The Single Most
Important Element
of a Successful
Blog
Tristan Higbee/Blogging Bookshelf.com
Feel free to share this ebook as long as you don’t change anything or charge for it.
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
1
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
T
he idea for this blog post/ebook has been simmering in
my mind for some time now, but it finally caramelized this
morning. Someone emailed me a guest post that they’d like to see
posted on Blogging Bookshelf. I’m currently not accepting guest
posts, but I read it anyway and sent the following email back
Even if I were currently accepting guest posts, I don’t think I’d
publish this one. There’s not really anything new or amazing there.
All of it is pretty much common sense for most bloggers. I want my
readers to say “Wow” or “Huh. I’ve never thought of that” after every
post, and I didn’t get that after reading yours.
Harsh? Maybe a little bit, though I wasn’t trying to be a jerk and
meant to say it in as nice a manner as possible. That got the wheels
turning a little bit, and then I realized what the key ingredient to
any successful blog was, and why I religiously read the blogs that I
religiously read. What was that key ingredient?
Unique content.
2
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
Take a minute and let that sink in.
...
...
Ok, so now that you’ve read that and probably been thoroughly
underwhelmed, let me explain a bit more and let us dive a bit
deeper. Before you publish every post, ask yourself, “Is this
something that can’t be found anywhere else?” Or, in other words,
“Is this unique?”
Why your blog posts have
to be unique
You’re probably saying, “Well yeah, duh. That’s obvious.” And yes,
it is, but are you taking it to heart? Do you actually ask yourself that
before every post? And have you ever really thought about why your
content needs to be unique?
Here’s why: the blogosphere is saturated. There are tons of blogs
3
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
about pretty much everything. The key to getting a blog noticed is
differentiation. What’s the difference between your blog and the
million other blogs out there?
If there’s no difference, your blog won’t be able to get the traction and
influence you’re aiming for. If there’s no difference, you’re wasting
your time and the time of anyone who comes across your blog. If
there’s no difference, your blog sucks.
Now let that sink in.
I mean, think about it. If someone is reading your blog, there’s a good
chance they’re reading other blogs in your niche. If they’re reading
other blogs in your niche, do you think they’re going to want to read
a blog that has stuff they’ve already read on it? Of course not. Why go
see a single move 20 times when you can go see 20 different movies?
So again, the question you need to ask yourself before you write
anything and before you press the “Publish” button is, “Is this
something that can’t be found anywhere else? Is this unique?” If not,
trash that sucker and start over.
4
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
Now let me illustrate this point with a non-blogosphere example.
A tale of two restaurants
It wouldn’t be a Blogging Bookshelf post without some kind of
analogy, right? :)
So I went to an Italian restaurant yesterday. I’d been there before,
but it had been a few years. I ordered some gnocchi and fettuccini
alfredo. I took a few bites and remembered why I hadn’t been back;
the food was completely unremarkable. It tasted like the 99 cent
5
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
frozen dinners you buy (or at least that *I* buy) at the grocery store.
Food quality notwithstanding, the service was great and we were in
and out in 20 minutes.
Tonight I went out to dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant.
Actually, it’s probably my favorite restaurant, period, Indian or
otherwise. It’s absolutely amazing. The chicken tikka masala was
better than ever, and the mulligatawny soup was to die for. I admit
that the restaurant’s decor isn’t the best, and the service is pretty slow.
But oh, that chicken tikka masala!
Moral of the story? If the food at your restaurant sucks, I don’t care
how nice your decor is, how friendly the waiters are, or how quick the
service is. I go to eat at a particular restaurant because I want good
food that I can’t get anywhere else.
So will I go back to the Italian place? No. Why would I go back to
that lousy Italian restaurant when I can go to a much better one? The
same holds true for our blogs. Though they might go to a restaurant
(a blog) once to try it out, keep in mind that people don’t return
6
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
to restaurants (blogs) again and again to get crappy gnocchi and
fettuccini alfredo (content).
And will I go back to the Indian place, even though the decor is
kitschy and the service sub-par? You better believe it! (Do you see
where I’m going with this?) When I go to your blog, I don’t really
care if it’s ugly; I just want good food! Sure, I’d like for my blog and
your blog to not be ugly, but I (and pretty much everyone else out
there) am willing to forego some aesthetics in the name of rock-mysocks-off content.
How to create unique
content
Ok, hopefully after that flawless logic and stunning analogy (tongue
very much in cheek), you’re on board with me here and agree that
your content has to be unique in order for your blog to be successful.
You are willing and brave enough to ask yourself the question, “Is this
something that can’t be found anywhere else?”
7
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
So... how exactly does one create unique content? There are 8 ways
that I thought of, and please let me know if you think of others.
1. Report breaking news
This one is pretty obvious, but it’s extremely tricky to successfully
implement. Notice that I said breaking news and not just news.
Remember how above I mentioned that everyone reading your blog
is probably reading other blogs in your niche, too? Well, the chances
are pretty good that by the time you get around to reporting any
news, it’s old news that’s familiar to your readers.
How do you find breaking news? Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve never
had a news blog before and don’t usually report on the goings on in
my niches. I’d imagine that it’s important to 1) know the right people,
2) be subscribed to a bunch of different sources of information. I’d
love some reader input regarding this, too.
2. State your opinion
If you DO report on an event in the news, a great way to make it
8
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
original is by stating your opinion on the event(s). Not only does this
open the door for you to show your personality into a traditionally
personality-free arena (that arena being the news), but the great
thing is that no one else in the world has your exact same opinion.
You’ve got experiences that no one else has, so you can add your own
commentary that no one else can add.
For example, let’s say that I’ve got a blog about dog training, I just
watched the national dog championships on TV, and I want to talk
about the results. Normal blogs will be saying saying, “Rocko the
German shepherd won, and Fluffer the poodle came in second,” and
so on. But MY blog will say
“Rocko the German shepherd won, but I think Fluffer the poodle
totally should have won. I mean, the poofs on Fluffer clearly took a
lot of time and effort to sculpt. And did you even see the slight limp
that Rocko had? Come on, people!”
Ok, maybe that’s not the best example (I don’t know anything about
how dog shows work), but hopefully you’re picking up what I’m
9
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
putting down. Don’t just report news; comment on it.
Oh, and since I’ve focused mainly on news in this point, let me go
ahead and say that this applies to all kinds of posts, not just news
posts.
3. Relate your personal experiences
Your own personal experiences should be added to everything you
write about, not just the news. I think a great example of this, if I do
say so myself, is a guest post I did over on Lye’s blog, Find My Blog
Way. The idea of the post is to explain how to stay motivated as a
blogger. But if I had just said, “Ok, here are 3 ways to stay motivated,”
the post wouldn’t have nearly the weight behind it that it does.
Instead, I talked about the reasons I’ve lost my blogging motivation
in the past and what I learned from all of that. By incorporating my
own failures into that post, I showed that I really do have experience
in what I’m talking about, and these are lessons I learned the hard
way.
Again, the great part about this is that your experiences are unique to
10
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
you. Tell stories in your posts. Don’t only share your know-how, but
share how you got that know-how.
Related to this (though it could probably be another point) is letting
your personality come through in your writing. I’ve written on this
before and will do so more in the future, so I won’t talk about it too
much, but be yourself. When appropriate, write the way you speak
4. Come at it from a different angle
It seems like there are a finite number of things you could talk about
in each niche, yet there are bazillions of blogs covering just about
every topic under the sun. If there’s something you really do want
to talk about but it’s been talked about a bunch already, how are you
supposed to make it unique? With a new angle.
I think a good example of this is my Is Content Your
King? infographic. “Content is king” is a tired old cliché that has been
talked about ad nauseum, but I presented it in a way that had never
been seen before (because I created the infographic). And instead of
the idea of that post being that content needs to be the focal point on
11
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
your blog (the traditional meaning of “content is king”), I stated what
I think “king content” is.
Ideally, you always come up with something 100% new to say,
but that’s not always possible. When you DO decide to repeat
something, put a spin on it that people haven’t seen before, and a
great way to do this is with analogies.
5. Innovate
This is the good stuff here. This is that 100% brand new content that
the world has never seen before.
Is it even possible these days to have 100% purely original content?
I don’t know, but the general gist of pure innovation is that YOU are
the originator of the ideas you’re talking about.
Are there examples of this on Blogging Bookshelf? Well, again, I
hesitate to say that anything is 100% original, but I’d say tha how
to create killer analogies post is pretty original. The same goes with
my comment policy that’s in the top right corner of the blog; it’s
12
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
something I’d never seen before. Again, I’m sure that something
like that has been done somewhere, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s
original.
6. Provide massive value
A massive value post is a beast of a post. This is one of those posts
that you bookmark and show to your grandkids in 20 years. The
thing about a massive value post is that while the content itself might
not be entirely unique, the sheer amount of useful information all in
one place in that post makes it unique.
Great examples of this include things like Pat Flynn’s THE Blogger’s
Guide to Facebook, Kim Roach’s 500+ Places to Syndicate Your
Content, and Alex Whalley’s Viral Marketing Blueprint. Free,
downloadable ebooks can be a great example of this, too.
7. Conduct interviews
Interviews are another way of having unique content. The questions
you, the interviewer, ask an interviewee are going to be somewhat
13
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
unique, as will be the particular answers to those questions. Even
if this person has been interviewed a billion times before, every
interview is going to be a little bit different, and every answer will be
a little bit different. I’ve actually never conducted an interview, so I
can’t and won’t say too much more about this one.
8. Graphics, audio, and video
There are a few other ways to have unique content. Having unique
graphics is one way. Remember that graphic I have above by the
restaurant analogy? That’s something I created from scratch, and
therefore is unique (and there’s another unique graphic coming up).
Included here in the graphics category are photos that you’ve taken,
or even purchased (though it won’t technically be 100% unique, any
photo you’ve got to pay for won’t show up on many other blogs).
Audio and video are two more examples. These are mediums that are
still being used by relatively few bloggers, and are a great way to make
your content stand out from the crowd.
14
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
What are some examples
a generic blog post and
unique blog post?
Ok, I’ve already written about 2,400 words here, so I need to get
through this quick. To help me do that, I made this little chart that
nicely sums up the differences between a so-so generic post and a
unique post. Note that this is a composite of my opinions, is not
gospel, and was thrown together pretty quickly.
Post Title
Intro
Post Body
Conclusion
Ask for Input
15
Click to Retweet
Click to visit Blogging Bookshelf
In conclusion...
I guess the goal of all of this is twofold: 1) provide useful content to
your readers, and 2) not bore them with repetitive information in the
process. If you can consistently come up with 100% unique content,
more power to ya! For the rest of us, please just put it in a form that
we haven’t seen before, whatever that might be.
Remember to ask yourself that all-important question, “Is this
something that can’t be found anywhere else?”
Creating unique, quality content is hard work. That’s why so few
blogs out there do it. But it’s worth it both for you and for your
readers. You will successfully differentiate your blog from all others
and reap all of the benefits that come with that.
Ok, over to you now!
»» What are other ways to provide unique content?
»» How possible is it to provide 100% unique and original content?
»» If you were a reader, would YOU want to read your own blog?
Click here to comment on the original blog post.
16