. . . and other forms of not-advice for creating content on your blog . . .
DISCLAIMER, BLAH BLAH BLAH: I am not a content curator, social networker, or statistics slut. I am not remotely professional in a techie-bloggy way either. (So everything I say here is worth exactly what you pay for it.) I am just a writer with an analytical mind who occasionally gets asked questions that warrant a whole blog post in answer. (Also, I know the mere sight of those blue graph lines above are going to make some of you wet in the crotch. Which, hey… Making you hot is what we do around here, amiright?)
So. On with the post!
Turning Existing Content Into Something New
It seems to me that writers often get stuck. Sometimes they get stuck in a rut (i.e., yammering on about the same thing at 5,300 words per post on a twice a day basis); other times it’s more like they get stuck on a cliff (as in: this story just escalated way too fast/high/dangerously and WTF do I do now?!? besides jump off this ledge?). But most times – for those of us who write blogs – we start to think: Where do I go from here? Do I even have anything interesting/worthwhile/sexy/ridiculous to say? What am I supposed to do next???
For those of us who have been writing for a while, I think we accustom ourselves to the wax and wane. (Of availability, creativity, energy, etc.) Which is OKAY. It’s normal.
[insert giant IT’S OKAY TO TAKE A BREAK! waving flag here]
BUT
When you want to write, but are struggling for a place to start… Where *do* you start? What can you do?
Well, some blogging-world advice gurus – who shall not be named – say, “Curate other writers’ content!” Which… NOOOoooo!!!! 😱
There is an ethical way to do this, yes. But to the average Joe, that statement means, “Oh cool, I can just copy-paste what somebody else has written and call it good.” And, um…
NO.
Stop right there. Don’t do that.
Instead, look at your own content with an analytical creative eye and see what you can come up with. (Or, y’know… Cum up with. As the case may be. 😛 )
Steps For Analyzing Content: Your Top-Ranking Posts
Step One: What even are my top-ranking posts?
There are a lot of different ways to determine what’s ‘popular’ on your blog. Popularity can be measured in views, in ‘Likes’, in consistent page clicks over time, in the content others choose to share, or on any other criteria you deem worthy. Personally, I keep track of post rank based on the following (feel free to borrow or ignore as you please):
- Clicks: this equates to ‘views’ ~ specifically, people who have clicked on the post link and (therefore, presumably) viewed/read the entire post/article/what-have-you
- Likes: when someone hits the ‘like’ button on a post, it can mean anything from ‘just letting you know I was here’ to ‘fist bump’ to ‘nodnodnod’ to ‘oh fuck that’s sexy’ to __________ ~ the bottom line is, somebody liked/related-to some aspect of what you published
- Shares: basically, when I am *aware* that somebody has shared something I’ve created – either because it’s been chosen as part of a roundup of some kind, requested to be used on another blog (think: photos), or spotlighted somehow by another blogger – this means that not only has a person liked what I did (whether they hit the ‘Like’ button or not), but they also thought enough of it to share with other people
According to those categories of determination – and for the purpose of creating an example – my Top 3 would look a bit like this:
All-Time Readers’ Favorites, Based On Clicks (over the life of the blog):
Most Popular Posts, Based on ‘Likes’ (over the past three years):
Most Recent Shares by Other Bloggers (over the past 45 days):
Step Two: Now that I know what they are… What are they ABOUT?
It’s easy, when looking at past content, to get caught in the trap of “Oh, that was a one-off” or “But that was about an old relationship” or “I’m not into that anymore, so I have nothing to say.” Except that, if you dig a little deeper into what you actually wrote/posted, there’s information there that may help you create new content.
Taking those lists above, for example: My post, Cock Size: Does it matter?, appears on two of the ranked lists.
It would be easy for an unknowing reader to assume, based on prevalently-depicted attitudes and the title, that the post is an ode to large cocks. It is not. It would also be easy for me, as the writer, to assume that I’ve already espoused my opinion and therefore have nothing further to say. But on further examination… Nope. That’s not true either.
Because while the post is, indeed, about cock size, it is also about:
- physical sexual compatibility in terms of fit
- discarding assumptions about size
- characteristics and descriptions of actual real-life genitalia
- personal relationship history, with examples therefrom
- finding and enhancing pleasure with a partner
- appreciation for the bodies of my current partners
And, in more general terms, this post could be categorized as any of the following:
- opinion
- personal/life experience
- relationships
- erotic nonfiction
Step Three: Okay… So how do I use that information?
Taking those two lists together, I can definitely see some potential for future posts. And for those of you scratching your heads, still trying to figure out where to go with this, this is what I mean:
- Sexual compatibility – physically and otherwise – is a huge issue in relationships. Do I have more to say on that topic? You bet I do. (Do you? Take the idea and run with it if you wish!)
- The characteristics of my own genitals have changed with time/hormones/age. I’ve been writing a bit about the sexual/emotional issues surrounding my physical changes (menopause, yo), and those posts have been well received. Do I have more to say on the topic? Definitely.
- Relationship History… Diving into the waters of Relationships Past can sometimes feel like a murky business. There are some once-raw personal experiences that I’ve healed from that may be worth exploring. I’ve also recently been thinking about relationships in terms of generationally-repeated mistakes. I’m sensitive about telling a story that’s not my own, but at the same time, past generations’ stories have influenced my own, yes? Perhaps there’s a way to do something with this…
Make sense?
Now, YOU!
Look at your most popular posts – by whichever method you determine ‘popularity’ – and see where there is any overlap. Top three, top five, top ten… Whatever suits you. Then dig a little deeper.
If you have multiple media outlets and want to compare categories/attitudes/tone/style/topics/whatever-you-please, consider looking at a list of top blog posts in comparison to, say, top podcast episodes. Or top YouTube videos. If expounding on your Home Demolition fetish got you 47 million listens on your podcast, and your blog post titled Remodeling Your Home In The Nude was clicked 38,972 times and garnered 2,000 ‘Likes’… Well. Let’s just say you might be on to something there. 😉 (And do keep us posted on your kitchen remodel.) (Complete with naked pictures please! 😛 )
.
Sometimes, as writers, we get stuck.
But taking a closer look at existing content – and using that information to generate new ideas – may be all you need to do to unstick yourself.
(And doesn’t “unstick yourself” sound kinky?)
What are the top posts on your blog about?
What do you do to get un-stuck when you’re in a writing rut?
I dunno… that grid did seemed to get me a bit wound up the more I looked at it.
You’ve written a wonderful piece here, Feve — we all experience that feeling of having a mental vapor-lock on topics sometimes –
but in my own defense, I only drone on for a couple thousand words each- 5300 words takes too much typing. 😀
Hehehe… I knew those blue bars would be a hot ticket! 😛
And you don’t drone on, my friend. You wax prosaic. 😉
Feve: Did I ever tell you how wonderful you iz? 😀
It’s certainly nice to know someone thinks so. 🙂
Great advice here, Feve. It reminded me of the meme I have on Wicked Wednesday: Sexy Searching… maybe I should bring that under people’s attention again.
Rebel xox
I’m not familiar with that meme, so definitely you should! 🙂
I have never tried to determine which of my posts are the most popular—under any criteria. Might be a good idea to try. But I’d live to read about how your generals are changing as you age (complete with photo illustrations)!!😜😜😜
Collaredmichael recently posted…Three That I Follow–Similarities and Differences!
Damn autocorrect…
“Love to read…”
“…how your genitals are changing…”
Collaredmichael recently posted…Three That I Follow–Similarities and Differences!
Hahaha! I feel ya. Autocorrect is my nemesis. 😉
Love this post – not just the content the way you have set it out. I have been confused recently why an older post of mine – going commando – has suddenly received renewed interest. A few hundred views over a few days and it is two years old. I checked my “referrers” and it has not been added somewhere so I can only think it may be because I have a random post widget that puts up older posts on my site sidebar – but that is random – so now it is appearing in my trending widget so maybe once it was there others just began to click on it.
So back to your post! This is an excellent way of working out what to include in future posts – and I am going to give it a go when I have a moment. I like stats so I will enjoy the process – lets see what I come up with.
Thanks Feve.
May More recently posted…Lupins and me for #SinfulSunday
Sometimes once the search engines properly get hold of your SEO info, a post will start appearing more and more often when people search for a topic. My Sybian post was written in 2012, but still garners hundreds of views on a quarterly basis because the topic is something people search for. So the ‘why’ of your commando post popularity may be something similar. 🙂
It used to feel frustrating to me when ‘old’ posts garnered attention, because I was like, “Hey! But I just wrote this other thing and it’s awesome/hot/funny/NEW, so why aren’t you reading THAT? I worked so hard on it!”
But I’ve learned to accept that people are typically interested in what they’re interested in. And if their interests align with something I wrote seven years ago, that’s great! It means they’re visiting my blog, right? Maybe they’ll stay and click around. Maybe they’ll come back. And if not, maybe – either way – they’ll have bettered their day by their visit. 🙂
Really helpful stuff here. Girl on the Net talked about some of this at Eroticon this year, and I just haven’t gotten around to using the advice. This post really lays it out there in step by step fashion, which is exactly what I need. So thanks!
Oh, nice! GOTN knows her stuff, so if this is on the same wavelength, I consider that a compliment. 🙂
I wasn’t aware until you pointed it out in your post that Mrs. Lion and I write 2 5200 word posts a day about the same thing. Really? It has to be us since few, if any others post this often. Gee thanks!
Sorry. I hit publish instead of starting another sentence. Your analytic method is only one way to view things. We get quite a bit of traffic. I consider the source of the traffic to be one of the best indicators of whether or not the website is doing its job. Oddly, the breakdown for our site is almost exactly equal for each of three sources. One third of our readers enter the site via direct access. That means they type in our URL and go directly to our homepage which of course is always the latest post. Another third come in via search engines. Most of those visitors go to specific pages with how-to information on subjects we cover. The last third are from links from other websites.
We have over 3700 posts in our archives. We don’t try to write memorable prose. Our blog is a chronicle of our adventures. As such, our most popular “page” is our first page of the blog with about 50% of our views. This, of course, is the latest post. The other 50% is divided between specific informational pages as well as older posts.
I would argue that the best measure of whether people like a website is how they get there. Our site does not get a lot of top-of-page search engine results. If we were higher up in the rankings, perhaps a lot more readers would come in from searching. However, we have very good traffic and our Alexa ranking is quite good. The average person visiting our site looks at about three pages on each visit.
I don’t bring this up to brag, but I do take issue with the concept that the most popular pages indicate the best things to write about. Between search engine algorithms playing games with what gets listed in what order and occasional references to specific pages on other websites, it’s nearly impossible to understand if a specific topic is more valuable than another. The numbers I’ve been quoting are for the last 12 months.
I’d like to point out that this comment is less than 5200 words.
To clarify: I never said that drawing creative ideas from one’s most popular pages meant that those page topics were the best topics to write about; my point was that when you’re struggling to write (which somebody recently reached out to me about), they are a place to start. This is an example — a place to start when you’re stumped. Nothing more, nothing less. Your suggestions are all good starting points as well. 🙂
As for the high word count hyperbole, it was exactly that: hyperbole. It never occurred to me that anyone would take it personally. It was not meant mean-spiritedly, and I certainly wasn’t poking fun at you (or anyone else — again: hyperbole). Honestly, I’m a little flabbergasted at your assumption.
Great tips. Thanks 👍 💖
Thank you! I hope they’re helpful. 🙂
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