Tips on Taking Your Blog to the Next Level With Embeddable Content
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Today I am talking about an opportunity to lift the quality of your blog posts using embeddable content. I also list a heap of resources for finding great embeddable content, and deciding which resources to use.



 

Using embeddable content is a great opportunity to lift the quality of your blog. Many bloggers take it for granted and overlook using it, but this content can increase the quality of your work. It will potentially serve your readers better and even help your blog to rank higher in search engines.

I was recently asked to help judge a blog contest by my friend Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner. The blogs that stood out to me were ones that were using embeddable content to really make the posts dynamic.

This is something that is often done on social media blogs and blogs about blogging, but there is a real opportunity to take advantage of this concept on blogs in other niches.

Last week, I was speaking at a conference in Sydney, and this concept was fresh in my mind, so I produced this slide on the 17 types of embeddable content.
Reasons Why Smart Use of Embeddable Content Can Lift Content Quality

It lifts the usefulness of the content
This content can appeal to different learning styles and personality types
Plus it shows your readers that you are willing to go the extra mile
It can also add other voices, opinions and experiences to your blog
It increases page time - gives you more time to create an impression and build your brand
Page time also helps with SEO - longer page time is a signal to Google to rank higher


17 Types of Embeddable Content

Video - YouTube etc. easiest and best way to add audio and visual
Slides - Slideshare easy way to turn list post into slide deck
Tweets - Every tweet can be embedded in a blog post
Facebook - posts, status updates, videos and images
Audio Files - Anchor -  file to quickly put thoughts out and reply
Cartoons - Andertoons
Live-Streaming or Replays - Periscope, Blab
Instagram - Pictures and videos
Slideshows - Flickr and from other photo sharing sites
Infographics - Infogr.am
Bookmarks - Pinterest and pins
Google - Maps or Google Earth
Polls and Quizzes - Qzzr
Mindmaps - MindMeister
Google - Docs, forms and PDFs
Podcast - Podcast players
Animated Gifs - GIPHY

You can create or curate embeddable content. I challenge you to create one blog post this week that uses embeddable content. Share your post links in the comments below or share any other ways you use to create this content.
Before you publish your next blog post, ask yourself these questions:

What can I create or curate that will add value
Make sure it is useful quality content
Don’t over do it. One or two embeds are fine, you don’t need 20
Think about what additional content would enhance the topic

You could also start with a piece of embeddable content and put it into a blog post and add to it. It becomes the “hero” of the topic. You can also curate and summarize someone else's content with further reading etc.
Resources and Examples Mentioned

Example of adding to someone else’s content - 9 Composition Techniques to Use to Improve Your Photography
The blogging competition I judged - Top 10 Social Media Blogs the 2016 Winners
Using a livestream replay - How to get your Readers to become more Engaged, Loyal and to Share your Content
Post using Anchor - 5 Ways Bloggers and Content Creators Could Use Anchor
Quick post published using SlideShare - 10 Quick Tips for Entrepreneurial Bloggers
A post turned into a SlideShare and then embedded - What it Takes to Go Pro – Lessons from 10 Professional Photographers





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