this post still brings him 10,000–15,000 visitors per month, even months after he initially published the thing. Not to mention, the post ranks #2 for term â€Å"ranking factor†, which is bound to keep that traffic flowing in. Here's how to write a long list post: Find your big idea. Write down as many points as you can. Refine your list to the most important points. Write an emotional headline involving the number (usually odd numbers perform the best). Make it little longer  than any other post you've seen on your idea. Include lots of images and   buttons to entice social shares. Include bonus takeaways in a content upgrade to turn your traffic into subscribers. But, while doing so, make sure not to dilute its quality. For example, Jimmy Daly, editor of Vero Blog, compiled a massive list of 500 tips for this post. But, he preferred quality over quantity and refined the list to 20.  And, the results? That post resulted in getting 300+ links and 2,500+ shares in less than 30 days. Pro Tip: Consider groupings in your  list posts with proper subheads. It makes your readers curious to  keep them reading. Recommended Reading: The ‘Skyscraper Technique’ May Actually Improve Your Content Marketing How To Get People To â€Å"Read† Your Blog With Scannable Content 2. Write Research-Backed, Data-Driven Posts To Grow Your Traffic Want to position yourself as an expert? Research can establish you as an authority. Peep Laja, founder of ConversionXL, is one of the best CROs (Conversion Rate Optimizer) out there.  You know why? The guy  positioned himself as an expert with  evidence and data-backed content. So instead of saying â€Å"simple websites are better†, he includes evidence and says: In a study by Google in August of 2012, researchers found that not only will users judge websites as beautiful or not within 1/50th – 1/20th of a second, but also that â€Å"visually complex† websites are consistently rated as less beautiful than their simpler counterparts. Here’s one more example; look at the image below: Looks familiar, right? Indeed, it is. Because Buzzsumo wrote a grand research post  on OkDork. And, after that, it went viral. More importantly, it received 2,228 links. That's kind of a big deal. I know you must be thinking that this kind of research would take months to conduct. Look, I didn’t tell you that yours  should be as huge as that example. Instead, it can be a result of a simple test. Here’s an example: Alex, the founder of Groove, wrote a guest post for the Buffer blog. In this post, he shared a result of simple test:  power of story in your blog. And that simple test got 10,000 shares from social media. Or as Alex puts it in his words: Within an hour of the post being published, we had 1,000 new unique visitors. That soon turned into 5,000, and then 10,000, and before long, 20,000. Not to mention, also wrote a guest post for OkDork sharing their headline report. That post was one of several they wrote to understand their audience's interests in writing better headlines. After that was super successful, they repurposed  that same data to build their headline analyzer, which has now contributed 292,995 pageviews and 16,191 new email subscribers. Kudos :-) So how can you write research-backed, data-driven types of blog posts? Find a  helpful, big idea on  something that is never covered. Or you could take Brian Dean's advice and apply the skyscraper technique to your content to outdo anyone else who's already published something similar. Determine how you'll gather the data you need in your post to make it factual and super  actionable. Show why it's important to your  audience. Add relevant images, graphs, and charts to prove your points. Add your viewpoint to every research point. This is usually where you can include actionable guidance. Lead your post to a strong call-to-action. 3.  Share Your Success To  Turn Traffic Into Profit There’s a trend these days. People are publishing posts that share  their success. And of course, these posts go viral within just weeks of publishing.  I mean who wouldn't like to read: How We Got 37 Million Hits In 3 Days People go nuts when they see posts like these.  Another reason that success-sharing posts posts  work is because like case studies, they also have a story that  their audience can relate to, and they follow a step-by-step approach to solve the problem. Here's an interesting example... Alex, founder of Groove, knew that these types of blog posts were  becoming some of their hits. But like many others, he had no story  to share with his audience. And as Alex himself put it in his own words: We didn’t have Ten Tips for Building a Successful Business or A Guide To Making Millions; because, we hadn’t lived those stories yet. ...but  he didn’t give up. He noticed the gap and started sharing his ongoing journey to $100,000 in monthly  revenue. After that, the blog took off. It became one of the must-read blogs for startups. And it didn't stop there- the blog helped him grab endorsements from big influencers like Hiten Shah and Andrew Warner. And now the company's monthly revenue is $186,000. Takeaway: When it comes to marketing, there is nothing like a rule. Try to break every rule and frame your own. Do this yourself: Brainstorm how you're solving some of your own biggest challenges. Connect the dots between your own challenges and the problems your audience faces every day. Write an open, honest, and transparent post about how you're overcoming that challenge to reach your goals. If that post is successful, consider doing what Groove did and dedicate an entire blog to posts on those topics. Break every rule and frame your own.4. Share New Methods  To Coin New Terms And Stand Out In Search Results Your audience is always looking for new ways to solve their problems. They don’t want to follow the same track because it’s just not giving them success anymore. You need to give them something new that  can solve their problem- a method that's  working for you, has already solved your problem, and something different that no one has covered before. Give your audience new method posts to build your authority. #bloggingUnlike success-sharing posts, these types of blog posts will help your audience solve a problem with your new approach. So yes, they work wonders if done properly. Look at  Noah Kagan’s Quant based marketing  as an example. It was a new concept for startups because before it, there was only â€Å"hope-based marketing†. So, it made his post stand out. After that, Noah wrote many posts explaining the concept more deeply. And, who can forget Brain Dean’s skyscraper technique- it was the only technique that  guaranteed you results. No doubt, that's why this post is the most popular post on his entire site. Also, before 2010, â€Å"Growth Hacker† was not even a term, but after Sean Ellis coined it in one of his blog posts with the help of Hiten Shah and Patrick Vlaskovits, it's now a highly reputable position. After that, Andrew Chen introduced it to a much wider audience, calling growth hacker  the new VP of marketing. These types of blog posts are great  because: They make you look authoritative with innovative ideas. You have your own keyword that will rank you #1 in search results. They tend to go viral on social media. So how can you  write a new method post? Find your unique angle that  you used to solve a problem- like  how  Bryan Harris found a new way to drive traffic using his poster boy method. Convert it into a step-by-step solution. Name it something descriptive of what it is, but no one has used before. Think of metaphors. Tell your readers why it's important for them. Share your unique solution with an influencer who can  help you promote it. 5. Include  Infographics In Your Posts To Get More Shares Infographics get the most social shares of any blog post type. Not only do they get traffic,  they also bring you a lot of inbound links. In fact, KISSmetrics got 41,142 links from 3,741 unique domains by publishing 47 infographics within one year. Pretty cool, right? Meet Mike. Mike runs a New York-based SEO Agency. One of his clients, FCE pest control, wanted more traffic. So, they approached Mike. But, there was a problem:  Pest control. I mean, how boring of a niche is that!?  And, who’s going to read a pest control blog? But, Mike didn’t give up. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves and made a fascinating infographic. And the results speak for themselves... That infographic got 1,117 social shares, 12 backlinks, and 15% more traffic within two weeks! So you're sold on infographics, but don't have  a  budget to hire a designer? Don't worry, you can do it yourself using tools like Canva, Easel.ly, and  Infogr.am. Recommended Reading:  How To Design The Best Blog Graphics With Free Tools And Design Theory To maximize your social shares and traffic, make sure to follow these tips: Remember the main message you're communicating  as you choose your typography, colors, and layout. Just like a good blog post starts with a blog outline, plan what you want to visualize in your infographic to provide factual and actionable information. Find the big ideas in your infographic, and figure out how you'll draw attention to specific elements. Remove the clutter to provide focus. Practice the five  fundamentals of good design: consistency, repetition, alignment, hierarchy, and proximity. Email it to the influencers in your niche, and distribute it to infographic sites like Visual.ly. Pro Tip: Add an "embed this infographic on your site" box  below your infographic. Unquestionably, it's one of  the best ways to promote your infographic and get a handful of high quality links. You can use this embed code generator to do this really quickly. Recommended Reading: How To Make The Best Blog Graphics (For Non-Designers) How To Plan A Content Creation Process Your Small Business Can Actually Achieve 6. Gather Expert Advice  For Round-Up Posts To Steal  Their Audience When I was starting out, I was  getting the same advice over and over again: Interview a big name  in your niche. It will  give you a lot of visitors and subscribers. But, you know what, no influencer wanted to  interview with me. Because I was nobody to them. They weren't getting any value out of it. Yet, there’s also another thing that gives you exposure like interviews: It’s called expert  round-up posts. And the best part?  Lots of  influencers want to join in  because they also want to see their name alongside other experts.  And so, doing expert round-up posts is easier than an interview. In fact, it can give you a lot more visitors as compared to an interview.  Why? Because in  these posts  there’s a big number of influencers involved, and  so, there’s also a  big number of audiences involved. Publishing expert round-up posts  gives you huge wins like this: Just check out those social shares! And if you want to push it further, you have to put in some extra effort and convert it into a  monster roundup like the Ahrefs team published. How to rock these types of blog posts, you ask? Find your keyword around which you want to publish your post. This idea must be interesting both to your blog audience and to your experts. Make your list of experts. If you want to feature 30 experts, make a list of 60 experts.  You can find these people  by searching for your keyword and reading the posts other influencers have already published on related topics. Start approaching them one by one from less to more popular. Once you get a couple big names committed, you can name drop to entice other experts to join in. Once you receive an expert's response, refine down the list. Publish your post  and ask  the experts to share it with their audience. Recommended Reading:  9 Ways To Reclaim Your Breakthrough Content Ideas From Old Posts 7. Pitch Guest Posts To  Build  Your Email List When you’re starting a blog, you have no connections, no followers, and no subscribers. So, you may not  get many visitors for your blog posts. And I can feel the pain because I’m also suffering from this one. But, this is the time that you should not write on your blog and instead publish for others. Established blogs  have their audience, and you just need to promote your blog in front of them. Indeed, this is the reason I’m writing for the Blog! In fact, Buffer  built their empire of 100,000 subscribers by posting 150 guest posts (I know it’s huge) in nine months. Also, look at Jon Morrow, founder of Boost Blog Traffic. He built a waiting list of 12,500 customers even before writing a single post on his own blog. Even some smart marketers like Neil Patel  are  publishing two guest posts per week  after having a massive list of customers- and that’s not just for audience, but he also does so to look authoritative. And the list is countless. Guest posts have  a lot of potential and can be a cornerstone in building your blog's audience. Writing a  guest post is a big deal, right? So here's how  you can guest post successfully: Identify the blog to guest post on that is a good fit for what you generally want to talk about and their audience will really care about. Research  all the posts that are popular on  that site. Find your main idea around the popular posts on that site. Pitch your best three  ideas and also write a small summary of why they'll be successful. If your idea is accepted, start writing your post, otherwise rinse and repeat the process. Write your post using the writing style that blog prefers. Create a bonus and landing page for the blog's audience to lure them to your own website and convert them into subscribers. Finally, leave the link in your author byline. Recommended Reading: How To Cold Pitch Your Next Guest Blogging Opportunity 25 Lessons From Guest Blogging For The Top Blogs In The World 8.  Cover Case Studies In Your Niche To Build Your Credibility As a reader, I love case studies because they contain a story I can relate to. They contain a person who was having the same problem as  me. And, they make me feel like I am the one for whom the post is written. In fact, case studies work like this because they  build brand credibility. I mean, just look at the  LeadPages Blog- every 2nd or 3rd post is a case study. And, the interesting thing is they even have  a link you can click to get featured on their blog. Monthly1k  is  Appsumo's email course  that  features four case studies on their landing page. The course helps Appsumo's prospects overcome their problems. And so, Appsumo features them on their homepage to grab more customers. So, if you ever get an email like this: Make the most of  it! Create a monster post covering the whole story like Ramsay did. Follow these tips to write an awesome case study: Research  case studies from top blogs in your niche. Make a list of all the questions your prospects are asking. Start your post with the main problem. Show the familiar pain your audience is suffering from. Tell a story using real people and examples. Explain the solution step-by-step with problem, solution, and outcome. Add as much information as you can add. Sprinkle proof and images all over your post. Pro Tip: Case studies have a story, they follow a detailed step-by-step approach to solving the problem, and so, they are invaluable both to reader and to writer. These are typically great for  the bottom of the marketing funnel to teach your readers why they should become your customers. 9. Repurpose, Republish, And Reinvent Old Posts To Get Even More Traffic As time passes, every post grows old and they don't  benefit your blog as they used to. But, that's not the result you wanted, right? You want to use them again, and you still want to get the same benefit they used to give. This is where your Medium blog comes in- you can use it to republish your post in front of a brand new audience. And that gives you great exposure. Look at Unbounce who got an  extra  144 views by reposting  an old post on Medium. Similarly, Buffer built a publication in Medium where they regularly repurpose their old content. In fact, Buffer didn't post any new content for one  month. They just updated old content repurposed it to Medium, Slideshare, and their own blog.  And the results? Less than a 5% dip in traffic. Other than that, they increased LinkedIn followers, Quora views, video views, and Slideshare followers. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Another way for reusing old content is to repost it  on Medium while adding  a content upgrade at the bottom like this one: Recommended Reading:  How To Use Content Syndication To Boost Your Subscribers In No Time But what if you're just starting out, or if you don't have any blog posts to repurpose? Repurpose someone else's content. Seriously, look at this: Brian Dean  found  lots of  ranking factors posts that  actually only  contained  110–120 of Google's  200 ranking factors. So  he found his golden opportunity to write better content than anyone else and finally published a complete post on the topic himself covering every factor. And, as Brian recalls himself: When I saw that articles that  didn’t even list all 200 ranking factors  generated links like this, I realized  that I had a golden opportunity sitting in my lap. It took 10 gallons of coffee and 20 hours of sitting in front of my laptop (don’t worry, I took bathroom breaks) †¦ †¦but in the end, I had something that was clearly better than anything else out there. And let's not  forget the results he got after that: The shares alone on this post prove its success, though Brian also received tons of backlinks for his hard work. Here's how to implement this type of blog post: Find an old piece of content that has already worked worked well. Maybe it got lots of pageviews, social shares, or comments- you decide. Republish  it on Medium, LinkedIn Publisher, Business2Community, or BizSugar- it all depends on your niche. If you're republishing on Medium, try to submit it to a  Medium publication that has already built their reputation. Repurpose your post into new formats an post it in YouTube, SlideShare, Quora, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.  Embed your bonus material in the original blog post. Don't forget to add more value and make it more visually appealing. Recommended Reading: 50+ Places To Repurpose Your Content: The Ultimate Guide How To Unlock Quality Content From Your Low-Performing Posts How to Republish, Repurpose and Reinvent Your Content Using LinkedIn Publisher Bonus Tip: What You Do After You Create Content Is What Truly Counts What you do after you create content is what truly counts  @garyvee Gary Vaynerchuk  said that about content marketing. No doubt, every word of it is true- because content marketing is all about reaching to your customers. You can't just wait for your audience to find your content, you need to put it in front of their eyes. You need to reach out to them. And by far, the best way to do this is by using these methods: Include  a post-specific bonus. Contact everyone mentioned in your post through outreach marketing. Get featured in weekly content round-ups. Share your blog post on social media and with your email list. Recommended Reading: How To Develop An Effective Content Marketing Promotion Strategy 23 Ways To Get Even More Traffic From Your Most Popular Content Now It's Your Turn Now I want to hear from you... What do you think about these types of blog posts? Have you ever written a blog post that  opened floodgates of traffic for you? What type of blog post  was that? Let me know in the comments section below. And don't forget to grab your free marketing bundle from my blog which contains checklists, guides, and email templates to help you promote your post and get more traffic and subscribers. Grab your free marketing bundle here.

Redesigned SAT Essay Prompts

Redesigned SAT Essay Prompts    The SAT Essay is no longer a simple read and respond kind of a prompt where the tester forms his or her own opinion on a topic and supports it with facts and examples. The Redesigned SAT essay prompts require the tester to read a persuasive text, and then analyze the authors opinion, explaining how the author builds his or her argument.   Redesigned SAT Essay Prompts Here are some prompts from the College Board and the Khan Academy, followed by a prompt on this page so you can get started practicing right now! College Board SAT Essay Prompt 1College Board SAT Essay Prompt 2Khan Academy SAT Essay Prompt Practice With a Redesigned SAT Essay Prompt Now As you read the passage below, consider how Caroline Walker  uses evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed. Adapted from Caroline Walker, Media Outlets Are Getting the Drift That a Daily Dose of Heavy News Isnt Enough for Well-Rounded Brains.  © 2009 by the HuffingtonPost.com Originally published September 6, 2009. Caroline Walker is a freelance writer and editor. There’s a trend catching on in the news; it’s called seeing the bright side and it couldnt come at a better time. Despite associations with earnest idealism, â€Å"goodness† is a smart sell. It comes down to marketing logic - with the side benefit of possibly changing our collective conscience for the better. It’s about using language that engages readers and keep our hopelessness at bay. We already know what it feels like to be beaten over the head with gut-wrenching headlines. The timing is right to try something new. It starts simply, with softer columns peppered in among gruesome stories. Take this example from the New York Times, published a little while back and earning hefty responses from a slew of fans. In â€Å"The Consolation of Animalsâ€Å" by Richard Conniff, the author talks about witnessing animals in their element, watching wildlife do its thing. He makes the case that experiencing the wild kingdom doesn’t require an expensive safari or a swim down the Amazon. Check your backyard, your nearest pond, your shadiest tree. â€Å"People who do dumb stuff like racing red-throated loons down a beach in the dead of winter - or even just stopping to admire swans flying overhead, their wings creaking like door hinges - are liable to get a reputation for being a little nuts. But I prefer to think of it as what makes me almost sane. These encounters with the lords of life (and also with the soybeans) pull me up out of the pettiness and stupidity of my workaday life.† The post drew my attention to its home on the newish Times series called â€Å"Happy Days: The Pursuit of What Matters in Troubled Times.† Most headlines skew toward doom and gloom, leaving feel-good stories in the dust. Digging through daily articles to search for inspiring ones can sometimes feel like a futile treasure hunt. We know they’re out there, everywhere... they’re just not always easy to find. Media outlets also seem to be recognizing that a reader can only take so much heaviness, and that if we’re going to pitch in toward making things better in our world we’ve got to be reminded that there’s plenty of goodness to be found. From the Happy Days site: â€Å"The severe economic downturn has forced many people to reassess their values and the ways they act on them in their daily lives. For some, the pursuit of happiness, sanity, or even survival, has been transformed. Happy Days is a discussion about the search for contentment in its many forms - economic, emotional, physical, spiritual - and the stories of those striving to come to terms with the lives they lead.† The Times isn’t alone. CNN started the CNN Heroes series last year, and it’s still going strong. Then NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams asked readers to offer their own â€Å"good news† stories. Submissions - and requests - for positive news poured in. It can’t be long before others catch on and balance the necessity of learning about the world’s tragedies and struggles with the desire to hear about humanity’s efforts to heal these wounds. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve reached a point of compassion fatigue where crisis and tragedy don’t penetrate our brains and hearts in a sufficiently empathy-provoking way. We need balance. It’s important to know about war and economic crashes, disease and catastrophe that affect our world, but without anything to counter the heaviness, it makes for a rather desolate template. The state of affairs starts looking hopeless, change seems elusive, and the Kardashians become infinitely more mentally digestible than foreclosure rates and bombings. Wanting to re-frame issues in a good light isn’t just idealism; it’s responsible business and effective persuasion. It’s a little bit of subliminal manipulation, and it’s all good as far as I’m concerned - re-frame an issue with a positive slant and we can trick readers into learning about concerns that need our collective attention. It’s official: Kindness is cool. Nice is all right. Good news is here to stay. SAT Essay Prompt:   Write an essay in which you explain how Caroline Walker  builds an argument to persuade her audience that positive news stories are important. In your essay, analyze how Walker uses one or more of the features in the directions that precede the passage (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of her argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage. Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Walker’s claims, but rather explain how Walker builds an argument to persuade her audience.