I’ve written before about the importance of pillar posts to growing your blog. These are the posts of value that bring readers back to your blog again and again - and convince serendipitous stumblers to stay.
Definitions of a pillar post usually contain words to the effect of:
- Provide something from your own perspective that covers the material in enough detail.
- Don’t base a pillar post on a bunch of links from other people
- Don’t rewrite someone else’s posts
- Don’t quote too much, link
All this advice is fine as far as it goes. I’d like to simplify this: A pillar post contributes something new that adds value to its niche.
Think of it as if you are a PhD candidate - you have to make some unique contribution to your chosen field. There is a time for me-too announcements, and a time for speedlinking, but sooner or later you need to create posts that contribute something of remarkable value within your niche.
How do you do this?
- Contributing something new to your niche is not as hard as it sounds - I use reframing to come up with something new, and you can too.
- Adding value to your niche is harder - I like the “what I wish I’d learnt before I got started” concept that Darren Rowse blogs about so well.
Pillar posts add value and content to your blog. Make sure you don’t lose all your hard work! An Outlook Exchange server is a great way to utilize email hosting at low cost to you. And, if you want to add more value to your site, you can set up private label exchange hosting and make money off your site!
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