PB104: 4 Of My Most Viewed Blog Posts This Month and Why They Worked

Note: this episode is available to listen to in the player above, on iTunes and Stitcher. A Walk-Through of Reasons Why My Recent Top Posts Have Done Well Today I'm going to talk about some posts that have worked for me in the last month on Digital Photography School, my main blog. This episode comes about from a question received by one of our readers, Matthew. He asks if I could walk through a number of posts that have recently done well and why they have worked. We have done this before on the blog and it worked really well, so let's try it for the podcast. In the last month, these four posts have all been in the top 20 on Digital Photography School. I checked Google Analytics for the most read posts, and I tried to pick ones that I haven't talked about in the past. In Today’s Episode 4 of My Most Viewed Blog Posts This Month and Why They Worked 21 Settings, Techniques and Rules All New Camera Owners Should Know Written in 2010. It’s always been a strong performer. Over 100,000 views this month. It’s shareable. It’s a sneeze page - it links to 21 other posts Topic - good big picture overview Generates a load of page views Makes a bit claim Generates curiosity Gets a lot of shares - over a million, people recommend this post to beginners they know Feature image - has been tested and honed, something our readers love about dials works great on social because it signals topic and builds reader anxiety/curiosity This post promotes our course which solves a problem What we could do better - specific opt-in for the post Better formatting - looks a bit tired Replicate this format for specific niches of photography 11 Stages That Every Photographer Goes Through This was written by James Maher a guest writer. I had reservations about this post. It wasn’t a tips post. It was written tongue in cheek a humour story It didn’t have a “hero” image or hit the inspiration angle It worked because it was relatable - I shared on facebook with a question of which stages do you relate to? Touches on a pain point, stage 6 everything sucks Key lesson - you don’t have to always solve a problem, you can create content that shows the reader you know where they are at and can relate to that Everyday Carry – Must-have Tools for Photographers This one surprised Bulk of our articles are tips related This is an accessory or gear article Writer put all of these things in a small tin, which created a strong visual The items were affordable and accessible We claimed must have tools - the word tools works well The post has a hack/DIY perspective EveryDayCarry - is a movement that people are obsessive about, possible share on EveryDayCarry forums How to Make Colors Pop in Yo...