Today is Day 5 of the Be A Better Blogger series. We’re using the outline offered by Collis Ta’eed in his article titled 31 Days To Becoming A Better Blogger, and our topic for the day is:
Day 5. Highlight your most popular posts.
Linking to your blog’s most popular posts in a prominent location is essential practice, because it gives new visitors a place to go. They don’t have time to search around for good content: the want to see the best you have to offer, straight away. Linking to popular posts can help ensure that the links and comments keep coming, even after the post is several months old.
This is great “visitor optimization” for your blog just as much as it is great search engine optimization. Not only are you giving weight to quality content via text links, but you are also drawing your new visitors into your best posts.
You’ll notice that I have a small group of links in the sidebar to the right titled “Hot Topics”. I also recently added new pages for Hot Topics and Reviews, which you’ll find in the top navigation. I did this specifically to feature good archived posts and interesting reviews.
The title you use for your featured posts will depend on your blog. You might label them Best Reviews, Most Popular Articles, Tutorials, etc.
Also See: Monetize Your Blog Archives
In addition to creating a new page, or a spot in your sidebar, make a practice of linking to archived posts from within the content of new posts you publish. This gives your visitors an easy path to related content on your blog, and the search engines like that type of content-to-content interlinking as well.
Once you choose the posts you want to feature, go back and read through them and make sure they each include a good strong Call To Action 
Best,
10 responses so far ↓
Danielle Chonody // Mar 5, 2008 at 9:11 am
Hi Lynn - this is a technical question but how do you add this new space for “Top Articles” into your sidebar HTML in the sidebar template file?
Melissa Ingold // Mar 5, 2008 at 9:51 am
I love the hot topics on the side bar. Great idea.
Lynn Terry // Mar 5, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Hi Danielle,
Yes, I just open the sidebar file in notepad and add the code in there. At first I just took note of how other sections were coded in, and then copied one of them and modified it to create my Hot Topics list.
blackberry // Mar 5, 2008 at 3:28 pm
hi! Thanks for your blog, its inspiring me to get away from my nine to fiver phone job and decided to start my blog. I heard hosting is important, what would you suggest?
Lynn Terry // Mar 5, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I use and recommend HostGator. You’ll find a coupon code here that will get your first month free (or close to it - for only 1c):
http://www.clicknewz.com/995/hostgator-coupon-code-first-month-for-a-penny/
Soli // Mar 6, 2008 at 6:56 am
The idea of linking to the best post on a blog is a nice idea because only the interesting, maybe the best stuff, can make some wait to see some others.
Stefani // Mar 8, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I just added this to one of my blogs today! Thanks for the tip.
BABB-9: Offer A Free Service To Your Blog Readers // Mar 10, 2008 at 6:43 am
[...] offer will make a great featured post too, so consider putting a link & blurb in your [...]
Dominique // Apr 20, 2008 at 1:52 am
Hi -
I stumbled upon your website while trying to learn more about blogging and how to create a great blog.
I wanted to thank you for this one in particular because I too your advice and added a link called, “the most interesting fact you may not know” page to my site.
It actually enabled me to combine several pages into one and to be creative while still allowing my readers to get to know me a little better.
It was also really fun for me because I got a snap shot of some pretty interesting things that have happened to me in my life! Thanks for the great tip.
Feel free to take a peek and see what you think!
And again, thank you so much.
Dominique
Lynn Terry // Apr 20, 2008 at 7:59 am
Cool page, Dominique! I noticed you didnt link to specific posts that mention those things… assuming there are some. I would also link to it from your “about me” page. See this post for some ideas on internal linking: http://www.clicknewz.com/1427/stop-linking-to-your-home-page/
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