Successful Bloggers Do These Things More Than Others [RESEARCH]

What makes content successful?

If the answer were easily identifiable (and singular), every creator would do it. Unfortunately, it’s not. So, you have to rely on what your data tells you and get some help from third-party insights.

The latter brings me to Orbit Media’s Annual Blogger Survey, released this fall. In its 11th year, the report tallies the insight of over 1K bloggers. While all the findings are specific to blogs, I think they offer a glimpse of what could work well for a multitude of content formats.

In this year’s survey, 20% of bloggers report experiencing “strong results” with their blogs. So, these five things are based on what they do differently.

1. Go longer: Bloggers who spend at least six hours on an article are more likely to see strong results. And 68% of the strong-results group write articles averaging at least 2K words.

Interestingly, AI assistance with their blogs doesn’t make them any more or less successful than all bloggers.

You must balance a lot as a content entrepreneur but invest your time in creating. It’s the foundation on which you differentiate your brand, attract an audience, and build a marketing strategy. And once you have those lengthier, solid articles, break them up into pieces for your newsletter, social media, and other content channels. It will reduce the need for short (and short-impact) content.

Helpful Resource: How To Make the Most of Your Content Business Time

2. Do more than text: Audiences aren’t big fans of gray blocks of text. Of the bloggers reporting strong results, 68% say they use at least seven images per article (and 26% say they use an average of four to five).

But don’t stop at visuals. Audio and video are factors, too – 39% of strong-results bloggers use audio in their content. With AI-generated text-to-speech tools readily available, adding the audio component may not require a lot more ongoing work. (Video is used by 25% of the success group.)

Helpful Resource: How Creators Can Develop a Smart, Easy Video Strategy

3. Work with others: Two findings piqued my interest about the power of collaborations. The first is easier to implement. One-fourth of bloggers reporting strong results use contributor quotes in their content. They ask and invite others who have an insight or expertise on the topic for their input. Though the survey doesn’t get into why it’s effective, I’ve seen this tactic work because the third-party perspective brings more credibility to the content and the person who was quoted is more likely to share the content.

The second finding was that bloggers who collaborate with influencers get better results. Of this group, 38% collaborate with influencers in at least half of their content. Don’t limit yourself to people who identify as influencers. Think about brands, industry-related organizations, and other entities who would find it mutually beneficial to work with you.

Helpful Resource: How To Collaborate With Creators To Add Their Audience to Yours

4. Embrace search: Though the search world is changing, it remains one in which your content business must live. One-third of successful bloggers always research keywords for all their articles, while one-fifth do it 50% to 90% of the time.

Another technique these bloggers do that may help with SEO? Update old content. Orbit’s survey finds bloggers who update older posts are 2.5x more likely to report strong results. Again, it doesn’t explain why, but Google and other search engines factor in content “freshness” in surfacing results to ensure the information presented is up to date.

Helpful Resource: Unlock a Keyword Strategy

5. Watch those numbers: Almost half (48%) of the successful bloggers usually or always check their analytics. That makes sense. If you know how your content is performing in real time, you can see what’s working and what’s not. Frequently checking the metrics may also indicate that these bloggers understand and operate with the all-important recognition that blogs aren’t all about the content; their performance matters most.

Helpful Resource: How To Narrow the Metrics That Matter for Your Content Business

The post Successful Bloggers Do These Things More Than Others [RESEARCH] appeared first on The Tilt Publishing.