Posting Tactics for a Well Rounded Blog

Useful and interesting content is not all you should be creating for your blog. At the same time you need to be building your blog in other ways. Your content can attract new visitors, can help retain the visitors you have, and can bring you in links. Here are some tactics you can use:

• Flagship Content – Obviously you are going to need something for your sidebar, content that is an ambassador for your blog. These types of content can take a while to create but are a foundation to build your blog on so must not be overlooked.
• Link out posts – Build relationships with other bloggers. Get noticed in their referrers and trackbacks. Some will even link back to you or let the trackback through.
• Skim posts – For busy and distracted readers you will want posts with images, bullets and lists. Skim posts do not have to be short, in fact the longer lists tend to get more bookmarks. This means more links and a better chance of getting onto the front page of Digg. The key is to make it look like something you would want to come back to or can consume in a few minutes.
• Digg-Bait – It’s not just long resource lists as mentioned above. Top-tens, tips, tutorials, how-to’s, anything that will get social media attention and garner links
• Conversation –  Build a loyal audience and develop stickiness by discussing topics with your readers. Rather than all your posts being “articles”, ask questions, gather feedback and you will create a community.
• Polls and Surveys – A type of community-building content and a great conversation-starter, but if the question is interesting enough and the results significant, can gather you links and attention.
• PR Events – Break out of the routine by doing something big to get attention. This could be viral giveaways, competitions, web projects, campaigns … anything goes providing it gets you attention, preferably in a good way.

You need a good mix of posts. Some posts will be informative, some will build community, others will be about getting noticed. The key thing is not to look at these specific tactics as a to-do list but to show when you are posting there can be other benefits as well as to inform and entertain 🙂