Using Content to get Traffic
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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Great advice and makes a good deal of sense to use when submitting to all those article directories..
The Monetizer’s last blog post..As the Twitter Tweets Twhirl…
As the Monetizer said above this is fantastic way to get clicks from articles. I’m not quite sure on the effectiveness on this in blog posts unless of course the post is trying to sell something.
Clog Money’s last blog post..The great commenting experiment: Part I
Everything makes sense to me. Good provided examples about movies. But again, I don’t think these rules affect the traffic on your blog. Your blog, is your world, your rules, do what you want.
ya…………content is our first character!=)
joshuaun’s last blog post..Saturtain - A programme design by JoshuaUn
You are absolutely correct, that is why we stated “we are not talking about content on your own blogs here”
This strategy is meant for when you have content submitted on other sources.
This is definitely a solid article. I really didn’t put much thought in the proper way to close out my posts, and I think that it can definitely help after seeing your examples. Thanks for the helpful tips, I’ll keep this in mind
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Had a good chuckle at the Norwegian Humpback, however, you are correct in your post. Where I am a fairly new Blogger I am scouring the internet for Blogs that can answer my questions on how to develope a good post and traffic building.
So, naturally, I don’t want to be left hanging after reading a post.
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I particularly agree with the importance of getting your readers to want more. Definitely a good way to get subscription to your RSS feed. In my posts, I try to elicit comments by asking for interaction with my readers. For example, asking your readers for their opinion regarding a position you put forth or to add to an idea you talk about in your post.
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Great advice. Thanks
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Well written post.
On my blog after they have read and enjoyed a post, I want them to leave the page in one of 3 ways.
I want them to click on a advert.
I want them to click on a related story.
I want them to click through to my rss feed/email subscribe.
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[...] one at that) make sure to add a link back to your blog with a call to action (read the post “Using Content to get Traffic” for more on [...]
It will work for social and discussion blog. You just set a platform for your guest to talk. You just select a topic but this topic is embeded inside an article of your blog post. This trick will work but not all the time. That’s why movie not all ending in opening ending.