Using Content to get Traffic

Jason Katzenback — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:24:46 +0000

Using content to get subscribers, prospects, build reputations and get traffic to your blogs can be very powerful… but ONLY if done right!

We are not talking about content on your own blogs here, but rather posts and content that you use on other sites to promote yours.

In school, we are all taught to always finish a story with a closing paragraph and so when we start writing to promote ourselves online, we do just that, complete with a close. Let us ask you this (actually quoted from a good Australian friend of ours named Dean)…

“If you close your content, wouldn’t that satisfy the reader’s appetite in such a way that that there was no need for them to go any further.”

In other words, why would they need to take action on anything and search for further information about the topic if you already gave it to them?

We thought about this a lot and the more we did, the more it made sense. Your content needs to be crafted in such a way that if a reader wants a closing paragraph, then why shouldn’t we link to it so the reader has to take the action we want (such as visit our site).

Some of our favorite movies are those which don’t finish with a happy ending. No, we are not masochists but they finish in such a way that leaves us wondering whether there’s going to be a next installment. It’s like you’ve built to a crescendo and the hero appears to have won but the last scene reveals something sinister brewing beneath the surface. Then the end credits roll and we all think…

“What the…????”

We want to know what happens; we want to know more but we’re going to have to wait until version 2 hits the big screen. With your content, the reader doesn’t need to wait because there are a couple of live links in our content with specific call to action instructions they can click on to find out more. And that’s exactly what we want them to do… isn’t it?

We are not saying you should finish your content in such a way that it doesn’t make sense but instead do it in a way to entice the reader to take a look out of curiosity at what we have got to offer.

There is a fine line between readers just reading content as opposed to reading and clicking through and that fine line in our opinion is the closing paragraph. Yes, the entire content itself needs to be interesting enough for them to continue reading but if they get to the end then you can be rest assured they were interested. What a shame if you gave them that dreaded closing paragraph such as…

“And that folks is what you need to do when grooming a Norwegian Humpback. We hope you’ve enjoyed this post and thank you very much for reading it.”

Would we want to click on the link in the content with a finish like that. We know we wouldn’t. Maybe an ending like this would have been more appropriate…

“Want to know how to finish grooming the healthiest Norwegian Humpback in your neighborhood? Subscribe to our RSS Feed at “Insert Link Here” and we guarantee your Humpback will be the envy of everyone in your street! “

The end of your content needs to catch their attention…. or they are just not going to do what you want them to!

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Using Content to get Traffic