Yes, I’ve already written one post about “how to write for your blog”, but here’s the absolute laziest way to do it — and still be rather substantial and meaty (although with some caveats). Its something some A-list bloggers already do. Here’s another hint: it takes almost no extra effort at all. Have you figured it out yet?

It’s automating your del.icio.us bookmarks!
Yes, I’ll admit that its part of the “oldie-but-goodie” file, but for all newer bloggers, this trick is a must.

But why bother? There are at least TWO good reasons.

(1) Its great content.
Really? Ok, this is debatable – but not for me.

The answer to this lies in my RSS feed, which is handled through Feedburner.

Currently, I’ve set it up so that Feedburner automatically inserts my del.icio.us links through a script which they call a “feedflare”. Nevertheless these little insertions are great because they’re handled automatically

Although I used to have a “FeedFlare” to insert the del.icio.us links automatically, I can now do it through this automatic posting process. (Full details on how to manipulate your feed in a post to come)

I have also subscribed to their “Total Stats” Program which is pretty nifty.
It allows you to see how many people are actually clicking on the links in your feed — gives you almost like a click through rate … and more importantly, an idea of which items IN your feed are successful. Or interesting. Or worth clicking on.

For me, it was *VERY* telling.

I know they’re great content because as it turns out I do subscribe to the “PRO” content area of Feedburner … and it provides some real interesting information. In particular, it can tell me how many of my items in the feed have actually been seen … and how many have actually clicked through!

You can see here how on this particularly good day for me — most of the links that were read AND clicked on were my “Del.icio.us” links!

(2) Its also a Great Linking Strategy (and Tipping of your Hat Strategy)
By doing the automagic posting-thing, you’re creating links on your page, permanent posts that google and the other search engines love to index. Without posting your links, you’re not really maximizing the effort you’re putting into collecting and annoting your favourite links.

The permanent links attract attention because if you’re bookmarked a blog, that blog will most likely register a pingback automatically … thereby getting yourself a reciprocal link on another website!

It also attracts the attention of the blog author, and if you’re interested in the traffic and reputation business (and who isn’t), this is potentially very, very useful.

*Especially* if you have a the an appropriate Sitemap, Google will love you for this.
Everyday, I would estimate 10-30% of all new visitors come through either Google or a trackback link because of the automated posting strategy.

If you’ve boomarked smaller, less-known blogs, actually having them in a permanent post (rather than a pulled in RSS feed) you’re also acknowledging … tipping your hat as it were … to these smaller guys, and also sending *them* traffic purposefully.

So now what? What do you do?
For those who have already figured this out, you can take a pass, but for everyone else, listen up!

1. Bookmark as Usual. If you don’t already have an account, go to del.icio.us and sign up/ log on. The bookmarklet is very helpful to post automatically.

2. Set up the settings in del.icio.us, so that it will post to your blog automatically.
If you’ve got MovableType, try these instructions.
If you’ve got Wordpress, try these instead.

3. (Optional) Download the plugin to format your Automatic Post. For example for Wordpress, Drunkey-Love has a great formatting tool, so all of your posts don’t see “Links for xx-xx-xxxx”.

3. Make sure you have a Google-appropriate Sitemap. If you’re running Wordpress, there is an awesome plugin that will not only a) create your sitemap auto-magically, but b) ping Google to let it know EVERY time you have a new post, so that it can re-crawl your website.

4. Rinse, repeat, lather.

Last Important Point: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
As Brian Clark mentioned in a recent post — it is critical that your posts aren’t completely made of link farms … unless you have a “Fark” in the making, most people won’t be interested in this at all. Your automatic link posts should complement your existing posts … not be a replacement for them.

A second important Caveat:
I think the reason why I’ve had some success with this process is because I dutifully fill out a Description and an appropriate Title. No one likes the generic titles of the articles without any description. Its dull and no one will care. If Title isn’t zippy enough, I just change it. The Description also needs to be punchy as well; long enough that it contains enough stuff (keywords?) to be meaningful and effective …. but short enough to be entertaining.