Comments on: Three Notable Characteristics of Top 10 Posts: Lists, Headings, Images

By: Take That Take That & Party

Take That Take That & Party — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:23:07 +0000

How Deep Is Your Love…

Take That is an English pop group started by Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen, and, formerly, Robbie Williams. All perform primarily on vocals though each have some instrumental talent/song-writing capability….

By: D’Arvit! - D’Arvit, I used to be awesome back then!

D’Arvit! - D’Arvit, I used to be awesome back then! — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:14:43 +0000

[...] first one is a list. You see, before those professional bloggers turned “list-making” into a marketing tool, I’ve been doing my own D’Arvit!-ed lists ™ since 2004. Hah. Take that, cash cow [...]

By: Blogging about blogging « Word Wrangling

Blogging about blogging « Word Wrangling — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:42:43 +0000

[...] the meantime, here’s some homework… Blogging Techniques Blogging Beginner Mistakes and counterpoints Writing Style for Blogging Usability [...]

By: The seven-year itch: Should I stay or should I go? « Don’t Call Me Tina

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:47:07 +0000

[...] skipping that ritual, but after reading Tom Johnson’s post today on lists, I had to rise to the occasion and enumerate [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:02:58 +0000

I had a few thoughts that didn't fit into the post.

SEO Titles

I think top 10 posts have good SEO titles. If you look at where your readers come from, probably 75% or more arrive at your site through Google searches. If your post isn’t findable in Google, no one reads it at all. Even your regular blog readers usually read only your last few posts, leaving your archive untouched. The hundreds of archive posts float around in Google’s outer space, waiting to be hit by a laser of matching search keywords. Using keywords in titles increases your post’s target size. With little keywords, your target is small, easily missed. By stacking your keywords in the title (particularly the beginning) and the first paragraph, you can allow hundreds of more readers to find and read your posts (thus boosting the popularity of those posts). (If you want to ensure you’re using the right keywords, you can use a tool like SEO plugin. This allows you to type two titles: one Google sees, and one readers see.)

Interesting Viewpoints

Good posts have interesting viewpoints. They make readers see the world differently, at least a little. You don’t need earth-shattering epiphanies to catch the reader’s attention, but you do need something “a nugget of something interesting,” as Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, says. How you generate this alternate viewpoint depends on how you think and see the world. How can you see the world in a more innovative, alternative way? In Myths of Innovation, Scott Berkun explains that many insights come from constant reflection about the field of study, rather than random chance. Newton didn’t instantly understand the physics of gravity from a falling apple. Instead, “Newton was a deeply curious man who spent time observing things in the world. He watched the stars in the sky and studied how light moved through air, all as part of his scientific work to understand the world” (4). In other words, he spent time in constant thought. If you do too, you’ll probably be bubbling with interesting viewpoints on the world around you. I wrote a post about this earlier.