We are very pleased to introduce more writers on this blog. Let’s start with Michelle who has been involved with social media and blogging for years and who kindly agreed to share her tips on blogging with the rest of the Fuelmyblog community. Find out more about Michelle here.
Are you doing your weekly pillar content on your blog? No, I wasn’t for a long time either – or at least, I hadn’t realised just what it was I was doing in the first place. Perhaps you’re in the same boat?
Many of us enter into blogging for personal reasons – perhaps we are looking to share our world and experiences on one or two hobbies or topics, perhaps we’re just looking for an outlet of expression, read by a few friends and family members.
Then for some of us, something happens. We get some new readers! Maybe they happened past by accident, maybe they actually started commenting, maybe they emailed you, maybe your RSS feed statistics finally started to move – upwards! With the realisation that your blog now is being read by complete strangers who actually care enough to come back, you may struggle to work out what to provide. I did. For a long time.
Maintaining a blog readership comes with an associated series of expectations. Once committed to a blog feed – RSS or personally browsing by, updates by email or any other form you may be offering - the dedicated reader starts to expect certain types and structures of blog posts and content from your blog. Most of these are easy to do, provided you go about structuring your writing practices to work with these pillar articles.
Neither do these types of blog posts need to be limiting, or overly structured. In fact, using varying pillar content types can enhance your own blogging creativity. And you don’t need to stick to the die-hard rules often espoused by business bloggers or marketers. But let’s take some of those group’s content types and see just what you, as a blogger, may already be writing (even if you didn’t know it).
Pillar Content
Pillar Content is the mainstay of your blog. These articles or posts are the reason why your blog has started to attract outside reading. If you’re writing a very personal blog, and are currently thinking – ‘Um, I am just writing about my day shopping with my dyslexic son, so how can she be calling that pillar content?’ then take a look at these posts and see them for what they are to your readers – an opinion and some ideas on coping with dyslexia as a mother. That’s something worth sharing with others out there in the same boat, and the web public is now seeing that.
Pillar Content brings in new readers searching for particular key terms or words which you’ve used in those articles. It also brings in comments and back links from other blogs talking about your posts. And pillar content is not a rush-by and then forgotten item. In twelve or twenty-four months time you may suddenly find a new comment on such pillar articles as somebody else has found their way via searches or back links to your article.
The key to providing pillar content is to -
- Keep it fresh – marketing experts suggest you will need to write 2-3 new pillar articles – a week! This is up to you, however. Some even provide daily posts.
- Use key words and phrases in the title and in the content itself. You are probably already doing that, but it’s worth taking a small amount of time to list down your own key words for your blog subject if you haven’t done so already.
Pillar Content can be roughly broken into the following categories of blog posts -
- How To Article – step by steps and instructions on how to do something relevant to your subject matter. A variation to the How To Article is the Technical Blueprint – often seen on designer or programmer blogs where pictures are used to guide with. Your blog subject may be appropriate for technical blueprints, or you may be more comfortable with other types of pillar content.
- Definition Article – define concepts and key terms. Wikipedia doesn’t do it for me, I prefer to get my definitions from a source closer to the subject, described in their own words, and with real-world examples.
- List Article – people love lists. They’re easy to digest, and often easy to write. You see these a lot on article sites, and on blogs. Top Ten, Top 100. Provide lists which are your own work.
- A Theory or Argument – express your own thoughts, don’t rehash other people’s work (as if you would!). Stimulate conversation with your own opinions and experiences. If you have an argument towards something or some other blog you may have read, detail your argument, and reference (link) back to the original opinion.
- A Resource Report – used by internet marketers and business bloggers the world wide, there is no reason why personal bloggers can’t be, and possibly are already creating their own resource reports for their audience. A favourite is quick PDF reports on the subject. Or something as simple as sharing a list of resource bookmarks on the subject. Gift your readers some resources you have found helpful.
- A Controversial Article. Some bloggers go all out to contradict the general concepts of society. Others do this accidentally (see below).
On the later one, I must say that writing a controversial article isn’t my favourite approach. I don’t ever personally set out to express anything controversial myself, but on many occasions have found that my own opinion is the opposite to that of a few other vocal people willing to tell me so in some very direct ways. Which brings up the subject of comment mediation – better saved for a later time soon!
Other Blog Post Types
Most of your posts will fit into the pillar content categories in at least one way. There are other default types of blog posts which you may be using in some form, and these too could be considered Pillar Articles if written in a way to provide a draw to new readers. These include -
- Reviews – often as your blog grows you may find yourself being contacted to review (hopefully) associated products or books on your blog. There are also review programs you may sign up to, but I’m against those personally as I like to remain independent with my own viewpoints, and if I find a product I don’t like, want to be able to say so. Reviews have a recognised structure too – perhaps I’ll talk about those in a later post also.
- Pillar Series – pillar articles are often found in series. If you can break up longer posts into a series of one to three associated posts, this is a good idea. Series do take a little more work effort, as you should reference previous posts and what is coming up next, linking them all.
- Interviews – A favourite amongst some blogging communities (I work in the writing area, so definitely a favourite there!) is the interview. Ask a known expert, author or celebrity if they might be prepared to provide a written interview. Prepare a series of questions relevant to your audience.
- Guest Posts – you can either open your own blog up to posts from guest authors interested in the subject, or perhaps contact other similar blogs to see if you can provide a guest post on theirs. This opens up the way for a brief blurb on your own blog, and a back link. It also adds interesting content to your own blog, where possible.
- Host Other People’s Content – if short of your own material, you may want to consider using free-to-use PLR (Private Lending Rights) articles on the subject, crediting where necessary. There are other ways to host other content also. Consider hosting a blog carnival on your blog subject (as Fuel My Blog does).
The key to maintaining and growing readership for your blog is in providing interesting and new content. Using some of the pillar content types for your blog posts can add some new readers to your blog, and with the additional benefit - writing varying types of blog posts enhances your own inspiration and passion for the subject.
That sounds very complicated and organised although I’m sure it will be useful for a lot of people young Michelle. I’m always concerned about ‘paralysis by analysis’.
I shall however do a self examination and try and discover my pillar and hope that it isn’t ‘of salt’ – tee hee
Thanks for your comments, Daddy Papersurfer. And particularly for the ‘young’ comment, lol.
I believe that if people start looking at what they already write on their blogs, they may well find that much of their content already falls in at least one of the pillar content categories. But approaches like the list approach can certainly help bearing in mind when you find yourself struggling to say anything.
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Wow that is one huge amount of content. I think I will read over it again! Great first post on here you may need to make the next shorter, I am a little slow