Writing and maintaining a blog is hard.
But it is nothing compared to actually finding readers for your blog.
If you find yourself going through the frustration of not being able to generate enough interest in your blog post and not being able to improve its visibility in search engine rankings, you?re not alone. I?ve been there. It?s not a good place to be.
And it?s not easy to get out. But it?s not impossible either. If you want to generate backlinks for your blog and receive likes and shares on social media, I have two words for you:
Expert Roundups.
What Are Expert Roundups?
The hint is in the name.
An expert roundup is usually a blog post or a piece of content that rounds up the opinions of all the experts in that particular niche.
In essence, it brings together the best and most valuable suggestions on the topic at hand.
Think of it as a compilation music album that gathers the best of the best to pack them all into a powerful punch.
With a roundup blog post, the readers can receive insights from some of the most respected names in the industry.
You can use roundups to expand your blog?s reach as well as maximize your conversion ratio.
Why Expert Roundups Are Blowing Up Around the Web
Like many bloggers who are starting out, Tor Refsland felt the frustration of not getting any attention on his posts.
He was fed up of what he referred to as the triple zero club comprised of people who received zero shares, page views, and comments.
So he decided to try something new for his blog.
He decided to go for a roundup post.
Not just that.
He decided to go all in and create a truly epic post on the biggest productivity tips. But there was something special.
The post included contributions from some of the leading experts and influence in the field.
It was a massive success.
Within a few days, Tor received 20,231 page views, 1,500 shares, and 84 comments on his blog post.
And this is just the beginning.
His post also got the number three spot on Google search under the keyword ?productivity tip’.
There are plenty of reasons why expert roundups work so well when nothing else does.
The biggest reason is that they actually offer something substantial to the readers. They offer actionable tips that the readers can use. The expert opinions bring a certain level of credibility to what?s being said.
The experts, themselves, are a huge reason why these posts are so insanely successful. Each expert featured on the post is an influencer in their respective fields.
If the post successfully manages to get a lot of backlinks on their websites, it contributes to an increase in shares as well as the creation of content that will rank in search engines.
An Actionable Guide on Creating Expert Roundup Posts
This brings us to our main question.
How do you actually go about creating a roundup post?
Where do you start?
Where do you end?
Don?t worry.
By the end of this post, you?ll have a much better idea and a direction.
Here?s A Step-By-Step Guide To Creating Expert Roundups:
1. Find Top Blogs within Your Niche
The first thing you need for an expert roundup is the actual experts. And where do you find them?
Well, you start your search by looking for some of the best and most followed blogs in your niche.
There are two advantages of doing that. First, the top bloggers in your niche are top bloggers for a reason.
They have the knowledge and the experience that gives their voice the authority you need to give your roundup post heft and weight.
The second reason you need top bloggers is that they come with a lot of followers.
They?re not just experts in their niche — they?re also influencers. And you need those precious backlinks to improve your website?s search engine ranking.
Also, a recommendation from their social media page would send followers flocking your way.
But how do you actually find those top blogs?
One of the best ways to do that, according to Karol K, is plain old Google. He says:
?There are two ways you can use Google: (1) looking for blogs one by one, or (2) searching for list posts compiled by other people that already showcase the top blogs in a given niche. The latter is a much more effective approach.?
It?s simple.
Type in ?best?, followed by your niche, followed by ?blogs? into Google and hit enter.
Here?s an example:
2. Choose a Topic That Rocks
What?s the point in writing a blog if almost anything you can contribute has been said already?
Picking a niche and sticking to it is not enough. You need to find areas in your niche that have not been addressed.
That doesn?t mean you have to be so specific that no one, except for a few people, are interested in the topic.
You need to find that right balance in being interesting for everyone and being original and innovative. In short, you need to find a topic that rocks!
One way to go about it is to use Quora for your search.
Quora gives you a snapshot of what people are generally looking for in your niche. This gives you an idea of the demand in the market.
And not just that, but you also get to know about how people frame that demand. According to Benjamin Brandall:
?Keywords are, at their core, a human way to accurately query a massive database. We want to match our keywords to the ones people are actually searching for, which means being in tune with the way they speak.?
In addition to providing you your topic, Quora will also let you promote your post. Read more about that here.
Here?s an example of how a simple search would offer you tons of stuff to write on:
3. Choose a Keyword You Can Rank For
If you want your expert roundup to do well, you can?t shoot in the dark and hope it strikes the bull?s-eye.
When good bloggers sit down to write a blog post, they don’t do so haphazardly. They know exactly what they?re doing.
How so?
They do keyword research. When you set out to find a topic, you also need a keyword that?s popular with the audiences.
This is one of the things that blogger Emil Shour used to take his site from the bottom of the barrel to the number one spot in Google rankings.
He conducted a keyword research and found a demand for the keyword ?wellness program ideas?.
From then onwards, his task was simple. Take his website to the number one spot in that keyword search. And he did it!
4. Email Your Group Experts
Once you?re all set and ready with a specific topic in your niche, it?s time to conduct the actual research and generate content.
In this case, both of these steps involve emailing your group of experts and asking for a comment.
For instance, if you?re writing about beating writer?s block, you need to email blog writers and ask for actionable tips on how to achieve that.
Be sure to ask them about their personal experiences as they help the readers relate to the problem and the solution.
Here?s an example of how I contacted Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends when it came to writing my own expert roundup blog:
Anita was really kind.
She took out valuable time from her schedule to come up with this suggestion:
And so, the brief interaction was a small success.
5. Publish and Alert Your Contributors
Once you publish the blog, you?ve only achieved half of what you originally set out to do. Working hard to compile a variety of tips from a variety of experts won?t lead you anywhere if no one actually reads your blog post.
And, to make sure people do, you need a small favor from the aforementioned experts again.
You need them to link your post on their website and/or share your blog post through social media as well.
Experts don?t just bring valuable opinions to the table. They bring actual followers as well.
After my post went live, I alerted Anita about it and actually got a link on her website Small Business Trends:
6. Promote Your Expert Roundup through Inbound.org
Okay, so you?ve finally finished writing the expert roundup blog post. Your labor of love has finally come to an end.
Now if there could just be a place where you can find an eager audience, how wonderful would that have been?
Well, good news! There is such a place.
And it?s called inbound.org.
Inbound allows you to reach experts, influencers, and interested audiences at the same time.
Seriously, what?s not to love?
Here?s an example of a post that I made on my website as well as on Inbound.
Within just a few days, it got thousands of page views and a bunch of comments from Inbound alone:
The Final Word
So you see?
Expert roundups are a smart way to acquire an audience by tapping into other people?s resources.
If you work hard and do your research, amazing things will happen.
I mean, who knows?
Maybe you could even end up earning six figures from your blog.
Now that you?ve seen how to use expert roundups to generate links and social shares on autopilot, I?d like to hear from you.
What do you think of the expert roundups?
Or maybe you have a question about creating expert roundup posts.
Either way, leave a quick comment below.
I?ll be around to reply to comments and answer questions.
