Pillar posts build the support for your blog much like pillars are used in building to hold up a structure. Pillar posts are quality informational posts that people will tell others about. This creates links back to your post as the word spreads.

Here are two types of posts that will work as pillar posts.

• Resource lists
• How to posts

One of my blog just discusses WordPress and blogging. Here are some sample resource lists I could use.

• 10 must have WordPress plugins
• My 5 Favorite Themes and Why
• 7 Ways To Generate More Visitors To Your Blog

As much as possible try to make these evergreen topics with in your niche. By evergreen I mean topics that will still be valuable 6 months, a year, two years or more from now.

Social media is an example of where a topic can change quickly. Right now the hot topic is Twitter, last year all you saw was Facebook information, before that everything was MySpace.

Now it may just be me but it has been a while since anyone has been pushing MySpace tools, tips and tricks but not a day goes by that I don’t see Twitter information. A Twitter pillar post can bring you good traffic right now but it may or may not be pulling visitors next year.

Compare that to a post I did on my blog about adding an Aweber form to your WordPress blog. It is a how to post with lots of screen captures and a step by step walk through. This post was done over a year ago and still draws good traffic each week.

As long as WordPress and Aweber stick around the odds are good that it will still be working and of value three years from now. That is an evergreen topic.

How to posts work best when you cover a common problem that people have. Here is an example from this week end when I wrote a post called “Improving Your Blogs Look“.

It covers how to change the default header or to add a new theme to a WordPress blog. It has lots of screen captures and walks the reader through the steps. It provides valuable information and should draw links from others pointing to it as a resource.

Adding a quality post like these examples for topics within your niche to your blog on a regular basis will help you build natural links and become a recommended resource. The key though, as with all things blogging, is to do your keyword research and find the terms that have traffic, are not super competitive and are commercially viable.

Pillar posts added regularly targeting these words will draw natural links and generate visitors for your blog.

***************

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. Check out his upcoming class “How to Generate Traffic Drawing Keywords“.

Facebook

Online success is really a numbers game.  The more people you get coming to your site the more chance there is that one of those visitors will take an action that will lead to a profit to you.  Most tactics to increase the number of visitors to your site are a simple matter of continued toil on your part: forum posting; blog posting; directory submissions etc.  They will all result in a gradual build up of traffic, but they can all be a bit time consuming and…well…boring.

Link baiting doesn’t quite fit into that category of blog promotion, because it can be quick and very effective.  But it does come with it’s consequences.  It’s the process of writing content that is designed to promote an immediate response and bring in a large number of unsolicited links very quickly.  There are a number of ways of doing this.

Method One:  Superlative Content

You should probably be aiming for this anyway.  This type of link baiting is relying on your content being so good that others just have to link to it.  Now, you would hope every post you make falls into that category, but realistically it will not.  Also being realistic you are as likely to get your content plagiarized as you are to get a link back.

Method Two:  Humor and Wit

People like to laugh, and if you write a post that would make a beefeater break down into a thigh slapping fit of uncontrollable laughter then you are going to get links back from all over the internet.  Humor is much harder to outright steal, or at least to do it in such a way as they can deny stealing it.

Method Three:  Controversy and Argument

This is the most effective way of Link baiting.  If you write something that is going to get an emotional reaction from people it will create links for you very quickly indeed.  People will be fuming over your ignorance, audacity or stupidity, but at the same time they will be advertising your site, even if it is for the ‘outrageous’ article you posted.  Controversy comes with a big negative of course and that is that the new readers you get are not going to be in a buying mood when they arrive to your website.  Then again, some people will actually support the controversial post and these may turn out to be the most loyal readers you ever acquire.

So is Link-baiting for you and your blog?  It will depend on the tone and nature of your blog.  If you are posting a very factual medical blog then you are not going to do your credibility much good by posting a section of a stand up comedians opening act.  If you have a light-hearted niche then strong controversial political statements are also not going to go down well.  What you ca and can’t get away with is really going to be entirely up to you and your blog.  Just put yourself in the shoes of your average reader before you indulge in a little link baiting and think about whether it is going to be the type of post that will drive you away or make you more loyal.

Facebook

The whole purpose of a blog is to put your content in front of as many viewers as possible, so many new bloggers are disappointed when their blog doesn’t get a flood of traffic right off the bat.  Quite simply, it’s not that easy.  Blogs have a number of built in features that make it much easier to get traffic that a conventional website, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to provide some input to get the traffic flowing.

With that in mind this article covers 7 ways you can get more traffic to your blog.  All the tips are tested and proven to be effective.

Tip One:  Get Yahoo on your side.

By submitting to My Yahoo! you can get a good return of viewers to your blog.  Submit your RSS feed to the My Yahoo! site and you are more or less instantly spidered and added to the Yahoo search rankings.

Tip Two:  Get Google On Your Side

What’s better than Yahoo on your side?  having Google on your side of course.  You can submit your site to the Google Reader and watch the results you get from being listed in Google’s Blog Search.

Tip Three:  Submit Your Site to DMOZ and other directories.

Google just plays favorites with some sites and the DMOZ directory is definitely one of them.  They are a picky bunch, so you may not have your site accepted, but the resultant pickup in traffic if you do get listed is well worth the effort of submitting your blog.

Tip Four:  Add some PING to your site.

Blogs have inbuilt ping capabilities, but you can increase listings by adding to their default list or using an online service such as Ping-o-Matic to get the word out every time you make a new post.

Tip Five:  Know Your Keywords

When you first set up your blog you should have researched the hottest keywords for your niche.  Don’t forget them.  Keep using keyword rich articles.  Keep checking on how you are performing for each keyword.  Keep tracking and testing.  Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing to rank above you.

Tip Six:  Get Social

Social Networking is without a doubt the biggest change in the way the web works since someone connected one network with another and thought they might be onto something.  It’s about participation.  Use sites like Digg and Stumble Upon to get yourself back links and potentially heaps of traffic.

Tip Seven:  Piggyback on your oppositions success.

If there’s a site ranking higher than you work out why and duplicate it.  If they are a blog then post a comment or three and get yourself a cheap back link to your blog.  If Google likes their blog so much then how much emphasis are they going to put on a link back from that site?

The key to real success with a blog is continuous sustained activity.  Keep posting, and keep building back links to your site.  Traffic can come in a flood if you hit the front page of Digg or something similar, but it is far more likely to be something that builds up gradually over time.

Facebook