10 tips for highlighting previous blog posts

Posted by Ben on May 06, 2009 | Permalink | Hits: 1590 
Tags: navigation, content

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Highlighting previous posts is a great way to show some of your older content to readers who haven't followed you since you started blogging. Here are 10 tips that will help you to do this.

1. Feature old posts in new posts.

Whenever you write a new post, look for old posts that are relevant to the subject you're writing about, and link to them from your post. Your readers will then be able to read additional information without you having to explain the same things over and over.

You can also establish a more direct link to previous posts by writing a follow-up post that picks up where an earlier post left off.

2. Show popular posts on your home page.

As you add more content to your blog, it becomes increasingly difficult to find older content by clicking through page after page of old posts.

One way to address this is to showcase some of your best posts on your home page. You could highlight the posts with the most comments, or the posts with the most views. On the front page of Top Ten Blog Tips, you'll see I've linked to the posts with the most comments.

3. Do a weekly round-up.

Publishing a weekly round-up is a great way to highlight the posts you've written over the last week. There are many reasons for doing a weekly round-up.

4. Include links in blogging forums.

If you're a member of any blogging forums, you may be able to link to your posts from time to time. Be careful not to come across as a spammer, though. Ensure you only post links when the link you're posting adds to the discussion. Don't link to a short post if you can say how you feel by writing it in a reply. Above all, do it sparingly. If every one of your posts contains a link, many members will ignore your posts.

5. Post links on Twitter.

Twitter is a great way to share your latest blog posts. Ensure that you keep things balanced, though - if you post a lot of links, it can be overwhelming. Mix things up so you aren't only posting links to your blog.

6. Link to specific posts when commenting.

When commenting on other people's blogs, there is usually a URL field where you include a link to your site. Why link to your home page when you can link to a post instead? Better still, link to a post that's relevant to the post you're commenting on.

Make sure you put the link in the URL field though, rather than including it in the comment text - otherwise, your comment may hit the spam queue.

7. Encourage readers to browse by category.

Sometimes it's good to remind your readers that there are other ways to browse your blog than just looking at the latest posts. Linking to a category page can help with this. You should also make sure that your categories are easily accessible and not buried at the bottom of your sidebar. Also, try to keep the list of categories as short as possible. It's silly to have 100 categories with only one post in each. (Yes, I have a few of these, but I'm slowly filling in the gaps!)

8. Use tags to display related content.

If you use tags (keywords) on your posts, this can provide additional ways for your readers to locate posts. If you're using Injader, a list of related content is built into the default theme. There's also the Tag Map. For users of WordPress, I believe there's a plugin that will help you out here. Or, you could use a tag cloud.

9. Encourage another blogger to write a follow-up post.

Why not ask one of your blogging friends to look at one of your posts and write their own follow-up? To keep it fair, you could do the same for them.

10. Put them in an e-book.

If you've got a lot of posts that you'd like to wrap up and provide to existing and future readers in a handy guide, why not create an e-book?

An e-book gives you the opportunity to take one subject from your blog and look at it in greater depth. This can really help you to attract new readers who want all of the information in one place.

You could rewrite a few of the older posts to bring them up to date, and include new material that won't be found on your blog. Make sure you include a very clear link to your blog as a great e-book has the potential to travel far and wide.

Do you highlight previous posts? Are you going to start doing it?

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Comments on 10 tips for highlighting previous blog posts

2

Ben | May 08, 2009 | 207 comments

No problem Mkcoy, a good e-book will get passed around quickly, so it's worth a try :)