If you’re like me, you fantasize about reaching the front page of Digg. Who wouldn’t? All the traffic, the glory, the fame… I submit an article to Digg every now and then, hoping, wishing, that this time will be different, that this time the diggers will digg, not bury. Somewhere along the way I started to wonder, are the diggers ever coming, do they even exist? Maybe Digg is just a figment of my imagination created by the matrix to keep me occupied while my body is harvested? Who knows… One thing is for certain, Digg is not the only evil preventing me from achieving world domination … In fact, my archives were burying me far worse than Digg!
What are Archives? How do I Punish them for Failing me?
Unfortunately archives cannot be banished or beheaded like your ordinary minion. Archives are the void where old blog posts and articles go. The underworld of your blog…
As your articles age, they fall deeper and deeper into the abyss. The worst part is that your archives don’t discriminate between good and bad articles, they suck everything into the void and bury some of your best writing for eternity. That’s a long time.
Any good overlord needs to be able to summon his/her best demons at any given time. If peons visiting your blog can only find your 5 or 10 most recent posts, then your archives are burying you worse than Digg. It’s your responsibility to turn your evil archive oppressor into a powerful minion, an ally, by making your best content accessible all the time.
How do I turn my Archive into a useful minion?
I’m glad you asked. Take a close look at Looble… It’s by no means a perfect blog, but it does have a few essential qualities of a successful empire. Here is how I keep my best content ready for unsuspecting peons passing through my lands:
1. Use Simple Tags WordPress Plugin for Related Posts
By using the Simple Tags WordPress Plugin for related posts, suddenly articles buried deep in my archives have an opportunity to bubble back up out of the void whenever they are relevant. If someone finds my current article interesting, giving them a list of related posts could be exactly what they are looking for! This is a great way for me to increase page views and convert more peons into loyal followers and minions. It’s a win-win situation, because I win twice.
2. Start Using Tags
Tags are great because you don’t have to worry about keeping them neat, they are inherently chaotic by nature. Over time, you will end up with thousands of different tags, and that’s great! Always keep your categories clean and meaningful, but tag your posts with anything and everything! Using the Simple Tags WordPress Plugin, I then display a list of tags at the end of every post. Clicking a tag will bring up a list of all articles that share the tag. This again gives old posts an opportunity to be summoned out of the underworld when a peon is vulnerable to it’s content. Remember, converting peons to followers is essential to building a powerful empire.
3. Internal Linking Within Blog Posts
When I write a new post, I often include a link to a related article I have already written. For example, if I write a post about Blogging for Dummies, I might I might include a link to If you Clone, You’ll End up Alone. This gives me an opportunity to send peons to an older post which is as good as the one they just read or better. It’s a way of adding icing to the cake to help convince the peon Looble is an empire worth joining.
Don’t forget, good internal linking will also help search engines better crawl your website, help increase your page rank, and help increase your page views and readership!
Tux by manjari!
Other Ideas to Prevent Quality Content from Being Hidden
1. Have a “Top Posts” or “Popular Articles” List.
2. Get the Articles plugin by Alex King
3. Make category pages easy to browse by using excerpts rather than full posts.
4. Don’t have too many categories!
5. Show links to your archives by year or by month it doesn’t matter. Just make sure your readers know there is more!
6. Link to your articles in social media sites like StumbleUpon, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, or delicious.
7. Link to a relevant article when commenting on a blog instead of to your blogs main page.
Have another idea? Please comment!
If you’re new here, now is the time to comment, to show your overlord you’re worthy. How do you prevent your articles from disappearing into the nether regions of the internet? I’d love to know, steal your ideas, and re-publish them.
Don’t worry, I’ll give you credit. I’m an evil overlord, not a stupid overlord.
