In short:

• Blogging = research + analysis + writing + testing + numbers (in a whirlwind)

• Repurpose your lower-ranking blogs

• Channel the power of social media

I just want the story out there. If you had a penny every time your more or less declared writer friend fired this back to you while furiously typing away, you’d be set for life. 

Just what is it that makes them so committed to sticking by their laptop until the post is done and ready to be uploaded? You’d think their livelihood depends on it. Well, to those who pay attention – that might just be the case. 

Successful blogging – the story everybody likes

It’s no secret that blogging has brought in the cash for large groups of individuals for quite some time now. And the first thing those who’ve made it would tell you is to be ready to do more than just string together a bunch of words. That’s just one step of many. 

This isn’t to say that you can get away with a mosaic of keywords that don’t resemble natural speech or with a composition such as the following: quirky salutation (quirkiness is still in, right guys?) + paragraph + gif + paragraph + gif + paragraph + gif + THE END. Surely your grandma would slap a 👍🏻 on that. She’s always been supportive of your dreams.

Blogging – more than storytelling

So what else is there to successful blogging? Pretty much the things that characterize most successful endeavors – research, analysis, testing… and, why shy away from saying it, numbers. 

If you’re in it exclusively because you love storytelling, you might be in the wrong business. Bloggers won’t wait for inspiration to hit them. Instead, they measure and compare all the pieces they put together to figure out exactly how they can build on them. 

Nothing is wasted. The random human-interest piece you got in your newsletter from your favorite political speechwriter has a carefully thought out purpose. 

Burn through the polite small talk with a blogger and before you know it they’ll tell you all about that one keyword they have been keeping tabs on the whole month – how it ranked, what articles containing it ranked highest and just how high it ranked compared to general standards. And a moment ago you were tormenting each other with observations about the weather. If there isn’t a hurricane on the way, we could talk about more interesting things.

Content recycling – freshen up your blog

It might sound stupidly optimistic to say it but your lowest ranking articles are the starting point you need to get better at having future content rank higher. Don’t be inexplicably annoyed at them for showing you undesirable numbers, don’t just let them gather dust, but be proactive and have an overview of all the aspects they share. 

But for right now, scribble down your top X lowest ranking articles, and freshen them up. 

Try these little nifty game changers:

• for all the articles you’ve chosen, think of Y different headlines so that you have something to work with in the following Y weeks/ months
• schedule the now Y variants to go up on your social media platforms in the next Y weeks/ months
• have a different posting time for each variant so that you can cover Z time zones

As observed, a handy way to freshen up your content is through your social media. 

Luckily, you already happen to like social media, so you can see how this has the potential to be a smooth ride. By systematically reposting your content, Google has the chance to “take a look” at it again, not to mention that the more shares and retweets you get, the likely it is for your content to rank higher and race for that first page on Google.

Additionally, do be mindful of the copy you write on your social media posts but also experiment as much as you can. Even if it looks like a certain post on Twitter has brought in way more retweets than you expected, change it up – the better approach might be right around your fear of innovation. The worst thing that could happen is that you have to go back to what you already know works, which isn’t that tragic of a setback.

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