The Ultimate Guide to Creating Content that Generate 361,494 Visitors

Source: Neil Patel

I created an ultimate guide a few years ago that received over 400,000 visits.

The original idea wasn’t mine.

But I quickly made it popular by publishing a stream of guides that all received over 361,494 visitors each.

Getting a ton of new visitors is only the first goal, though.

These guides also rack up tons of social shares.

My Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking has been shared over 3,600 times across different networks according to Buzzsumo.

And they get a bunch of high-quality backlinks, too. Forbes and Fortune were just two of the places that link to it.

All of this leads to a ton of new visitors discovering my content for the first time.

And then a good percentage of those becoming new leads and customers.

Not bad for a single piece of content, right?

The best news of all is that anyone can create them.

They take a lot of work, time, and effort.

But otherwise, you can create one right now in almost any industry imaginable.

Here’s an ultimate guide to creating ultimate guides that will skyrocket traffic, shares, leads, and customers.

Start by finding topics that are already trending

My original “Guide to Online Marketing for Beginners” only received 68,319 visitors.

That’s less than 25% of the views my “Guide to Growth Hacking” received over 414,209 visitors.

What happened?

Why did one get so much attention, while the other received barely any?

There are a few reasons that I’ll share in this article.

However, one of the biggest problems was that “online marketing” has already been beaten to death.

Think about it.

You can’t go anywhere online without reading a “guide to online marketing.”

The topic has been around ages. It’s nothing new.

So trying to add something new is hard.

And getting people excited to share, write about, or promote it is equally challenging.

They’ve already seen almost everything there is about that topic.

“Growth hacking” has become a hot topic in recent years by comparison.

The concept and term didn’t even exist until recently.

That hints at the first tip.

There’s not a whole lot anyone can do if the public doesn’t care about your topic.

There has to be external demand for what you’re talking about.

So you have to find topics that are already trending.

Check out the Google Trends graph that led me to write a guide about growth hacking:

It’s blowing up!

Now compare that to “online marketing.” It’s a completely saturated topic.

Attention spiked a few years ago and has only dropped off since then.

Here’s another perfect example.

Check out the interest in “influencer marketing” over the past two years.

That’s no coincidence!

Social sites like Instagram have skyrocketed over the past few years, too.

All kinds of new niches opened up for regular people to reach celebrity status.

Creating partnerships with celebrities used to only be possible for giant brands with plenty of dough.

But now every single company, big or small, has the power to work with influencers.

Topics don’t just trend randomly.

New technology comes out, and things evolve.

Gaps open up in the marketplace.

It’s kind of like poker.

You need to look for those time-sensitive opportunities.

When a strong hand comes along, and you get a few people biting, you need to raise the stakes and go all-in.

Capitalizing on trending topics doesn’t just get you more readers.

It will also help you land high-quality backlinks without link building.

People are much more likely to write new stories and share amazing content on a trending topic over others that have already been beaten to death.

Why you should prioritize quality over quantity

I’ve created blog posts from 3,000 words on up to over 10,000 words.

I’ve created guides that range from 20,000 to ones that rival book length at 50,000.

What’s the ideal length?

What length resulted in the best results?

Length actually had no bearing on results.

Each of these resources needs to be long enough. You need to go over at least 3,000 words for a blog post to see the best bang for your buck.

But then you hit a point of diminishing returns.

5,000 words might not be better than 3,000 words when you’re just comparing word count alone.

Similarly, a giant 45,000-word guide might not outperform a 20,000 word one at the end of the day.

Instead, the priority should be on quality at that point.

There’s another hidden benefit to cutting it short.

First, you can get it done faster.

Think about the time it takes to create something that’s 45,000 words vs. 20,000.

Not only is it more work for a writer, but the designer also has twice the work now.

Second, it will cost less.

Writers and designers charge by the time it takes for them to create something. Twice the work translates into twice the cost!

Here’s why the cost you pay ends up being so important.

Design can make or break your success.

Visually stunning content will always outperform dreadful design in my experience.

The content that gets extra design attention always gets the most social shares.

But that means you’re going to be forking over thousands of dollars for each of these in-depth guides.

That’s why you should focus on quality, not just quantity.

You need to have the budget to put behind this massive campaign. Otherwise, you risk having it fall flat.

Dribbble is one of my favorite sites to find awesome designers. You can go on and view their past work before ever asking for a quote.

That way you can check out their style before committing to anything.

Keep in mind that Dribbble designers tend to be among the best. So they won’t be cheap.

I’ve spent up to $20k on just a single design, for example.

If you need a more budget-friendly option, sites like Fiverr and Upwork will each have a ton of options.

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