Have you ever seen a roundup post?
Round up posts are essentially “roundups” of great content in a particular industry or topic area. For example, “10 Brilliant Blogging ‘How-To’ Posts You MUST Read” would be a roundup of, well, 10 blogging how-to posts that other people have written.
Other examples are my roundup post: “9 stupid things speakers do on stage” or “21 Traffic Building Tips from professional bloggers” on this site.
Roundup posts are a little more work to create, so let’s start with the big question…
Why write a roundup post?
Unlike, you sharing your opinion on your blog site, a Roundup post aggregates many opinions and gives your readers a broader set of solutions. But there are more advantages than just a better post:
- You can build relationships with other bloggers or authors.
- The people you quote are motivated to share your article with their followers.
- You position yourself as an authority in your niche.
- You are leveraging other people’s content — less work for you!
If this sounds good, let’s clarify the two main approaches to writing your first roundup post:
Use existing content. You put on your Columbo trench coat and start collecting tips, tricks and insights already published on other blogs.
Interview experts. This second approach takes a bit more work, but will result in new content that you “own.” For example, you could interview authors about their advice on publishing your first book, or financial experts to get their best advice about saving for retirement.
In this post we will focus mostly on the first method: collecting great content into on themed post.
Steps to Write an Amazing Content Roundup Post
Alright, let’s go over the basics first.
Here we go…
Step #1: Find some great posts
You can’t write a roundup without great content to share. You probably already read other blogs in your niche – start with those. I like to create a quick spreadsheet format, starting with my favourite blog posts listed down the left-hand side.
From there, you can branch out a bit. Search well-known blogs in your industry for their best stuff. Use a tool like BuzzSumo to find articles with a high share count.
You can also use a tool like Klout to find popular articles.
Remember: Quality > Quantity.
You only want a handful of truly great articles.
Start with StumbleUpon or Quora to discover the questions people are asking about your topic area…
To help find posts in the future, set up a Feedly account, and follow blogs in your niche or topic area. Feedly makes it easy to scroll through the latest posts from each source and allows you to jump to the author’s site or share the post.
Feedly is a great tool for quickly scanning dozens of blogs
Step #2: Write the post and cite the authors
When curating content like this, you want to make sure you cite the authors. After all, the whole purpose is to get them to (hopefully) share it with their followers and bring you traffic.
Don’t just say “this post” or “a post I found.” Instead, say “This post by XYZ author talks about how to do XYZ.” Say the authors’ name or the blog’s name, and link to their homepage if available.
Remember: The better you make the author look, the greater the chance they’ll share the post.
For example, look at how Chris Garrett gives loads of credit to Digg – even so far as using their name as a header.
Step #3: Be consistent
While you don’t have to publish more than one roundup post, an ongoing blog post every week or every month is the most effective option for growth.
In fact, consistently publishing roundup posts not only helps keep your existing readers around, but it brings new ones in, too.
If you do a weekly roundup, publish it at the same time every week. Your followers will begin to expect it and come back.
Hey, we know how tough it can be to keep up with publishing new content. We can help with that.
Step #4: Reach out to the authors
After writing your post, don’t forget to tell the authors about it. You can send them an email or tag them on social media.
When writing an email, try something like this (customizing the brackets):
Subject: I loved your blog post
Body:
“Hey, [Name]!
I’m writing to let you know I really enjoyed reading your post, [Post Title]. I particularly enjoyed the part about [something you liked about their article].
In fact, I liked it so much that I added it to my [weekly] roundup on [roundup topic]. You can check it out here:
[Link to roundup post]
I’d love to get your opinion on it!
Cheers,
[Your Name]
P.S. Here’s a handy pre-populated tweet if you’d like to share it.”
Note: You can create the pre-populated tweet using Click to Tweet.
Another option
Who said there’s anything wrong with a little self-promotion?
If you’ve got a bulk of content on your own blog on similar content, go ahead and create a roundup of your own posts.
Here are just a few reasons this is a great option:
- It helps reduce your bounce rate (that means how many visitors navigate away from your page after only viewing a single page)
- It demonstrates your expertise on a subject
- It’s a good way to let new followers or readers get to know what you’re all about
If self-promotion isn’t your thing, we can help promote your blogs, too. Here’s how.
Content Roundup Post Examples
Finally, here are a few examples of big blogs using content roundups to help give you some inspiration:
The BlogWorks Amazing Headline Analyzer will quickly give you a rating and feedback on your headline. Try it right now!
Conclusion
Content roundups are sometimes seen as a cheap way to get views. But doing them right gets you authority and traffic, hands down. As long as you only deliver quality content and actually handpick the content you show, you’ll do just fine.
Will you start writing content roundups now? Share them in the comments to help inspire other readers!
If you liked learning about how to create an amazing roundup post, check out more posts on creating great content:
How to Guarantee Your Blog Posts Look Amazing on Social Media
21 clever ways to attract more readers and boost blog traffic this year
10 surprisingly simple tune-ups to make your blog sexy (and get more blog traffic)
This article was originally published in February 2017, but we’ve updated it in May 2020 just for you.
it was a very good post and very usefull
This is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable.
We believe Boost Blog Traffic started with just one post a month when they launched, but focused on quality and promotion.
Therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article
Aw, this was a really nice post. Spending some time and actual effort to create a very good article… but what can I say… I put
things off a lot and don’t manage to get anything done.
My homepage feromonas
Hugh, thanks for this. It never occurred to me to do a round up of my own posts. I suppose you could also do both your own posts and other people’s too. Your writing is amazing.i actually read it from start to finish and was bummed when it was over.
Randy – most people do round up posts using quotes they’ve collected on the web. Even better is to reach out to the experts, include them and then let them know when you’ve published their thoughts. It’s a great way to get some free advertising!
Love this post! I’ve done one round up post only so far and tomorrow my second one about rainbow teciwill go live.
I was just wondering if I should do more and If they actually attract traffic. But guess will continue posting more on the-rainbow-recipes.com
Overall I also love to read other people’s round up posts!
Ok, yes this is what I needed! I just started blogging and I just heard about round up post. I had no clue how they worked and you just explained this beautifully. I was so overwhelmed. I love the example letter that you have in your post. You answered my question about how I could reach out to authors to inform them they were quoted on my site. I am going to revamp content I have already written and try this. You have definitely inspired me!
Awesome! I’m glad you found it useful Shantell!