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Content Marketing

THE SECRET TO RAPID

BLOG GROWTH

MODULE 1 LESSON 2
WORKSHEET
MODULE 1 LESSON 2 WORKSHEET T H E S EC R E T TO R A P I D B LO G G RO W T H

WOR KS H E ET

The Secret to Rapid Blog Growth

You just learned that most people struggle with their blog because they follow the same
outdated advice: “Make sure to publish at least one blog post every week.”

Even though that advice is well-meaning, it’s misguided. And it usually comes from “blogging
experts” that started their blogs back in the day. Back then, growing a blog WAS as easy as
publishing all the time. Today, the game has changed.

Today, there are millions of blogs competing for attention. So to stand out, you can’t publish
a new post every week and hope that it will magically turn into traffic. It won’t.

That’s why the big takeaway from this lesson is:

“Most people say that the secret to growing a blog is to publish content on
a consistent basis. But that’s a myth. The real secret to getting lots of traffic
to your blog is to publish less often, but publish AMAZING stuff every single time.”

As you saw, AMAZING content (in all caps :-D ) comes in many shapes and sizes.

And that a Ridiculously Long List (RLL) is the easiest and most straightforward way to create
AMAZING content.

How an RLL Can be a Complete Game Changer

I want to tell you a quick story about how a single RLL can be a game changer for your blog
and business.

My friend Jon Cooper started his blog, Point Blank SEO, in 2011. At first, Jon followed the
typical blogging advice that you’ve read a thousand times: “Publish a new post every week.”

So he published a new post at least once per week. His stuff was good. But not good enough
to get noticed.

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Then, one day, he published a Ridiculously Long List called “Link Building Strategies:
The Complete List.”

This single piece of content put Jon on the map. Suddenly he was an “SEO Whiz Kid.”
His email list blew up. And consulting offers came in from all sides.

All of this from ONE post.

As the years went on, Jon decided to focus on his link building agency. So his blog ended up
on the backburner. One day, on a Skype call with Jon, I offered to purchase Point Blank SEO.

Why?

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Yes, Jon had a lot of great content that could easily be moved to Backlinko. But I mostly
wanted to acquire his RLL. Not only did Jon’s RLL have 4 thousand links pointing to it, but
it generated thousands of high-quality visitors every single month.

In fact, I can say with confidence that I wouldn’t have been interested in acquiring Point
Blank SEO without that RLL.

With that, it’s time to get started on your RLL. Specifically, I’m going to show you how to
choose a topic for your RLL.

Let’s get started.

1 Brainstorm Topics
A lot of people start blog post topic research with a tool. Yes, tools are nice. And I’ll
show you a few of them in this worksheet. But in my experience, your best source of
topic ideas is your own brain. After all, you know your industry better than anyone.

Plus, you might already have a few topic ideas in mind. For example, I didn’t get the idea
for my SEO tools RLL from any fancy tool. I actually thought of the idea while walking
to brunch one morning in Berlin.

So go ahead and jot down 3-5 potential topic ideas below:

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Note: None of the topics you write down on this worksheet are set in stone. You can
always change, add or delete them later on. So you don’t need to worry about your topic
being perfect. Just jot something down and move on to the next step. I’ll show you how
to refine your topic ideas at the end of the worksheet.

2 Mine Your Existing Content

Next, take a quick look at some of the posts that you published on your own blog. I
recommend opening up your blog feed starting from your latest post, and going back
in time to older posts.

You can sometimes cover the same topic you already covered as an RLL. Or maybe you
touched on a topic in one of your older posts. And you realize that the topic is worthy
of its own blog post.

For example, let’s say you published a case study about how you used The Paleo Diet
to lose 10 pounds. And one of the key steps was that you replaced regular desserts
with low-carb, Paleo versions.

Well, you could expand the topic “Low-carb paleo desserts” into an RLL.

Either way, write down 2-3 blog post topic ideas based on your existing content in the
box below.

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3 Google Search Research

Google is an underrated source of blog post topics. Just search for a few topics relat-
ed to your niche… and see what comes up.

For example, let’s say you want to write something about The Paleo Diet. Well, when
I just typed “Paleo Diet” into Google I found content about LOTS of potential topics
like: Paleo recipes, meal plans, food lists, scientific studies, myths and misconceptions,
tips, and more.

That was from ONE Google search.

So give that a shot. Then, write down 2-3 topic ideas from Google:

4 Tools and Software (Optional)

It’s tool time. So whip open your favorite SEO or content marketing tool and hunt for
topics.

The “best” tool for you depends on your business, goals and budget. So there isn’t
one tool that’s best for everybody. That said, when it comes to content topic research,
I tend to use BuzzSumo the most.

They all work pretty much the same way. Type in a keyword and get a list of content
that’s done well on that topic.

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So go ahead and give a tool a try. And write down 2-3 potential topics here:

Note: This step is completely optional. You should be able to find a GREAT topic
for your RLL using the other strategies from this worksheet. But if you’re stuck
or want to get even more potential topic ideas, a tool can help.

5 Collect Your Topics

Now it’s time to put all of your topics in one place. That way, you can easily look them
over.

So copy and paste the topics that you found in Steps 1-4 here:

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6 Filter Your Topics

Next, you want to filter out any topics that won’t work as an RLL.

Specifically, delete any topic that probably won’t support a list of at least 100 items.

For example, a topic like “Social Media Marketing Tips” could definitely work as an RLL.
So could something more specific like “YouTube Marketing Tips.”

But a topic like “Creating and Optimizing an Editorial Calendar” wouldn’t work. I mean,
I guess you COULD come up with 100 ways to optimize someone’s editorial calendar.
But it would be a real stretch.

So re-review the topics you have in Step 5. Then, copy and paste any topics that might
work as an RLL in the box below:

7 Choose Your RLL Topic

Next, it’s time to choose a topic for your RLL.

There’s no algorithm or Excel spreadsheet formula that will tell you: “This is the right
topic.” It’s ultimately a judgement call. So if one topic really stands out for you, go for
that topic.

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With that, here are 3 tips to help you choose a topic for your RLL:

1. Is there an RLL already?

I talked about this a little bit in the video. In general, you don’t want to be the person
that creates the second or third RLL on that topic. Of course, if you find your RLL
topic “taken” you can always go with a different angle. For example, if you find that
there’s already a list of Paleo Desserts, go with Paleo Lunches. Or Keto Desserts.

So Google your topic using search strings like “topic” + “list.” If you don’t see an RLL,
you’re probably good to go.

2. Can you crush this topic?

Ideally you’d pick a topic that you could absolutely CRUSH. When in doubt, go with
the topic that you know best.

3. Are you super interested in the topic?

As you’ll soon see, an RLL takes some work to put together. So it helps if you have
an interest in the topic. For example, Jon Cooper’s link building strategies RLL was
relatively easy to write because he’s obsessed with link building.

Based on a combination of these tips, and your gut, write down your potential RLL
topic here:

And remember: your RLL topic isn’t set in stone. Far from it. So if you start on your RLL
and decide that this topic isn’t a good fit, you can always choose another topic from
Step 6. Or go through the steps again.

So go ahead and choose a topic for your RLL. Then, head over to the next lesson.
See you then!