Discover the five content strategies that top bloggers are using to engage and grow their audiences in 2023. From personalized content to growing their brand.
If I’m going to say something important and useful, I need plenty of words to do so. That’s the style that works for me, but it won’t work for everyone.
When I’m in a healthy blogging mindset, I write long posts every few days. I’ve tried short and newsy in the past, but have realized I’m no Seth Godin.
Studying some of the bloggers I admire, I’ve realized that there are five dominant content strategies they use and that each one is very different from the others.
This is good news because it means that there is mostly no right or wrong way to do content. I’ll talk more about that caveat later.
Despite the many differences, the similarities are more telling. I think I’ve been able to work out some factors that are must-haves for your content. Without them, you simply can’t grow your blog into a niche authority in the eyes of Google.
5 Best Content Strategies That I Identified From Best Bloggers
I have personally tried out these top content strategies that I mentioned as I result in I get more conversions, better readability, good user experience, and NLP friendly content.
1. Long Form Deep Content
Practitioners: Yaro Starak, Steve Pavlina
Description: Long, +1,000-word posts that are very comprehensive. Rather than drip-feeding ideas about one topic over a series of posts the author consolidates them into uber-posts. They’re unlikely to post these more than twice a week.
Pros: This type of content tends to attract links, and comments and fare well on social media because it puts a lot of value in one place. Since there is more in each post, readers are more likely to come across something that makes them think. Writing great content in this format consistently gets you on the path to a popular blog.
Cons: It’s difficult to keep producing this kind of content consistently. Sometimes you won’t have time to write long posts and other times you’ll wrestle with that ancient fiend – writer’s block. To do this style well, you need to write posts in advance and be doggedly consistent.
Though this type of content has been a natural fit for me I’ve often been tripped up by a lack of consistency. Some bloggers – bloggers that I envy – are like content-producing machines and will never go for too long without posting, even over the course of several years.
Tip: Make sure your posts are long because you are packing them full of good stuff, not just because you’ve taken a long time to say something that warrants far fewer words.
Why long form content is Important? Get Insights:
2. Write Everyday Without Failing
Practitioners: J. D. Roth, Darren Rowse
Description: These bloggers have to be admired for their tenacity. They will not accept anything less than a new post every day. You’ll often find that bloggers who can master this habit are destined for big things.
Pros: One basic principle of SEO is that if you publish lots of content the search engines have a lot to index. If you write 500 articles that get 2 search visits per day, you will be getting a base level of 1,000 visitors per day from the search. The simplest thing you can do to increase your traffic is to write more.
Cons: It can be stressful to keep up this habit when you have to go away for several weeks, or if you get sick. It’s not easy to store up dozens of posts as a safety net, though I recommend it.
If you’re determined to have your blog updated every day you’ll need to make connections with people who are happy to guest-post for you on short notice.
Tip: If you don’t have a writing routine in place you won’t be able to keep this momentum for long. Make a time each day when you will write and don’t let anything stop you.
Choose an hour or two when you tend to be alone, or else you’ll be frequently distracted. Early in the morning or late at night are good times for this.
3. Write To Engage
Practitioners: John Gruber, Jason Kottke
Description: This blogging style involves creating a prolific number of short, poignant posts, sometimes more than ten per day. These posts are usually a mix of wisdom and links with commentary just to engage your audience.
Pros: Readers have cause to check your blog multiple times per day for updates, and most of the time they’ll be rewarded with at least one new post. If you’re posting a lot it’s also not a big deal if your readers don’t like some of your posts.
So this gives you more freedom to explore a broader range of topics that engages your audience.
Cons: If a particular post’s main job is to point readers elsewhere, it’s not likely to get many inbound links or social media votes.
Finding the material for numerous posts can also be very time-consuming, and tricky if you don’t have the time to spend hours in your feed reader each day.
Tip: Writing short posts does not excuse you from the hard task of writing words that are unique and interesting. Add your own commentary to links and news. Make your personality, share your thoughts, and be gentle in every small post.
4. Make Your Own Writers Team
Practitioners: Brian Clark, Michael Arrington
Description: Bloggers who double as editors share their blogs with other writers. They invite and sometimes pay to contribute. The main blogger will usually write more frequently than anyone else. You can follow this model and can give author accounts to viable writers.
Pros: This gives the blogger time to focus on other projects, usually money-making projects. While much of their blog content is outsourced. Some bloggers are able to do this without paying a dollar because there are so many people eager to write guest posts for them.
An example of this model is Lifehacker.
Cons: This will dilute your personal brand as the blog becomes less yours. Readers may miss the days when your contributions were more frequent. Also, for most of us, this will cost money.
Tip: Even with a team you should still write often. Readers are interested in your blog’s topic. But they’re mainly interested in you.
You can give only author accounts to the writers but always stay the admin and can edit or change the posts.
5. Leverage Social Media Content
Practitioners: Jacob Gube, Leo Babauta
Description: Every headline is optimized for social media and most posts are in list format. Headlines with numbers in them are not uncommon. These bloggers are fantastic at writing posts that make social media users want to share them.
Pros: Traffic, and lots of it. Bloggers who can write for social media will often see their subscribers and traffic grow very quickly.
Cons: This kind of content can be impersonal. Because it needs to be free of context to appeal to social media users who will usually visit an article and then navigate away to the next one (via an internal link).
It’s difficult to establish a rapport. Because what works and doesn’t work on social media is largely determined by following existing formulas, it can also become repetitive.
Tip: Don’t post social media-optimized content all the time. Post for social media sometimes, and other times, post just for the readers you already have. They’re the ones who send those votes your way, and they do it because they like you. Help them to like you more.
What These Content Strategies Teach US
At first glance, not much. There are many different ways to provide value to people, and no one method seems superior to the other. The blogging habits of people like Jason Kottke, Steve Pavlina, and Brian Clark couldn’t be more different.
In some ways, though, this helps to illuminate the few similarities shared between every single one of these five content strategies.
Being Consistent
For your blog to gather more traffic and subscribers, you must be posting regularly. Whether it’s 3 times a week or 20 times a day. You have to give people a reason to check your blog often.
If you post once a week, people will check your blog once a week. If you stop posting for a month, some people might forget to check on you at all.
Consistency has been my own Achilles’ Heel as a blogger. While I consider myself an expert in some areas consistency is one where I’m still learning.
I can’t yet provide advice on how to blog consistently but I can say that it is extremely important. It’s also worth noting that I’ve never seen a blog grow while content stagnated. No amount of marketing will work if your content is musty and stale.
Tip: Make it your goal to update your blog three times a week or two times a week if your posts are really long. If you’re not already doing this and finding it hard to collect new readers, this is probably the reason why.
Being Tenacious
Aside from writing a lot, top bloggers have been writing in one place for a long time. Links add up quicker than they disappear. So it follows that any consistently updated blog will grow a little or a lot more as each month passes.
The process, in its essence, is a waiting game. Though you can’t wait idly and quietly. Like picking a smart route on a road trip, your actions can get you there faster.
Settling On A Natural Fit
Though I’ve experimented with lots of little methods in the past. I’m not really good at anything except longer, less frequent posts. This is the way I write and how my brain works.
The bloggers I mentioned above are all posting content in a way that is a natural fit for them. If you’re not motivated to write it might be because you’re not letting yourself write in a way that comes naturally.
Experiment with different styles of content writing, if you write long then try short, and vice versa along with writing in different voices.
Pick the non-fiction writer you like most and imitate them in your writing. Trust me, it will still sound like you. Because it’s not them writing, but it might sound like a better you. Do this until you don’t have to anymore.
Not A Rocket Science
The things I found in common between the five content strategies were not hidden secrets or master skills.
Instead, they’re habits that we can all practice but most people find difficult to do. Anyone can write a lot of content for a long time in a way that is a natural fit for them, and every person currently running a popular blog seems to do this.
You might not be doing it yet, but you’re capable of doing it, and you can start straight away.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I optimize my blog content through SEO strategy?
Here are a few strategies you can use:
- Use keywords
- Create high-quality content
- Optimize your images
- Use internal and external links
- Use social media
- Monitor your progress
- Optimize your blog post’s URL
- Optimize your blog post’s meta tags
Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, and it may take some time for your blog post to start ranking higher in search results.
