Use These 10 Tips to Write Your Most Popular Post Ever

One popular post can bring your more traffic and links than a month’s worth of your usual content.

In this post, I want to set you a challenge with the potential to launch your blog into the stratosphere.

Make the next post you write your most popular post ever.

The following ten tips form my key advice for tackling this task. I used all of them when hitting the Digg front page for the first time. There’s no blueprint you can follow to write an incredibly popular post, but you won’t have a chance unless you try. I’m confident these tips will give you a good shot at success.

1. Time is more important than talent. Work on something for eight hours and you can bet it will be good. You don’t need to spend that long, however (though that’s how long it took me to craft the first post I wrote that hit the Digg front page). More time means you can refine, format and fill your post with plenty of value. Take the time to really craft your content. It will show in the finished product.

2. Use your best idea. A post will never become wildly popular unless it fulfills a need, and does so emphatically. What’s something your niche wants but hasn’t got yet? Can you assemble a whole lot of really awesome (targeted) resources in one place? The more your posts helps people, the better it will do.

3. Use formatting to your advantage. These days, social media is key when it comes to launching your posts into the stratosphere. Social media users are notoriously spoiled for choice, however. Use formatting to emphasize the best aspects of your post. Hone in on your funniest lines, your most profound bits of advice, your best resources. Make them stand out.

4. Brainstorm headlines. There are probably one or two bloggers who’ve completely mastered the art of writing headlines for social media (you’ll know who they are). The rest of us haven’t been blessed with such skills. When you see a great headline, chances are it’s option #12 of a dozen choices. Few of us can think of a great headline straight away. Spend ten minutes brainstorming and you’re bound to stumble across something that works. A weak headline will cripple your post’s chances of success. It’s essential that you put a lot of work into getting it right.

5. Invest plenty of value in your post. Ever bookmarked or voted for something without completely reading it? We’ve all done it. It’s because of the ‘Wow’ factor — the presence of enough promised value in one place gets the reader enthusiastic about the post straight away. Instead of 5 tips, why not share 50? Instead of 9 resources, why not 40 or more?

7. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If your post looks good, it will draw readers in. Take the time to add images, thumbnails and formatting to what you create. Make your post a visual feast. With so much web content presented in a bland way, your post is guaranteed to stand out.

8. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Readers will skip your waffly introduction. You can say the same in less words, particularly when you’re writing for an impatient reader: someone who wants to get straight into your tips/resources/opinions. Use your introduction to highlight why the reader should stick with your post. There’s a reason my post introductions mainly consist of: “In this post, I’m going to do this, this and that.” It’s what people really want to know: what am I getting in exchange for my attention?

9. Send messages with links. The best way to get a blogger to investigate your blog is by linking to them. We’ve got a natural desire to know what’s being said about us. If your post becomes really popular, each link inside it should send enough traffic outwards to be worth investigating. Be generous with your outbound links when writing your most popular post. It gives other bloggers an incentive to link to you, because it’s ultimately more promotion for them.

10. Utilize your network. If you want people to Digg, Stumble or Reddit your post, there’s no reason why you need to sit back with fingers crossed and hope it happens. Ask them. Your loyal readers like you. You entertain them, or teach them, or help them. If voting is a simple matter of clicking a link they’ll be more than happy to do so. Ask for votes in your post and email readers and social media influencers. In most cases you will need to get the snowball rolling. After that, others will do most of the work for you.

Bonus tip:

11. Examine what worked before. Study your most popular posts so far. What’s common about them? Why did they work? What needs did they address? In creating your most popular post, it’s important to learn by example and build on what has worked for your blog in the past. Another good idea is to analyze the most popular posts on other blogs in your niche. Why did they work? What’s remarkable about them? You can transfer those qualities over into what you write.

Skellie on December 4, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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89 Responses to “Use These 10 Tips to Write Your Most Popular Post Ever”

Patrick Altoft on December 4th, 2007 2:39 am

This is the best article of the week.:)
Rhys on December 4th, 2007 2:56 am

I couldn’t agree more. One of my most popular posts was well over 5 hours of writing time, largely due to the fact that I posted it more of a modular fashion (wrote the basic artcile to begin with, then added to it) rather than in a storyboard fashion (beginning to the end).

I recommend posting in that way, as you get down the important points first.
James Mann on December 4th, 2007 3:02 am

Thanks for your great points.

I have done a few things to make my blog easier to read, like taking off the inline text links because they tend to clutter the posts and make my affiliate links less visible.

I also removed the adsense type ads as well. I am not sure how this will affect my income but I should know if I went too far in the next few days.

My headlines usually suck pretty bad so I am working on that. I find myself rushing to get posts done so I may end up dropping a few of my sites just so I can slow down to a jog.
Jacob Cass on December 4th, 2007 3:04 am

I was just searching for this and what do you know it came up in my feader just then Cheers
Shark Girl on December 4th, 2007 3:33 am

Thanks for these tips. I’m going to use all of them to write posts that will get the attention of the Pentagon.. lol.
Seo Blog on December 4th, 2007 4:54 am

Thanks for the tips!
Skellie on December 4th, 2007 5:10 am

@ Patrick: What a compliment. Thanks!

@ Rhys: Modular — that’s a great name for it. I tend to use that method for almost every post I write. I certainly used it for this one. (It started with the words in bold).

@ Shark Girl: In a good way, I hope ;-).
AaronC on December 4th, 2007 7:57 am

12. Don’t skip #6
Young on December 4th, 2007 8:10 am

good idea. DO you know the name of the girl in the pic?
Daniel on December 4th, 2007 8:36 am

Young, it is coming from iStockphoto.com, not sure.
Shark Girl on December 4th, 2007 9:57 am

Skellie, most definately in a good way. I’m working on a project to help the small business in Defense contracting to not be shut down by unfair competition. I don’t know how to get the attention of the House, Senate and Pentagon, all of which visit my site regulary. I have hundreds of visits by many military domains too.

But I don’t know how to write articles. Maybe your tips will help. I’m at least going to try it and see what happens.
Not John Chow on December 4th, 2007 11:22 am

Thanks for the great post! It reminds me about my biggest problem: writing too fast. A good post needs to be written, read and then re-written. Thanks for the reminder.

Also, it is not enough to run spell check. You need to review your final copy by actually reading it one more time. I find a lot of errors in the blogosphere. Maybe this should be tip #6!
Shycon Design Colorado on December 4th, 2007 3:00 pm

Great stuff here. Headlines are key, and in today’s blogging era scannable content is imperative. It only took me about 30 seconds to read this whole article!
costa on December 4th, 2007 5:01 pm

Good Tips! just exactly what i need. Sometimes my own articles seems so good to my own eyes but it never seems to appeal to anyone.
susan on December 4th, 2007 5:20 pm

cool. i never give tips on my blog…or advice. it’s solely trend. but, there is lots i can apply, here. thanks!
Skellie on December 4th, 2007 7:21 pm

@ Shark Girl: I can sympathize with that. What kinds of blog posts do you write for the Pentagon, after all.

I’d suggest the best thing you can do is to demonstrate your knowledge clearly and authoritatively.
bmunch on December 5th, 2007 6:58 am

@Skellie - Great post. You are definitely making a presence within the blogosphere with your excellent guest posting everywhere.

I have a question about #2. What happens after you use your best ideas? Where do you normally go for your inspirations?
Raj on December 5th, 2007 7:30 am

Nice tips and Helpful too
Chris Jacobson on December 5th, 2007 8:14 am

Excellent list. I’ll link to this on Sunday.
Jordan Pearce on December 5th, 2007 2:09 pm

Talk about a timeless and encouraging post.

Regarding #11 go back though past articles that worked and update them every year or so. Resubmit and or promote again.

It works!
Jim Saeger on December 5th, 2007 6:59 pm

Great tips for anyone, but especially for a newB like me
AlexK on December 6th, 2007 6:52 am

“8. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Readers will skip your waffly introduction. You can say the same in less words, particularly when you’re writing for an impatient reader: someone who wants to get straight into your tips/resources/opinions.”

I think this is number one in importance. Once you’ve written what you want to tell them you can write a headline that matches.

One of the reasons I don’t leave a comment on posts. I haven’t been told what they promised to tell me.
Alex
Ron Passfield on December 7th, 2007 7:58 pm

Never a truer word was spoken. I’ve been using Blogrush.com lately and it gives you a barometer of the responses to your blog posts - hot, cold, warm, deathly etc.

It shocked me into really thinking about my audience, my headlines and how much I invest in a post.

As it is, my better posts take a couple of hours to produce. So the time factor is there. You have given us a way to increase our return on effort - and often it is just going that extra hour, adding the extra resources.

Thanks for a quality post that models what you are talking about.
Michael on December 9th, 2007 12:40 pm

I have found that utilizing social media, by linking one of my blogs has attracted a few comments - which I never received prior to not using social media. I had to add additional user specific tags so that the blog was easy to find by keywords, and by adding the same image for all posts. I believe an image will stand out in the readers mind - where hopefully they remember you or your posts.

Particularly a social medium site that has a forum and blog posting, where you can refer your blog from forum help discussions. Also, profile sections on media sites are certainly a opportunity to attract blog visitors through customization and formatting such as adding images, html editing, slide shows, relevant self description, and of course links to your blog. It worked a little for me…
subcorpus on December 21st, 2007 1:12 am

i’ve read your article …
but i dont think i can still write my most popular post …
yet to come … still need more time … and a better idea …
hehe …
Alfa King on January 2nd, 2008 6:54 am

Very useful tips, #8 in particular.
sarah on January 12th, 2008 11:52 am

your tips are good for any type of writing - especially about putting the time into it, having patience and being able to put something away and come back before posting.
Megan on February 2nd, 2008 3:20 am

Great Article on How to use 10 tips to the most popular blog post. I see so many people that are starting to put toward the effort and the tim to putting quality blog entries. In our big .dot com world many people are now starting to understand the true value in blogging to help them earn money online, and to use as a viable solution to online marketing.

Enjoyed This piece and all your other articles very much. I willd definatley be returning.

Megan
http://www.PassportMentors.com
Free Traffic Tips on February 9th, 2008 12:27 pm

Nice post!
Very helpful tips.
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kraft on March 3rd, 2008 1:21 pm

Very useful tips! Thanks
Kimota on March 26th, 2008 10:02 pm

As always, spot on Skellie.

I have probably used every one of these suggestions and stand by them all.

The one thing I would add would be humour. With so many posts offering tips on this and suggestions on that, I find the way to make tips stand out is to inject a little quirkiness and humour into the writing style.

People want to read information, but they want to be entertained as well, so I try to provide both services. And this takes a lot more work - redrafting, refining, rubbing out and starting again! Finding the right phrase that conveys the message whilst putting a smile on the reader’s face is a lot harder than simply listing information.

If a post makes me laugh, I always reward it with a Digg, stumble or similar.
one million euro blog on May 11th, 2008 9:02 am

Very usefull tips thanks alot for sharing.
MrFinancial on May 15th, 2008 5:02 am

#5. Invest plenty of value in your post

Can’t tell you how important that piece of advice is. Great writeup overall. Sent this link to my mom since she’s starting to blog from home.
John Elar - Tutorials for All on May 19th, 2008 12:10 pm

i’ve read your article …
but i dont think i can still write my most popular post … I think i will change the alternative.

:d

http://www.learnfobia.com
Eric S. on May 20th, 2008 2:42 am

Awesome, I will try hard to put these tips to use. Being new to the whole blogging scene is interesting. I’m learning lot’s, and trying to apply it.

How do you use the social media, are you talking about My Space and similar sites?
SEO Genius on June 3rd, 2008 8:19 pm

Another great articles definitely some tips here that i really need to consider when writing my own articles. One of my biggest downfalls is having my content look bland however i am on the path to fixing this with relevant images.

Thanks again
Sumit on June 9th, 2008 7:33 pm

really your tips are good for any type of writing - especially about putting the time into it, having patience and being able to put something away and come back before posting.

thanks for your tips once again
http://www.computersolution.co.cc
John Ti on June 17th, 2008 5:59 am

another really really good post. I find it really helpful especially for a rookie blogger like me. Thanks a lot..
FT Lauderdale Real Estate on June 23rd, 2008 6:21 pm

These are great tips to keep in mind, I think it is all about the title, the first step to a great post is getting the attention of the reader.
BTB Presentation Skills Training Ireland on July 1st, 2008 1:55 pm

Super super post.

I have only been blogging since Jan 08 so I am still very much on a steep learning curve. I previously tended to try to post too frequently in an attempt to build up content. I now realise that quality is superior to quantity.

Thanks for the advice,
Niall
Michelle on July 6th, 2008 1:57 pm

This is a really good post full of incredibly useful tips whether you’re a novice or experienced blogger.

I’ll definitely be putting many into action.
SEO Genius on August 13th, 2008 8:27 am

Another great post Daniel and some very needed tips for many bloggers including myself.

Thanks.
Hillel on August 17th, 2008 12:01 pm

Its all about mastering the art copywriting. This is a critical skill that everyone in the business needs to learn!
Razvan Dobre on August 27th, 2008 7:37 pm

Really interesting article! I hope it helps me write the best article yet!
Thank you for these tips! Could you tell us more about the article that was on the first page of Digg and maybe show us that article?

This would help a lot of people to see exactly how a strong article looks like.

Thank you!
Razvan Dobre
Drupal Hosting on August 28th, 2008 4:06 pm

I think idea’s / headlines etc should come spontaniously. spontanious articles are more intresting (personal choise off course )
Abi on September 2nd, 2008 1:15 pm

Excellent post especially for those who are just stepping into the blolgging world to make their blog one, right from the start.
tmdesesigner on September 6th, 2008 11:39 am

Davvero un articolo molto interessante! Complimenti!
Kosol Anusim on September 8th, 2008 1:11 pm

Thanks for your suggestions. I really believe in your tips and I get many ideas for blogs of mine.

Thanks again.
cornelius on October 9th, 2008 1:41 am

excellent post, smart thinking YOU GOT SON
Zain on October 12th, 2008 1:16 pm

Excellent Tips !
blackzero85 on November 8th, 2008 10:40 am

I really like #8 one. ^^
Home Tuition on November 21st, 2008 1:49 pm

good article and advices. Will implement it on my sites.
Coral on November 25th, 2008 1:06 am

Thank you for the useful post. I’ll follow your advice. It can only be up from here!
Matt Caldwell - 15 Minutes to Riches! on November 27th, 2008 11:28 pm

Great tips! You’ve made me realize I really need to spend more time on my headlines… thanks!
alessio on December 10th, 2008 1:46 pm

Nice post!

thanks
free traffic help on December 14th, 2008 11:55 pm

These tips are great, I just have one question
where is tip #6 ?
Bang Kritikus on December 16th, 2008 12:55 pm

Wow great article..! I will apply your guides soon.
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Bang Kritikus on January 25th, 2009 12:02 am

I often using up to date informations such as daily news but because of low pagerank, it gives traffic only one or two days.
Red Royal on January 29th, 2009 6:43 am

very good post.. thanks for info..
dreamfree on February 7th, 2009 12:07 am

great ideas! i learned a lot~
Task Manager Disabled on February 13th, 2009 6:53 am

Nice useful tips… i guess comparing two products brings more visitors to your site….
bali1001 on February 17th, 2009 1:36 am

Many thanks for giving me this great opinions. God Bless You always! ^_^
paco on February 22nd, 2009 11:28 pm

nice , usefull and masterpiece of blogging advice.
greetings…
gerd back pain on March 5th, 2009 11:53 am

Writing is art…. sometimes, we needsomething different to express the idea and create amazing articles….thanks for great guide
yeni oyunlar on March 28th, 2009 1:32 pm

thanks for this tips but when i added many blog my site link it’s not listed from google
Web Designing Quotes on April 10th, 2009 4:49 pm

Writing is art…. sometimes, we need something different to express the idea and create amazing articles….thanks for great guide
lvlc @ FromMomToMom on May 15th, 2009 12:13 pm

I am a newbie to the blogosphere… one day I was reading a post about spring cleaning and I felt the need to share a tip to fold towels, so when they got to the day of fixing it they knew it before hand. I commented on that blog and provided the link to my post. I didn’t know if it was right to do it but a lot of people visited my site that day. From 10 visitors a day that day I got 100. I kept commenting on that blog and I see that most of the visitors come from there. I think that was a popular post because I got 10 readers from it! I need to write more posts like it, since I haven’t got that much traffic since then.
But I am a newbie, I will have patience.
Daily Good Tips on May 30th, 2009 2:34 am

Thanks for your good tips