If you’ve been dreaming of making it big with your blog, and gathering millions of loyal subscribers who can’t wait to get your next email, you’re in good company. Everyone wants their blog to be successful, but only a handful achieve it. Not because there’s a secret formula they’re keeping secret, but because they know the ingredients required for success.
Although it seems complicated at times, you don’t need a degree in rocket science to have a successful blog. Here are three simple steps you can take to spice up your existing blog and make it more desirable to your readers:
1. Write only when you have something to say
One of the most common pieces of advice given by expert bloggers and marketers is the frequency at which you should post new articles. Some say you need to post articles daily, while others say you can get away with posting a couple times per week, which is still frequent. Almost no advice out there will tell you to post sparingly.
Posting frequently sounds like a strategy backed by some technical reason or logic, but it’s really not. The intention behind frequent posting is nothing more than keeping a steady stream of content in front of your already-distracted visitors so they don’t forget about you and move on.
That advice was created to help people with mediocre content achieve mediocre success. Truth is, more content doesn’t equal more target readers. When you have high quality content, people don’t need to be convinced to read your articles, and you don’t need to keep putting your content in their face. A truly successful blog will have visitors who voluntarily come back for more.
People don’t read, they scan
Studies like this one from the Nielsen Norman Group show that people don’t read web content word for word. Instead, they scan for keywords. Even when an article is interesting to them, they only read a portion of it. Chances are, if you’ve been publishing articles to stay on top of your weekly quota, they’re probably not even being read.
Posting less frequently isn’t a strategy itself, but it’s a side effect of the ultimate strategy of publishing articles only when you have something of value to share.
When your content is delectable, and people actively want to consume it, posting less frequently will cause people to anticipate your next post and become excited when it’s published. When people want your content and wait for it, that’s a true sign of success.
2. Write about creative projects related to your niche
Whatever your niche is, some creative mind out in the world has started a humanitarian or art project related to it. Finding those people and writing an article about their creative projects is a wonderful way to give your readers something fun to read.
For example, if you’re in marketing, you could write an article about an artist doing portrait mosaics out of business cards and flyers! Engaging readers with creative content makes them feel good.
You want your blog to stand out, so the more unique your content is, the better. Another example of creative articles can be seen on the Clunker Junker’s blog. There’s an article written about an artist from Poland who used scrap metal to build scale models of various supercars. His models are hauntingly beautiful, and contain so many small parts that it’s hard to imagine how he was able to do it.
Don’t just look around at other blogs in your industry to get ideas. Think outside the box and bring creativity through art to your blog.
3. Share something mind blowing
To really spice up your blog, write about something generally only known inside of your industry that affects other people. Buzzfeed is a master of this strategy! Or, write about something commonly known but from an uncommon perspective afforded by your industry.
For example, Dave Asprey published an article on his Bulletproof Coffee blog about the reason many organic farms aren’t renewing their official, organic certification. According to the article, in some states certifications are moving from a set yearly fee to a percentage of gross annual income, making it impossible for smaller farms to renew certification. While these farms still produce certifiably organic produce, unless consumers investigate, they’d never know.
Most people go to the grocery store and think that unless food is labeled organic, it’s not organic. This article gives people the incentive they need to do more research and not be fooled by labels (or the absence thereof). That produce you’ve been avoiding because it’s not organic could, in fact, be organic.