9 Tips To Highlight The Best Content In Your Blog

If you have a blog, you probably know that it is impossible to come up with consistently excellent stuff all the time. No matter how good you are, there will always be some posts that are much better than the others. These are the posts that were the most talked about, the most commented upon, you know they still have the power to attract readers, even if they were written months ago. But the problem is, your most awesome posts gradually get buried under newer pieces, till they are no longer visible on the home page. It is not feasible to have more than ten posts on your home page, because that would make your blog unreasonably heavy and slow to load. But does that mean your best posts will eventually fade to oblivion?

Not at all! It is very possible to keep selected old posts alive. We bring you nine tips on how you can ensure new readers have a taste of your best stuff when they visit your blog for the first time.

1. Have a Popular Post widget

Most blogging sites give you an option to install a widget that would show your most popular articles, judged by the basis of the number of views and comments. Make sure you have such a widget displayed prominently on your sidebar.

2. Personally select your best posts

If you feel one of your earlier posts was really good, but did not get the attention it deserved, take control and insert it into the Popular Post plug in. You should especially do this if you have a guest post in another blog and want to showcase the link to that.

3. Make your highlighted content prominent

The section showing your best posts is in fact the most important part of your home page. Readers look for this section first thing when the visit a blog for the first time. It’s like a resume for your blog, it is your one chance to make an impression on a new reader. So don’t bury this section under other widgets. Make sure its at the very top of your blog, in full visibility.

4. Images instead of links

A picture can attract a lot more readers than a link or a post title can. So it might be a good idea to create a thumbnail for each of your best posts, and strew them around your blog, with the link to the post imbedded in them. More people will click on a picture than on a bit of hyperlinked text.

5. Keep changing your highlighted content

If you have a static list of post titles, your regular readers will start ignoring your popular post section. That’s a huge waste of opportunity. Change the content of the list every week and draw your readers’ attention to it. They will start looking forward to your weekly revommendation.

6. Links at the end of your posts

The problem with the related post plug-in is that it includes the link outside the post, so readers tend to ignore it, and feed readers won’t be able to see it at all. A better idea would be to include a link, as a suggestion at the end of your post. Word it like “if you liked this post you might also enjoy…”, but do link only related posts, or the reader might feel duped.

7. Internal links

Weave some links into your new post, if you find yourself referring to something you have written about before. But do this intelligently, with only relevant key words and not just vague references

8. A post to highlight earlier post

Have a regular posting feature that is dedicated to the best posts of the month, or the quarter. Or just tell your readers that you are delving into the past and coming up with forgotten gems. Readers will love these introspective posts for a change.

9. Make it easy for readers to browse archives

Make sure your readers get a bird eye view of your blog through your archives. Your archive feature should show your past posts by names and mention the number of comments they have gotten. Don’t use the calander widget to show your archives. Your readers don’t want to know when you have posted, they would rather know what else you have written about.