The posts I’ve written that have gained the most traffic in the shortest amount of time were all how-to posts. Going through my archive of more than 1,200 posts, you’ll see I don’t write many of them. Why?
It’s easy to write posts that guarantee a spike in traffic, that have a giant (and often vague) promise to boost your website analytics.
“How to attract a thousand unique visitors a day” and “How to start a multimillion dollar online business” are great examples of instant traffic posts.
I could write how-to posts every day for the next month and gain more traffic than I have had in the last year, but I don’t. I only write them when I can expand on the meaning of each step, when it’s pure fun for me and when it involves more direction than actual steps (because of reasons here).
Let’s point out that there is another type of post that may have less views, but is far more “successful.” It’s a type of post that gains a lot of attraction over a longer span of time because people are interested more in the story being told than the quick turnaround tips so many ego-centric writers present.
These popular posts are written as evergreen content. Content you can come back to, play off of, learn from again and again. When writing about steps, they are steps that can apply to business, to relationships, to work, to art, to life and so on.
These posts are often work to read and process because they challenge the reader to think differently, to try something new, to push themselves. These posts arn’t so much a read and then click over to my next tab… they are a read and come back again later to read again and think about again and play off of again.
The best art and relationships come from the blog posts, the ideas, the pieces of work you ship into the world that one person views and then interacts with, not that a thousand people view and don’t interact with.
I ignore the most magnetic posts because they don’t represent the story I’m telling.
Stay Positive & Make Sure Your Metrics Match The Message
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