DAY 23: PUBLISH A ROUNDUP
Maria Popova, Dave Pell, and Jason Kottke make a living by scouring the internet and blogging about their finds. They’re masters at rounding up great discoveries and sharing not only the links, but why they love them.
Today’s challenge: Publish a roundup post that links to posts on at least three other blogs, and tell us why you love the posts — and why we should read ‘em.
Why?
Because when you’ve truly enjoyed something that someone else has created, it’s nice to tell your readers what touched you and introduce them to ideas that complement and deepen what you blog about.
Because post ideas will come to you as you write about your finds.
Because roundup posts are a good addition to your blogger’s toolbox — plus, they’re low stress and easily shared.
Roundup posts — collections of links to things you love — probably shouldn’t be the basis of your blogging, but they can be a great addition to your regular work. They’re less stressful and time intensive that generating an original post. They open new avenues of conversation. They attract new readers, and are highly share-able. Maybe, just maybe, a weekly or monthly round-up post to the best you’ve read/seen in the community becomes a fixture in your editorial calendar… an idea which just might help you out when we get to Day 29.
(Plus, roundup-style posts do well on Fridays, when many of us are looking to kill a little time by futzing around on the internet. Maybe you’ll find the content to share during your own Friday afternoon brain-break. )
Today, publish one. Make sure you link to at least three other sites, but feel free to link to more. If you’re feeling sassy (and I do hope you are), put some criteria on your finds and shape the roundup to fit the unique focus of your blog — only poetry posts. Only posts about travel from the perspective of a single mom. Only posts about dog training by people who own Cocker Spaniels.
Here are a few ideas to get you started. These are simply suggestions — feel free to focus your roundup on the topics or genres that interest you and your readers:
Everyone loves a good rant. Share your three favorite opinion pieces from the previous week and what you found compelling in the arguments.
Bloggers have amazing content lurking their archives. Share posts that a minimum of one year old, and encourage your readers to dig in.
Go topical. Into baking? Judo? Gaming? Books? Add your pet topics to your Reader, and share your favorite posts on a beloved pastime or hobby.
Teach us something. If you’re like me, you use Google like your own personal library. What’s the easiest way to clean oven racks? What’s the best recipe for pulled pork tacos? Share great how-to posts that saved you time or made your life easier.
Remember, these are only ideas to get you thinking. You’re welcome to take these ideas, mash ‘em up, use them as you see fit, modify them to suit your needs, or create your own. Post a bulleted list, or if you’d like, take your recommended links and work them into a more narrative-style post. If you’d like to add links to sites other than blogs, feel free.
For those who’ve never created a link before, or who aren’t sure how to turn text into hyperlinks, here are the step by step instructions. These are for WordPress.com folks but they’re pretty universal; the process is the same for more software.
If you’re a WordPress.com blogger, there’s no need to limit yourself to sharing WordPress.com blogs — the whole internet is your oyster.
Finally, remember to tag your posts with “zerotohero” so we can all find your picks, add some new readers to our lists of favorites, and learn a few things.
To chat with other Zero to Hero participants, visit today’s forum thread.
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