The 20th in the series of…
20 Secret Blogging Tips in 20 Days
I did it!! Technically, this is posting on July 1st. So I really didn’t do it after all. Check out the bottom of this post to see the rest.
Today’s post should simply be titled “working smarter”.
Writing a post a day in the month of June certainly isn’t working smarter. Readers are distracted with schools getting out, summer vacations, the demise of Google Reader, NBA and NHL Finals and a thousand other things. I could go on and on.
Google Analytics says my month was dismal and only getting worse.
So why commit to write a series of a post a day during June?
It could be the heat. It could be the medications (injured my knee again). Or it could be that I know this series has ‘legs’ (pun intended).
What do I mean by that? Unlike most of my regular posts that typically get the instant readership they get from the social sharing or the newsletter, this is a series. That changes everything!
I know that just by doing a series, one post read will lead to another. Much so more than a single on off style of post. Six months from now I’ll still be getting traffic (deeper traffic) from people finding a post in Google and then moving deeper into the remainder of the series.
Yes, I have a related post plugin (actually two) that attempt to tease you into reading yet another post and they do work but nothing like what I used for this series. I have no control over the related posts that show for them.
I mentioned at the start that this was going to be a series. At the top of each post I have a little snippet . That snippet told the reader that this was #__ of 20 posts in a series and to read the rest – scroll to the bottom. At the bottom they’ll find a list of the entire 20 posts (21 with the intro). They’ll see a small graphic, the title of the post, and teaser text about what’s in that post. I mentioned at the start that I would be using List.ly. That’s it. And that, is what I call “Working Smarter”. Here’s why.
USING LIST.LY
First, a little disclaimer. We had Nick (one of the co-founders of List.ly) on the radio show. I liked the product and like what he had to say. Of the many uses for List.ly using it to catalogue a series isn’t what it was originally designed for. In fact their site says, “Curate the Web’s best social lists on Listly or right on your site”. There’s a premium version but I am using the FREE version. I’m also using the wordpress plugin that could help in the Google Juice department. Cool?
First of all… List.ly is drop dead simple to use. You can sign in with most any of your social media profiles, click the button and make a list. You can edit and modify that list, and once you are happy with it, you can grab the embed code and put that list most anywhere!
For the Curator. Are you the type that wants to share the really good stuff you find on the web? There’s a Bookmarklet just for you. http://blog.list.ly/bookmarklet/ Find it, click it, curate it. With an easy click you can add items to one of your lists – it really is drop dead simple.
For the Crowd Sourcer. List.ly makes it easy for your readers to contribute to your list. Matter of fact I just paused for a minute and created a list on Incredible Bloggers. I’ll start by adding a name or two but I would love you to add a link or two and in the process check out List.ly. http://list.ly/list/5n9-incredible-bloggers
For the Blogger. This is how I used List.ly. I wanted to show only my posts. Not all my posts, just the ones in the series. My workflow was
1. Write the post.
2. Publish the post.
3. Grab the permalink and add to my list.
4. Write a description, add a few tags and save.
Here’s video of me adding this post to list.ly right after I click publish.
With a list created there are a number of styles from which to choose when it comes to displaying the content. I’m a graphical person so I want a style with a featured image. I’m using a different versin on this post than I did with all the rest – scroll down to see it and then click on another post to see the version I used for the rest. Now, most series are not 21 freaking posts long. Three, five, even ten would be a great number for a list using featured images. If I could recommend one change it would be to have the ability to control the size of the image. In my case a smaller thumbnail would help make the scroll length shorter. Either that or have the ability to paginate the list. That would work.
Adding the WordPress Plugin
The plugin is available in the wordpress directory http://wordpress.org/plugins/listly/. Download it, install it, activate it, add your publisher key and you are set. Once installed it’s easy from the wordpress dashboard to pick a list and add the embed shortcode. Once again… drop dead simple.
Going Premium:
Like any business they need to make money. There’s two levels of Premium that you can upgrade to, the Pro and the Team.
Want a BONUS?
Of course you do. That’s why you read all the way to the bottom right? My List on List.ly has a PageRank of 5 or 6. The links on that page (http://list.ly/list/5A5-20-super-secret-blogging-tips) are all “DO Follow” links. The titles of each post are all perfect anchortext for each post in the series. List.ly is giving those posts great google juice. That makes me happy.
Ready for a killer wordpress website? Click HERE. Read the rest of the series… (this is called the Gallery style)
[listly id=”5A5″ layout=”gallery”]
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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