When it comes to making a name for yourself in the crowded blogging world, it may sometimes feel like an insurmountable task. After all, there are a lot of other voices out there competing for attention.
The good news is that there are some tried and true blogging techniques that you can master to increase traffic to your site and get your writing in front of more eyes. Let’s take a look at four of these.
1) Infographics
Infographics have been a revelation for the blogging community. In case you’re not familiar with the term, an infographic is an image that visually represents potentially complex information in a way that’s quick and easy to read. An example you may already be familiar with would be something like a subway map for New York. On the web, visuals will more commonly use bar graphs and pie charts to stylistically provide useful information.
Blog readers love visuals because they’re pleasant to look at and can communicate the information they’re looking for simply, clearly, and quickly. Adding infographics to your blog are a great way to pick up some extra page views, and to keep your readers coming back in the future. Here is an awesome example; the recovery center, 12 Keys Rehab, created an infographic campaign (which is still ongoing!) and we can see how their infographics have increased their page-view count from 700 up to 5,000! Check it out:
2) Videographics
The videographic is another blogging tool that’s exactly what it sounds like. Where an infographic makes use of still images to portray pertinent information, a videographic uses animation. Blog readers who have a little more time to read their favorite sites sometimes prefer videographics because they are even better able to communicate complex information in a dynamic way. The addition of voiceover can sometimes be used to add another level of immersion.
Here is an example of an awesome videographic. This is by 12 Keys - which is super impressive for an organization that we would assume is not tech savvy. Check it out:
Videographics may seem like a slight step back from infographics because of the time required to view them, but they might be the perfect fit for certain types of blogs that deal with complex ideas. Additionally, all we have to is sit back, relax, and enjoy the video!
3) Require Blog Comments as Entries in Contests
If you've ever played Monopoly at McDonald’s during that certain magical time of year, you may question the practice of making customers work for that oh-so-slight chance of winning something. That said, requiring customers (or blog readers) to take an active role in the contest process is a good way to ensure that the ones who do respond are among your most loyal followers.
Requiring blog comments for entry in a contest ensures that people feel engaged in the process, which is a pretty important part of retaining your audience. Part of the allure of blogging is the feeling that everybody involved is taking part in something that matters; blogs are designed to disseminate information, but they’re also an important way to build communities. Any excuse to have your audience chime in on the site should be embraced as one more way to foster that sense of community.
4) Consider the Future of a Product
For better or worse, most of us tend to keep our eyes on the horizon. We are a society of consumers, which means it’s never too early to start speculating on the future of our favorite products. When much of our time is spent stressing about the latest product releases, and whether we ought to plunk down our cash now or wait until the next iteration, it makes a lot of sense to give our blog audiences reason to think we’re clairvoyant.
That’s not to say you should make things up about future product releases. The fact is that there’s often a great deal of evidence and informed guesses floating around about the future of our favorite products. For example, it’s the rare day that Apple releases a product that hasn’t been known about and anticipated for months before its release, despite their famously secretive practices. Companies aren't as good at keeping secrets as they were before the Internet, so you might think about turning your blog into a resource for thrifty consumers to plan out their future purchases.
I even demonstrated an example of this in my blog post: 7 social media cheat codes, where I showed how someone might go about doing this. Here is the photo I created to supplement this:
Pretty cool, huh?
This is hardly an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start. Some of these techniques might be new to the uninitiated, but for veteran bloggers they've become part of an indispensable set of tools that can help your blog stand apart from the crowd.
cover image by: Jeffbullas
The good news is that there are some tried and true blogging techniques that you can master to increase traffic to your site and get your writing in front of more eyes. Let’s take a look at four of these.
1) Infographics
Infographics have been a revelation for the blogging community. In case you’re not familiar with the term, an infographic is an image that visually represents potentially complex information in a way that’s quick and easy to read. An example you may already be familiar with would be something like a subway map for New York. On the web, visuals will more commonly use bar graphs and pie charts to stylistically provide useful information.
Blog readers love visuals because they’re pleasant to look at and can communicate the information they’re looking for simply, clearly, and quickly. Adding infographics to your blog are a great way to pick up some extra page views, and to keep your readers coming back in the future. Here is an awesome example; the recovery center, 12 Keys Rehab, created an infographic campaign (which is still ongoing!) and we can see how their infographics have increased their page-view count from 700 up to 5,000! Check it out:
2) Videographics
The videographic is another blogging tool that’s exactly what it sounds like. Where an infographic makes use of still images to portray pertinent information, a videographic uses animation. Blog readers who have a little more time to read their favorite sites sometimes prefer videographics because they are even better able to communicate complex information in a dynamic way. The addition of voiceover can sometimes be used to add another level of immersion.
Here is an example of an awesome videographic. This is by 12 Keys - which is super impressive for an organization that we would assume is not tech savvy. Check it out:
Videographics may seem like a slight step back from infographics because of the time required to view them, but they might be the perfect fit for certain types of blogs that deal with complex ideas. Additionally, all we have to is sit back, relax, and enjoy the video!
3) Require Blog Comments as Entries in Contests
If you've ever played Monopoly at McDonald’s during that certain magical time of year, you may question the practice of making customers work for that oh-so-slight chance of winning something. That said, requiring customers (or blog readers) to take an active role in the contest process is a good way to ensure that the ones who do respond are among your most loyal followers.
Requiring blog comments for entry in a contest ensures that people feel engaged in the process, which is a pretty important part of retaining your audience. Part of the allure of blogging is the feeling that everybody involved is taking part in something that matters; blogs are designed to disseminate information, but they’re also an important way to build communities. Any excuse to have your audience chime in on the site should be embraced as one more way to foster that sense of community.
4) Consider the Future of a Product
For better or worse, most of us tend to keep our eyes on the horizon. We are a society of consumers, which means it’s never too early to start speculating on the future of our favorite products. When much of our time is spent stressing about the latest product releases, and whether we ought to plunk down our cash now or wait until the next iteration, it makes a lot of sense to give our blog audiences reason to think we’re clairvoyant.
That’s not to say you should make things up about future product releases. The fact is that there’s often a great deal of evidence and informed guesses floating around about the future of our favorite products. For example, it’s the rare day that Apple releases a product that hasn’t been known about and anticipated for months before its release, despite their famously secretive practices. Companies aren't as good at keeping secrets as they were before the Internet, so you might think about turning your blog into a resource for thrifty consumers to plan out their future purchases.
I even demonstrated an example of this in my blog post: 7 social media cheat codes, where I showed how someone might go about doing this. Here is the photo I created to supplement this:
Pretty cool, huh?
This is hardly an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start. Some of these techniques might be new to the uninitiated, but for veteran bloggers they've become part of an indispensable set of tools that can help your blog stand apart from the crowd.
cover image by: Jeffbullas
