ProBlogger: How to Choose a Blog Topic That’s Pre-Programmed for Success

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How to Choose a Blog Topic That’s Pre-Programmed for Success Posted: 11 May 2016 06:00 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Jason Gracia. As I write these words, dedicated men and women struggle to grow their blogs and they don't have a clue as to the cause. Could it be effort? Could it be talent? Could it be that just one more course is needed? Could it be that I'm not good enough? Poisonous thoughts like these swirl with enough force to permanently shatter one's confidence. It happens every day–and it's completely unnecessary. The reason is waiting at the end of a short trip down nightmare lane… Common Nightmare with a Twist I had a nightmare. No running for my life, no free falling. Worse. I was in school. And the biggest test of the year was days away. Like the good student my parents thought I was, I studied around the clock, doing everything possible to prepare and pass; a little montage of libraries and study groups played in my dream. On the day of the test I felt confident. I arrived early, reviewed my notes, and took my seat in the exam room. Then it happened. The dream became a nightmare. My favorite teacher walked across the front of the room. But…that wasn't the right teacher…I studied for my least favorite teacher's class. Chest began to thump. Hands got sweaty. An F was on its way. I studied the wrong subject. I felt that odd combination of feelings when you wake from a school dream, stressed, then confused, then relieved. Ahh, but here's the rub: Thousands of bloggers are living this nightmare with no sign of relief in site. They've picked the wrong subject, and no amount of study or preparation can save them. The First Step No One Takes All topics are not created equal. It's hard to remember that when we're surrounded by experts who tell us with a smile that finding our thing is as simple as recalling childhood dreams + having the courage to act on them. I can't really blame them. Who wants to tell someone their idea won't work? I do. Not because I fancy crushing dreams, but because facing reality will drastically increase your chances for eventual success. I'm like Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank–it's my job to save you from bad ideas so you can discover and chase the good ones. If you're struggling to grow your blog, your topic–not you–may be the problem. So before any tips on traffic or conversion or content can do you any good, we must start at the beginning, the very beginning. We must start with the heart and soul of your blog. Prep Work: Take Inventory The first step to discovering a topic designed for success is to do a personal inventory; we have to uncover every possible subject that you could write about. To kickstart the process, consider the following questions. On second thought, let's actually make progress today, shall we? Instead of considering, I want you to put pen to paper and answer the ten questions below. (You can also use Excel on a PC or Numbers on a Mac.) What are you naturally good at? What has always come easy to you? What do other people have to think hard on or struggle with that, for whatever reason, comes naturally to you? What do you get lost in? I first read about this concept in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book, Flow. Then I experienced it. I lost hours one night steeped in web design. I blinked and a hour whipped by. The same thing has happened ever since, which is why design has come to play such a large role in my life. What topic steals away your hours? What do you love to learn about? This is one of my favorite questions because it replaces an issue that can feel utterly subjective with a plain and simple answer you can point to. You don't have to mentally work through anything; you simply have to review what has already been done. What books are on your shelves? What blogs do you find yourself reading? What podcasts can you not get enough of? What television special have instantly captured your attention? What have you always wanted to learn about? One of my favorite authors, William Zinsser, would often talk about writing books as a way to learn about a particular subject. He didn't approach a new topic already having outlined the talking points. Instead, he chose a topic that fascinated him and then dove into the research. Taking Zinsser's lead, what subject would you love to research? What have you been through? The writing that touches our hearts is the writing that is real, which is why the adage to write what you know has been repeated to every hopeful author for thousands of years. By writing about what you've personally been through, your thoughts and feelings and experiences put down in words will carry incomparable strength. What results have you produced in your life? Or, to put it a bit more bluntly, what have you done? You can succeed writing from the perspective of an observer or of the curious newcomer, but by far the most successful bloggers write about subjects in which they've personally generated positive results: an investment blog written by a successful investor, a parenting blog written by a mother of five, a business blog written by a successful entrepreneur. Thinking back over your life, what results have you achieved? What themes consistently show up in your life? Though we don't often realize it at the time, our lives follow patterns. What seems random, when viewed from a distance, is often linked by commonalities. Considering your hobbies, friends, jobs, and the rest of the pockets of your life, what themes show up again and again? What do people compliment you on? What do you do or say that other people notice and applaud? It can be hard to recognize our own strengths. Recalling what others see in us is an effective way to bypass our tendency to downplay our talents and shed light on areas of ability. What do your friends and family come to you for? One of my good friends is the king of home improvement. I constantly go to him for advice, as do a dozen others. This is clearly a topic he knows better than most. Like many of the questions, this is another example of taking an objective approach to uncovering your value. You don't have to think your way to the answer. You only have to think your way to the past. What do people pay you for? This takes the last question one step further. Not only does it point to areas in which you are asked for help or advice, but it pinpoints topics in which you're so valuable that people hand over money for the chance to tap into your know-how. Do friends or family or co-workers or colleagues pay you–or offer to pay you–to do something for them? You now have an inventory of possible blog topics. From here it's a process of strategic narrowing. We're going to pass your list through three filters, each one designed to help you get closer and closer to the handful of topics–or the single topic–that gives you the best chance of success. It begins with the most important, but most often ignored, consideration: the market. Stage One: Narrow by Marketability As much as we'd like to push the truth into a cramped broom closet and slam the door shut, we don't get to decide if a particular topic is a winner. We can infuse everything we do with our personality and pour our passion into every project, but in the end it's the market that determines what wins and what loses. Obvious, right? I thought so too. Sadly, that didn't stop me from chasing topics or creating products no one wanted. I lost time and money and confidence because I fell into the trap nearly all of us fall into: I fell in love with my own ideas. It's natural. We're human and we're driven so strongly by emotion. Our ideas are our babies, so it only makes sense that it's nearly impossible to don the hat of logic and give them the axe they may deserve. In turn we hold tightly to things we should let loose, ensuring an uphill battle. Not this time. I'm here to serve as your logic guide. The ideas you uncovered above are fantastic, especially that one about the horses. Spot on. But our agreement isn't enough. The market at large has to agree. No matter the subject, no matter the angle, you have to solve a real problem or cater to a real desire; people have to want what you have to offer. No amount of marketing or ad dollars, for example, will take dialup modems to the top and, likewise, no amount of hustle or chutzpah will take a your unwanted idea to the top. Let's figure out which of your ideas is wanted. For each of your ideas above, filter them with the questions below. 1. Are people actively looking for the topic? Whether you're hoping to find a good quinoa recipe, directions to your cousin's favorite diner, or the popularity of a potential blog topic, Google is always a good place to start. If you're an AdWords user, you can turn to their keyword tool to discover search traffic for the topics you're considering. If you're not an AdWords user, no fear! There are many good alternatives, including WordTracker and WordStream. After taking a look at search traffic you can digitally put your ear to the ground: are people asking about your topic on sites, blogs, forums, or social platforms? Do you read comments in which people are eager to learn more about the subject you're considering? Forum posts in which people are struggling with the problems you're thinking about solving? 2. Are passionate and active communities built around the topic? The question of whether running is a popular topic can be quickly answered with a short trip to the magazine section of Barnes & Noble. The same can be said of home improvement and YouTube, content marketing and blogs, teen angst and Instagram. Popular topics have thriving communities built around them, places where people can gather to share stories, tips, worries, frustrations, hope. Yours should be no different. As you can see below, a quick search on Facebook for "playing guitar" returns a page with 1.6 million likes. Pretty strong indication of interest if you ask me. (Want to learn more about finding, joining, and engaging in Facebook groups? Visit here.) Can you easily find sites, blogs, forums, groups, or social media destinations that cater to your topic? Are they alive and well, growing and evolving? How about offline? Are there magazines, journals, conferences, summits, workshops, or gathering dedicated to your potential subject? Are other bloggers successfully serving the market? If people are looking for your topic–and they've grouped together with others like them–the final question is whether or not other bloggers or experts are successfully serving them–are people already doing what you want to do? "Isn't that a bad thing," says the rookie. "Don't I want as little competition as possible?" Sorry to say, rook, the truth is actually the opposite. A market without competition is a market on its way out. You need to see other people thriving in your potential area because it proves the concept. It's a clear sign that people are interested. Signs can include popular blogs, profitable products, bestselling books, or recurring ads (if you see the same types of ads over time, you know they're making money). From here on out remember: competition has never been a sweeter sight to see. Unlike the first list of questions, this one is going to take time and effort to get through. You have dig. This is where people nod and do nothing. I used to be one of them (still am in many instances). But I can promise you, success is on the other side of effort. If you want a topic that is predestined to succeed, you have to do the prep work to put the right steps in place. Sure, you can get lucky, but why rely on luck when you can do a little work and rely on fact? You now have a list of topics that is not only within your realm of possibility but also within the realm of marketability. You could make your choice among the narrowed list and charge ahead, but there's a chance you may still pick an idea that will leave you unsuccessful or unfulfilled. We can't have that, and so we continue… Stage Two: Narrow by Ability The next series of questions gets to the heart of your ability. We feel joy and satisfaction doing those things we do best; the top bloggers didn't merely choose the right markets–they've got the skills to match. At this point your list includes a range of topics, but it's unlikely that you're exactly equal in them all. Pinpoint the ones you excel in and you're that much more likely to thrive. What can you do better than 10,000 other people? First, this is not my question. I lifted it from an application Jeff Goins offered to future hires. But it's so good! It strikes to the heart of the matter in an unusual and mentally-stimulating way. Second, what's your answer? Looking at your list of possible topics, in which are you one of the best? Not the absolute best–because you can be very successful as the 67th best food blogger–but incredibly good? Where do you produce the best results? Looking back over your past experiences, in which topics have you generated impressive results? This is another one of those questions I love because it takes the foggy and makes it concrete. No need to guess, no need to face indecision: look objectively at your past and pinpoint the subjects in which you produced something great. Where can you generate the most value for others? This is similar the question above, but gives it the twist of value to help pinpoint your best subjects. Looking at your inventory, where do you feel you can be of best service? You may be equally good at potty training collies and helping teens get into college. Both topics deliver value, but I think you'd agree that one delivers more value than the other. (Dogs have to be potty trained after all.) What would your friends say? We're often terribly misinformed about ourselves. We're convinced that  we're underqualified for some things and overqualified for others when the truth is just the opposite. The people who know us best, however, aren't so easily fooled by this delusion. So ask them where you shine. An honest friend or two may be the difference between a winning topic and one that's dead on arrival. Let's review. You started with a complete inventory of every possible blog topic. We then narrowed that list down to subjects that have an eager market ready and waiting to hear from you. But we weren't done yet. After marketability, we turned to personal ability to pinpoint the topics at which you were the best. Topics that have a market and rest snugly in your wheelhouse are likely to succeed, but I think we can do better than likely. I think we can narrow your choices down just one more time to shine a light on the topic you were meant to tackle. Stage Three: Narrow by Passion First things first, I'm not talking about finding your bliss or fulfilling your life purpose. Those are more than worthy pursuits (although the whole "life passion" industry has led to a lot of people wishing and waiting for their one thing to fall into their laps), but what I'm talking about is passion for the work. I'm talking about what you love to do. There's a foundational principle of success that says love for the work is what carries you through the hard times, missteps, failures, and droughts of progress. If you're only in something for, say, the money, your motivation will dwindle and die when it doesn't come overnight. But if the work itself sets you on fire? That motivation will never die. With this in mind, I want you to take a look at your list of remaining topics and answer three more questions. What do you love most? A bit obvious, but it's important to ask nonetheless–out of your remaining topics, which do you absolutely love? Which speak to your heart and soul and feel right, feel connected to who you are and who you hope to be? Which ideas set you on fire? What would you do for free? Your rich, quirky uncle suddenly passes away and leaves you enough money to live happily ever after. Which topics on your list would you still chase? What would you do free of charge for the foreseeable future? What would your friends say? You knew it would be back! Friends and family see things in us we can't see ourselves. We're too close to it all, too involved. With a little distance and a different perspective, the people in our lives can open our eyes to answers we never thought we'd find. So go to the ones who know you best and ask them–what do you think I'm most passionate about? 1% of the people who read this article will sit down, grab a pen and a sheet of paper, and write out their answers. They'll struggle for a while, but bit by bit they'll write the words that will eventually lead to a topic, which will eventually lead to a blog, which will eventually lead to success. They'll do the work and get the results. The other 99% will agree with the notion of choosing a topic designed for results. Then they'll move right on to the next article, or email, or podcast, continuing their quest for the answer to all their problems. They'll never realize progress and success were always in front of them; they simply had to stop searching and start working. 1% will take action and win while 99% will wish and wait. The question is…which side are you on? Jason Gracia is the author of Shifting the Balance and founder of The Expert Agency, where he helps experts turn their knowledge and know-how into successful online businesses. For a copy of Jason's free guide, The Expert Handbook, visit www.theexpertagency.com/handbook/. The post How to Choose a Blog Topic That’s Pre-Programmed for Success appeared first on ProBlogger.         Related Stories Content Creation: How to Steal Your Way to a Successful Blog How to Get Paid for Freelance and Brand Work on Time, Every Time Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately?

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ProBlogger: Content Creation: How to Steal Your Way to a Successful Blog

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Content Creation: How to Steal Your Way to a Successful Blog Posted: 10 May 2016 06:00 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Iniobong Eyo. You can admit it. You think the headline is outrageous. Is he in his right mind? In fact, you're surprised – or even shocked? But you're reading this anyway. Because it got you thinking: How can I steal my way to content creation success? The truth about original content With well over 150 million blogs online, the blogosphere is a crowded place. So originality has its place. But sometimes, creating "original" content isn't quite as important as we think it is. You see, there's hardly anything you'll write about that's new or hasn't been written about on the web. It doesn't matter if you're writing the next "Ultimate guide to Facebook marketing." It doesn't matter if you're writing the next post on "parenting mistakes". The screenshots above are the first five results for those search terms on Google. They are just examples, but you'll find similar results for other topics. So nope, except you're writing about or creating content based on trending topics/news, new tools (new books, software, etc.), or an essay-like post (sometimes), it's already on the internet. Yeah. Cruel blogosphere. The quenchless thirst for "new," creativity, and stealing In business, we want new products, new services, new campaigns, new software, and new marketing techniques. It's new, new, new. Yet, to some people, saying you copied or even stole someone else's ideas would imply you're not creative. It would imply you're not smart enough. It would imply you're immoral. But what's the truth? "Good artists copy, great artists steal." – Pablo Picasso Does that mean Picasso stole from other painters? I'd bet he did! For example, he stole the concept of "his" Las Meninas, from the 17th century Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. Picasso painted his Las Meninas by "performing a comprehensive analysis, reinterpreting and recreating several times Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez." The result? He created 45 new paintings from Velazquez's painting. Picasso had this to say about his work: "If someone wants to copy Las Meninas, entirely in good faith, for example, upon reaching a certain point and if that one was me, I would say…what if you put them a little more to the right or left? I'll try to do it my way, forgetting about Velazquez. The test would surely be to modify or change the light because of having changed the position or character. So little by little, that would be a detestable Meninas for a traditional painter, but it would be my Meninas." – Pablo Picasso Picasso did not plagiarize. His quote explains that. He put some characters "a little more to the right or left." He added his own personal touch and style, which he called a "test," to create new paintings. All paintings are fully preserved in the Picasso museum in Barcelona as testament to the fact that Picasso's work isn't viewed as plagiarism. There's a reason why it seems everyone writes about the same topics – people want to read those topics. Standing out means: Choosing a different perspective  You can support a popular post with your own data and examples, or you can disprove accepted wisdom on a particular topic. Example.  You'll get a comment like this: Applying your unique experiences (or personality)  Some of your experiences are unique to you. Use them to put your spin on the topic. Example. You'll get a comment like this: Going deeper into a blogging subtopic  This is the most difficult of the three. You'll need tons of research, and sometimes it may feel like you can't go on. Applying the first two makes it easier. Example. You'll get comments like these: You will not succeed as a blogger if you do not study the masters and steal their blogging model. Or, for the purpose of this post, their content creation model. How to steal your way to content creation success Stealing is hard work. You need to know where to steal, how to steal, and what to steal. You need to determine: Am I stealing the headline? What made a particular headline so successful? What is the structure of the post? Is it an essay-style post? A list post? Or a how-to post? How is the post set up for skimmers? How is the post developed? What points does the body of the post make? Essentially, with all the bullet points above, you're literally studying content. And what good student doesn't have a notebook for taking notes while studying? Okay, it doesn't have to be a literal notebook. Maybe you call it a swipe file. But it's important if you want to perfect your art of stealing. The three key ingredients to steal when writing Did you see what I did in the five things you need to consider in the stealing process above? You may want to scroll up and check the bullet points again. In each of them, I've bolded a word. They're basically the four key ingredients you should steal in content creation. If you don't want to scroll up, here they are: The headline The structure The body  Let's take a look at each of them. 1. The headline It's no longer news that your headline, or title (since blog posts aren't the only type of content), highly determines the effectiveness of your content. Well, just in case you've forgotten: 80% of readers will never make it past the headline. On an average, eight out of ten will read headline copy, but only two out of ten will read the whole piece. Your headlines can increase traffic by as much as 500%. It's important to study and steal headlines that work. You may have seen this post of mine earlier this year on ProBlogger. According to data from Buzzsumo, it's #4 on list of most shared posts on ProBlogger in the last six months. As the only post published in January appearing in the top five, it effectively is the most popular post in January 2016 on the blog. I'm not sharing that to brag (alright, maybe a little); it's so you can see what I'm saying works. So, want to know the truth? That was a stolen headline. That's it. A post that generated over 4,000 shares from Samar Owais on Copyblogger. Now, here's my headline. I loved that Samar's headline mentioned freelancers were making those mistakes at the cost of clients, cash, and credibility. It was intriguing. Because making mistakes resulting in loss of the three means a freelancer will be out of business soon, if he/she isn't out of it already. That approach helped me replace "clients" with "time", but the rest of the headline stayed the same (okay, I replaced cash with money, but they mean the same thing). I used Samar's headline as a template to create mine. My point? Study successful headlines and use them as a template to create yours. For example, from Samar's headline, I could create several headlines. I could easily have replaced freelancing, with say, content marketing, and I'd still have something great: 26 Content Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Customers, Cash, and Credibility 26 Copywriting Mistakes That Are Costing You Customers, Cash, and Credibility 26 Landing Page Mistakes That Are Costing You Customers, Cash, and Credibility Just examples, but it could be better. Or the template can be used to create an entirely new list post: 15 Behaviors That Are Costing You Relationships, Confidence, and Privacy  Oh! Well, if you're thought the headline of this post is anything original, then you're wrong. Still doubting? See below. I-scoop's headline Viperchill's headline You get the point now. As usual, don't make empty promises with your headlines. Many headlines out there literally tell us "you won't believe x is no longer a letter of the alphabet" and you click and find out x is always a letter in the alphabet. Be careful. Additionally, feel free to grab these five headline resources, if you haven't done so already. Copyblogger's Magnetic Headlines Peter Sandeen's 101 Headline Formulas Jon Morrow's Headline Hacks Psychotactics' Why Headlines Fail Hubspot's Data-Driven Guide To Writing Better Headlines When you study headlines that do well, you'll get better at stealing and writing great headlines. 2. The Structure I simply like to think of a blog post's structure as not just the form a blog post takes, but its overall organization. Basically (not always), your headline determines your blog post's structure. It determines what the introduction, main body, and conclusion of the post will be. When studying the structure of popular posts, consider the following: If it's a list post, how much content is found under each bullet point? How long are the introduction and conclusion of the post? If it's an "ultimate guide" or a "how-to" post, what's the average word count per subhead? How are bullets used when explaining steps taken to achieve desired results? How is it set up for skimmers? If it's an essay-style post aka "the storyteller", how personal does the writer get? How does the introduction suck you in and how does the conclusion inspire you? Popular posts are not limited to the three mentioned above. There are resource lists, expert roundups, and case studies etc. The same principles above would still apply. For example, in my January post, the structure was similar to Samar's. She listed her mistakes under eight aspects of freelancing, beginning with "rates." I listed mine under four aspects of blogging – beginning with "content." That way, it's easy for skimmers to jump to whichever one interests them most. We ended up having the same structure but the content was different. The post that shook Problogger Have you read the most shared post ever on Problogger? Chances are you have. It was written by Jon Morrow. At the time of this writing, it has over 10,700 shares and 493 comments. In Jon's words, it "turbocharged his career in a lot of ways." You'll think that for a blogging genius like Jon that post is completely original. But it isn't! Jon stole the structure of the post from this one by Brian Clark: The Snowboard, the Subdural Hematoma, and the Secret of Life. And you know what else? Jon had earlier written what he calls "the article that shook the internet" by parroting that post from Brian. In Jon's words (about "the article that shook the internet"): "Sure, the story was original, but the headline, the structure, even the cadence of the sentences – it was all parroting Brian's work." Jon's post was so popular it prompted a post titled: How Jon Morrow Crafted the Most Popular Post on ProBlogger. You can read Jon's "confession" here. He explains what happened behind the scenes when he first "parroted" Brian's work. What's the point? Jon applied Brian's post structure to his own story, and made it even better. So while it was Brian's structure, the end result was still Jon's story. That's why nobody can accuse Jon of plagiarism. You can go through the same process of structuring blog posts. Find and study structures of popular posts (take notes while you're at it), and use them to create your post. Your post's structure will be a stolen one, but it will be your post, not anybody else's. I'll recommend you read the following for more on structuring blog posts: Ali Luke's Six Straightforward Ways to Structure a Blog Post [With Examples] Glen Long's The Only Six Posts Worth Writing (and How to Totally Nail Each One) 3. The body As mentioned earlier, or as you already know, the headline is the most important part of your post. If your headline is not good enough, your reader may not get to the first sentence of your article or the introduction of your post. But what happens if your introduction draws a reader in but the body of your post falls short of the expectation created by your headline? A disaster. It was a tough choice, but I omitted the introduction and conclusion from the list of ingredients. According to The Nielson Norman Group, majority of your visitors will make a judgment within 10 to 20 seconds of opening your content whether they should stick around – or whether they should bounce. Readers have become expert skimmers because they've commonly been lured in by irresistible headlines, only to click through and find weak content. We've learned to skim content and decide if it piques our interest in seconds. If it doesn't, we're gone. That's why the structure and body of posts are important. How to steal the body of your post from others Have you ever finished outlining or writing a post only to find out that it's eerily similar in thought to another post out there? Or have you ever felt too guilty to steal a point from someone else's post to add to yours? Others may call it research, I still call it stealing. Here's how to do it: Find out posts similar to yours. Write down points from them you wish to use in creating your own post. Find different, current, or better examples, statistics, and expert quotes to support or disprove your stolen point Use a personal experience to support or disprove your point (the stolen point). For example, let's say I need examples of bloggers who have built audiences despite their disabilities; one of the first that readily comes to mind is Jon Morrow. Only few readers in the blogging world would not have heard about him. They probably wouldn't have heard about Jordan Bone, a beauty vlogger. She is paralyzed from the chest down and uses her mouth to help manipulate her brushes. Yet, she has over 180,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel, and over 117,000 followers on Instagram.  They probably wouldn't have heard about Maxwell Ivey, a successful blogger who is blind. He's a blogging coach, public speaker, and author.  They probably wouldn't have heard about Lucy Edwards, another vlogger. She is blind because of a rare genetic condition, and can't see herself in the mirror. Yet she does her own make-up and posts videos to her YouTube channel. She's got over 27,000 subscribers, and still counting.  That's just an example, and you can do much better. Consider Neil Patel. I could use any of his articles, but I'll use Mastering Content Marketing: 7 Required Principles for Success. In that post he mentions that part of the research behind the post was looking up what had been written on the topic previously. This is what the search for "principles of effective content marketing" produced for Neil. This is the #1 result (watch out for the arrow): Compare this with the fifth principle in Neil's finished post. Again, look at the third principle from the #1 result: Take a look at Neil Patel's second principle: They're basically saying the same stuff, but Neil's post is different. Below are some differences: He writes the content marketing principles in his own words – no copy and paste. So Neil can't be accused of plagiarism. He uses pictures and screenshots to either support his principles, or show how what he's saying can be done. This is critical because research has shown that content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images. He supports his principles with the examples of others or sometimes a personal experience. That shows he knows his stuff. He writes an in-depth post on the topic. Before his writing, the longest post on the first page of search results was just over 2,000 words, with no images. Neil wrote a staggering 4,000-word post with lots of images and supporting points. Was it an original idea? No, it wasn't. But was it an original post? Definitely! The post was a success. I know because it now ranks at #3 for "principles of effective content marketing": Not bad right? It's that simple, and difficult. Try to match (at the very least) or surpass the strengths of other content on the topic you're writing on. Neil says "your biggest opportunity to stand out is to improve on weaknesses your competition has." Now consider my post I mentioned earlier. Since it was a guest post, I had to search the ProBlogger for similar posts. This is what it looked like: The #1 result was a podcast. #2 was a post written in 2009. I wasn't going to say anything "groundbreakingly new" as one commenter later put it, but I was going to add my own perspective, my own points, and some examples to support them. Overall, I was just going to make the post much more in-depth than the one published seven years ago. The result? A 3,978-word post! Here's what a current site search for "top blogging mistakes" looks like: And it ranks at #5 for "top blogging mistakes" Don't think that quantity = quality. I could easily have added more mistakes to make it maybe, 50. I know blogging mistakes exceed 50. Neil could have added three content marketing principles to make it not 7, but 10. Afterall, #2 on search results for "effective content marketing principles" has 12 principles. And #4 has 15. Your first target should be matching the best content on the topic out there, while fixing any weaknesses it may have had. Once any weaknesses are fixed, you've already surpassed the best content out there already. So don't feel that if "The 14 SEO Tools Bloggers Shouldn't Do Without", is the best content on SEO tools; then you must write a post titled: "SEO: The Only 25 Tools Bloggers Need." Your post could be "SEO: The Only 15 Tools Bloggers Need" and it would still do very well. But it's your choice. The truth about stealing content Stealing your way to creating content is hard work. No treasure chest of content pearls lies waiting to be heisted on the internet. You need to study content. Carefully. But you know learning how to steal like you have in this post is a treasure chest of its own right? You know too well the hard work that goes into creating great content. The time spent on coming up with ideas. The time spent on research. The time spent on writing itself. Minutes turn to hours. Hours turn to days. Days turn to weeks. Then ask yourself if that was really time well spent if people do not even click on your headline. Ask yourself if that was really time well spent when the people who click on your headline scan your content for 10 to 20 seconds before they bounce because it's not structured well. Now you can make people click your headlines. You can make them devour your content long enough to realize you're a writer worth paying attention to. You just need to perfect your art of stealing. If you've been scorning stealing, stop it. All you need is studying how bloggers you admire most create content. Then put it "a little to the right or left." That's where the "test" lies – doing it your way. And then reap the rewards for the rest of your blogging days. Iniobong Eyo is a writer and content strategist who helps businesses and individuals grow by planning, developing, and managing their content. You can steal his ideas by hiring him.       The post Content Creation: How to Steal Your Way to a Successful Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.         Related Stories How to Get Paid for Freelance and Brand Work on Time, Every Time How to Update Old Posts On Your Blog (and When You Should Consider Doing it) Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately?

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