Few months ago I wrote an article on blog’s own characteristics and how they are instrumental in bringing blogging success for a blogger. If you want to read it, here is the link for you:

Blogging success lies in blog’s own characteristics!

But this is different story. Long before starting this series about Blog Content Strategy – I decided that I should write at least one article about the most important characteristics of premium blog content. Here is the reason behind it.

For a couple of years I have been observing blogsphere very closely and found that there have been only few blogs in millions who actually dominating in the market in their respective fields. They are consistent in driving the most of targeted traffic to their blogs and becoming more popular among their readers while the rest of the blogs is still in the dark or getting some kind of scattered and inconsistent traffic.

Why is it so?

I started to introspect the real truth behind the success of those few handful blogs, which are in the limelight always occupying the top spots and rest of the blogs are far behind in the dark or getting some scattered lights.

While studying on them I found some interesting points for my findings report.

Premium Blog Content

There are certain similarities in most of the successful blogs irrespective of the differences in their domains or topics they blog about. The most important aspect of their success is that they are always driven to produce premium blog content over the years to satisfy their blog readers.

They produce premium articles or premium blog content to provide solutions to their people, educate their readers, inspire their followers and more importantly they are dedicated to provide benefits to their niche audience.

If you want to know how to write premium blog content – read my latest article. It is part of the series Blog Content Strategy.

How to write premium blog content?

Another important aspect of their success is the characteristics of their blog content. All of them have certain winning features or characteristics, which actually made the differences between successful blogs and rest of the blogs.

Important Characteristics of Premium Blog Content

If you notice those important characteristics of premium blog content, it will be easy for you to understand why they are miles away from the rest.

Visually Impressive

First of all, a successful blog is visually impressive. At a glance you will be attracted towards it by its unique design, layout, color combination, logo, pluggins, widgets and lots of other small but important components. Al together, it establishes uniqueness, professionalism and credibility of your blog.

It doesn’t essentially mean that you spend lots of money to design your blog. Just start with default theme or go for a premium blog theme like Thesis (if you are serious about blogging) to visually impress your visitors.

Unique Blog Content

A blog is successful when it has unique and confident voice. A reader always prefers to read uniquely created blog content focused on providing solution to a problem relevant to its niche rather than redundant and ambiguous common topics that are usually spread across the web.

Uniqueness in all-possible aspects of blogging such as topic selections, addressing problems, solution to those problems, writing skills, examples, real life case studies, personal opinions and in-depth analysis is the key to blogging success.

Relevant To Niche

A successful blog doesn’t try to address multiple and all-possible issues of life. It restricts its content only on those topics, which are necessarily relevant to its niche. It is specifically focused on providing quality blog content, which is relevant to its topics and address its readers’ needs.

Useful Rich Information

A successful blog is different in its approach in producing its content. It always tries to make an impression on its people by creating direct impact on them.

It is filled with useful rich information that helps people solve their problems, educate people on latest emerging technologies and ideas and enhance people to become successful ultimately. Therefore it is natural that people enjoy reading this kind of blog and absorb whatever published in it. It eventually increases targeted traffic, repeat visits and useful linkbacks to a blog.

Fundamental Analysis

A blog is successful when it dares to express it’s own opinion and analysis to bring fresh new ideas to challenge pre-conceived and erroneous concepts, reinvents intelligent tricks or techniques to replace a conventional lengthy process, comes out with fresh new point of views to challenge old-fashioned models and set up new path of success for its readers to follow.

So, become aggressive, explore as many resources as you can, update you knowledge and expertise, find out the needs of your niche, think about how you can contribute to solve their problems and come out with unique thought process and realistic solutions to fulfill those needs.

New Emerging Ideas

A blog takes almost no time to become it’s readers’ favorite when it continuously does researches on its niche’s needs and accumulates all possible useful but largely unnoticed emerging ideas, information and technologies from all possible sources and makes them available to its readers well in advance.

If people get first hand information from a blog, they’ll surely love it to absorb and come back again to know more about new concepts.

Straight To The Point

When a blog content address a problem straight to the point directly to its readers with crystal clear solution, then nothing can stop its growth and popularity. People love to read interesting, authoritative and credible articles from its favorite blog rather than finding it out from secondary sources.

Links or references to other sources are acceptable but it’s always better to include your own version of explanation if you are capable of doing it. People would like to hear it from you in your own voice on your blog.

Solid Archive’s Strength

A blog is successful when it can depend on its deep and solid archive strength. So, it is recommended to have a dependable archive of premium blog content that can be referred as major resource of necessary facts.

A successful blog always use its archive’s strength to highlight its best premium blog content whenever required. It convinces its readers to get value from old valuable posts and stay around for more.

So, provide deep or direct links from latest posts to those related archived posts to show your archive strength and valid reason why your new readers should spend more time at your blog to get maximum out of it.

Comprehensive Solution To Real Problem

When people find realistic and comprehensive solution to a real problem from any source then it becomes their most favorite destination.

That’s why, instead of dealing with ordinary and well-conversed topics, try to address complex and obscure problems of your niche and come out with rational and practical solution to those problems. It will be easy for you to get loyal visitors to your blog within a short span of time.

Comprehensively Defined Goals

A premium blog has comprehensively defined goals and blog content should clearly reflect them. It helps your readers to clearly understand what exactly is your blog about. If those goals match with your readers’ needs then it would be easier for them to permanently stay with you and absorb whatever you post on your blog.

Address Multipurpose Issues

Experts recommend that a blog article or post should be capable of addressing more than one issue in different conditions. It essentially means that it can have more than one title and can be referred as the solution to more than one issue relevantly.

For example, this post is not limited to Important characteristics of premium blog content. It also can be referred as Premium blog content strategies or Secrets of blogging success. It actually suggests that a blog post should be capable of addressing multipurpose issues in different conditions and provide realistic solution to each and every issue that is addressed separately.

Easily Searchable Content

A blog is considered as readers’ friendly when it provides its readers with ample opportunities to get as many posts as they wish at their reach. So, ‘Search this blog’ could be a good option for your blog readers.

If your readers are able to search your entire blog content by keywords, titles, descriptions, headings and sub headings, it would be helpful for them to easily find out exactly what they look for. It also helps your readers to spend more time at your blog, know more about your blog content and want to come back to know more from it.

Responsive To Readers’ Criticism

Without readers’ active participation a blog can’t be popular. You would need to encourage your readers to actively participate on your blog with constructive criticism. It could be in your favor or against of you. But, if you provide the freedom of criticism on your blog, only then your readers would open their heart out.

If they agree with you, they refer your post to others and if they disagree it, then also want to show their opinions to others.

Conclusion:

In this post, I tried to address all possible important characteristics of premium blog content that are instrumental in building a successful blog. If you work on implementing all of the above said characteristics to your blog, most certainly you will get the result that you probably looking for.

If you find – I missed some other characteristics that should be addressed in this post, please feel free to recommend them in your comments.

A friend in the business

Debabrata Dhar

I already started to post a series of articles on blog content strategy in my blog. In this series I have tried to cover each and every aspect of blog content strategy so that my blog readers and visitors quickly refer to these posts to easily understand how to take action to build their blog content effectively.

If you didn’t have yet gone through early posts, here are quick links for you:

• How to select great blog topics?
• How to write great blog content?

Today we are going to discuss – How to write premium blog content?

If you want to get all these premium posts directly in your mail box real time, then
subscribe it’s RSS feed!

First of all, let us find out – what is premium blog content?

What Is Premium Blog Content?

Think about your favourite blogs. Can you tell me why are they favourite to you?

It is because – these blogs not only provide regularly updated quality content over time to its readers but there are some articles or series of articles that you read again and again for the benefits of yourself. These are examples of premium articles.

If you are serious blogger and blogging for quiet sometimes then look at your own blog.

You will also find a few important posts or articles or a complete series, which are exceptional in your own assessment. This is because – you’ve put all of your honest effort to make them reach out to the next level.

Whenever you write new posts on your blog, you always encourage your readers to read those exceptional articles by referring them repeated times from you present blog posts.

Do you know why?

It is because of the fact that you know they are really exceptional, absolutely relevant to the present context and deserved to be referred to your readers for their value. You also know that even in the near future they will still remain important and relevant to your readers.

In the process, these articles will bring more and more traffic, comments and back links to your blog and they will become the brand of your blog for their increasing value, importance and relevancy over time. These are premium articles to you.

From the above two example, it is evident that a blog is recognized in it’s niche market by it’s readers for it’s premium articles, which in other words can be referred as premium blog content. In a blog, premium blog content and premium blog articles is synonymous. Premium articles are different from rest of the posts in terms of quality of content, subject matters discussed, solution they provide and most importantly the acceptance they get by it’s readers over time.

As these premium articles provide real value to readers, they become worthy reading and referring others. As a result, these articles become popular and gain more popularity in it’s niche over time. They get more and more exposure to new readers as people like to refer them to new groups of people regularly.

The consequence is – more back links, more visibility and higher ranking in major search engines. They bring continuous flow of targeted new traffic to your blog from major search engines even if they are one year or several years old.

It is unfortunate – not all posts of a blog get recognized in the same way by it’s readers that the premium articles get. It is not even possible for a blogger to write same kind of quality posts on a regular basis. An article becomes premium article when it get that rare quality in it. With it’s rare quality, unique contribution and the level of acceptance, it become popular among the readers and stay relevant over the years.

Ultimately premium blog content is premium because it is capable of providing time independent solution to a problem in a niche.

There are some real experts who used different name or combination of words to describe the same premium blog content in different ways. For example, Yaro Starak used Pillar article, Chris Garret used Flagship content and Brian Clark called Cornerstone content to actually point to the same premium blog content in their respective articles. These are classic examples of premium blog content too.

From the above discussion, I’ve tried to explain what a premium blog content actually is?

But the main question from a blogger’s point of view is – how to write or produce premium blog content on a regular basis so that it can provide same kind of value to it’s readers and in return it earns high level of acceptance by it’s readers consistently over time?

I hope you got the point. It is the demand or prerequisite of a successful blog.

How To Write Premium Blog Content?

There are several methods, techniques, theories discussed by lots of people in lots of articles over the years on it.

Here are few of them – You need to come out with fresh new killer idea, put your heart out, invest quality time and effort, provide benefits, incorporate educational value, consider relevancy with respect to your niche and so on and on …

But the real fact is – You can’t create a premium article just by putting all those efforts while writing it. You put all proven efforts and come out with an article that might or might not do well in reality. On the other hand you might get surprised by the result one article would bring that you didn’t even expect at the time of writing.

The reason could be – there are some X-Factors besides those proven methods that actually create the difference – You can’t control all of them.

So, what to do?

You can put on continuous effort to raise your bar, notice the work of other experts in your niche and consistently focus on providing quality content to your readers. If you persistent in it, the X-Factors will automatically work for you.

X-Factors Behind Successful Blog

Here are some X-Factors that could be instrumental in bringing success from your blog. Some of them will be in your hand and rest of them will automatically follow your honest and consistent effort.

• Your reputation as a blogger or writer
• Your writing skill
• Your writing style
• Your convincing skill
• Useage of different media like audio, video, pictures
• Search engine ranking
• Targeted traffic
• Relationship with your readers
• Relationship with other bloggers or website owners in your niche
• Your acceptance in your niche
• Social networking
• And lots of others you can put on in this list

All of the above X-Factors collectively work together in achieving success for your blog though you can’t control all of them.

Then, what can you do?

You need to focus on certain types of blog content, which have been proved to be working well consistently from the very beginning of blog.

Types of Premium Blog Content

Here are few definitive types of premium blog content or blog content methods that you can consider while writing your next blog posts.

1. Write How To Articles

While working on a subject or industry or technology or anything else, you would certainly face lots “how to” questions personally just like ‘how to come out of a problem?’ or ‘how to do some specific things?’ or ‘how to make certain things happen?’ or so on so forth. Most probably you would search to find those answers in open media.

Not just only you looking for those answers, there are lots of people in every niche searching for the same trying to find out how to do certain things. These are the most common questions in any niche.

If you are confidant and realize that you have firm control over your subject or industry or technology or your particular niche – try to address all those questions and come out with convincing and realistic solutions. Write your blog post addressing those ‘how to’ questions with authority and personal touch.

If your solutions satisfy your niche audience, more and more people will be attracted towards your blog for the remedies they are looking for.

This post could be a great example of How to … Article –

How to write premium blog content?

2. Provide Resource Lists

A resource list is a good example of premium content. People always looking for right kind of resource that help them execute some specific tasks. But searching for the right resources and finding out them is time consuming.

If you take an initiative and invest some time to prepare a list of useful resources in your niche and mention it in your blog post, it could be handy to thousands of people. They will feel comfortable in using your resource list instead of spending long hours in searching them.

A useful resource list is a great content that is expected to get massive reference in a specific niche. If someone finds one useful then he or she most likely prefers to refer it to his or her followers.

Here is an example of a great resource list –

Internet marketing resource – It’s a categorical exhibition of highly targeted top quality Internet marketing tools, software, services and strategies in one place. All of them have been selected on the basis of their uniqueness, performance, value, and the popularity among their satisfied users.

It not only saves your hundreds hours in search but also provide comprehensive resources on almost anything that you think about would be required for successful Internet business.

3. Write Reviews Or Recommendations On Niche Products and Services

Blog is considered as more trusted source of information if we compare it with a static website because anything published on a blog is backed by direct involvement and interaction of real people. They share their views on it – could be supportive, could be against of it, could be suggestion or anything else. All of them make blog information more accountable and trustworthy.

Considering the above, reviews can be great example of premium blog content. Make honest and non-biased reviews of those products and services, which are related and relevant to your niche. A buyer always trusts a non-biased review or a recommendation of a product or service rather than it’s own sales speech.

Review has become more popular for bloggers nowadays because it is most probably the best method of monetizing a blog without investment and risk.

Reviews and recommendations also help your blog readers giving them clear and non-biased view of niche products and services and enable them take a quick decision at ease.

Here is an example of review as well as a recommendation of a great product.

Get Access To Become A Blogger

4. Support Your Audience In Implementing Technology

Create a step-by-step visually enhanced article to demonstrate how to complete a specific task, which is basically technology related. It’s an easy way to show your audience how to setup a thing and complete a task visually.

You can take the help of screen shots of steps, images, graphs, documents or anything else, edit them using any photo editing software and create a step-by-step document to show how to complete a task from start to end.

It is normally useful in technology-related issues in which you actually need to show the steps using screenshots instead of writing all of them in words. There have been many people in your niche who might not be proficient in using technology. This kind of articles would be much appreciated for them.

Nowadays, this kind of technology implementation process is widely presented in video format too. You can record the required steps by using video capturing software and easily create a complete video at ease. After that you can post your video on your blog.

5. Provide People A Point To Argue

People like taking part in argument from primitive age. If you are able to post an article that encourages people to argue – it will be a great plus to your blog.

Though topics like politics, sports, and entertainment have enough scope to encourage common people to actively participate in argument but almost all topics have lots of potential to create argument in their respective niche.

Present a strong unique opinion on an issue, which is controversial in your domain and ask your people to express their views on it. You find plenty of people in your favor and the rest of them differing your thoughts. But all of them will try to establish their own point of views.

Ultimately arguable content will create important traffic and back links to your blog.

Here is an example of controversial blog post –

Is Web 2.0 Really Gold Or Just Glitters?

6. Define New Or Emerging Concepts

As a responsible blogger your task is not to produce just breaking news of emerging concepts, it is more than that. It is your responsibility to educate your people on latest emerging concepts and technologies that you feel important to your readers.

If you feel a concept is new and valuable to your readers – create your blog content with clearly stated definition and easy-to-understand explanation. This is because of all of your readers are not Pros, a large number of them are Newbies.

Try to explain what a concept actually is, what is meant to your niche, how it can benefit your readers and how it can be implemented in a situation.

This kind of posts is extremely effective to satisfy your readers and improve your readership. If you are able to provide this kind of useful content consistently on your blog you will get continuously increasing loyal reader-base that is most important in building a successful blog.

7. Provide List Of Tips, Techniques Or Methods

If you do search on any topic in search engines you will find plenty of entries like “top 10 tips to find out…” or “best 5 techniques to get…” or “5 surefire ways to win …” appear in top positions of a search result.

Basically this kind of list gets easy attraction. People like to follow clearly written definite number of actions to complete a task rather than going through a long web page and then understand what to do.

Most importantly people love to share list articles with eye-catching headlines and definite number of actions with their own people. Thus they get easy reference and more back links to them.

So, start writing list article on a topic useful to your niche mentioning definite number of clear-cut actions to complete a task. This could be a premium blog content for your blog.

Here is a great example of list article –

18 ways to monetize your blog!

8. Create Free Report Or eBook

One of the best ways to write premium content is to create a free report or an eBook of about 10 to 30 pages addressing a complete solution to a genuine issue of your niche readers.

If you keep noticing your niche market for a significant period of time, you will realize what people in your niche actually looking for. There must be a few certain issues that need to be resolved.

It is better for you to take an initiative and address one of these issues and suggest a complete solution to overcome it. If you are serious, you will not want to let this opportunity go to another person.

A free report or a free ebook is exceptional tool for viral marketing if it deserves the quality that can be shared. You can easily mention it in several blog posts or email newsletter and ask your people to take the advantage of it free.

You can easily create a report or eBook easily using PDF creation tool or ebook software. You may use one exceptional eBook creation tool eBook Pro with very good security features and online registration system.

Here is a good example of free eBook that you can download from my site and view it to know what exactly a free ebook is.

Insider Secrets Of A Successful Internet Business!

9. Post Interviews With Experts In Your Niche

People love to hear success story. It provides a great deal of boost to any audience-base in any field. If you can put a success story of an expert in your field it could create magic in getting links, comments and traffic to your blog.

Make an interview with a well-known person in your field or niche and publish it on your next blog post. Certainly it will be a great blog article and you’ll see the difference.

It is not that much difficult to fix an interview with an expert because almost all people love talking about themselves.

Let’s take a test drive today – Who knows? – You get an appointment tomorrow!

10. Inspire Your Audience

Each and every person needs inspiration from any damn source of his life. Whoever got it – became successful.

Write articles that inspire your readers. An inspiration speech or article can create magic in a person if he or she gets charged up by it. It could be your success story or could be an article on how to come out from a practical problem and find out the right track of success at the end.

If you can do it and really inspire at least few newbies in your niche showing them the right path of success then you will definitely be considered as an expert in your domain.

Remember that inspiration does not mean false encouragement, hyped or exaggerated statement. It should be practical, down to the earth advise for your people to drive them in a right path of success.

11. Come Out With Real Advice

In every sphere of life people are struggling to find out the right path to success. A real good advice could be the life changing stimulation to those people. If you know the path then it could be the best way to support people to find their path to success. Come out with real quality advice in those topics that are in need in your niche.

Avoid those topics, which are already over-discussed or saturated. In order to achieve maximum exposure come out with solution in your niche topic on what your people want to do but don’t yet know how.

Conclusion:

Write at least few premium articles for your blog immediately. It is not easy to produce premium blog content regularly but you need to take initiative to write it for your blog to start rolling towards success.

Remember that it is only premium blog content that can provide you the desired traffic, search engine visitors, plenty of references and most important back links to improve your blog to the next level.

I have discussed a lot about different types of premium blog content in this article or you may call them blog content methods – from which select one type or two, start writing next premium article for your blog.

It will be better if you try all those types and create as many premium articles as you can. Though it will take a few long sessions but in return it will definitely reward your effort.

Here are a few questions for you:

• What is your opinion about premium blog content?
• Do you want to call it differently?
• Do you consider this article as premium article?

Please feel free to post your comment or suggestion on it.

Your friend in the business,

Debabrata Dhar