Creating content that people love and that stands the test of time is a challenge for just about all bloggers. One of those who have become successful at his is Michael Hyatt. Michael Hyatt is author of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and the host of the podcast – This Is Your Life. He shares tips on how to create content people love. He was interview recently by Michael Stelzner and shared on his experiences as a blogger, content creator and lessons learned. (Image credit: Flickr)
1. Use traffic history. Use the history to find out which posts brought the most traffic in the past. Then feature them prominently on the blog and use social media platforms to remind people of them via re-purposing them.
2. Solve personal problems and blog on it. This is like getting a new camera and using just about everything you see as a photo subject. Michael used personal problems which he solved to produce new content in the belief that there were probably others who are having the same issues. So what issues are effecting you, that you have solved and can blog about?
3. Reframe current events to suit blog content. Chances are that certain current events or news items could be re-framed to suit the main topics that your blog covers. It doesn’t apply to all current events or news items, so choose wisely.
4. Invest in learning copywriting. Take the time and money to invest in a copywriting course. This will help with creating attention grabbing headlines and intro’s that will hook peoples interest to read further.
5. Use photography. If you don’t take photo’s yourself that you can share, then perhaps a stock photo site could provide the photos to engage the vast majority of us who are visually inclined.
6. Facilitate conversations. Being a blogger is not just about creating content people love but also facilitating conversations. A simple way to do this is by asking an open ended questions at the end of the blog post. You can prime the pump by answering the first few comments. By encouraging comments, Michael not only gets around 300 comments a day but is also building a community. On a side note the disqus plugin has a new leaderboard function that can encourage commenting on your posts.
7. Invite great content. Creating content people love is not just about what you can create but allowing as many points of view and aspects that are relevant to your audience on to your blog. So invite others to guest blog or write for you.
8. E-book and email list. Building an email list is a point that has been long talked about. One of the best ways to do this is by providing valuable content by means of an e-book that can be downloaded for free.
These tips have served Michael Hyatt well in being able to build a responsive audience over time. What are your Do Not Do tips for for creating content that people love?