Stories<\/strong> \u2013 People don\u2019t just share information\u2014they share stories too.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nHere\u2019s how to put them into action (you\u2019ll want to incorporate at least one or\u00a0two):<\/p>\n
\nMake your content practical<\/strong> \u2013 Create something the reader can use right away. For example, our suite of free tools<\/a> generates a lot of links and shares.<\/li>\nMake your content opinionated<\/strong> \u2013 Give the reader something new to think about. Tim\u2019s rant on email outreach<\/a> and our post on podcast advertising are some examples of opinionated content.<\/li>\nEvoke emotion<\/strong> \u2013 People used to share Upworthy articles because those made them feel awe, surprise, and happiness. Appealing to these emotions\u2014alongside negative ones like anger and sadness\u2014can compel people to share\u00a0more.\u00a0<\/li>\nMake your content visual<\/strong> \u2013 Visual content makes consuming content easier, thus increasing the likelihood that someone will share\u00a0it.\u00a0<\/li>\nMake your content newsworthy<\/strong> \u2013 Journalists and bloggers are constantly on the lookout for stories to cover. Data is one type of story. So if you have unique data to share, create a piece of content around it.\u00a0<\/li>\nTell a story<\/strong> \u2013 Humans love telling and sharing stories. A good story that captures people\u2019s attention can lead to more shares.<\/li>\nInclude what other people are sharing<\/strong> \u2013 If people are sharing and linking because of certain reasons in competing pages, we can assume that those reasons are important to that\u00a0topic.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nFor the final tip, here\u2019s how you can find out why <\/em>people are linking:<\/p>\n\nGo to Ahrefs\u2019 Keywords Explorer<\/a><\/li>\nSearch for a topic you\u2019re writing about<\/li>\n Look at the SERP overview<\/strong><\/li>\nFind a similar article with lots of referring domains<\/li>\n Click on the number in the Backlinks<\/strong> column<\/li>\nSkim the Anchor and target URL<\/strong> column for commonalities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nFor example, if we analyze this post on the perfect kettlebell swing, we see that people are linking because of the benefits:<\/p>\nIt\u2019s something we can consider adding to our content.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Learn more:<\/strong> What Is Link Bait? 7 Successful Examples<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n
2. Write about \u201ceasy to rank\u201d topics\u00a0<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You want traffic from Google. But if you\u2019re new to the game, many topics are out of your reach\u2014at least for now. They\u2019re too competitive, and you\u2019re outgunned by websites with more resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But what if I tell you that you can find topics that are easy to rank for? Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n
\nGo to Ahrefs\u2019 Content Explorer<\/a><\/li>\nSearch for a relevant term (e.g., \u201cbeards\u201d)<\/li>\n Add a Referring domains<\/strong> filter to max.\u00a010<\/li>\nAdd a Page traffic<\/strong> filter to min.\u00a0500<\/li>\nAdd a Domain Rating<\/strong> filter to max.\u00a030<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nSince backlinks are an important ranking factor<\/a>, pages that still <\/em>get tons of search traffic without plenty of backlinks should be relatively easy to rank\u00a0for.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn this example, you\u2019ll see >2,000 pages that get >500 search traffic a month with fewer than 10 referring domains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Click on any article and then on the Organic keywords<\/strong> tab to see what keywords they\u2019re ranking for.<\/p>\nIf you\u2019re running a blog about beards, you can target the same topics too.<\/p>\n
Learn more:<\/strong> How to Find Low-Competition Keywords for SEO<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n
3. Run an outreach campaign<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you\u2019ve published an amazing piece of content, why not show it to people in your niche who have a large audience?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why Tim reached out to Rand. In digital marketing, we call this \u201coutreach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The key to successful outreach is to ask yourself this question each time you\u2019re about to send a new\u00a0email:<\/p>\n
Why would anyone care about whatever I\u00a0say?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere are two strong outreach reasons:<\/p>\n
\nYou mentioned that person (or their work) in your article.\u00a0<\/li>\n Your article has something groundbreaking that this person doesn\u2019t know about but is genuinely interested in.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThe latter reason is why strategy #1 works. There\u2019s no trick to getting top people in your field to promote you. You have to do notable work.<\/p>\n
This is also why whenever we send outreach emails to promote our content<\/a>, we focus on pitching the article\u2014not a sneaky request to tweet\u00a0it.\u00a0<\/p>\nAssuming you\u2019ve created something noteworthy, here\u2019s how you can find people to potentially reach out\u00a0to:<\/p>\n
\nGo to Ahrefs\u2019 Content Explorer<\/a><\/li>\nSearch for your\u00a0topic<\/li>\n Click on the Authors<\/strong> tab<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThese 100 people have written many articles on your topic, so it\u2019s reasonable to assume they\u2019re interested. Find their emails<\/a>, reach out to them, and share your unique insights.<\/p>\nLearn more:<\/strong> Blogger Outreach: How to Do It at Scale (Without Feeling Like a Jerk)<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n
4. Update other people\u2019s posts<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s another strong reason you can use for your outreach: You noticed someone\u2019s blog post is declining in traffic, so you offer to help update it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, this was what Irina Maltseva<\/a>, the former head of marketing at Hunter<\/a>, did:<\/p>\nWhy does this work? Four reasons:<\/p>\n
\nIt is important to update older content\u2014you don\u2019t want outdated information, and updated content helps boost search traffic.<\/li>\n Keeping track and updating old content are burdensome tasks. By offering to update old content, you\u2019re offering to take it off their\u00a0hands.<\/li>\n While guest blogging<\/a> is a legitimate way to drive traffic, you\u2019re oftentimes \u201cguessing\u201d the kind of topics they\u2019re interested in. But you don\u2019t need to guess if you\u2019re updating their old content.\u00a0<\/li>\nThey\u2019re more than likely to allow you to link back to your site and\/or your content.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nHere\u2019s how you can find content that\u2019s declining in traffic:<\/p>\n
\nGo to Ahrefs\u2019 Content Explorer<\/a><\/li>\nSearch for your\u00a0topic<\/li>\n Set the Trends<\/strong> dropdown to Last year<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\nFrom here, you\u2019ll want to eyeball the list and look out for pages with declining page traffic:<\/p>\nClick on the article to see the Page traffic<\/strong> chart in detail:<\/p>\nLooks like this particular article has suffered a drastic drop in traffic. If you\u2019re in this niche, you can reach out to the editor and see if they\u2019ll be interested in updating the post. If they are, suggest doing the work for them\u2014it\u2019ll sweeten the\u00a0ask.<\/p>\n
Learn more:<\/strong> Republishing Content: How to Update Old Blog Posts for SEO<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n
5. Share barebones posts on Reddit<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There is a subreddit for almost anything. That includes your niche too. There\u2019s no doubt that Reddit is a great place to promote your content. Do it right, and it may even lead to a hug of death<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut let me throw a wrench in your plans. Redditors hate <\/strong>advertising and marketing. If your content smells like self-promotion, they will not hesitate to throw you\u00a0out.<\/p>\nSo you can\u2019t just waltz in, drop a link, and wait for the flood of traffic.<\/p>\n
Reddit, however, does love useful content. So to resolve this conundrum, you can share a barebones version of your content. Strip everything out, especially your internal and external links. Leave only a link back to the original at the bottom of your Reddit post, so anyone who\u2019s interested can check it\u00a0out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example of it<\/a> in the\u00a0wild:<\/p>\n<\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n
6. Repurpose your content into videos<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We have a video on blog post templates<\/a> you can swipe. But did you know that it was originally a blog post<\/a>?<\/p>\nNot everyone wants to read. Some want to watch videos. By turning your articles into videos, you can potentially reach a new set of audience.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve already created the content anyway. Why not take advantage of it and give it a new lease on\u00a0life?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be honest, though. Repurposing is hard work. It\u2019s one thing to say, \u201cTurn your blog post into a video,\u201d and another to actually <\/em>do it. So if you\u2019re going down this path, you\u2019ll have to prioritize.\u00a0<\/p>\nOne way to do this is to focus on topics that people are already searching for on YouTube. That way, your repurposed videos can generate search traffic too.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how to find these topics:<\/p>\n
\nGo to Ahrefs\u2019 Keywords Explorer<\/a><\/li>\nSelect YouTube<\/strong><\/li>\nEnter a few relevant keywords<\/li>\n Go to the Matching terms<\/strong> report<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nLook through the list to see if there are any topics where you already have existing blog content. Those are the topics you should repurpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, this was how we decided to repurpose our article on influencer marketing:<\/p>\nLearn more:<\/strong> The Complete Guide to Content Repurposing<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nMost people who are looking for ways to promote their blogs are actually looking for free promotion strategies. They don\u2019t want to pay for promotion because they think they have no budget for\u00a0it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But what they don\u2019t realize is that, in reality, no blog promotion method is free. While it may not cost upfront cash, it takes time. And time is money. Even the richest person in the world cannot buy\u00a0time.<\/p>\n
So you actually do <\/strong>have the budget to promote your content with ads because they free up your precious time\u2014time that could be better spent elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\nAt Ahrefs, we run ads for all our newly published content. Facebook ads are our\u00a0go-to:<\/p>\nIf you find Facebook ads too complex or too expensive, don\u2019t forget that there are other platforms you can test too. For example, we also run ads on\u00a0Quora:<\/p>\nAnd Twitter:<\/p>\nLearn more: <\/strong>PPC Marketing: Beginner\u2019s Guide to Pay-Per-Click Ads<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nFinal thoughts<\/h2>\n Ryan Holiday writes in \u201cPerennial Seller<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n\nCreating more work is one of the most effective marketing techniques of\u00a0all.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
If you\u2019ve published an amazing article and got tons of success, the best thing you can do to promote your blog further is to publish another amazing piece of content.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A consistent output of great work is the foundation behind all your blog promotion strategies. It supercharges everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Any questions or comments? Let me know on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n