The Recipe For a Popular Post

I'm on a mini-vacation taking advantage of the snow that just recently hit the slopes here in Southern California, so I won't be around to answer comments until later this week. I wanted to throw up a “what I've been reading lately” type of post which I normally do every couple of months, but I thought it would be cool to put a spin on it. Enjoy this post and pray I don't hurt myself while I'm snowboarding!

We all want to write popular posts, the ones that drive massive traffic to our blogs and produce a ton of interaction within our audience. Some posts we write are obviously going to be more popular than others, but what is it that really makes a post popular?

To answer this question lets take a closer look at some of the most popular posts from blogs around the web and see if we can make some connections.

Below you'll find 3 popular posts from each of the blogs listed below. Really take some time to see if you can find any commonalities between them.

Viperchill.com from Glen Allsop

• How I Really Built a Blog with 6,500 Subscribers
• WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You Need
• Cloud Jacking: 7 Steps to Dominating Your Niche

Erica.biz from Erica Douglass

• The Failure Manifesto
• 2010 Second Quarter Update
• How to Manifest Large Sums of Money

CopyBlogger.com from Brian Clark

• 10 Effective Ways To Get More Blog Subscribers
• 10 Secrets to More Magnetic Copy
• The Two Most Important Words In Blogging

IttyBiz.com from Naomi Dunford

• When You Feel Like a Raging Failure
• All Customers are Liars
• Batshit Crazy: Creative Ways to Meet Your Goals

EscapingThe9to5.com from Maren Kate

• 21 Reasons You Should Work For Yourself
• Playing It Safe Will Destroy Your Life
• I'm Unemployable…Are You?

You can probably tell there are some common traits between them just from reading the headlines. I invite you to read some of them because, well, they are some of the most popular posts for a reason.

What about blogs that don't have to do with business, blogging or entrepreneurship?

Let's see!

GoodFinancialCents.com from Jeff Rose

• 7 Questions To Ask Your Financial Planner
• IRA Consolidation: The “Super IRA” Strategy
• How Much Term Life Insurance Do You Need To Buy?

PodcastAnswerMan.com from Cliff Ravenscraft

• Webhosting for Podcasters
• Voice Mail Options for Podcasters
• The Power of the Heil PR-40 Microphone

RawFoodsWitch.com from Nathalie Lussier

• Why It's Easier To Go Raw Than Become Vegan
• 7 Reasons I Have a Love / Hate Relationship With Raw Food
• 9 Ways Raw Food Changed My Life

StevePavilna.com from Steve Pavlina

• 10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job
• How To Discover Your Life Purpose In About 20 Minutes
• How To Decide When To End A Long-Term Relationship

Digital-Photography-School.com from Darren Rowse

• 19 Beautiful Examples of HDR Done Right
• Getting Close and Personal: 11 Tips for Close-up Candid Street Photography
• 11 Great Camera Angles for Food Photography

Again, you should be able to see some commonalities between these articles and across all of these industries.

So let me ask you: looking at all of these posts (and hopefully reading some of them too), what do YOU think makes some or all of them some of the most popular posts on their blogs?