Written on April 21st, 2006 at 10:04 pm by Darren Rowse
Send Your Readers Deeper Into Your Blog
Liz over at Successful Blog has started up a new page on her blog for New Bloggers. It’s a useful collection of her posts on topics relevant for newbies.
It’s also a good example of creating a page that draws first time readers deeper into your blog. It can be done on any blog regardless of topic.
Simply search through your archives for key posts that would be relevant to first time readers and put them together as a post that ties them together. Then it’s a matter of linking to that page in key places on your blog. In a sense this is what I’ve done with a number of the links in my header boxes, especially the Top 20 Posts at ProBlogger links which is one of the most read posts on the blog and sends readers deeper into the site many times over.
6 Responses to “Send Your Readers Deeper Into Your Blog” - Add Yours
Brent
April 21st, 2006 10:54 pm
I’ve done something similar and it works very well.
I run a computer how-to site. I created a section I call “Must Reads”. The must reads section is a list of guides that I think people visiting my site will want or need to read. If I didn’t have the must reads section most people who visit the site will never know about those guides I think will really help them out.
I’ve also noticed the must reads section also keeps people on the site longer. It’s placed in a highly visible part of the site and is bold to bring attention to it. People usually visit a few of the guides in the must reads section before they head out.
My must reads section serves two very important purposes. The first is it gives them a quick taste of what else is inside. Hopefully that taste is good and they will come back for more. The second is it keeps many people visiting the site on a little longer. They usually visit a few of the guides in the must reads section. That gives my site more time to convince them it’s the best and to keep coming back.
Check it out for yourself at http://www.maximumpcguides.com.
Liz Strauss
April 22nd, 2006 12:20 am
Hi Darren,
Thanks for noticing and for the link love!
Lots of folks have commented on that page. Even though all along I’ve had a category for new bloggers called “Survival Kit,” that just wasn’t loud enough. The new page gave me a chance to put a few words describing what Successful-Blog is all about and to get a little of my personality in there too. :)
It’s been a hit. Even the regulars around the blog are going in to get a refresher course.
Works for me. :)
Liz
Easton Ellsworth
April 22nd, 2006 3:15 am
Great ideas. Know More Media ought to consider placing such links on our blogs. It’s a great way highlight some of your best content and invite people to continue reading and participating at your site.
Oz Kanka
April 22nd, 2006 5:59 am
This is such excellent advice. I’m new to the blogging world and my blog is very specific but we do get people coming directed by search engines and as the blog is very much in diary form the idea of a general page for top “background” posts is one which I should have thought of before. I didn’t, of course, but thanks to your post I’ll be adding one pronto. Thank you.
Andrew
October 14th, 2006 12:58 am
Great idea. I have been looking all day for a simple way of categorising my blog posts into a kind of subsystem, so people wont just forget about my older posts… Such as simple solution. This is what I love about ProBlogger.Com!
http://andrewwills.blogspot.com
Richard
May 15th, 2007 12:15 am
Good idea. Can you recommend any good wordpress widgets or plugins to make this easier?
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