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ProBlogger: How and Why to Experiment with Opinion Posts on Your Blog

ProBlogger: How and Why to Experiment with Opinion Posts on Your Blog

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How and Why to Experiment with Opinion Posts on Your Blog

Posted: 18 Jul 2015 01:10 PM PDT

Today’s challenge in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog should be easy for some of you – but terrify the rest!

Opinion posts come easily to those who are happy to share and engage in the feedback that they get. For others, though, it might not come naturally to put yourself out there and perhaps meet some resistance from those who don’t agree.

I’ve definitely had to push myself out of my comfort zone to share how I feel about something. It comes with a range of emotions about how your post will be met – what will people say? How will they think of me?

It turns out your opinion is something your readers want, so by not sharing it, you’re doing yourself and them a disservice. In today’s episode I outline the reasons why opinion makes your blog useful, and how it differentiates your blog from standard news and even other blogs in your niche.

So of course today’s challenge is to actually write an opinion post. Be brave! In the podcast I give some ideas for different niches about what you can write about and what might work for your situation. You’ll find some are easier than others, but the point is not to be controversial, just to mention where your values align.

Having said that – don’t shy away from controversy if you think it will be a relevant discussion.

Feel free to share your post in the comments below, and have a look at other bloggers’ posts as they come in. You’ll never know where it will lead you.

As always, stay tuned tomorrow for a brand new topic.
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ProBlogger: 31DBBB Day 18 Challenge: Create a Sneeze Page

ProBlogger: 31DBBB Day 18 Challenge: Create a Sneeze Page

Link to @ProBlogger

31DBBB Day 18 Challenge: Create a Sneeze Page

Posted: 17 Jul 2015 01:09 PM PDT

Today is day 18 in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and you can listen to it here.

If you’ve never created a sneeze page on your blog – one of the single most useful ways to get readers to stick around and get to know you so well they won’t want to leave – you need to do this today!

I’ve talked about sneeze pages for a long time, and it’s a term that I came up with in the first incarnation of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog in 2007. It’s a great way for all those posts you have in your archives that are still useful and relevant to be all in one place for the ease of readers who may be new to your blog.

The goal is to make the pages so interesting that the reader can’t help but click on more and more posts to read and before they know it, they’re deep inside your blog reading everything that they’re interested in.

In this episode I talk about the importance of sneeze pages for traffic, and the other benefits they bring. I also run through the types of sneeze pages you could create, depending on your niche, and whether to have standalone pages or posts. I also give a few examples for you to check out when creating your own in the show notes.

I’m going to discuss the type of sneeze page I think you should create for today’s challenge and give you tips on how to make the best one to really hook your audience – and also how to ensure they actually get seen by new readers to your blog.

It should be a nice and easy challenge for you today, but one that will see a heap of return on your effort.

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Click here to listen to day 18 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog series on the ProBlogger Podcast. 

Further Reading:

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Build a Better Blog in 31 Days

31DBBB Day 18 Challenge: Create a Sneeze Page

The post 31DBBB Day 18 Challenge: Create a Sneeze Page appeared first on @ProBlogger.
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