How a Post Series Helps You

Many times, blogger's seem to be stuck and have no idea what to write about. This is called Blogger's Block. Starting a post series can be a good way to avoid this situation.

How does a Series help you?

1. No Need to Hunt for Ideas. When you have a series going on, you already know what you have to write about.
2. New Readers. Readers who are interested in the topic your series is about will check your blog regularly to get new updates. Using appropriate "Calls for Action", you can turn them into subscribers, customers, whatever you want.
3. Search Engine Optimization. Optimizing your blog can be difficult whe you're adding a few keywords to different posts for SEO purposes. But when you write certain posts with the same idea, some "phrases" and keywords are repeated which is good for SEO. Also this will help you to get good search engine rank for those keywords.

Now that you have learned that a series can be beneficial for your blog, next are some tips that will help you to start (and maintain) a good series.

1. Selection of topic. Select something that has not been covered before in your niche. When I was searching for new advertising networks, I did not find any blogs that had covered the ad networks. The only way I found new ones was through the ads. But ads do not tell anything about the ad network itself. So, I decided to have a post on pros and cons of ad networks. But when I realized that the post could grow too long, I decided to start a series.
2. Drafts. Do not start a series unless and until you have outlines of at least the first few posts. In my case, I decided the first 5 networks were going to be AdSense, NetPartner, Project Wonderful, Click Bank, and BidVertiser.
3. Do Not Get Monotonous. The posts in a series will be around same idea, but they do not need to be monotonous. Have a good mix of posts. In short, make sure they do not get boring.
4. Maintain Same Things. While not getting monotonous, also be sure that you add at least some information that is consistent in the series. For example, I mention payout limit in every post.
5. Give Readers Time to Try. If you are running a series of articles on recommendations or networks, give readers enough time to try the choices. For example, the first network in our Ad series was AdSense which is a CPC and CPM network. Next week, it was NetPartner, a CPA network. CPC and CPA campaigns can be run at the same time. You can place ads in sidebar etc. and have affiliate links inside the content. This gave readers enough time to try them. Project Wonderful was next network which is a cheap network to advertise your blog and has potential to generate some good revenue for publishers even at low traffic. Next week, there was a little pause and no post was published. This gave readers enough time(4 weeks) to try AdSense and then I came up with its alternative for people for whom AdSense did not work.
6. Tell Readers about Series. While regular readers know that you are running a series, new visitors do not. Be sure to tell them that the post they are reading is a part of series. You can manually insert a message saying "This is part n of nn of xxxxxx Series".

WordPress Organize Series Plugin: This plugin makes organizing posts of a series a piece of cake. It automatically adds "This entry is part x of x in the series " message to top of posts belonging to series and also adds a small section to upper right corner of post like this one:

What to do After Series is Complete?
So, after investing a lot of time, you have completed a series. But is it the end? No! While the series will continue to get search engine traffic, you can also use the content to get some extra publicity. E-Books, especially free ones can be a good promoter for your blog. Combine all the posts, add some more content and your E-Book will be ready!

Have you started a post series or written one in the past? How did it help you? Be sure to tell us.

photo by Auntie P