How to Accelerate your Blog’s Growth with This Content Strategy
Zac Johnson
Content is the life force behind every website or blog on the Internet. However, just having content isn’t enough. If you want to win the ongoing war against your competitors based on search marketing, SEO, social media, and user engagement on your site, it’s all about having an effective content creation and marketing strategy.
And if you really want to kick your blog’s growth into high gear in today’s increasingly competitive environment, you really need to include this proven content strategy into the mix: the listicle.
The listicle — a type of article that is primarily written around a central list of items — is hardly a new format, but what you’ll find is that implemented strategically, and with great content, it can prove to be a very powerful tool in your arsenal indeed. And it comes with a whole host of potential benefits too. How so? Let us count the ways.
1. Listicles Attract Clicks
While the hard statistics on the subject can be a little challenging to nail down, experts generally agree that listicles tend to outperform their non-list counterparts when it comes to getting click-throughs on search engine results pages (SERPs) and on social media. As users scroll through their list of search results or their social media feeds, they are much more inclined to click on an article with a number in it.
Think of this way. If Joe Average sees “How to Budget Your Household Expenses” and “7 Awesome Tools to Save Money on Household Bills,” the second article gets way more clicks. It’s just so much more enticing.
2. Listicles Increase Engagement
By and large, your blog’s growth will depend on two main factors: your ability to attract people to the site, and your ability to get people to interact with your website in some meaningful way. The average Internet user spends mere seconds on a webpage before leaving, but the very nature of the listicle encourages the user to stay. That means more scrolling and more clicks, which equals more time on site.
If you format your listicle on a single page, they’re more inclined to scroll through the content. If you format your listicle as a slideshow, they’re more inclined to click through the slides. Either way, you increase engagement with the listicle content strategy. Better still, listicles lend themselves to being shared on social media, which further fuels your blog’s growth.
3. Listicles Are Great for Affiliate Offers
Blog monetization can be a bit of a tricky business. You don’t want the advertisements to attract too much attention to themselves, as this can detract from the user experience. At the same time, you don’t want the advertisements to disappear into the background either, as advertisers won’t get the value they desire (and thus you won’t earn your full potential in blogging income). But the listicle format is perfect for monetization, especially affiliate marketing.
TIP: Make all your affiliate links bold, like “sign up here” or the offers name.
Going back to our earlier example of “7 Awesome Tools to Save Money on Household Bills,” you can seek out relevant affiliate offers in that niche or vertical, like BillShark, Trim, or Bill Bargain all located on Aragon Premium. Doing this you’re providing excellent value to the reader, as this is valuable and useful information to them, and you’re also attracting appropriate attention to the affiliate links, improving your click-thru and conversion rates.
5. Listicles Write Themselves
While you should certainly put some thought and research into their creation, the listicle format makes it much easier to organize the ideas and information you want to share with your audience. Each item on the list can be a clear and distinct entity, so it’s almost like writing several concise articles. Provide real substance and minimize the fluff. This punchier style of writing is perfect for today’s Internet, where far fewer people want to read giant blocks of text.
6.The Best Listicle Tips
For the best listicles, keep these pointers in mind.
● Always include a number in the title.
● More items aren’t always better (but it’ll likely attract more attention).
● Number all your items and make them prominent as headers.
● Try to include visual elements like photos and videos.
● Include words like “top” or “best” in your title.
● Relate your listicle to a popular interest, like a celebrity or TV show.
● Dare to elicit emotion. Controversy works wonders.
What are you waiting for? Get out there, write an epic listicle, and leverage it to accelerate your blog’s growth today. Login to your Aragon Premium Dashboard, find your offers and start creating a listicle on your next favorite topic.
