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KristineS
09-24-2008, 12:34 PM
I wrote a blog post on this subject this morning, which I may share later in this thread. Writing the post got me thinking, however, and I thought I'd ask the question here.

What is the single most important thing you can do to make sure that people read your blog? What is the one thing that you think keeps people coming back to your blog?

O.k., that's two questions, but they're in the same general subject area. I'll be interested to read your answers.

Harold Mansfield
09-24-2008, 11:45 PM
The biggest deciding factor of if your blog will attract readers is to have good content. Most bloggers make the mistake of trying to please everyone. You can't and you won't.

Secondly, you have to get it seen. You have to either be good at SEO, Social Networking and Bookmarking, or PPC advertising. (or all of the above).

You also have to attract people to stay long enough to read. In other words your design must appeal to readers. No one will stay if they are not attracted to your layout. Depending on the type of traffic you are looking to attract, your design must appeal to that niche or demographic.

On one blog I slowly built readership by sticking to the niche faithfully and searching out the most relevant information and entertainment for my readers. Over time I was able to be the only one in my niche on certain releases and press from producers and artists.

On the other, I went straight for bold talk and opinions, sensationalism, and getting the scoop on hot issues so that I could bookmark them before others jumped on the issue. Sometimes that meant posting at 3, 4 or 5 a.m. to catch people on the east coast early in the morning with the first opinion on the days news or events. It works !

The tactic there is to grab as many readers on a particular post that a get the beat on, as many times as possible to try and retain readers an subscribers.

You can never really be sure that people are going to read, but if you can do some of the things to get it noticed, yet are still not attracting many readers, then it could be that no one (from the demographic that you are targeting) is interested in what you have to say.

orion_joel
09-25-2008, 12:57 AM
I really think that one of the biggest thing's beside quality content is regular content. While posting a fantastic and inspiring blog post once a month may have people hanging out to see it, there is also a good chance that they will completely forget the blog exists in this time as well.

Making good quality posts a couple of times a week is going to have people continually coming back for more. Especially if the blog is designed to get frequent visitor's. Most will not hang around if the quality is not there, just the same as if there is nothing new.

I think a similar situation to staying in contact with your customers in business, only on the internet you get forgotten a lot quicker, because of the sheer volume of competition.

Business Attorney
09-25-2008, 12:21 PM
I don't write a blog but I read several. I think getting your blog read involves two separate steps:

(1) Getting people to find your blog and
(2) Getting people to keep coming back.

For me, both are based on content, but in a slightly different manner. The first typically requires either a good (even if fluky) search engine placement or a blog post that is interesting enough that another blogger or a forum poster will link me to your blog. Those are the two principal ways I find a blog post.

To get me to bookmark or subscribe once I read the first article, I need to see more of the same when I get to the blog. If I go to a blog post on, say, copyright law, and see that the main focus is online gaming, I will read the article and move on. I also need to see that the overall quality of the posts is good. If the post that got me there appears to be an aberration, I won't waste my time.

Depending on the subject matter, another important factor for me is that the writing is interesting, particularly when the subject matter is not highly technical. I mostly read blogs for enjoyment, not education, so those blogs need to entertain. If not, I'll read something else. One way that bloggers entertain is by injecting their personality (and often personal lives) into their blogs. Although it is not my cup of tea, many of the most read blogs make the thousands of readers feel like friends of the writer. Sort of a mini soap opera or at least a mini serial.

Aaron Hats
09-25-2008, 01:57 PM
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. When I first started my blog I didn't really care if people read it or not. I was writing more for the search engines than anything else. As my readership has slowly increased and I've got a few comments from customers I start to wonder what other information I should be providing for them. I don't know what the answer is and I still don't know if I'm writing for people or search engines. :rolleyes:

Aaron

BillR
09-25-2008, 02:13 PM
Writing well and having unique, special, and/or controversial material would be some.

Here's a science blog I read: it is VERY popular with the right crowd. However, if you read more than a bit you'll find it's definitly not for everyone. As an exercise see if you can determine who his readership is from the content - it should be pretty easy:

Pharyngula (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/)

orion_joel
09-25-2008, 10:47 PM
Bill, i am taking the guess it is either the religious group, or maybe star trek fans (at least that was the first thing that came up a post relating to something star trek i think).

Anyway one thing that i notice a lot with my blog is that every time i post a new post, visitor's on that day spike. Even if it is just an extra 3 or 4 at this point there is still a spike compared to a day i do not put any post up.

Harold Mansfield
09-25-2008, 11:36 PM
I have spikes on my political blog spike to 3 - 5 thousand in a day when I was able to scoop the main players. Spikes like that will pick up some permanent links that will have residual traffic for a long time.
Right now that is my formula on that particular blog, and it is working out well.

The downside is, you have to be consistent with at least 2 or 3 of those a week which is difficult when you are not constantly combing the news. However, once a few hundred, or a few thousand people see your blog because of one of those great posts, they will come back again when they see you bookmarked again on Digg, Fark, Yahoo, etc. Over a short amount of time, many of them will become subscribers if you "wow" them once or twice.

Making friends with other bloggers has worked well for me, especially blogs and newspapers in Alaska, since many of them do not like Palin. I get some great scoops from residents that you wouldn't normally see in the main media.

I bring that up to say that networking with other bloggers, even if it is just a mention, or quote will help alot, because they will return the favor if you make them look like an authority.

2 other sources of permanent links and steady traffic have been the actual theme designer himself. I asked to be listed on the clients page, so people click through to check out how I have everything configured, that also got me a mention on a blog review site of best wordpress blogs, (more traffic).

Things like that is how a good design, either original or purchased and customized will bring people in that would have normally never have found you.

There are so many different "tricks", you need a combination of things to get those permanent links from other sites that have traffic.

There is not one or two things that will skyrocket you to traffic meca, it is looking for opportunities in many different places and capitalizing on the ones that will do you the most good.

Harold Mansfield
09-26-2008, 10:31 AM
Just wanted to add, don't underestimate the power of the excerpt box. That box when you are making a post (in wordpress) that allows you to put a snippet of the article in for search engines ? (Also a feature in All In One SEO , Plug in).

If you have written a clear and concise headline, the box can be a huge help in attracting readers from search engines like Google.
You'd be surprised how many "Big" blogs and websites completely ignore that excerpt and allow the search engines to automatically take a portion of the article. Many times that ends up being garbled phrases, the tags or signature of the article and not the subject matter.

That box is your best friend in attracting readers even if you are not on the first page of the results for your subject matter.
In it you need to be direct and clear what your post is about, and include any benefits of clicking through like, " get the free download here", "complete bio and tour schedule", or what ever is most important in the article.

There have been many times that i have been on the second page of the results, yet all the others before me did not write a clear excerpt of what information was included in the link, and I got good traffic from it.

Surfers will scan the search results looking for those key words or trigger phrases instead of clicking on each individual link to see if that one has what they want. Also if you include keywords and phrases in your excerpt, that are slightly different from the headline, you can capitalize on multiple search terms and phrases , instead of just one.

That may be a little more "SEO" than you were looking for, but it is extremely important to remember when you are writing your posts and articles.

KristineS
09-26-2008, 04:23 PM
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. When I first started my blog I didn't really care if people read it or not. I was writing more for the search engines than anything else. As my readership has slowly increased and I've got a few comments from customers I start to wonder what other information I should be providing for them. I don't know what the answer is and I still don't know if I'm writing for people or search engines. :rolleyes:

Aaron

Aaron,

The best way to find out what your readers want to know is to ask them. I do that quite often, and I get some great suggestions.

Harold Mansfield
09-26-2008, 04:27 PM
Aaron,

The best way to find out what your readers want to know is to ask them. I do that quite often, and I get some great suggestions.

Also Aaron, don't forget to submit your blog posts to social bookmarking sites. Many have entertainment, style of fashion categories.
If catch a good run, or some good reads on a few articles it will help you determine which types of posts people are interested in reading, and continue on the path that brings the most reads.

vangogh
09-26-2008, 07:25 PM
You should be careful submitting your own content to social bookmarking sites. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but if that's all you do it becomes quite apparent you're only interesting in using the social bookmarking site to promote yourself. That's usually not going to endear you to the community.

Imagine someone who registers here and every post they make includes little information, but does include a link back to their site. The posts won't last long and neither will the account.

On the other hand if you take the time to genuinely contribute to a social bookmarking site and then on occasion bookmark your own posts you should be fine.

KristineS
09-26-2008, 08:31 PM
We both have made this point in the past, Vangogh, but it is still a good one. When it comes to social networking your intentions matter. If you're just on the site to promote yourself, people will sniff that out pretty quickly, and they'll probably discount your posts as a result.

The best way to have success on a social media site is to devote most of your time to contributing quality content that has very little to do with self promotion. As Vangogh says, every once in a while you slip in something about what you do, but the majority of your posts are just simply helpful and informative.

As you build up capital on the site, this ratio can change a bit. By then you'll have built up some trust with the other members.

Harold Mansfield
09-27-2008, 11:29 AM
You should be careful submitting your own content to social bookmarking sites. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but if that's all you do it becomes quite apparent you're only interesting in using the social bookmarking site to promote yourself. That's usually not going to endear you to the community.

Imagine someone who registers here and every post they make includes little information, but does include a link back to their site. The posts won't last long and neither will the account.

On the other hand if you take the time to genuinely contribute to a social bookmarking site and then on occasion bookmark your own posts you should be fine.


We both have made this point in the past, Vangogh, but it is still a good one. When it comes to social networking your intentions matter. If you're just on the site to promote yourself, people will sniff that out pretty quickly, and they'll probably discount your posts as a result.

The best way to have success on a social media site is to devote most of your time to contributing quality content that has very little to do with self promotion. As Vangogh says, every once in a while you slip in something about what you do, but the majority of your posts are just simply helpful and informative.

As you build up capital on the site, this ratio can change a bit. By then you'll have built up some trust with the other members.

Both good points. However, when you build your profile on those types of sites, you can literally set yourself up for self promotion if your are forthcoming with with your agenda.
Many people try to have a balanced attack with their bookmarking, adding sites, blogs, articles and videos from across the spectrum and in every subject matter.

I have at least 2 accounts where I don't do anything of the sort. Although I do include articles from other sources, it is clear that I will only be bookmarking specific sources that fit into my own agenda or preferences and I keep it plain and narrow.

So for instance, any followers on lets say twitter, know that I will only be "twittering" political and election headlines, not what kind of coffee I had today. They also know that if I twitter it, that I have my own spin on it, even though I may mark the source.

Condensed version....In other words make your bookmarking profiles as niche specific as your blog or website, and you can flip the switch and self promote more than just hiding it in with other sites because your mission is clear. Anyone who wants to follow you now knows exactly what to expect and that traffic is more targeted than just a general profile that you will sometimes be tagging your own articles.

You still need to be balanced, but now everything, whether it is yours or not, goes to promote your niche, not just your articles.
It also helps to just go ahead and name your user name the same as your blog or website. Why not ?
It's more promotion for you, and if you truly have interesting content, people will look to see what you have found if their interest are the same as yours.



I think we make the mistake of trying to be everything to everybody and we miss our core demographic, the one that is going to spend money if you would just satisfy them.

greenoak
10-17-2008, 06:06 PM
i dont quite follow kristine, how do you tell self promotion from talking about your business? ... on a site like this if you dont talk about your business what are you supposed to talk about? what else is there here? is talking about your business considered self promotion here? i dont want to be out of line...but all of my opinions,humble of course, come from my business esperience, .....i dont want to talk about my night life or my garden........and as a reader here , if you are about seo or marketing thats what i would like to hear from you....if it can be a 2 way conversation...
back to the blog question ;;;; i often go to 2 blogs , besides the political ones ......one i go to to see what beautiful things she is showing, the other one i go to hear the next part of her personal story and to see the beautiful things she has created....


the political ones, kos, etc, i go to to get my news....and to enjoy the ranting and raving...
at most of them i enjoy travelling out to their links and just getting lost on the net....
several folks have said they read mine to see whats going on here...
ann

vangogh
10-17-2008, 08:25 PM
Ann it's actually not as hard as you think, though sometimes it's a judgment call. It usually comes down to interpreting someone's intent when posting, which admittedly isn't always accurate.

Usually self promotion is going to be a post that exists more to solicit business than for any other purpose. Say you started a thread that went something like this:

Green Oak Antiques is running a sale this weekend.
We're located at...
All outdoor furniture 30% off
Doors open at 9:00 AM

That would clearly be an ad and wouldn't serve any purpose to the community other than to try to get business into your doors.

On the other hand say you started a thread asking about the best way to run a sale and during the discussion you mentioned that you were thinking of offering 30% off on outdoor furniture for a weekend sale. And maybe someone else here happened to be in Indiana and asked for your address. In the end you might end up giving out all the same information, but in that case the discussion in the thread could still be valuable to the community and your motivation wasn't so much to promote yourself as it was to ask a question and start a conversation.

It's not really an issue of what's talked about, but rather how it's talked about.

Once you've been moderating for awhile it becomes pretty easy to tell when people post just to promote themselves. There are some obvious signs and other not so obvious signs.

The history of the member also goes into the decision. If someone has a history of contributing and adding to the conversation it's more likely we'd give them the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand if someone is making questionable posts shortly after arriving the posts won't last. If it continues the member won't last.

KristineS
10-17-2008, 08:41 PM
I think Vangogh's exactly right. It isn't what you talk about, it's how you talk about it. Another issue is how helpful you are to others, and whether or not the advice you give is germane to the question that was asked.

You also have to keep in mind the purpose of the forum. This forum is about business issues. Let's say, however, that you ran a baby clothing shop and you were posting on a forum for new Moms. Every post couldn't be come and buy my baby clothing. You'd need to talk about the issues involved in raising a new baby. The content has to be in line with the subject of the site and you have to contribute relevant content, not just content that pushes your business interests.

greenoak
10-22-2008, 08:24 AM
being on forums related to my business has been real good for our store... i just didnt agree that quality content had to be seperated from self promotion...as kristine posted...to me it seems very blended and ok if done right.....in other words i always would be interested in what v.g. says about websites...i dont really care about his views about dogs...
...i would never blatently advertize but try hard to walk the fine line you describe....actually ive gotten a lot of business that way....i have even had customers referred to us by strangers who only knew me from the forums....but i was /am a real member, not just dropping in to advertize myself...hopefully!!
sadly, my favorite declined too much and now im looking for another forum for retail stores....
on blogging, im also with aaron and wondering who im writing for....i guess it would be to get interested people to come to the store, or hits....but even more its about the fun of journaling and publishing and being a writer....which was a 3rd grade ideal.....i do believe its enriching the store and making money in a nice roundabout way...
i dont understand much of the blogging world...why one gets so popular, like dooce..i found her thru kristines post on here...she sounds nice and real....but why and how does she get thousands of readers....
...i dont understand those readers, or why they would buy a shirt with her name on it.......but maybe they wouldnt understand the ones i like either......
ann

KristineS
10-22-2008, 08:36 AM
i dont understand much of the blogging world...why one gets so popular, like dooce..i found her thru kristines post on here...she sounds nice and real....but why and how does she get thousands of readers....
...i dont understand those readers, or why they would buy a shirt w ith her name on it.......but maybe they wouldnt understand the ones i like either......
ann

Ann, that's a mystery a lot of people are trying to solve. A lot of use who blog are trying to figure out why some blogs get so popular, and others, that are written by equally talented people, don't seem to catch on. I maintain it's a combination of talent, good timing and luck. Some blogs just seem to catch on.

If anyone ever figures out how that happens, they could make millions.

vangogh
10-22-2008, 02:11 PM
Ann I think it's a combination of things that leads to successful blogs. Talent is definitely one. When you read a lot of blogs you can tell which are the better ones. There's a lot of marketing involved, same as marketing any site. A little bit of luck and timing helps too. Sometimes a blogger catches the attention of another popular blogger and the already popular blogger helps direct people to the new blog. Mostly I think it's the talent and the marketing.

If you want to better understand your readers try to get them to leave comments. Asking questions in your blog posts can help. I find when I end a post with a few questions it helps to generate some answers to those questions. When people comment make sure to reply to their comments. Little by little it helps build a community around your blog.

orion_joel
10-22-2008, 08:36 PM
I think the point Vangogh makes is a very valid point. Which i have read many times, a referral from another popular blog. This does not mean that you will get a huge on going audience, however many people i have read mention getting a large increase in traffic for a day or two after a fellow blogger posted about them, and while the traffic did not stay as high as it peaked, it did stay up somewhat on what it had been before.

I think this is the key though, you shouldnt be looking or even expecting a single event will drive your traffic to new heights and keep it there. You need to be looking at one step at a time. You have another blogger post about your blog, and you get an extra 5000 visitors in 2 days but rather then dropping back to the previous average, your traffic falls back to about 200 visitors more on average. Then the same next month and so on where you get a large influx for a day or two, then month by month you slowly increase by a couple of hundred visitors.

Where some of the more successful blogs differ i would imagine is they probably started just as you are however they managed to catch the interest of one or maybe many other blogs often.

vangogh
10-23-2008, 12:40 AM
Along the lines of the referral for a popular blog is writing a guest post for that blog. What I've seen happen a few times is a blogger will write a series of guest posts on several popular and semi-popular blogs on related topics over the course of a few weeks.

It stands to reason the readers of those blogs read some of the others and it's hard to miss the guest blogger. After seeing a few posts you inevitably click back to the guest blogger's own blog and assuming the quality of the posts has been good it's a no brainer to subscribe.

Another thing I've noticed is once you reach a certain tipping point in subscriber count your rate of new subscribers increase. If you have 10 subscribers it could be weeks or months before you get number 11. If you have 5,000 subscribers it might only be hours before number 5,001 comes along. More people reading means more people talking about you, which leads to more new people visiting and subscribing.