When was the last time you looked over your old blog posts?
You should, because your readers are.
If you’re like me, you probably spend more time thinking about whatever it is you’re working on today or have to start next week. But there’s value in looking in the opposite direction.
This hit home this week when someone who jumped into the ongoing debate over writing for content aggregators like Helium and Examiner.com that’s going on here mentioned The Long Tail.
I listened to the audiobook version of Chris Andersons’ groundbreaking work on the economic theory of the Internet last year. What struck me most was how much it applied to blogging.
I definitely see a Long Tail phenomenon on this blog. The stats charts for most of my posts have that distinctive Long Tail look: the bulk of the page views come right when it first comes out, followed by a long line of increasing smaller page views stretching out over subsequent weeks and months.
But I didn’t realize how significant it was until I crunched a few numbers. Get this: in the past week, visitors here have read 181 posts, not including my resume, clips or About WordCount page. What’s that mean? In a seven-day span, people read more than half of what I’ve written since starting this blog in December 2007. Definitely a Long Tail phenomenon.
What’s the take away? It pays to look back. If you do, you might discover:
- Which older posts get the most page views. It could be a sign to write about that topic more often.
- Which posts get a consistent amount of traffic. You might consider packaging a few into an e-book to offer as a free bonus for people who sign up for your RSS feed.
- That you’ve written about something often enough, you have enough material to turn into a book, online course, or at lease material for a speaking engagements on the topic.
- That you’ve got enough material on a topic to turn into pitches for assignments for a magazine or website.
- That you’ve got enough material on a topic to spin off a second blog.
Have you noticed the Long Tail effect on your own blog?
Interesting way of looking at popular posts. I guess another suggestion would be that, based on post popularity, you can do a “best of” post one day when you can’t think of what to write.
Last year when I was going to be away for an extended period of time, I did a series of “Best Week Ever” posts that recapped my popular posts. Here’s the intro to that series: http://suddenlyfrugal.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/best-blog-week-ever/
You’ve inspired me to revisit that idea. Thanks.
Leah
Love your idea, too!
I think I’m going to start prewriting some post for my vacation in July.
Leah
I have indeed noticed that people read older posts — of the top twenty with most traffic usually half are older pieces (I’ve been blogging for three years now, http://musicroad.blogsot.com). One way I have both addressed this interest from readers and increased it is about a year ago I started adding a ‘you might also like to see’ section to posts, hand selected stuff that I thought relevant.
I like the idea of using posts as sources for ebook/book proposals. There’s a project I’ve been thinking I should gather material to pitch — and perhaps I have good bit of it already written. with readership, too. thanks for the idea, Michelle.
Great suggestion about running “Best Ever..” or “Best of…” compilations. I’ve done that too to cover myself during vacations. Something else to consider: a “Best Overlooked…” compilation, a group of old blog posts that you thought were really good but didn’t get the readership you think they desired. I saw that on ReadWriteWeb a while back and think I’ll borrow when I take summer vacation in a few months.
MVR
Kerry: If you do an ebook, please let me know how it goes. Maybe you could do a guest post.
MVR