Smart fishermen go where the fish are. A lake or river, a tributary or an oceanic location may seem like the perfect place to fish. However, you cannot catch any fish if there are no fish to catch. So successful fishermen find out where the fish have been and then go there.
You should do the same with your list building efforts.
You can create an awesome subscription snippet that you know people can benefit from. If you offer that incentive in a opt-in form on a website that receives little to no traffic, the best content in the world won’t hook any fish.
This is why you need to find out which blog posts are attracting the most attention.
Check your comments
An easy way to do this is to check the comment section at the bottom of your posts. Generally speaking, posts with more comments also receive more traffic.
If you own a WordPress blog or site, WP Statistics is a popular and free plugin that tells you a lot about your web traffic. Just install the plugin and then check back frequently to find the blog posts that are getting the most traffic. Google Analytics does the same.
Content updates
Now that you’ve used a couple of methods to locate your high-traffic posts, how do you come up with great content update ideas? A content update is nothing more than a special process where you deliver additional content in exchange for someone subscribing to your email list.
This is a fairly simple process. Read your blog post as if you were a surfer meeting you for the first time.
- What are you talking about?
- What does it really offer to its readers and Internet users?
- What are the values and benefits that someone receives from digesting this content?
Jot down ideas as you read and think about what kind of resource or content would be a logical update to what you just read.
Perhaps your most popular blog post talks about the benefits of walking for a healthy heart. A sensible content update could be a short and simple checklist that encourages walking more every day. You can also offer a 10-day email challenge that moves readers from the TV junk condition to 10,000 steps per day in just 10 days.
The next step for your reader
The idea is to come up with a logical update for your popular blog posts and web pages. Keep it short and easy to digest, and your readers will see quick value in the content you provide.
Checklists, resource guides, quick start guides, short reports, and challenges make content updates effective. This helps build your email list while also building your reputation as an expert leader in your field.
