Creating Linked Lists for Traffic and Incoming Links
ProBlogger, Darron Rowse has begun a project called 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. The project involves month-long tips from Darron as well as submissions from fellow bloggers. I feel two of the most important aspects of a blog are traffic and incoming links, and linked list post are a great technique to achieve both.
First, look at the niche that your blog pertains to. For example, if your blog is about programming in ColdFusion, then what would appeal to your readers? If you search for ColdFusion there are hundreds of thousands of results. Get inside of the your readers’ heads. What do they need?
If they are looking for hosting, then why not a list of ColdFusion web hosts with a short description of each. You can also use a “top 10″ method. That ten of the best of whatever, give a description of each and name the post “Top 10 whatever…” If you are familiar with Digg.com or del.icio.us, then you have certainly seen these types of posts reaching the front page.
When you create these lists, if possible link to the sites or items in your list. If the sites you link to check their server logs in either Google Analytics, Mint, WP-Slimstat, or whatever tool they use, they can see that they are getting traffic from your site. You have a chance of them reciprocating your link either in a blogroll, trackback, or a mention in one of their posts. This means potential traffic to your blog.
Linking out is a great way to encourage the owner of the site you link to come over and investigate. Of course, an A-list blogger receives dozens of new links each day and probably won’t have the time to investigate all of them — unless your post becomes popular and generates a lot of links.
I’d link to both prominent and little known sources of content. Even if your post doesn’t take off as you’d hoped you’ll still get some investigative follow-ups from the smaller sites who are still following up every new source of traffic :).
Hi Jason, I agree that lists are a great idea, as they are simple to follow, easy to read, and great for juice from social media sites like digg and reddit etc. I just wanted to point out a negative point of lists…as you write about the importance of incoming links…when it comes to SEO you want as many incoming links as possible, but you also want in minimize unnecessary outgoing links as well, as they weaken your page rank to some degree. Google doesn’t like sites that are considered link farms, so one would want to manage list posts to ensure that they didn’t over use them. Cheers.
Good post - What would you title such link posts though? (Amazingly, that really is the one thing that’s stopped me making such a post so far!)
Hi Michael, if you search for “101″ on my blog you will see the naming conventions that I have used for my lists. I have had moderate success with 101 items. Also, search for “21″. That is another option. Honestly, it depends on what you are linking to. Contact me if you would like help on a title for your post.
Thanks again for commenting.
Thanks for the reply Jason.
I see what you mean now. I was originally thinking of “speedlinking” type posts. Woops.
I like the idea of linking highly related content - from and end-users perspective and as a blog author. Thanks for the tip.
What if your websites in your niche are few and far between? Any advice on how to pick websites/blogs that are close in topic?
Great Article, I will try that in my blog to see if it will work. http://bookoftips.blogspot.com
My blog is about gift cards, and I am yet to find a blog out there about gift cards so it’s hard to link. Any ideas?