You’ve probably heard the estimate that human beings are exposed to thousands of marketing messages each and every day. A frequently referenced HubSpot blog post from 2014 claims we are pummeled with around 5,000 advertisements each day. On the low end of the estimated range, Media Dynamics says the modern Internet-connected human can expect exposure to 362 ads or marketing efforts on a daily basis.
So even if you go with that lower figure, there are 361 marketing efforts vying for your prospect’s attention, aside from your newly published blog post. In anyone’s book, that is some stiff competition. Unfortunately, a lot of the ads and marketing campaigns that are trying to flag down your prospect’s attention are backed by piles of money you could never compete with.
Now let’s look at exactly how many other blogs you are up against. The most popular blogging platform in the world, WordPress, reported in 2014 that there were close to 15 billion blog pages read each and every month. Around 40 million new posts showed up every 30 days, resulting in over 50 million comments. By the way, those estimates are just for the WordPress blogging platform!
This brings us to the first reason why you need to be writing epic blog posts – there is a lot of stiff competition out there, with more competitors and marketing messages appearing every day.
Some other great motivators for writing memorable, viral posts have to do with your business goals. A single engaging, interesting, problem-solving post can go a long way to making you an authority in your field. It can land you podcast interviews and JV partnerships, single-handedly double, triple, 5X or even 10X your current list building efforts, and create a reliable, passive income for years.
You probably understand all of those points. You may have been trying to create that Incredi-Post to take your business to another level for a long time. If you are reading this now, your previous efforts have probably not delivered the results you’re looking for. Let’s look at some characteristics that most viral, high-value posts display, so you can start writing epic posts yourself.
Epic Blog Posts Can Be Described as…
Long
Here are a couple of blurbs taken from different definitions for the word epic, as a noun:
- “long poetic composition”
- “majestic; impressively great”
- “of unusually great size or extent”
There is no getting around it, to create a piece of content that will stand the test of time and take on a life of its own, you need to make it long. Aside from referring to definitions of the word epic that were outlined centuries before the Internet was born, is there any other proof that longer is better?
According to the marketing blog QuickSprout, if a post is longer than 1,500 words it performs better socially. Posts of that length “… get almost 70% more Tweets and nearly 23% more Facebook likes” than shorter posts.
Google agrees that length wins the day. The world’s largest search engine rewards blog posts of 2,000 words or more with more free, organic traffic than posts with less content. Rule #1 is simple – your post must be long if it has a chance to be epic.
They Take Time to Write
Now that your post needs to be lengthy, you probably understand it will take you longer to write it than a simple 400 word, 12-minute piece. Regardless how many algorithm changes Google undergoes, they reward consistent efforts. That has led a lot of bloggers to unleash 5 or 12 or 30 blog posts each month. There is no problem with that, until you apply the length rule you just learned.
If each one of the posts you create is 400 to 600 words, you are not getting the most bang for your buck. Looking at how much traffic Google delivers to posts of different lengths, you see that a 500 to 749-word post receives only about 15% to 20% of the Google love shown to a 2,250 to 2,500-word piece of content.
That is 5 to almost 7 times as much traffic for that longer piece of content. Something that long has to be researched properly. You need to spend hours editing, writing, rewriting, doubling back and researching again. If it takes you several hours to write one valuable, lengthy, content-rich post, statistics show that when you put in the work, you are rewarded.
Relevant to Your Niche or Market
Pretend you own a peanut butter and jelly sandwich blog. You love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They are all you think about. Variations, recipes, what type of bread to use, which peanut butter is best, what jelly flavors pair with a particular type of bread – these are all questions and thoughts that control your every waking moment.
Now imagine if you were to post an informative, long, value-rich blog post about big block 454 engines. What? First off, you confuse Google and the other search engines. This means you are not going to get the traffic you have been looking for. Even if your 454 engine post is the best of its kind ever created, it doesn’t appeal to your market. So you not only upset the search engines, you confuse your audience as well. Stick to topics relevant to your marketplace.
Evergreen and Timeless
The epic sagas of the Vikings are still around today. That’s because their stories are timeless. You can relate to them in some way, even though you live in a world which is centuries removed from that of the Vikings. To give your post a chance to truly become epic, you should focus on content that is timeless.
In marketing circles, these are referred to as evergreen topics. People will always want to improve themselves. This means that fat loss, finding a mate, smoking cessation and growing hair on a bald head will probably always be themes that will stand the test of time. Focus on solving a problem that will be around forever. One of the few exceptions is when you…
They Break an Inside Scoop or Exclusive
Some blog posts which deserve the epic title have relatively short lives. They may only be relevant for a few months or a year. However, the massive avalanche of attention they receive in that short span, especially right after they are published, is what earns them the epic tag.
Do you remember when the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton was announced? How do you think the first few bloggers were rewarded when they told the world about this incredible event? They were the first to break the news, and accordingly received gargantuan amounts of traffic.
Their blog posts were shared, tweeted, re-tweeted, liked and pinned at an incredible rate. Be the first to disclose a noteworthy piece of news as relates to your niche or marketplace, and your rewards can be truly epic indeed.
Shareable
Your post should always be shareable. That means you should have built-in social media sharing buttons at the top and bottom of your post. WordPress plug-ins make this easy to do. However, you should not stop there. Just about every blogger has the traditional “top and bottom of the post” social share functionality.
Add “Tweet This” blurbs throughout your content. Reward Facebook shares and Pinterest pins with a free resource, PDF or valuable piece of content. Make it easy, and desirable, for your readers to share your content, and your chances of creating a viral post improve dramatically.
They Contain Everything You Need to Know
Truly epic posts leave no stone unturned. Remember all the time mentioned earlier you are going to spend researching this lengthy piece of content? Put all of that data to use. When you are done, ask yourself if there is anything else a reader needs to know considering the topic you are writing about. If someone has to click away from your page to search for more information regarding the content you wrote, you have not created a one-stop resource, which should be your goal.
Edgy, Controversial
One way to draw interest is to push people’s buttons. Say something that has never been said before about a particular idea or topic. Go where no one else in your niche has gone, bucking trends and raising eyebrows. If you are using hard facts and figures, only do this if you have data and information to back up your argument. Going against the grain, disproving a popular misconception or belief, is a great way to get your content read and shared on a massive scale.
An Ultimate Solution
Imagine you have been trying to lose that last 10 pounds. You have watched your diet, exercised, you get plenty of rest and drink lots of water, and you have been rewarded with the weight loss you are looking for. However, you still have a nagging 10 pounds of fat that simply won’t go away.
Now imagine you come across a post which has done something that no other web content has ever done before. It shows you how to solve the one problem that has been nagging you … losing that stubborn, last 10 pounds of fat. How do you feel about the person that wrote that content? You are probably going to read everything they write until the end of time, aren’t you? Those are the rewards of solving a huge problem by providing an ultimate solution.
Zero Fluff
Just because your post needs to be long to be epic, doesn’t mean you can fill it full of fluff. Your post should not be one word longer than it needs to be. Edit very carefully. Look at posts which you would describe as epic. Every word serves a purpose. A sentence may say, “Be quick.” It will never say, “Be as quick as you possibly can.”
When you add words which are not needed, you distract the brain, and the attention wanders. Take the time to research, write and edit your post, and make sure it is lengthy. However, don’t create length if it just means adding words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs of little substance.
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
You’ve probably heard that saying before. Well, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video must be invaluable. The lesson here is to add video, pictures, graphics and doodles to your content. Picture a 2,000-word piece of content that is all text.
Would you read that? Probably not. You need to break up your text with relevant graphics and video, which have been proven to increase the social share factor of online content.
