I realize it’s a bit narcissistic to blog about blogging, especially given that I haven’t been. But whenever I start reading some of my favorite bloggers like Penelope Trunk or Holly Hoffman, I always notice they both do one thing very well that really builds their credibility and authorial authority (I think that works).
That one thing is they build a story between their posts. What I mean is within the post that they’re writing, not only do the reference information outside their blog (which is another great way of adding authority) but they also reference other material they’ve written within their blog. Geek sidenote: This is actually called inlinking. For example, Penelope does a great job in inlinking in this post, and it really adds authenticity and authority to it. You can also see me starting to do it here.
Referencing other posts you’ve written shows consistency and it shows purpose. If you’re referencing something you wrote a week ago, or a month ago, then you’re probably not posting arbitrarily and what you’re writing is building on your past, meaning your concepts are consistent and accurate (unless of course you’re referencing a previous post saying that you were wrong…).
Additionally, inlinking to other posts of yours a great habit to get into as it increase the amount of time people spend on your site (always nice) and improves their experience as they get more information regarding what they first started reading about.
So as you’re writing your next few posts, or thinking just what you can write about, think not only about the story within the current post, but think too about the story you’re telling inbetween posts.
Ha! I do that all the time and always felt lazy for it. I’m glad that it has a name, “inlinking” and is actually a viable blogging strategy :) Great post.
Yes! You do inlink frequently between your posts (you’ve got a great style, so it works quite well). You’re another great example! : )
Yeah, inlinking goes to a little bit more technical depth (as it’s more an SEO term than a blogging term) but it applies the same.
Thanks for making me a daily link you like!