BABB-8: Create A Topical Resource List

Be A Better Blogger (BABB Series), Day 8:

Day 8. Craft a great resource-list. Resource lists are very popular with social media and can be quite easy to make, particularly if you already have the resources on hand. Pick a topic your target audience is keenly interested in and create a list of resources relating to that topic.

You can use your own bookmarks if you have enough. If you’re short on links, a del.icio.us search for your topic will return hundreds if useful links people have saved using your chosen topic as a keyword…

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Great topical lists can often turn into good link bait, so this is a great task on our 31-day quest to become a better blogger.

Ironically, just yesterday a reader left a comment here at ClickNewz leaving a link to one of his own resource lists – relevant to the post, of course. It makes such an excellent example that I’ll use it here to show you what a great resource list looks like:

- Your Ultimate StumbleUpon Resource

Creating a good resource list is not as hard as it might sound. It sounds like a daunting task, I know, but the majority of your article is going to be a list of links to other websites with a short description of each. You also want to include an introductory and concluding paragraph – but all said and done it is less creative writing than your typical blog post.

The key is to pick either a hot topic or a timeless topic. Ideally you should publish one of each, alternating every week or month. Once you create one and see how easy it is, you’ll realize these are great to use as content when you arent feeling particularly inspired to sit down and write a lengthy blog post out of thin air.

These types of resource lists are often linked to as a great resource by other bloggers, which can send a lot of traffic your way. But there are hidden benefits to linking out like this as well…

As you know, when you link to a blog post that is published on WordPress, that blog owner will notice the incoming link in their dashboard. Most bloggers take note of these links pointing to their blogs, and visit the sites to see what is being said. This is a great networking tool, and a great way to gain exposure in your niche.

In fact, if you are going to approach other bloggers in your niche with guest blogging proposals, this is a good way to introduce yourself first. Linking to their blog in any relevant post of your own will alert them to who you are and what you do – and being familiar with you when they receive your proposal may help you get special consideration.

There’s another great benefit to linking out with a list like this. If you link to a specific post on a WordPress blog, a link back to your resource list will usually show up in the comments section of the blog post you linked to. These links in the trackbacks or comments area on other blogs can generate a lot of traffic on their own

Best,

Category: RSS & Blogging