jon
CibbuanoWriting long posts about old or stable topics
October 5th 2007 04:35
Most bloggers write about recent events and people who are currently in the news. This is a great way to attract readers because we all like to know what is happening in the world around us. However recent events usually have a limited shelf life. After a couple of days or weeks people will mostly lose interest.
There are however many topics which people will always be interested in and which most bloggers overlook because they are so focused on what is new. A few examples:
1) Famous people from the past like people like Audrey Hepburn, George Washington, or Genghis Khan.
2) Well known places like New York, the Eiffel Tower, or Niagara Falls.
3) Events like The Battle of Waterloo, the Crusades, or the signing of The Declaration of Independence.
4) Guides to common things like fishing, framing a picture, or knitting.
5) Famous ideas like Relativity, Democracy, or the major Religions.
These "Old" or "Stable" topics always have a steady stream of people searching for information on them. Once written, a good article on a stable topic will keep attracting readers through the search engines indefinitely.
I would recommend that at least one third of your posts, depending on your blog's focus, should be about stable topics. For some blogs, almost all of their posts are like this. For instance the JDM Film Reviews blog is devoted to reviews of (mostly) old cult films which have a steady following, unlike the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
Out of the top 20 Orble blogs, a huge proportion of the traffic (more than 80%) goes to posts on stable topics. That's how important it is to understand the distinction. Once you realize this a big part of successful blogging becomes building up a large number of posts based around these stable topics. If you have twice the number of posts on stable topics you will almost always get twice the amount of traffic from the search engines.
Breaking it down a bit further, there are two basic ways to approach blogging about stable topics.
1) The Big End: Go for the big and popular topics. Lots of people are searching for information on Audrey Hepburn so a post about her could attract a lot of traffic. However there is also a large number of pages out on the web which will be competing with you (1,410,000 mentions on Google). If you are going to go after the Big End you need to write long, well researched, and detailed articles on the topic to have any chance.
2) The Small End: Go for smaller niche topics which are still stable. Good examples of these are reviews of local restaurants and pubs, information about really niche hobbies like collecting toe nail clippings, or guides to less visited places like your local beach, or a country town. Because there is much less competition you can write shorter articles and more of them and you will be surprised how many people are searching for this information. It can really add up.
The Small End approach can also be a bit hit and miss. Some topics will get you much more traffic than you thought, others will get you much less. The trick is to write posts for a large number of them and it will all average out.
When you are just starting out I would recommend going after the Small End. Because of the winner take all nature of the search engines (the top three listings on a web search take just about all the traffic) it's better to wait until you are more established to go after the Big End.
Of course there are many topics which fall somewhere between the Big End and the Small End, and you can take Big End topics and find less competitive topics based around them.
For instance, if you go to the Overture Keyword Selector and type in "Audrey Hepburn" you will see that most people are indeed searching for information on the main keywords "audrey hepburn". There are however a large number of people searching for information on "audrey hepburn treasure" (not sure what that's about), "audrey hepburn picture", "audrey hepburn quotes" etc. Once you get down to a search like "audrey hepburn quotes" you probably have quite a good chance of competing but will still attract a lot of traffic.
So don't forget to post about stable topics, it will definitely help you build up a more substantial and less volatile readership.
There are however many topics which people will always be interested in and which most bloggers overlook because they are so focused on what is new. A few examples:
1) Famous people from the past like people like Audrey Hepburn, George Washington, or Genghis Khan.
2) Well known places like New York, the Eiffel Tower, or Niagara Falls.
3) Events like The Battle of Waterloo, the Crusades, or the signing of The Declaration of Independence.
4) Guides to common things like fishing, framing a picture, or knitting.
5) Famous ideas like Relativity, Democracy, or the major Religions.
These "Old" or "Stable" topics always have a steady stream of people searching for information on them. Once written, a good article on a stable topic will keep attracting readers through the search engines indefinitely.
Thousands and thousands of people search for information on Audrey Hepburn every day.
I would recommend that at least one third of your posts, depending on your blog's focus, should be about stable topics. For some blogs, almost all of their posts are like this. For instance the JDM Film Reviews blog is devoted to reviews of (mostly) old cult films which have a steady following, unlike the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
Out of the top 20 Orble blogs, a huge proportion of the traffic (more than 80%) goes to posts on stable topics. That's how important it is to understand the distinction. Once you realize this a big part of successful blogging becomes building up a large number of posts based around these stable topics. If you have twice the number of posts on stable topics you will almost always get twice the amount of traffic from the search engines.
Breaking it down a bit further, there are two basic ways to approach blogging about stable topics.
1) The Big End: Go for the big and popular topics. Lots of people are searching for information on Audrey Hepburn so a post about her could attract a lot of traffic. However there is also a large number of pages out on the web which will be competing with you (1,410,000 mentions on Google). If you are going to go after the Big End you need to write long, well researched, and detailed articles on the topic to have any chance.
2) The Small End: Go for smaller niche topics which are still stable. Good examples of these are reviews of local restaurants and pubs, information about really niche hobbies like collecting toe nail clippings, or guides to less visited places like your local beach, or a country town. Because there is much less competition you can write shorter articles and more of them and you will be surprised how many people are searching for this information. It can really add up.
The Small End approach can also be a bit hit and miss. Some topics will get you much more traffic than you thought, others will get you much less. The trick is to write posts for a large number of them and it will all average out.
When you are just starting out I would recommend going after the Small End. Because of the winner take all nature of the search engines (the top three listings on a web search take just about all the traffic) it's better to wait until you are more established to go after the Big End.
Of course there are many topics which fall somewhere between the Big End and the Small End, and you can take Big End topics and find less competitive topics based around them.
For instance, if you go to the Overture Keyword Selector and type in "Audrey Hepburn" you will see that most people are indeed searching for information on the main keywords "audrey hepburn". There are however a large number of people searching for information on "audrey hepburn treasure" (not sure what that's about), "audrey hepburn picture", "audrey hepburn quotes" etc. Once you get down to a search like "audrey hepburn quotes" you probably have quite a good chance of competing but will still attract a lot of traffic.
So don't forget to post about stable topics, it will definitely help you build up a more substantial and less volatile readership.
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Comment by Michaelie
Flick Wit
This is exactly the kind of thing I need to read and learn about! Thanks for the advice.
Michaelie
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
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I was so taken with the fascinatingly thrilling suggestion of collecting toe nail clippings ( and regrettably I threw the newly collected ones out just last night) that I had to stop to enable myself to recover from the paroxysms of laughter, and I need now to contemplate how this will contribute to my brain health, but I shall return.
I'm also awaiting with bated breath your anticipated post on your knitting efforts and I shall probably apply to write for you with that one, I should be able to manage at least one post.
But, for now, I must rest in recovery mode. I'm looking forward to continuing with my homework a little later on.
katyzzz
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
The topic you cover on this blog--how to blog successfully--is another stable topic. As long as there are blogs, there will be a readership for sites like yours which dispense reliable blogging advice.
Thanks!
Jeanne
Comment by Whitney
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