Have you ever ever written a collection of posts to your weblog – a set of posts which are intentionally linked collectively?
If you happen to haven’t, I hope I can persuade you to provide it a attempt.
Some bloggers really feel writing a collection of posts is extra daunting than writing particular person posts. However it’s usually simpler to provide you with concepts for a ten-post collection than for ten stand-alone posts.
Right here at ProBlogger we’ve run quite a lot of collection through the years, together with 31 Days to Construct a Higher Weblog, which I’ll be coming again to later on this publish.
So why must you write a collection of posts as an alternative of simply particular person posts?
How a Sequence of Posts May Increase Your Weblog
Writing a collection of posts, even a brief one, will be helpful. Specifically, it offers you the chance to:
- Dig deep into a selected matter, showcasing your experience.
- Encourage readers to maintain coming again for extra.
- Create loads of inner hyperlinks between your posts (good for each website positioning and inspiring readers to dig deeper into your website).
- Construct a complete piece of content material readers can bookmark, share, and preserve coming again to (particularly when you have an introduction publish or an index of posts).
Even when your weblog is new, you may nonetheless run a collection. In actual fact, it may be an effective way to get some stable cornerstone content material up there early on.
Two Completely different Approaches to Operating Your Sequence: Which is Proper for You?
Whenever you take a look at a collection of posts on the blogs you learn, you’ll in all probability discover they fall into one in all two classes:
Sort #1: Time-Restricted Sequence of Posts
This sort of collection runs for a set time frame, and each publish printed on the weblog throughout that point is (often) a part of the collection.
As an illustration, a three-part collection of linked posts could seem on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And on the next week, the blogger goes again to standalone posts.
We’ve finished this on ProBlogger with ‘Theme Weeks’ corresponding to Creating Products Week — a collection of 5 weblog posts on how one can create merchandise to your viewers.
This method works properly if you wish to create cornerstone content material, or construct up a bit of collection content material you would possibly use later for an e book and even the premise of a course. (Extra on that later.)
Sort #2: Ongoing, Common Sequence of Posts
This sort of collection can run indefinitely, with posts showing on a selected day of the week or month, and even at a selected level within the yr. And standalone posts seem as regular between installments of the collection.
The collection would possibly appear like:
- A roundup of reports/posts in your area of interest every Friday. (We used to do that in our “Reading Roundups”.)
- An ongoing month-to-month collection on the primary Tuesday of every month. For instance, in the event you weblog about wholesome consuming, you would possibly publish a brand new recipe at the beginning of every month.
- An annual evaluation of your progress in your area of interest every December or January.
If you wish to construct a way of consistency and neighborhood in your weblog, this generally is a good kind of collection to make use of. It could possibly additionally show you how to beat blogger’s block, because it offers you particular issues to weblog about. (Properly, not less than a number of the time.)
Coming Up With a Nice Concept for a Weblog Put up Sequence
It may be robust sufficient developing with an concept for one weblog publish. So how do you provide you with an amazing concept for a collection?
For a set collection with a restricted variety of posts, you would possibly search for:
- A subject that you just’ve already lined, however not in a lot depth. A collection may provide the likelihood to essentially dig into the subject and study completely different elements of it. We did this on ProBlogger with a series on guest posting.
- Newbie-friendly subjects that might make introduction to your weblog or area of interest. The posts themselves may all be on completely different subjects, however you may hyperlink them collectively by having them aimed very a lot at newbies.
For a daily, ongoing collection, you would possibly search for:
- One thing you may weblog about just about indefinitely. It may very well be the week’s information in your area of interest, your month-to-month outcomes from online marketing, or widespread errors you see newbies making in your discipline.
- A specific fashion of posts. You would have a weekly “Q&A” like Trent Hamm’s “Reader Mailbag” on his weblog The Easy Greenback, or a “month-to-month motivation” publish the place you acquire collectively inspiring quotes.
If you happen to’ve received a number of concepts and aren’t which might work greatest, why not ask another bloggers for enter? (If you happen to don’t know many different bloggers but, the ProBlogger Facebook group is a superb place to satisfy some.)
Structuring a Sequence of Weblog Posts
Hopefully, you already really feel assured about structuring particular person weblog posts. If not (otherwise you want a fast refresher), try these posts from our subject material professional Ali Luke:
However while you’re structuring a collection, you additionally need to make structural choices about:
- The collection as a complete. It’ll want a starting and, if it isn’t an ongoing collection, an finish. These could be quick sections of a publish, or posts in their very own proper (for a protracted collection). As an illustration, you would possibly write a publish to introduce the collection and clarify what’s coming. You’ll be able to then replace this publish with hyperlinks to the completely different elements of the collection.
- The person posts inside the collection. How are you going to construction these so that they ‘match’ as elements of a coherent complete? You would:
- use a selected kind of picture, or model your photos in a selected manner
- title the posts persistently
- have a selected format for every publish, corresponding to a fast recap at the beginning and a job or task on the finish.
Interlinking the Posts in Your Sequence
It’s essential to hyperlink the elements of your collection collectively so readers can simply navigate between them. Bear in mind, not everybody will learn your collection as you publish it.
Some readers will probably be busy, and can wish to meet up with the entire collection later. However many extra (hopefully) will come to your collection in future weeks and months by means of engines like google or social media.
You’ll be able to interlink posts in any variety of methods. Listed below are some you may attempt. (You could even wish to use two or three in every publish.)
- Create a tag or class for the collection, which is what we did with our guest posting series. Readers can then get all of the elements of the collection by clicking that tag/class title. If you happen to’re operating an ongoing collection of weekly/month-to-month posts, that is in all probability one of the simplest ways to organise it.
- Put a hyperlink on the prime of every publish resulting in the earlier half(s), so readers can simply return to any posts they missed.
- Create a web page or publish with hyperlinks to each publish within the collection. You are able to do this earlier than you run the collection and replace it as you publish every half, or do it retrospectively.
- Put hyperlinks on the backside of every publish resulting in the subsequent half, so readers can simply undergo the collection. (Clearly, you’ll want to return and add these in when you’ve printed the later elements.)
- Add hyperlinks to the physique of the publish everytime you point out a subject you’ve already written about within the collection. (You may as well return to earlier posts and hyperlink them to later posts within the collection.) This protects you having to repeat your self lots, and makes it simple for readers to seek out the knowledge they want at any given level.
An instance of hyperlinks to all of the posts within the collection on the backside of the publish
Nevertheless you select to hyperlink your posts collectively, be sure to’re constant. And bear in mind to examine again after ending the collection to see if there are alternatives to work in some additional hyperlinks.
Taking Your Weblog Put up Sequence Additional
When you’ve accomplished a collection, or have been writing an ongoing collection for some time, it’s value contemplating whether or not you may repurpose your collection into one thing else.
That may imply:
- Bringing your posts collectively as a free e book, maybe with some bonus content material. As an illustration, in the event you’ve printed ten month-to-month recipes in your weblog, you may put these recipes into an e book and add 5 additional recipes you haven’t printed.
- Publishing your posts as a product, corresponding to a paid-for e book and even an ecourse. (31 Days to Construct a Higher Weblog went from a collection of posts to an e book, and now we’ve turned it into a course.)
You may additionally use a brief collection because the inspiration for an extended one, or an ongoing collection as a chance to get readers concerned in your weblog.
I’d love to listen to how you’re utilizing a publish collection, or what concepts you might have for utilizing them sooner or later. Go away a remark under to share your ideas with us.
For extra assist creating content material, why not attempt one in all my 7-day Content Sprints the place I’ll information and help you to create a plan and 6 new items of content material to your weblog in simply 7 days.
This text was up to date 1 December 2022.
