Content Marketing Strategy: The Final Word on Quality Vs. Frequency

More than a month ago, I argued that quantity, or even better, the frequency, doesn’t determine quality. Since then, I’ve been struggling with this question.

As a brand editor, I make daily decisions about the quality and relevancy of an impressive array of texts, podcasts and videos by also considering the brand’s overall story, their prospects and customers, and channels the content is intended for.

Last month, I twisted Joe Pulizzi’s argument, “Everywhere I go, I find marketers who are challenged with creating more content. More blog posts, more eBooks, more videos, more podcasts … more, more, more. … I’m done with more.” I focused on the correlation between ‘more’ and ‘good’.

It didn’t end there. I’ve been bothered by this a lot. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then last week, I came to the same conclusion as Joe. Quality first, frequency second (depending on high quality content that is ready for publication).

It’s not like this is new, but many brand editors and content marketers are under pressure to post new content as many times per week as possible; research shows that even a modest increase in publishing increases leads.

But last week I made peace with myself; it was probably my d’oh moment: as editor you shouldn’t succumb to pressure to publish more. Your main concern should be the quality – not saying yes because there’s nothing else to post but you’re expected to post something.

I’m not saying I’ve been doing that; I just talked to many content marketers who are responsible for sourcing and even writing original content for their site and that’s exactly the pressure they’ve been feeling lately.

It’s like, damn if you do, damn if you don’t. I strongly believe that you should pay more attention to high quality and relevancy, taking all other factors into account. Great quality makes readers come back.

You may say, “D’oh, Nenad.” Well, it isn’t as obvious as you may think. Many are struggling with this. According to B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Research Report, for example, producing enough content is the biggest challenge across B2B marketers.

Each one of you have to find what’s best for your case. It’s good to look around and see what worked and what didn’t for others. Just because Content Marketing Institute can publish seven quality posts a week (and they worked hard to get to this point), it doesn’t mean you should “copy” them. Every case is unique.

So, if a day or two or three or even more pass by without publishing new content, you shouldn’t panic, unless you promised too much. Rather post when you have something relevant to say. And say it well.

 

When Bloggers Become Publishers

A year ago I discussed the differences between ‘bloggers’ and ‘journalists’. I wrote: “Choosing a catchy name for your blog doesn’t make you a blogger. Just because you’re writing doesn’t make you a blogger. The audience, your readers make you a blogger. If you’re a columnist or a journalist, it is the publication you write for that brings you your audience.”

In the last twelve months especially, however, we have observed monumental changes on the Internet that may not be as clear to some. Many bloggers have turned into publishers.

So, who are publishers?

Traditionally, a publisher refers to the owner of a media brand or publishing house; she manages the writing, production, and sale of books, newspapers, magazines, etc.

Has the Internet changed this traditional view of the publisher – a media capitalist, to put it bluntly? Do publishers still exist in the world of free information (Is there such a thing as FREE information?) and the technology that is being upgraded daily?

Of course they do! And I don’t mean only traditional publishers who have turned into digital ones.

This post is about true, Internet-born-and-raised publishers. You shouldn’t liken them to bloggers gone pro. Well, not really.

When we say bloggers, we still understand the word in accordance with the old and widely accepted definition of a web log/personal journal. That’s how it all started almost 20 years ago.

Since then, the best of those personal blogs or online diaries have grown into true media brands. Great examples are TechCrunch, Lifehacker, and Engadget.

How or when do bloggers become publishers? In the past year, I’ve observed three common scenarios:

1. When true costs arise

Eventually your readership grows so much that you have to pay someone for hosting the CMS. Indeed, WordPress.com will get you far, but then maybe you’ll want to pay them to be able to customize your site. However you turn it, when you get ‘serious’, your costs increase too.

2. When real revenues start rolling in

When you make a living out of blogging, you’re not just in it for the fun and self-expression alone. Business made you a publisher.

3. Your audience grows noticeably  

For some, the point of change is when you realize you have an audience. This may happen before the previous two scenarios kick in.

I see this happening over and over again: a blog starts as a random collection of ramblings and musings, but with a special, appealing twist that attracts readership. Then slowly, but surely, the blogger starts listening to the crowd; you become aware of them in advance, while working on your next post. I believe this changes your activity from musing to writing.

On the other hand, let’s not forget the brands who set up their own blogs because they have a marketing budget to spend, or they covet ad revenues, or they want to influence the public opinion.

Let me end with a quote from my last year’s post: “In the end, what someone is called is the matter of the industry terminology. It’s more about the relationship between content and consumers. It’s about the quality of the content you are producing and sharing. Not so much about who did it. We’re all publishers. Journalism, social media and blogging mean publishing. It’s about content creation and content sharing. And that’s all it matters.”

How to Cultivate a Popular Blog That Reaches Its Full Potential

Growing a blog takes a combination of skill, hard work, and – perhaps most importantly – a favorable topic or genre. If you’re an ambitious blogger looking to make an impact, sway influence, and even generate a viable source of income, give yourself a fighting chance by taking care in choosing a topic with potential.

Here are 3 universal tips so that you can cultivate a popular blog:

1. Stay Within Your Wheelhouse

The topic you choose to build your blog around must emanate from your core interests and authority. You don’t need a PhD on the subject – just genuine insight and enthusiasm.

Draw from your range of knowledge, experience, and expertise, confirming that you have the passion to develop consistent content and promote it to the audience at large. It’s good to stretch yourself or take on a challenge, but be sure to know what type of blogger you are and be sure to not stray too far from your comfort zone, if you do it’s only a matter of time until you repel your audience.

For example, take Mario Armando Lavandiera, Jr., aka, Perez Hilton. He took his interest and experience in entertainment and media relations, combined it with a gift for sensational commentary and self-promotion, and parlayed it into one of the most successful celebrity gossip blogs the world has ever known. Not only does the chosen topic for PerezHilton have a historic record for garnering mass interest, but also it’s sustainable, producing new stories, personalities, and angles to hold both the blogger and audience captivated over the long haul.

2. Pick a Winner

When focusing on creating a popular blog, some topics profile better than others. A Google search can provide you with lists, facts, and figures on which blogs generate the most traffic or hold the highest potential for making money, such as finance, entertainment, gadgets, and how-to. These subjects not only have proven to resonate with massive online audiences, but provide extensive opportunities for generating advertising revenues and affiliate relationships.

While sometimes a blog can find solid ground by remaining very focused, serving a dedicated industry or interest group, it’s often wise to take an open-ended approach to draw more diverse traffic, demographics, revenue streams, and partner relationships.

Consider Money Crashers, a personal finance blog dedicated to providing commentary on financially responsible decision-making. It not only appeals to the widest spectrum of human beings on the most basic levels (people care about money), but it’s a natural gateway to an array of subtopics, ranging from careers and money management, to real estate and lifestyle. There’s something for just about everyone to sink their teeth into, plus it creates endless opportunities to collaborate with more subject-specific, high-volume websites in order to drive traffic exponentially.

3. Demonstrate a Unique Perspective

While it is encouraging that there exists an ever-growing pool of potential online users, there are millions of blogs competing for their attention. You can choose a promising topic and have the perfect combination of communication and social media marketing skills, but as it is with so many endeavors, there’s typically a “secret ingredient” to sustainable success. Anyone can simply report facts on well-covered topics and attempt to ride the momentum of trending stories. It’s when you dig deeper personally, cultivating a polished, original voice to extract what’s humorous, humane, or even infuriating in each story, that your perspective comes to the surface and elevates your work.

Whether you’re considering the Huffington Post, TMZ, or Engadget, developing a brand identity is essential, considering everything from the logo and slogan, to a mission statement and style guide. While you want to build your popularity by driving traffic from the most traveled highways and byways on the Web, you need to apply your personal touch to supply content that grabs attention, elicits reaction, and keeps the crowd coming back for more.

Just Do It

Opportunity, recognition, and financial reward await top bloggers who succeed in building a large and sustainable audience. By understanding your strengths, identifying a topic with the potential for growth, and perfecting your niche within it, you can put yourself firmly on a path to accomplishing your goals.

5 Lessons Publishers Can Learn from Musicians

When I was 15, I met a guy at school who eventually became my friend. We had a lot in common, especially in the area of music. One day, I was invited to his home after school. When I walked through the door, his older brother was sitting in a chair in the living room playing the guitar. I was immediately fascinated and wanted to learn how to play. I started visiting frequently on the weekends and started learning to play. I was so obsessed that my parents bought me a guitar and a small practice amp. And so I played, and played, and played. I haven’t stopped since, and that was 27 years ago.

Here are 5 lessons I’ve learned by playing music that can make you a better publisher:

1. Passion
After a year or two of playing, I thought I was getting pretty good. It turned out I thought I was better than I really was.

When a fellow guitarist watched me play he had this to say, “You’re pretty good, but you’re missing something. You gotta feel the music.”

Ah, feel the music. I thought about it and it made sense. It changed everything. A real game changer.

LESSON #1: There’s a difference between being good and being really good. Passion makes the difference. Whether its music or blogging, you will do much better when you really care about it. One of the most passionate bloggers I’ve encountered is Ti Roberts.

2. Technique
Combine passion with technique. Sure, I had plenty of technique. I had learned how to do things with the guitar. Bends, hammer-ons, harmonics, pick harmonics, power chords. You name it. I experimented with it.

LESSON #2: We all can learn technique. How to do stuff.

And sometimes we can get creative and find another way of doing things. Another technique. Another way to blog, or say something different.

Examples of technique can be found on sites, such as: Man Vs. Debt, 2Createawebsite, Think Traffic, Brian Clark, and John Morrow. Which brings us to my next item, being unique.

3. Uniqueness
Another thing I’ve learned from playing music is to be unique. There are a lot of people that play the guitar, but there’s only one person that plays the way you do.

LESSON #3: You have to find what makes you different and expand on it, hone it, and make it your own. Just as there are a lot of publishers blogging about their niche and their experiences. Their life at times.

No two experiences are exactly the same.

No two people are exactly the same.

You have something to say that’s different from the rest? Say it! This is one of the more challenging things about blogging. Will you be unique with every post? No, but your voice will emerge as you write.

4. Art, Creativity, and Value
Music is an art. A work of creativity. Is it always a masterpiece that millions of people listen to in awe? No, not always. But that doesn’t mean that music can’t still be good and enjoyable to listen to.

LESSON #4: Blogging is also an art and creative work. Some bloggers have touched the hearts of others with their experiences. You can feel their words and their pain. A great example is Jon Morrow’s post, “On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas.”

Does this mean you have to write a tear-jerking post, every post? No, but value is the key to success for a publisher. Sometimes it’s not  what you say or how you say it, but how valuable it is. Even if the purpose of your writing is just plain inspiration or motivation. Are you providing value to what you write?

5. Success is Learned and Practiced
No one person knows how to do things without learning. We are not born with the knowledge we need to be successful until we learn it, expand on it, and make it work for us. Success is based on learning the things you need to know to achieve it.

LESSON #5: There is a basic set of steps to follow and beyond that, be creative.

When I first started playing music, I learned how to use techniques, add passion, and put it into practice. Put it into action. Corbett Barr of Think Traffic has a great post on “21 Quick Actions You Can Do Today to Set Your Blog Up for Massive Success.”

Success is taking the knowledge you gain and doing something with it. Knowledge without action is just knowledge, not success.

Guest Posting from A to Z: What to Look out for Before You Do It

I have two answers for them:

If done right, guest posting can bring so much traffic that it could freeze your web server and make you jump up and down like a kid in a candy store.

If done wrong, it can waste your time and may even lower your confidence in yourself. Next thing you know, you quit, and start looking for the next best thing.

The norm with guest posting works like this:

The profile of the average guest blogger is either a solo freelance writer, or someone hired by a company to write and submit content on their behalf.

Both ways, the approach is similar…

The writer lacks a system of researching for relevant sites. Most guest post authors are randomly selecting sites, looking to land guest posting opportunities for back-links – and because of that, they are caring less about the relevancy of the site.

The right way to guest post for back-links is to actually look up and research related posts and diversify your hyperlinks. Otherwise, Google will catch on to your method and will either penalize your rankings, or they might not even take into account the extra back-links.

This guy’s 6-month experiment proves how guest blogging for inbound links works better than generating direct (referral) traffic, and details the right way of doing it…

The result of the challenge was an increase of 100+ daily visitors from search just 10 days after the challenge, and a total increase of around 60,000 visitors from search just 6 months after the challenge. That works out to be around 2,000 visitors per guest post in 6 months from publication, when the highest I’ve ever gotten from any guest post on a big blog is 1,500 visitors; and these days, I get less than 10% of that from most big blogs.

 Bamidele Onibalusi

How to inspect the top sites, extensively, before writing for them…

It’s painful to have your guest post rejected, or bring little results from your efforts. That’s what happens when you lack a proper system of identifying the right sites.

In order to help YOU overcome these challenges and find relevant blogs to guest post on, I’ve created the largest online acronym you can read next.

Alexa Rank

Alexa ranking is a key factor (but not the most important, nor the only one) when determining if a top blog is worth guest posting for. Their proprietary system ranks sites on the number of visits and page view numbers. It doesn’t reflect the quality of the traffic though.

For example, Google, Facebook and YouTube are the top 3 ranked sites by Alexa.

A site with Alexa ranking of 100 is more popular (and better for you to post on) than one with a 5,000 rank. Major blogs (in most industries) have an Alexa ranking under 25,000.

CopyBlogger for example ranks at 3,580.

ProBlogger, 3,906.

FourHourWorkWeek, 6,831.

FreelanceFolder, 24,879.

Big audience

Major exposure is what all guest authors crave for.

All the large sites out there have their Facebook, Twitter, and RSS numbers show up, publicly. This gives you an estimate of the average audience. Check them out, and make notes.

Comments

What’s the average number of comments per post? This will give you an idea of how active the blog community is, and their particular needs, wants and issues.

Distinct voice

Is the blog you aim for an authority in the field? Does it offer unique views and talk on a specific topic or subject? Not all blogs are niche oriented. Some might blog on freelance writing, SEO or affiliate marketing. Others are more general, and write on all these topics combined.

If you want to stand out, find your niche, and guest post on general sites to attract a wider audience interested in your sub-niche topic.

Ever-green content

Some large and bigger sites are news centered. That means your content needs to cover current topics and seasoned events. If your objective is to create content that gets recurring, long-term traffic, then stick with sites accepting ever-green posts.

Focus on the audience

It’s not easy to understand your audience when it’s not yours. It takes time to read past blog posts and grasp the (recurring and unique) needs, wants and challenges of the people you aim to write for. You have to feel the readers you’re publishing for, otherwise all the other aspects I’ll cover next will not help much.

Guidelines

The guidelines page is the first thing you should be looking at after checking Alexa, comments and audience numbers. Read that page with close attention. Stick to their rules, and you’ll increase your chance to have your post approved and published.

Most bloggers don’t get their post accepted on large sites because they don’t read or overlook the guidelines.

Headline

Before writing your guest post, even before pitching your content ideas, you need to research past articles, and make note of the most appealing headlines. Why do they attract your attention? Which ones make you click? Which ones don’t? Copy-cat the winning model and form your headline writing style. The headline is the actual title for your guest post.

Interlinking

By reading the guidelines page you can see if the publisher allows links pointing to other pages or posts on your web site. This will help strengthening your overall page rank and Google rankings. If not, inspect previous guest posts and notice if the author has embed self-serving links. That’s a sign the site could accept your links, if they’re relevant, useful and complementary to your post.

Jargon

Pay close attention to how the audience of the blog you aim to write for is talking. Inspect past approved guest posts.

Is the language clean and common? Is the author using any industry specific lingo? Give thought to these little details, otherwise your content might not sound right, or it might not express the right meaning.

Example: if you want to write on blogging related topics, then you have to understand and master the specific terminology (e.g. WP dashboard, plugins, php code, widgets, etc.)

Keywords

Keyword research is the oxygen of your guest post. Target the right, relevant key terms and you stand a chance of getting more traffic from your guest posts. Inspect previous guest posts, and notice if the authors bold and italicize their keywords. That’s a sign of “on-page” optimization. It plays a significant role in search engine ranking, along with other factors like back-links, and co-occurrence.

Luv

You’ve probably already noticed some big sites managing their comments using a plugin called CommentLuv. This is an advantage for both the publisher and its readers, as more people will want to comment if they’re given the “keyword insertion” and “latest post featuring” benefits.

Metrics

Open Site Explorer is a useful tool I use to compare the number and quality of any blog’s backlinks and top pages. It helps analyze the web site you want to write for, and find their top popular content.

Other similar tools I like: Topsy and Tweetreach. They provide you with Twitter insights (referrals, tweets, re-tweets, etc.) into your posts as well as into other people’s content.

All these tools will help you identify the high “authority” sites worth guest posting to. This doesn’t mean you have to base your selection criteria on such metrics alone.

Numbers

Without a concrete strategy, guest posting would be another method of getting traffic that may or not work. Your mission is to estimate the average number of monthly sites you need to guest post for in order to reach your goals (Google rankings, traffic numbers, leads, sales, etc.)

Nobody knows this better than you. You know your numbers, if you reverse engineer your marketing and funnel system. Tracking conversions with Google Analytics or Clicky plays a key role here.

Objective

What’s your monthly quota?

You might need 10 back-links, if you solely guest post for search engine rankings. You might need 100 leads if you are into the mortgage industry. Or, you might need to drive 50 sales if you have your own product, (or add 20 members to your monthly recurring program.) Based on your needs, you’ll be able to define a clear objective, and then work your way up to achieving the numbers and conversions.

Once again, analytics tools are essential. You’ll know precisely which blog brings the most traffic compared with the best visitors that generate sales, leads or whatever. It also gives you the keywords people type in to find you on the search engines, and other insightful data. True gold nuggets!

Page Rank

I prefer to look up for blogs with a page rank of minimum 3. This doesn’t mean I’ll completely neglect the rest. However, when you’re starting to guest post for top sites, it’s good to aim for page rank 3+ sites, and at the same time, take into account all the other metrics and issues covered herein.

NOTE: a high PR blog doesn’t necessarily mean that the site receives high traffic, unless their Alexa ranking is low at the same time.

Quantcast

Quantcast is a comprehensive analytics service, giving you free access into other people’s site metrics including visitor, traffic stats, and demographics.

Armed with this info, you will know how to better write for a particular site and its audience. Never skip this site when writing for top blogs.

Relevancy

Look out for the relation between the audience (their wants, needs, and challenges) and your expertise. Your content should fill in the gap between the two.

Leo, co-founder of BufferApp knew what their Twitter tool was capable of, and how its features and advantages can benefit a wide range of audiences, not just Twitter users, or Twitter related blogs. No wonder his guest posting efforts brought the company 100k customers within a year.

Always look out for the “relevancy” factor when guest posting for big blogs. You’ll be able to find sites which are not related to your niche, but quite relevant to your ideas, products, services or tools.

With this approach, you can see correlations between sites that have nothing to do with each other altogether. Like, fitness and business, Yoga and blogging, or technology and dog training.

Skills

How skilled and knowledgeable is the audience you’ll be talking to?

Based on your previous research, you’ll be able to determine the average skills and knowledge level: beginner, intermediary or advanced. And you’ll be writing accordingly.

Example: if you wanted to write for MenWithPens, you will not share basic insights with an advanced audience, understand?

Time

By reading each blog’s (guest posting) guidelines page and noticing the average guest post length, you’ll be able to estimate the average time it’ll take you to research and write your guest post. Doing so, you can prepare in advance, and not get caught on stressful deadlines or juggle with multiple posts a day.

I prefer to write one post a day, maximum two, in order to produce quality, and meaty content.

Updates

How often is the blog publishing new content? Big blogs usually come up with at least one post a week, if not two. Some larger blogs publish daily. There are pro and cons to both models. You could also target those big blogs that haven’t posted in weeks (for various reasons) and propose some content ideas.

Visuals

Are the top blogs you aim writing for embedding infographics, illustrations, cartoons or videos within their content? You’ll have a higher chance to get your guest post accepted if you can produce or obtain the rights of such within your own content.

I’m not talking about the “standard” type of graphics such as photos and snapshots. Most, if not all major blogs are already using these elements to add the extra touch to their content. The visuals I referred to are the next element that most blogs are missing.

Wow

The best guest authors are individuals who are always on the look out for not just sharing information, but inspiring and arousing an audience through their content. Did you ever think to use comics and cartoons within your posts? The advantages are multiple: you’ll stand out, motivate readers and stir audiences.

What we can do is check out TheOatMeal and other similar sites for inspiration. Then work with an artist to create custom cartoons and comics that features your link. You’ll also benefit from additional traffic and brand exposure. Using “ready-made” cartoons or comics won’t have this advantage.

Xerox

Even the top blogs in the industry will sometimes cover the same subjects or copy what their competitors are writing about. You’ll stand a higher chance to have your guest post more than welcomed when coming up with new angles and unexpected ideas.

Find the “relevancy” factor!

For example you could inject (relevant) stories and anecdotes within your guest post, and add that personal flavor. Or, make (viable) connections with two unrelated topics.

Yin-Yang

Chinese philosophy teaches us the interconnection and interdependence of contrary forces like female and male, dark and light, cold and hot, etc.

Look out for the Yin-Yang elements on the blogs which you’re targeting. Read the latest guest posts.

Are there any elements left out? Are there any explanations not fully covered?

Did an author talk only on the pros of a subject? Did the blog not cover all of them?

You can take charge, and bring new elements or explanations through a new guest post. That’s your advantage, go for it!

Zone

What happens when you get out of your comfort zone?

You feel anxious, and probably insecure, right?

You don’t feel confident when having to write on a topic which you’re not that knowledgeable about, right?

You don’t feel at ease when having to think about how to connect two unrelated topics and create new meanings.

You don’t feel good when you have to take an extra step and enhance your content.

We’re used to staying within our comfort zone. The same with everybody else! That’s why they’ll not get different or remarkable results.

Want to succeed with guest posting? Get out of your comfort zone. There’s no other option. You have to up your thinking, writing and research skills all together.

This is the most important yet hardest advice to implement. Start with this one first, I’d say.

No more excuses! These ideas will help you to identify the right blogs and guest post for results.

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”

Zig Ziglar

 

What is Zemanta Related Posts & Why You Need It On Your Site

We have been in the business of delivering semantically matched related posts for over five years now, and with a network of over 300,000 publishers, there is no denying that many find our tools useful and beneficial to their site. But first, why would anyone want to add related posts to their site? And more importantly, why should you choose us?

There are several reasons why it is beneficial to have related posts on your site. There is a reason why nearly every major publisher is using them. With the advent of content marketing and how important it has become in any digital marketing strategy, I would actually be impressed to find a blog that isn’t using it. After all, why wouldn’t a publisher do anything that they can to keep you reading?

Increased Engagement

One of the most frequently stated benefits of having related posts is the increased engagement and readership that you earn from having them on your site. This is important whether you are a publisher or a brand engaged in content marketing. Even a small boost engagement can go a long way.

Think of how much more likely a reader is to click through to one of your posts that he sees if every time he is on your site he reads two or three articles rather than just reading one and then bouncing. That site recognition goes a long way, especially if you are a beginner blogger battling major news sources, big brands, and tenured publishers.

Less Bounce, More Views

That brings me to two other frequently stated benefits of having related posts: a lower bounce rate and more pageviews.

If more engagement didn’t get your attention, then a boost in traffic most certainly will. I think it’s pretty safe to say that most, if not all, bloggers would love to have more traffic – the search term “how to increase traffic” is searched on Google over 60,000 times a month alone!

According to Search Engine Journal, “Many studies have shown that after a web visitor has finished reading your post, they are in action mode – they want to do something.” This makes sense.

Personally, I know that if I reach the end of a post while I am a visitor of another site and a related post catches my eye, I am very likely to click through. I can actually think of several occasions when I catch myself realizing that I just spent the last 20 minutes reading through posts on a site all because I kept on seeing related, interesting content. And if this happens, not only am I likely to trust the site and recognize it at a later date, but if I really liked the content, then I am likely to subscribe to it – either through social media, email, or RSS.

The Available Options

So now that I have convinced you that you need some kind of related posts on your site, you have two options: either manually insert and format your own related posts, or use an existing, established plugin.

Let’s explore the first option. Sure, it sounds enticing at first, you have full control, you don’t have to rely on a third party service, you have the freedom to make it however you want. While all of these things may be true, there is also a lot of work there. You have to comb through your posts and posts around the web, you have to add them using the proper formatting and CSS, you will need to find, and possibly edit, the featured images that you will use as the thumbnails, and then you need to make sure that it displays correctly in all browsers. Of course, this is all on top of all the research, writing, image searching, and any other work you might do for the blog post itself!

Luckily, we have a solution to all of this, and that comes in a fancy new plugin called Zemanta Related Posts.

Why You Need Zemanta Related Posts

We would like to think that Zemanta Related Posts is the best related posts plugin you’ll find and of course, we have many reasons for that.

More Traffic

I’m going to start with the one that everyone wants to hear, more traffic. And we don’t just do that by keeping users on your site. Nope, we also bring in traffic from other sites that are also using our plugin. This is quality traffic too, because of our semantic technology, all posts to and from your site are going to be related to what you are writing about – increasing the likelihood of the visitor engaging with your post and finding other related articles on your site.

In fact, many users of our plugin experience an internal traffic increase of up to 10%. Not only does this increase your reach and readership of people who otherwise may have never seen your blog, but it places you in a network of similar bloggers that will appreciate the exchange of traffic just as much as you do. Oh, and if you want to check to see how many visitors Zemanta brought you, you can check that directly through the plugin dashboard.

Real-Time Analytics

One thing that many related posts plugins are lacking are analytics. Most people would like to see how many users who make it to the end of your post actually click through to a related post. For that reason, we decided to include real-time analytics directly in the plugin dashboard. Check out a screenshot of our statistics for the past 30 days.

Mobile Optimization

With the rapid adoption and use of mobile browsing, it is more important now than ever to optimize your site for both desktop and mobile use. Thankfully, Zemanta Related Posts are customizable and fully optimized for mobile use, and as you can see above, we even offer you mobile analytics.

Complete Customization

Another benefit of using Zemanta Related Posts is the complete customization that we offer you through the plugin dashboard. It is on your site so we believe that you should have full control of how it looks on your site. That is why we offer seven different designs and, if you really have something special in mind, an option to customize the plain design via CSS.

 

Check out all six of our awesome designs:

Complete Editorial Control

Last, and certainly not least, is the full editorial control that you get with Zemanta Related Posts. One of the biggest complaints about related posts plugins is that you do not have any control over which posts are actually displayed. We think that it is very important that you, the owner of the site, should have complete control over what is shown on your site. So we made it simple to add or remove any of the related posts that we suggested to you using our semantic engine.

Simply click “Edit Related Posts” in the right corner of the related posts and drag and drop whatever you want. And if you would also like to restrict the posts that we recommend to a certain date range (for example, only posts from the last 3 months), you can do that from the plugin dashboard.

So, what do you think?

By now, I hope I have convinced you that not only are related posts a necessity on your site, but Zemanta Related Posts are the best option. We offer you the ability to get more traffic from our network of over 300,000 bloggers with analytics to prove it, we offer you mobile optimization and full customization, and most importantly we offer you full control to truly make Zemanta yours.