Detailed articles are called pillar articles which are the biggest assets of a blog. You can create a popular blog by adding pillar articles in your blog over time. This article will explain you about pillar articles, how to create and promote it for the long run.
There are few types of articles can be found in a blog,
Pillar articles
News based short articles
Tutorial articles
Short articles -covering one simple topic
You can build a stronger foundation for your blog by writing pillar articles. A few pillar articles would be enough to keep your reader engaged in your blog for longer. The more they stay, the more you’ll have the chance of making them coming to your site. Here are some simple reasons why pillar articles are great,
Pillar articles are some of your best articles ever
They contain highly packed informations
It takes a lot of time to read the article
They easily get bookmarked for future resource
These articles are most informative
How to create a pillar article?
Simply get an idea and do some research on it. Take paper, pen and write every topic you can related to it. Write some keywords and questions and extend the idea. If you don’t have any idea what to write about, then search your old posts for the topic. You can also create a pillar article with one of the most asked questions in your field.
If you run a mobile phone blog, then you can write this, “How to save your cell phone battery” -with much more extended topics. If you have a PC blog, then you can write, “A complete guide for firefox 3” or “A step by step guide on how to do …” got it? Every idea could be written as a highly packed pillar article.
How to make the article attractive to readers?
The fact is, most people don’t likes to read a bigger article but even BIGGER fact is that bigger articles will save your blog in the long run. To make your article attractive, use an “attractive headline” like,
10 ways to do…
12 steps to a successful…
You are only 7 steps away from…
Here you can see that numbers work. Adding a top 10 or best 5 will attract reader’s attentions. Here are some more ways of KILLER headlines,
How to make a killer living with PayPerPost (my own free ebook!)
Outstanding ways of achieving…
Simple but professional tips for a…
Don’t read this unless you want to…
You can see the word “Killer” -itself is also a killer word to attract the reader’s eyes. Because you are providing something better in that article, try to write a killer headline too!
How to make the reader read the whole post?
A bigger article and the important texts will be ignored because readers will scan your article, and will not read it. You have to break your articles into few paragraphs and don’t forget to use a good sub header for that. Getting attention to a special part is important. Try to use “speed breakers” like this one to stop your reader from scanning and read that part. Use attractive looking small images to make your readers entertained.
Finalizing my pillar post?
After you wrote the whole article, leave it in your computer or as a draft in your blog -don’t ever hit “Publish” after your finished writing it. Do something else in the mean time and come back again later after 6 hours or even better if you see it in the next day.
Now read the whole article and you’ll find mistakes in it. You’ll find new things to add on it or even new topics to add. Now proof read your article and hit “Publish”
How to promote it while it’s fresh?
Because it’s one of your best articles this session, try to keep this article in your front page for longer. Use social media and other ways to promote this content. Ping your blog to inform search bots about this article. Inform your friends about this post or even email them to have a look and comment on it. Email some your bloggers friends in your niche asking them to link to this article.
How to promote it while it’s old?
A good first time promotion will help it to develop higher places in search engines and then it’ll send a nice amount of traffic over time. When it’s an older article, don’t forget to link to that article within your new posts. Use your sidebar and showcase some of your best articles ever. This is a nice way to bring it up infront of new readers.
How many pillar articles should I have?
The more you have is better. As a beginner, try to have at least 5 pillar articles.
Have your say
- Do you write pillar articles?
- Do you think it’ll help you to build a stronger foundation?
- Share one of your best pillar articles,
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Good post, the tip about not publishing as soon as you finish writing is a great tip.
Too many times I have published a post only to read it the next day and have to edit it. Better to edit prior to posting.
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@Geoserv,
I’ve totally done the same thing. To often I push publish and then catch something right away. I always feel so foolish and tell myself next time will be different.
Seth’s latest blog post..How to Write a Pillar Article
I have the same problem as Geoserv, I’ve published an article without properly checking it through and when I’ve just gone on the main page of my block I see that something that looks so silly like a messed up HTML Tag or I typed in the image url wrong or something and then its right there on the front page :(
Nice article though Tamal, I’d heard about pillar posts before but never really knew what they were.
There will be problem if you don’t proof read your post. When I first started to blog, I found many errors after publishing a post few months back -that’s so embarrassing!
@Sean: At first some formatting mistakes are natural and this is the way you’ll know how each thing works. Here I’m talking about mistakes in posts.
Nicely done. I didn’t know people respond to your asking them to ‘link to my pillar post’ — must try that some day! I love the ’speed break’ term, since I’ve always used sub heading but not real catchy ones.
As for your questions:[I'm answering for my Blogger tips blog, not the team blog]
* Do you write pillar articles? – I tend to do a lot of research and analysis so I did write one ‘by accident.’ Later I did one as a guest post on a friend’s blog. Lately I’ve procrastinated because I want every post to be ‘pillar’ (unrealistic and unnecessary).
* Do you think it’ll help you to build a stronger foundation? – it did help since a couple of them continue to draw traffic. I can also build on them, refer to them in later posts.
* Share one of your best pillar articles – The Color Red in Blog Design and ‘Synergy- the human side of blogging’
SBA’s latest blog post..Where to Use Your 125×125 Ad?
One of my website which I have outsourced the articles is failed mainly due to the copy and paste content, even it has passed the copy scape test it did not seem to pass the human test. Good quality content is the foundation of a website, also it has to be interesting and readable like this, thanks for your great example.
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I haven’t written any pillar articles yet but I’ve been planning to for a long time. I suppose I’ve had difficulty choosing the right topic but I think you are right about doing as much research as possible, then the article while be as comprehensive as possible which is what readers expect from a pillar article.
BTW Have you noticed that the font when adding a comment is quite hard to read?
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Some call it pillar articles and some call it link baiting articles – well they have the same characteristics – blogpost with valuable content. Personally I think such blogpost (pillar articles) should be published at least twice a month in order to deliver values to your readers regularly.
It gotta be my recent interview with Douglas Hanna from Hostgator (http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/10-questions-with-hostgator/).
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@Blog Income Report: Thanks for informing that; the text is readable in my resolution but may be harder for some monitor color versions, thanks for informing that, I’m working on it.
@Jerry: I’ve read that post and it’s a great article and informative one.
What great timing. Yesterday I started a pillar post, but the title was all wrong. After reading your article, I changed it from Blogging Process – Social Networking for Blog Promotion to 9 Ways to Use Social Networking for Blog Promotion. I hope that will make a difference. :) Thanks for the great info.
~ Kristi
Kikolani | Blogging, Poetry, Photography’s latest blog post..9 Ways to Use Social Networking for Blog Promotion
I had also noticed the comment text lacks contrast. Perhaps just enlarging the text would help. Here’s a good readability tool to verify and test different combinations for font and background colors.:
http://www.sidar.org/hera/color.php?
This section is in Spanish, but just select your colors, press the big gray (comprobar) button and you see your score versus the minimum requirement. If you don’t know your current colors, use the Firefox ColorZilla eyedropper to capture– shows backgr as #FFFFFF and font as #B2B5B6.
SBA’s latest blog post..Where to Use Your 125×125 Ad?
Very good post!!!
moolfs’s latest blog post..Pharaoh Tutankhamun Mummy
I agree about the importance of quality pillar posts. I recently wrote a detailed walk through to adding CMF ads on your blog and it was linked from the CMF Ads website help page. That definitely adds to traffic over time if the CMF network grows.
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Very good tips. I agree the subject has to make the audience want to visit, as does the first paragraph. The rest is up to the author’s skills as a story teller, and of course the presentation of the post.
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Thank you for such great information! I love to write and I do write some pillar posts but since my blogs are new I think I get a little discouraged when I think no one is reading.
I keep telling myself to just write and they will come! I know that’s the best way but it’s hard to do sometimes.
Keep up the good work – this blog is the best!
I really like your blog friend. I like how you write and express through your post… ;)
Pillar posts are something I’m working at at the moment. But I’m trying to post shorter ones while working on a big one. Can be challenging.