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- Use Social Sharing's True Motive For Better Traffic
This guest post is by Shakira Dawud of Deliberate Ink.
You’re getting regular traffic, but it’s flatlining. The regular crowd is still with you, but your subscriber base is fluctuating. And you’ve noticed you’re not being shared on social media very often.
If you were to ask, you’d hear all kinds of reasons why, but I guarantee you the basis of all of them is always personal.
There is no way around the adage, “People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” Your blog is serious business. So why is it we’re told not to take business personal (and business between friends is retold as the stuff of Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado“), when every single business decision comes from a personal place?
You need that personal place to get the following and response you want from your readers. Find it and put it to work building your blog’s traffic in the following three steps.
Step 1: Complete the picture of your existing following
I’ll use Twitter as an example. I seldom follow people with just the hope they’ll follow me back (although that’s a reason, too).
I want to take part in their Twitter banter, find likeminded people, siphon useful information from their posts, get them to visit my blog, and build relationships I deem important. I unfollow only after I’ve lost hope of getting those things. Sometimes I lose hope sooner, sometimes later. I know I’m not alone in this.
If we don’t follow our followers, we’re blind to too many quality people who’ve made it a point to follow us. So make the most of your social relationships by finding the real and active people connected to you on each platform and reciprocating, before they lose hope in you.
Step 2: Unravel a “thread of discontent”
Start listening to your crowd closely. Watch the comments they leave on posts and blogs, and note what they share most often. In a recent post, Derek Halpern introduces the concept of the thread of discontent. He encourages being the “pebble dropped in the pond” by creating “ripples” in the standard.
Derek’s point is well taken. But before you become a pebble, I advise that you pick up that thread and unravel it to its origin. I bet you’ll find it’s ultimately a personal one. Something based on their values, beliefs, or experiences. You may even find more than one thread. Once you find out what it’s made up of, hold onto it. Now it’s time for the final step.
Step 3: Provide content they want—but not like you have been
“That’s all you got?” you’re thinking. “Lady, I’ve been creating content out the wazoo, every day for months–and it ain’t too shabby, either!”
No, that’s not all. Let me explain with an example.
Listening in on a webinar for email marketers, I noticed the presenter played up the rivalry between marketing and sales departments. He dotted his discourse with pointed statements like: Salespeople are only interested in their numbers, not our strategy… They asked for all the hot leads we could get, and then let them go cold… So much of our hard marketing work is wasted on the sales end.
On the individual level, marketing employees who’d been frustrated by salesepeople were remembering those feelings of futlity, concern for their careers, and even a bit of self-righteousness. You can be sure he had our undivided attention when he explained how we could refine our strategies to build the credibility of our numbers, and waste less time and energy—in spite of those pesky salespeople. This was personal.
Superglue-strength loyalty
So you see, to be worth sharing, you can’t just deliver consistently high quality content. You don’t have to rock the boat (although it will give you quite a boost). You do need to produce content that provides the value readers can carry out with them in a package that confirms their personal reality.
Subscriber loyalty will grow to superglue strength, and what you write will demand to be shared with more and more likeminded people. Without any further ado, perfectly targeted, better traffic will pour in.
How have you used these ideas to your advantage? Can you share any examples?
Shakirah Dawud is the writer and editor behind Deliberate Ink. Based in Maryland with roots in New York, she's been crafting effective marketing copy as a writer and polishing many forms of prose as an editor since 2002. Clients in many fun sizes, industries, and locations reach her through the Web.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Use Social Sharing’s True Motive For Better Traffic
Переслать - The Anatomy of a Better Blog Post
The last couple of weeks have turned up some valuable blogging advice for those who are working to hone their craft and become better blog post writers.
Not everyone falls into this category—some bloggers are happy with the way they write. Others publish videos or sound files instead of text. And that’s fine.
But for the rest of us, I wanted to put together a little roundup of advice on each of the parts of a text-based blog post.
- 4 Post Headlines that are Guaranteed to Get Readers Excited
This post by Greg Ciotti was published here at ProBlogger late last year. It has some great ideas to help you focus as your writing headlines, and produce really compelling titles. - 10 Tips for Opening Your Next Blog Post
I designed this post to help you overcome Opening Line Paralysis (OLP)—something I suffer from often! - How to Write Irresistible Blog Intros
In this post, Andrea Wren analyses possible introductions, providing a different perspective that I found valuable. - 5 Tips for Creating a Truly Valuable Tutorial
Sharpen your skills in writing tutorials and how-tos with this straightforward ProBlogger guide. - Finding Truth in Fiction
max Andrew Dubinksy’s post about the power of story, which was published on Jeff Goins’s blog, is guaranteed to help you bring life to the story you tell in your next post. - How to Use Images in Your Blog Posts
Karol K covers all the basics of using images to accompany your text content, so even if you’re not technical, this guide’s perfect. - 8 Quick Tips for Writing Bullet Points People Actually Want to Read
I found Robert Bruce’s Copyblogger article very interesting. I’ll be trying some of these tips myself—who wouldn’t? Great advice. - Is Your Link Text Letting You Down?
Here, Georgina explores a few different ways you can include links within your blog posts. - 7 Powerful Ways to End Your Next Blog Post
Of course, today we published Ali Luke’s advice for wrapping up a post—great ways to avoid having your post trail off into nothing.
Have you seen a great article on crafting quality blog posts recently? Help us build this list by adding it in the comments below.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
The Anatomy of a Better Blog Post
Переслать - 4 Post Headlines that are Guaranteed to Get Readers Excited
- 7 Powerful Ways to End Your Next Blog Post
This guest post is by Ali Luke of Aliventures.
You know your title has to hook readers.
You know your first line needs to keep them reading.
The start of your blog post matters. But so does the end.
In fact, without a powerful end to your post, all the work that you put into the title and paragraph one is wasted. Because the end of your post is what keeps your readers coming back for more.
Here are seven powerful ways to end your post.
1. Sum up your key message
Sometimes, you need to hammer a point home. The final few lines of your post are a great opportunity to make sure that your key message gets across.
If you can, bring out a new point—or sum up in an engaging way. If you just rehash what you've already said, readers will wander off, bored.
Example:
To write 100 books (75,000 words per book) over the next 30 years, you need to be writing 1,000 words per day (writing five days a week, 50 weeks per year). At a brisk but comfortable pace, that's an hour a day.
If you want to write 100 books in the next ten years, that's 3,000 words a day.
Being prolific is closer to possible than you might have believed.
—David Masters, Writing Secrets of Prolific Authors, Write to Done2. Encourage the reader to take action
Many blog posts are full of excellent advice, but how often does that advice actually get put into practice?
Readers love posts that are practical, and if you can persuade them to do something (and see the benefits) then they'll be much more likely to return to your blog.
Example:
But in the meantime, here's a tip you can use right away. You'll have vastly better copy on your website in 20 minutes by following these two simple steps:
Go look at your web copy right now.
Take out every word that doesn't contribute something new.
Come back here and tell us about the before-and-after. I bet you'll have something to say!
—James Chartrand, Do You Have Useless Website Content?, Men with Pens3. Ask the reader to share your post
If you want more tweets or Facebook shares, ask for them. Readers won't always think of sharing your post, and they may not notice that you've got a "retweet" button waiting—unless you tell them.
You might also want to encourage readers to forward a post to friends: unless you're writing for a predominantly techy audience, there's a good chance that a lot of your subscribers are getting your feed by email.
Example:
If you enjoyed this post, I'd be very grateful if you'd help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you!
—Ali Luke, How to Have Confidence in Your Writing – and Yourself, Aliventures4. Link to another useful resource
When readers finish one post, they'll often be ready to read another on a similar topic. If you've written an inspirational piece, for instance, it's a great idea to link to a practical guide that helps readers turn that inspiration into action.
You don't need to link to blog posts, either. Pointing readers towards newspaper articles or books in your field isn't just useful—it also helps demonstrate that you're on top of what's happening in your niche.
Example:
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy these posts inspired by art:
- Writing as an emerging sculpture: Inspiration from Michelangelo's slaves
- 15 ways modern art galleries can inspire writers
—Joanna Penn, 7 Lessons For Writers From Leonardo Da Vinci, The Creative Penn
5. Ask a question to encourage comments
Questions work well in titles and first lines—and they're also a good way to end a post. Asking a question for readers to respond to (e.g. "do you any tips to add?") is likely to increase the number of comments you get.
Don't go over the top with questions, though: one or two are usually enough. You don't want your readers to feel bombarded with a whole string of questions.
Example:
Did you find some great strategies of your own in the videos? What are the exciting ideas informing your own marketing—and how are you implementing them?
Let us know in the comments.
—Sonia Simone, 3 Content Marketing Ideas You Should Steal from Coca Cola, Copyblogger
6. Tell readers what's coming next
If you want people to subscribe to your blog, or to keep visiting the site for updates, you need to let them know that you've got good stuff coming up.
At the end of your post, let readers know what's coming tomorrow (or next week). You might simply drop a hint like "I've got something big to announce next week…" or you might tell them to stay tuned for a more advanced post on a similar topic to the one they've just read.
Example:
Next week I'll post about moving larger WordPress sites. Those might not work with this method because your export XML file will be too large, and you might not be able to upload it via the WordPress import feature.
—Daniel Scocco, How to Move A Small WordPress Site Via the Import/Export Tool, DailyBlogTips7. Promote your product or service
Even though you might have information about your book/ebook/ecourse/etc. in your sidebar, some readers won't see that—they'll either be reading in an RSS reader or they simply won't notice.
The final line of your post is a great place to let readers know about your product (or to remind them that it exists). This works especially well if your post has been on a similar topic—for instance, if you've written about procrastination and you've got an ecourse on getting things done, there's an obvious link between the two!
Example:
Also, check out our Blogging for Beginners Series for more blog tips and ProBlogger the Book for a comprehensive guide to improving your blog and deriving an income from it.
—Darren Rowse, 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog, ProBloggerWhich of these tips would work well on your next post? Leave a comment below to tell us what you'll be trying out…
Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach, and blogs for a number of large sites. If you're struggling to keep up the motivation to write for your blog, check out her post on Six Common Writing Excuses (And How to Overcome Them).
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
7 Powerful Ways to End Your Next Blog Post
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