I’ve shared many times that your content usually shouldn’t be vapor. There are times when a quick story can come and go, but most your content should be available for years.
Related, I’m continuing to refine my use of RSS to make it more about people. With most folks that I meet, I try to find their blog and RSS feed to add to my collection. Only perhaps 1 in 10 actually have that, but I’m suddenly way more connected with those folks.
Lastly, your content should be open and easily accessible. You can find the full content of this post (and all of my others) in a wide variety of places, as I’m more interested in people reading my content than I am on pageviews on my site.
You can have both.
While short-term it kind of makes sense to force people back to your site in order to pump up your pageviews, the act of forcing readers there will hurt your long-term impact. A great example of that was the “like” post I recently shared from Brandie.
When I met her at an event last year, I added her blog to my RSS reader. She doesn’t post super frequently, perhaps once a month, but that’s the beauty of RSS — it doesn’t matter. When she posts, I see it, and when she doesn’t, I don’t need to waste time looking. In her case, she tends to write rather robust posts, so her monthly cadence is about right.
She also posts full-text RSS feeds, meaning the entire post shows up in my reader. When she publishes, I get the full post in my RSS reader and I’m not forced to click through to read it all. As a consequence, I can read the full post immediately and I’m more likely to be drawn into it. In her case, this has generated a few backlinks from this site to hers, which will help her rank a bit higher in the search results.
This sounds like a lot of work, but it’s really not.
- Write solid content.
- Publish it somewhere that it’ll last.
- Make it easy for people to consume.
Be like Chris. Be like Tim. Be like Brandie. Be easily found, and let your content thrive for years to come.
