You have four seconds to answer.
If you expect to translate visitors into readers, you have to appeal to their sensibilities in a matter of seconds. To do that, you have to know them well.
Know Your Audience
Many blogs proclaim to help everyone. That's not an audience; that's a dream!
I've read blogs that profess to help bloggers, or companies, or worst yet – people! My question is which ones? For example, there are business bloggers and bloggers that are just expressing themselves for the fun of it. Their objectives differ.
Having fun is a viable objective. It's an art form. If that is how you can help, go for it. I suspect it is an under-served niche.
Connect with Their Primal Needs
What are the primal needs of your target audience – the perennial challenges that never seem to go away?
My target audience is small business owners who typically are wearing multiple hats. They are starved for time. For this reason, I have to keep things simple, get to the point, and whenever possible, provide pragmatic examples that show them how. The don't care about a long-winded perspective from The Harvard Business Review. They simply want practical tips and advice.
If your audience happens to be more intellectual, then by all means, go ahead and provide 101 tips. I feel my job is to sift through the rubble to find the gold that my readers are looking for. That's how I add value.
Get Smarter
My friend shared an interesting insight about blogging. He said blogging is a form of talking to yourself. And we all know that people that talk to themselves, while possibly being a bit strange, are quite often very intelligent. The nice thing about blogging is you can privately talk to yourself.
Seriously, the more you blog the smarter you get. You develop greater clarity for how you can help your customers, especially if you are taking the time to engage with your readers through comments. And the more you do that, the better you understand them, and what they really need.
The Challenge
The problem with most bloggers, and for that matter, many of us in general, is we know too much. Our challenge is to learn how to apply what we know, instead of trying to impress with how much we know.
When you can succinctly describe how you can help your audience with their challenges in just a few seconds, you will easily build your readership. There are many theories for doing this. However, the one that I always come back to is the simplest – work at it.
Be good. Be exceptional. That's right dude, be excellent!
There is no substitute for excellent performance.
If you happen to be a Typepad Blogger, here is a comprehensive page of excellent tips for making your Typepad blog excellent.
Thanks i love it
Music to my ears..:)
Jeff