Effective Steps To Take Your Blog Content To The Next Level

Writing informative content will certainly help to get your blog established. Readers that arrive at your site will be glad that your material provides them with the answers that they require.

Over time it might be that your blog is considered to be the “go to” point for information relating to your niche. Put simply you could become the authority in your area.

Of course the above scenario doesn’t happen without a degree of effort. Those blog owners that simply post a few pieces and then sit back are sadly deluded. Hard work that creates lasting relationships is the only real path for success here, well lasting success that is.

If you are keen to take your blog to the next level (let’s face it, who isn’t?) then this post is definitely for you. Here we will focus on a few actionable areas that will see you quickly moving in the right direction.

Tips to Take Your Blog to the Next Level

Update Existing Content

Many blog owners will write what they consider to be a fantastic piece only to forever leave it in the archive section of their blog. The reality is that your blog allows things to be much more fluid than this.

However, why not take a more pro-active approach? This is fairly easy to do just by pulling out some of your older posts and double checking that the content is still relevant. Remember, things move on at a fast pace in the online world. What was good, strong advice a few months ago might well be slightly different now.

Additionally you might find that some of these posts have been over-optimised. Perhaps they were written at a time when you weren’t as SEO savvy. Maybe this is one of the reasons that these posts don’t get shared as much as your newer content?

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If the content stands the test of time, or indeed has been brought up-to date then you might like to link to it from some of your more recent posts. This can be a super way of informing your readers about other worthwhile sources of information. Don’t be afraid to reference external sources. If nothing else, this goes to show you are serious about providing quality information.

A great way of telling your readership about this freshly updated content is to include it in one of your email updates.

Market to Other Mediums

The chances are that as a blogger you will already be utilizing some of the social media channels. The likes of Facebook, Twitter et al prove to be great ways of getting your blog and its content noticed.
However, why not look to turn some of your content into more than just words. Put simply this is the time to get a little more creative. Examples of this new found creativity could very well include the likes of:

• Infographics
• YouTube Presentations
• Podcasts

The take-away here is that you can really ride on the back of the success of existing work by making it stand out in different ways. Not everyone wants to come to a blog just to read passages of text; however, by getting a little creative you can elevate the standing of your site.

Image Licensed Under Attribution

An example of this is to take one of your most popular posts and create a video for YouTube. You don’t have to belong to the Saatchi & Saatchi school of marketing to be able to produce something worthwhile.

Take a look at some of the other presentations that are going on in your niche. There will normally be plenty to go at, picking up a few ideas of how you can deliver your message.

Tell Your Readers what You Want

Even blogs that regularly update their great content and find interesting ways to market can still slip up. One of the main reasons for this is that they keep their readers hanging. Put simply, they don’t tell them clearly enough “what they want” them to do.
                                                 
One way to deal with this is to make sure that you “direct” your readers. The marketing speak for this is referred to as a “Call to Action” (CTA). The important thing here is to decide on what it is that you want to achieve and ask your readers to do it. This could be something as simple as asking them to share the post they have read with others and explaining the benefits in doing so.

Or, it could be for them to sign up to ensure that they get the latest blog posts delivered safely to their inbox. Remember, readers are busy creatures. Unless you tell them what it is that you want then you run a serious risk that they will just hop off somewhere else. You get the idea?

Wrap-Up

Some blog owners are battling to tread water, others are trying desperately not to go backwards (aka Google Penguin/Panda), whilst others are trying hard to push forward. Which one are you?
Taking some of the action that has been discussed above will give you an even better chance of becoming the go to point for information in your niche. After all this is what you have set out your blog for, isn’t it?

Peter Johnson

About the Author:

The author (Peter Johnson) has recently made a switch to using YouTube to produce additional content. He found that by tracking new YouTube videos he was able to gain a good understanding on the sort of content he should produce.