Have you ever ever written a collection of posts in your weblog – a set of posts which might be intentionally linked collectively?
When you haven’t, I hope I can persuade you to present it a strive.
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 a lot of collection over time, together with 31 Days to Construct a Higher Weblog, which I’ll be coming again to later on this submit.
So why must you write a collection of posts as an alternative of simply particular person posts?
How a Collection of Posts Might Enhance Your Weblog
Writing a collection of posts, even a brief one, could be helpful. Specifically, it provides you the chance to:
- Dig deep into a selected subject, showcasing your experience.
- Encourage readers to maintain coming again for extra.
- Create loads of inside 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 hold coming again to (particularly if in case you have an introduction submit or an index of posts).
Even when your weblog is new, you may nonetheless run a collection. Actually, it may be a good way to get some stable cornerstone content material up there early on.
Two Completely different Approaches to Working Your Collection: Which is Proper for You?
If 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 Collection of Posts
Such a collection runs for a set time frame, and each submit printed on the weblog throughout that point is (normally) a part of the collection.
As an example, a three-part collection of linked posts might seem on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And on the next week, the blogger goes again to standalone posts.
We’ve performed this on ProBlogger with ‘Theme Weeks’ akin to Creating Merchandise Week — a collection of 5 weblog posts on create merchandise in your viewers.
This method works effectively if you wish to create cornerstone content material, or construct up a bit of collection content material you may use later for an book and even the idea of a course. (Extra on that later.)
Sort #2: Ongoing, Common Collection of Posts
Such a collection can run indefinitely, with posts showing on a particular day of the week or month, and even at a selected level within the 12 months. And standalone posts seem as regular between installments of the collection.
The collection may seem like:
- A roundup of stories/posts in your area of interest every Friday. (We used to do that in our “Studying Roundups”.)
- An ongoing month-to-month collection on the primary Tuesday of every month. For instance, when you weblog about wholesome consuming, you may 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 group in your weblog, this is usually a good sort of collection to make use of. It will probably additionally assist you to beat blogger’s block, because it provides you particular issues to weblog about. (Nicely, no less than a few of the time.)
Coming Up With a Nice Concept for a Weblog Publish Collection
It may be powerful sufficient developing with an thought for one weblog submit. So how do you provide you with an ideal thought for a collection?
For a hard and fast collection with a restricted variety of posts, you may search for:
- A subject that you just’ve already lined, however not in a lot depth. A collection might provide the probability to actually dig into the subject and look at completely different elements of it. We did this on ProBlogger with a collection on visitor posting.
- Newbie-friendly matters that will make a superb introduction to your weblog or area of interest. The posts themselves might all be on completely different matters, however you may hyperlink them collectively by having them aimed very a lot at newbies.
For a daily, ongoing collection, you may search for:
- One thing you can weblog about just about indefinitely. It might be the week’s information in your area of interest, your month-to-month outcomes from internet affiliate marketing, or widespread errors you see newbies making in your subject.
- A selected type 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” submit the place you gather collectively inspiring quotes.
When you’ve obtained a number of concepts and aren’t which might work finest, why not ask another bloggers for enter? (When you don’t know many different bloggers but, the ProBlogger Fb group is a superb place to fulfill some.)
Structuring a Collection of Weblog Posts
Hopefully, you already really feel assured about structuring particular person weblog posts. If not (otherwise you want a fast refresher), take a look at these posts from our subject material skilled Ali Luke:
However if you’re structuring a collection, you additionally need to make structural selections about:
- The collection as a complete. It can want a starting and, if it isn’t an ongoing collection, an finish. These may be quick sections of a submit, or posts in their very own proper (for a protracted collection). As an example, you may write a submit to introduce the collection and clarify what’s coming. You’ll be able to then replace this submit with hyperlinks to the completely different elements of the collection.
- The person posts inside the collection. How will you construction these so that they ‘match’ as elements of a coherent complete? You would:
- use a particular sort of picture, or model your pictures in a selected means
- title the posts persistently
- have a selected format for every submit, akin to a fast recap at the beginning and a job or task on the finish.
Interlinking the Posts in Your Collection
It’s essential to hyperlink the elements of your collection collectively so readers can simply navigate between them. Keep in mind, not everybody will learn your collection as you publish it.
Some readers will likely be busy, and can need 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 search engines like google or social media.
You’ll be able to interlink posts in any variety of methods. Listed below are some you may strive. (Chances are you’ll even need to use two or three in every submit.)
- Create a tag or class for the collection, which is what we did with our visitor posting collection. Readers can then get all of the elements of the collection by clicking that tag/class title. When you’re operating an ongoing collection of weekly/month-to-month posts, that is in all probability the easiest way to organise it.
- Put a hyperlink on the prime of every submit resulting in the earlier half(s), so readers can simply return to any posts they missed.
- Create a web page or submit with hyperlinks to each submit 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 submit resulting in the following 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 submit 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 quite a bit, and makes it simple for readers to search out the data they want at any given level.
An instance of hyperlinks to all of the posts within the collection on the backside of the submit
Nonetheless you select to hyperlink your posts collectively, be sure to’re constant. And bear in mind to test again after ending the collection to see if there are alternatives to work in some additional hyperlinks.
Taking Your Weblog Publish Collection 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.
Which may imply:
- Bringing your posts collectively as a free book, maybe with some bonus content material. As an example, when you’ve printed ten month-to-month recipes in your weblog, you can put these recipes into an book and add 5 additional recipes you haven’t printed.
- Publishing your posts as a product, akin to a paid-for book and even an ecourse. (31 Days to Construct a Higher Weblog went from a collection of posts to an book, and now we’ve turned it right into a course.)
You may also use a brief collection because the inspiration for an extended one, or an ongoing collection as a possibility to get readers concerned in your weblog.
I’d love to listen to how you’re utilizing a submit collection, or what concepts you may have for utilizing them sooner or later. Depart a remark beneath to share your ideas with us.
For extra assist creating content material, why not strive one in all my 7-day Content material Sprints the place I’ll information and help you to create a plan and 6 new items of content material in your weblog in simply 7 days.
This text was up to date 1 December 2022.
