Reader Challenge Roundup: Pillar Articles
By Pat Flynn on
It’s amazing what a little challenge can do to help people accomplish something great.
A pillar article (for those of you who don’t know) is a particular type of blog post that can also be described as epic, monumental and comprehensive. Usually a longer tutorial-style post, a pillar article goes above and beyond to provide the best and most detailed information about how to accomplish something. This kind of post is a deadly piece of ammunition in a blogger’s arsenal because it can drive massive traffic, easily become viral and drastically raise the value and authority of the blog and its owner.
I’ve recently written about how my own pillar articles have helped my brand, and in that post I had offered the SPI readers a challenge: to publish your own brand new pillar article. I also asked you to send me the link to your pillar article so that I can list it here with all of the other submissions so we can all see what kind of killer, useful and helpful content we all come up with.
And the results were amazing!
Below, you’ll find a list of all of the pillar articles that were submitted to me (in the order received) from all different kinds of niches covering a massive variety of topics. If we estimate that on average each author spent about 4 hours writing their post (this is a generous number, as I’ll sometimes spend 8 to 10 hours putting together a pillar article), this means that below you’re looking at a total of about 200 hours of actual writing time.
A lot of effort and heart were put into these posts, so to all of the participants I say: job well done! Many of you even emailed me thanking me for the “kick in the butt” to finally take action (you’re welcome!) and some of you even told me that because of the posts you’ve written you’ve seen more traffic and comments than ever! Now that’s what I’m talking about!
I don’t expect you to read all of the posts but scroll through and find one or two (or more) that peak your interest.
Side note: this is a perfect example of why the title of a blog post is so important. No one will read your awesome content unless you have an awesome, attention-grabbing headline to go with it.
Five Steps To Building a Kickin’ Website For Under $12
How to Promote Your Blog Article
Want To Write Articles For Money? Your Results May Vary
Ready to Invest? Some Thoughts to Keep in Mind
10 Tips to Not Get Treated Like a Tourist
How to Make Money on the Internet
Ways to Get Student Loan Forgiveness
How to Research an Internet Marketing Niche: THE Ultimate Blueprint
The Blogger’s ULTIMATE Guide to All of Google’s Tools and Services
The Top 10 Work at Home Jobs for Moms, Part 1
How to Choose a Profitable Niche Topic
How to Find Your Absolutely, Positively REAL and TRUE FICO Credit Score. Seriously.
Using Coconut Flour or Gluten and Grain Free Baking – some tips
Complete Blueprint for Promoting & Profiting from Clickbank Product Launches
Top 10 Traits of Successful Options Traders
Passive Income GamePlan: 12 Steps to Designing Your Muse
How I Made My First Sale in Exactly 30 Days
10 Simple Steps to ‘Thought Leader’ Status in Your Niche!
How to Make Money Selling Your Own Products
The Must-Have Action List for Event Marketing…with an emphasis on social networks
The Great Wine Experiment (Plus: Find Out If You’re A Super Taster)
Why Your Body Is Intelligent & Doesn’t Need You!
Groceries: The Pantry Principle
Why & How To Create Your Posting Schedule 3 Weeks in Advanced
The Ultimate Guide to Building a Church Website
Eight Ingenious (and Profitable) Niche Site Ideas
Depressed but Fighting: How to Overcome Depression
The Beginners Guide to Being Self Employed
Affiliate Marketing – Being the Best You Can Be
How Tim Ferriss Took Me to a Jets Game with Gary Vaynerchuk
Essential Wilderness Equipment
How to Build a Niche Site in 0 Hours
Foam Roller Exercises – Everything You Needed to Know
Desperate’s Guide to the Airport
20 Simple Steps To Improve Your Finances Next Year
How to Recover from Addiction: Case Studies Highlight Specific Techniques that Lead to Success
The Ten Secrets of Successful Timesharing
The Definitive Guide to Mobile SEO
How to Blog with your Smartphone
How to Wake Up Early with Enthusiasm
The Ultimate Non-Designers Guide to Branding
The Definitive Guide to Staying Productive and Motivated
All of the articles are great, however there are a few true gems that really go above and beyond the call of duty here. I’ll let the commenters share which ones they feel are worth a second look.
I was going to have you vote on your favorite and choose a “winner”, but I don’t think it would be fair because of the different niches and the general attraction of my readers toward blogging, make money online and webmaster type articles. So instead, I have randomly selected an author of one of the articles as a winner of a $50.00 Amazon.com Gift Card, on me.
Congratulations to Brad from PassionateFather.com!
The Next Reader Challenge
I loved the results of this challenge so much that I plan to make this an ongoing thing on the blog to keep “kicking you in the butt” and getting you to take action (and hopefully see some results too).
Every “roundup” post like this one will contain the next reader challenge, and here it is:
You have until the end of February to write a list post.
A list post is a simple. It’s a post that lists a number of something. For example:
- 22 Take Action Ways to Become a Remarkable Blogger
- 19 WordPress Plugins – Some You Probably Didn’t Know About
- 5 Things You Must Know About Creating Your Own iPhone Apps
List posts are wildly popular in the blogosphere, and for good reason. As bloggers, they are fun and easy to write. As readers, they are easy to read and memorable. On several top blogs, you’ll see that many of the most popular posts are indeed list posts.
I recommend scanning through 10 Steps to the Perfect List Post first. After you publish your post, send me a link and I’ll publish it here on SPI sometime in March. Again, a lucky random contributor will win a $50.00 Amazon.com Gift Card from me.
I’m hoping to get at least 100 submissions this time around, so think about your post and take action!
Thanks again to all participants, and please feel free to leave any comments about which of the pillar articles listed above deserve some extra attention.
Cheers!
