Finding success in the world of blogging, it’s all about coming up with great blog content for your audience. Since there are already over a billion active websites on the internet today and more than 300 million of them are blogs and WordPress sites, it’s definitely ‘easier said than done’. Yes, content creation is one of the most important aspects of blogging, but even more important is that you create better content than the competition and also put in the time and effort to promote it to new audiences. If you can master these two elements of blogging, you will definitely find success of your own.
To help with this process, I wanted to provide you with a few different content ideas for 2017. Each of these methods are likely already being used by millions of sites around the world already, but if you take your niche focus and add your own twist for your demographic audience, you may just find you site quickly moving past the competition in the search results… and maybe even going viral on social media.
5 Great Ways to Create Better Blog Content in 2017
As mentioned earlier, it’s easy to ‘create blog content’ but if you really want to stand out from the crowd, you are going to need to do it better than thousands of other sites within your niche that may have already covered the same time. A perfect example of this would be if the top ranking site in Google for ‘handheld digital camera reviews’ only provides text and image content, yet your blog went even more detailed and included product videos and customer reviews. Keep this same mentality in mind when using any of the methods below.
Expert Video Interviews and Live Hangouts
One of the biggest trends in the past year or two has been interviewing experts within your niche. This is something that has worked very well when done in an ‘expert roundup’ style. The way this works if that you would ask a single question in an email, then send out that same email to 50+ experts in your same niche space. Then you would compile all of these answers and create one big post out of it. You can see an email of one that we created here.
However, like I said, this is already being done by a number of sites already. If you want to take it to the next step, you could actually interview each of these experts through live video or do a short 30-60 second recording for each, then compile it into one big video. Another option would be to make them even more detailed, then launching a private online course around it. Through the use of business video conferencing software, you could invite industry experts within your space to connect with a live audience of your choice (public or private). This is a perfect example of how you can take a generic working idea of ‘expert roundups’ then offering something of much more value to your audience in the process.
Turn Your Best Content into Infographics
As bloggers, most of us already have a lot of published content on our sites. However, not all blog content is treated the same, nor does it have the same success or traction with your audience. Something you can do to bring new life to your best or older content is to turn them into visual infographics. Since you already have the blog content written already, this is usually a fairly simple process to set up. This can be done by simply creating a free account on a graphic editor site like Canva, then playing around with the visuals and text placements, and creating something you are happy with.
Once you’ve created an infographic for your site, it’s then time to play with all of your new content sharing options. Text content and regular blog posts work well, but infographics offer up a whole new world of opportunity. To see a full list of different ways you can start promoting infographics within any niche, be sure to check out this infographic marketing guide. Some of my personal favorite methods for sharing custom infographics is reaching out to other authority sites within my niche and seeing if they would like to post the content to their own site. It’s a long and thorough process to find results and success, but once you’ve mastered the art of infographic creation and outreach, the rewards to your blog can be quite amazing.
Create an Updated Tutorial or Resource Guide
People use the internet for three different reasons — to either be entertained, buy something or find information. If you or your blog can cater to any of these needs, then your site can soon become an authority within its space. If you were to Google anything, you will almost always find that all of the sites listed on the first page of Google all have the best, most relevant and recent information. With all of this in mind, it’s important for you to try and accomplish this same thing.
You can see a perfect example of this if you were to Google “how to boil an egg“. Yes, it might seem the most simple thing in the world you can do, yet millions of people are search for it every single month. We can also see in the screenshot below how Google ranks content for the super generic, yet heavily sought after term.
When it comes to finding information on how to boil an egg, Incredible Egg does the best job around. Not only do they walk you through the process with basic text and images, they also offer video walkthrough as well. Google actually loves this content so much that they gave them the first position (knowledge graph) and the second organic ranking as well (with a thumbnail). This is a perfect example of how being the best at something can be extremely rewarding.
Now how can you benefit from this same concept? Simple… become the best within your niche at providing valuable content and resources to your audience. To make this process easier, try to go after more specific and deeper long tail keyword terms. This will help with giving your audience exactly what they are looking for, while also not having to compete against super huge sites that are already established. Once you’ve created the best content or tutorial possible, then reach out to sites that are linking out to previous or older articles (from your competition) and see if they would update their content with a link to your updated resource.
Achieve the Blog Success You’ve Been Looking for in 2017
Blogging is here to stay and while it’s extremely easy to start a WordPress blog of your own and create content on a daily basis, it’s important to not get lost in the mix. Remember, it’s not just about creating content… it’s about being the best within your niche and providing the best content possible. If you can stick to these guidelines and then follow up with the right content marketing afterward, there is no reason why 2017 won’t be your best year of blogging ever!