Dear Readers,
If you’re in your middle ages of blogging, you might be in a lull.
Happens to everyone.
People…your readers…care. Really they do.
But if you haven’t realized by now that blogging is a consumer driver environment, where visitors selfishly come and go as they please, then you’re going to be doing the wrong things.
Or rather, not doing the right things to make people care about your writing, many of which we’ll cover here.
♨ Urgently relevant and worth your time
Sometime middle of last week a reader Facebook messaged me with a rather depressing issue:
I publish roughly two posts a week at my blog but it seems like nobody cares what I’m saying. How do I get people interested?
The reader went on to say that even his friends and family who stopped by seemed to only do so as courtesy then leave without dropping off any comments or tweets or anything.
I let the message sit for a while, about a day, and watched as a couple more questions just like this trickled in.
What is that one thing? What do the greatest bloggers do to make sure people care about what they write? Let’s take a look.
♨ Address the problem
[pullquote]I publish roughly two posts a week at my blog but it seems like nobody cares what I’m saying.[/pullquote]
The answer is a lot of little things.
But in order to began looking at why people don’t care about information on blogs in the first place, I think it will be really helpful to make two points clear:
- Anyone can blog
- Not everyone knows why they blog
The first point is pretty obvious. Anyone with a few bucks to spare can snatch a domain name and start blogging or even just freestyle it.
The second point, less so.
See if you want to build an audience and be popular, you have to understand why you blog.
You could also read this post: Social Proof: How to Win the Popularity Contest
And if you blog to teach, to add real value, and to move the crowd, you’ll like what’s to come in this post.
♨ Create relevance early on
Let’s say you start by using my patented three-posts-then-launch method.
Okay it’s not patented…yet.
I should though, given how many folks are trying it these days.
Once you write your first three posts, you have to start doing everything in your power to create relevance.
That means…
a. Write a relatable welcome message
Whether you started your blog yesterday or have been at it for months you need to create a stable and convincing welcome message that folk see within a minute of landing on your blog for the first time.
This can be a blurb in your sidebar, an entire page, or even a footer you put underneath every blog post along with an opt-in. Either way it has to be seen and you must address what the user stands to gain from your blog.
~Example 1: Technology News Blog~
✖ Welcome to my blog on tech news, social media, and branding
✓ Welcome to TechStack: Where you can get ahead of social media each morning over breakfast!
The second intro here does a better job, and I’ll explain why in a sec.
~Example 2: Self-improvement blog~
✖ Welcome! I’m Greg, and I share advice on empowerment, emotions, and enjoyment
✓ Wondering how you can work the three E’s back into your life? Welcome, Greg here to help!
See how much better the ✓ is? Here’s one more.
~Example 3: Financial advice blog~
✖ Greetings! It’s Greg, watch me learn, save and profit in my mid-20s!
✓ Want to grow your cash? You can learn the best tricks here (for free, on me)
See, it’s not that the ✓ examples are even that clever or cute. They might not even appeal to you. But they are relevant, and direct.
Using words like “you” in your questions, and targeting peoples goals, emotions, and previous expectations in your welcoming words is a really powerful technique.
It can DEFINITELY keep someone around, or send ’em packing.
Now that you know a bit about the whole welcoming concept, why don’t we take a look at something a bit embarrassing at first, putting yourself out there.
b. Give away your credentials
Huh?
Here’s what I mean.
See, you have achievements. You probably won a spelling bee back in 2nd grade, earned a trophy in middle school soccer, or won first place in the science competition at some point.
The TV remote with the buzzer on it…anyone? 🙂
Here’s what to remember when you outline your credentials on the blog, maybe on your About Me page, for example:
- Make ’em known. Like direct copy, nothing clever, in your face.
- Don’t list all of them.
- Don’t be embarrassed – it’s a blog, you can hide out behind your laptop
- And most importantly, give them away. What I mean by giving away your credentials is to say something like “I’ve reached all these milestones in life and I started this blog to help you get there too!
That goes A LOT further than just talking about your milestones. Check out Pat Flynn, for example. Guy rules at this.
You can do a lot on your About Page, so try it out.
c. Give your initial community reason to respond
The final piece of creating some early-on relevance at your blog has to do with the first folks who stop by.
There a couple ways to get people involved.
- Don’t just ask for comments but ask for specific responses or even how a person feels after reading your blog. Just saying “post a comment” though does not work.
- Use direct calls to action in your blog posts.
For a good example of really, really, really direct calls to action that have paid dividends (hate that expression but it’s true) over time, look at the footer of any Social Triggers blog post.
Sure, every reader isn’t going to respond to your DCtoA – that’s not the point
The point is to get as many people as humanly possible involved.
And if there’s a semi-onerous task on the table, like copying a link into an email and sending that blogpost to a friend, you’ll be more likely to do it with a little push.
That’s your job, as the blogger.
♨ Building on your progress
As your blog gains in popularity over time (I hope!) there are several things you can do each time you sit down to write to make sure your post won’t just flop.
Note: All blogs do experience a lull at some point, it sucks, but it happens. You can even trace the work of the best bloggers and see roller coaster spikes and plummets. This stuff should help…
Obviously, over time you will write more blog posts.
For some of us, this seams like a pain.
“I just wrote a popular post last week, how will I come up with a new idea?”
Well, the first step to writing banger after banger is to address why you’re writing your post. Do you simple want to tell your readers what’s on your mind? We’ve all done this before…and it doesn’t often work.
You’ve got to be on Seth Godin’s level to just sit down and write about shoes.
But, here’s the good news. There are events happening all around you 24/7. Evens you can take advantage of as you plan your blogposts…
d. Cultivate your ideas around real life events
You could start your post referencing a conversation you had with a friend, or even an argument with an enemy, or maybe something you overheard in line for a coffee.
If you do so, already, your relevance has increased, and readers have more reason to care!
It’s sorta like how folks are more inclined to join your party if they know a few partygoers are already there having a nice chat.
Note: You might notice how I often reference a reader’s thoughts or needs. I’m fortunate to have an abundance of interaction on and off the blog – you’ve got to look at where your interaction is hottest!
Some places to start mining for ideas and interaction:
- The local news
- Google trends
- Your day job (folks can usually relate and love gossiping)
- The pop-culture media (a title like “What Miley Cyrus Forgot about SEO” is a lot more relevant from the get go than “What You Need to Know about SEO”)
Look around the web – every well known blogger is doing this at the start of their blogposts!
You’re welcome, I guess.
These are just a few sources for relevant information and I hope your own creativity would bring you to a few more (avoid TV). Make sure to include this idea of yours early on.
People love relevance, love gossiping, and love conflict, and if you can continuously grow your blog posts around real life events good things will happen.
e. Use real photos if possible
In almost all cases your blog posts will need an image of sorts. The natural thing to do is to Google around for some image that fits your message but isn’t too cheesy.
You may even get hasty and forget to vet those images for copyright.
A much better option is to attempt to use photographs that come from your own camera or even smartphone. Here’s an example:
Let’s say I’m writing a post for you about The U.S. Open. If you’re reading this in September 2013, it’s relevant stuff. ✓.
But while I could just ramble about how much I love tennis and how the Open has been really intense, a real life photo would do more:
Here’s a photo I snapped of French tennis great Gael Monfils after his match at the Open. He was so fired up I could here him cursing and egging himself on under his breath.
A real life photo, as opposed to a stock, will show folks that you are least were present for something and aren’t just fluffing your way to success.
f. Create a blog post skeleton with your BEST POINTS
- Step 1: Write blog post title and headers
- Step 2: Outline all major points you need to make (notice need)
- Step 3: Fit article around points like a puzzle then bold each point within the published post
Another really helpful practice (and one I used on this post) is to create a skeleton where you outline your major points for each paragraph before you begin.
It’s sort of like an outline, but better.
With a skeleton, heck, let’s call it a “Dear Blogger skeleton” for branding’s sake, you can be really effective with your content delivery.
It’s a great content strategy, even if you don’t know what content strategy means at all (like me most of the time), because you will at least highlight your major points.
And I’d love to hear if you’ve tried this before.
Note: major thanks to Belinda Weaver for providing the inspiration for this point. Not sure which post though, Belinda?
♨ Conclusion: Let’s discuss
I’d like to cut this post off here, so we can hear from you. Above we outlined 4 good ways to make people care:
✓ Welcome readers with a “you” message
✓ Give your credentials to readers
✓ Empower them
✓ Use relevant events as launch points
✓ If all else fails, highlight your best points
What do you think? Will you sit down and write the web’s next viral post tonight?
Tell us how you make people care about blogging in the comments.