The Web’s Best Content Has One Thing in Common
Photo by aussiegall
It’s the ability to make audacious promises, and to back them up.
Content that doesn’t just promise to make us a bit better at the things we do, but a lot better. And then delivers.
If anything, the single failing of bloggers and webmasters is modesty. We underestimate what our target audience wants and what we’re capable of giving them.
You’ll probably notice that your favorite blog posts of all time broke out of this mold: they promised something audacious that you’d been wanting all along, and then backed it up with content to match the promise.
The web’s best content will do more than entertain you for a few minutes or make you think a little. It speaks directly to your most audacious goals and tells you how to achieve them. Alternately, it gives you the courage to have audacious goals, and makes you feel that it’s not so crazy to do so.
In this post, I’ll be discussing the kind of content which does more than get links, comments and votes. It leaves a mark on everyone who engages with it. It changes, in some small way (or some big way), the way they act. Here’s how you can create it.
Roadmaps for big goals
One of the most appreciated types of web content is an explanation of how the author achieved a big goal, phrased in a way that others can follow by example. It should be a goal that many of your readers would like to achieve, too.
If you haven’t achieved any big goals yet, break down what would be required to do so. Just because you haven’t done it yet doesn’t mean you don’t know how. Remember: every big goal is composed of tiny little steps in one direction.
Lifelong lessons
Another life-changing form of web content is the invaluable lesson. What could you teach readers that would be priceless to them?
One recent example of this is the web’s new-found passion for Getting Things Done (GTD). A lot of the web’s most influential writers have had their work-days fundamentally changed by this productivity model. Imagine if the first place the model debuted to the public was in a blog post, rather than a book?
Changing thoughts
Can you get readers to think about something important in a new, better, way?
One of the things I’ve tried to do in a number of articles here is to get readers to think about simplicity as an incredibly important quality for a blog to have. 50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog is still Skelliewag’s most linked-to article, and I think it’s because the process of ‘uncluttering’ a blog was something many bloggers had never thought about before — nor had they really considered the flotsam in their sidebars to be clutter.
If you can get people to see something differently (and benefit from doing so), you’re bound to leave a long-lasting impression.
Building treasure-troves
There are resource lists, and then there are treasure-troves. We’ve all stumbled into one. You’re browsing idly (or searching for something) when all of a sudden you stumble into a blog, website or single article full of things you absolutely treasure.
Treasure-troves are designed for people, not social media. To create them, find out what your readers are passionate about, and put a lot of those things in one place. You could even create a treasure-trove as a static page on your site, allowing you to update it over time. While Digg traffic tends towards immediacy, you’ll notice that StumbleUpon consistently rewards treasure-trove content.
What kinds of content leave a lasting impression on you?
* * *
Aside: on Saturday I asked a question about what you’d like me to do with the weekend content slot. I’ve made a decision on that, based around your suggestions and votes (thank you!). I’ll be changing the content rhythm to Monday, Wednesday, Friday as of next week, and the weekend slot will become the Friday slot.
I’ll be alternating between some of the key suggestions and an extra feature post when I can manage it.
Also, if you’re in the mood to keep reading, here are a few of articles I’ve written elsewhere:
- How to Sell Your Blog Like a Marketer
- 8 Clever Ways to Lower the Bounce-Rate on Your Blog
- 7 Types of Blog Posts Which Always Seem to Get Links and Traffic
- Pimp Your Firefox: 9 Crucial Add-ons for Freelance Writers
