When I was in college, I had a professor who was fresh out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (better known as MIT) and in his first year of teaching. He was a brilliant linguist – a genius if ever there was one – but his first semester teaching undergrads at B.U. wasn’t going so hot.
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I agree with Brook. I write about education, so I assume I know what readers want and need, because I am an educator. I guess it’s time to ask exactly what they need. Thanks for the insight, Jeni, and for the inspiration, Brook.
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It’s pleasing to know that even a professor is learning all the time! How important it is to never stop growing. Must have been really humble of him to ask what his students were REALLY struggling with, as that is sort of indirectly saying that he failed to get his teachings points across despite his professor status.
It’s a great question to always ask ourselves. How can we add value? Great article.
Jeremy 🙂
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I appreciate you taking a moment to answer someone else’s comment, Jeremy! One other idea to add about my professor’s humility is that it also helped him become more approachable and “real” to the students. As I’ve said before, people don’t connect with blogs – they connect with people. I think you gain a lot of loyalty by showing that you’re really concerned with what will make your readers’ lives better.
Reply Thanks for reply. You are totally right. People connect with PEOPLE, period! It’s a simple concept, really, and the quicker we realise this, the better.
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You most probably write for others. And for yourself too! You just don’t lose your flavour of writing and personality to please everyone. 🙂
Jeremy
Reply I appreciate you adding your ideas, Noor. You definitely have to write about things you care about, and there are indeed lots of people who believe you should only write for yourself. I think it all depends on what your goals are for your blog – some people are content to top out at a few thousand readers, but lots of people get stuck at a few hundred and can’t seem to reach a bigger audience. If growth is important to you and you want to have maximum impact to help others, I think a two-way relationship (blogger to readers *and* readers to blogger) is important to establish, and asking questions like those I listed above can help move a blog in that direction. Of course feel free to take none, some, or all of my advice – whatever works best for you and your own goals. 🙂
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Great post Jeni! I did a survey a little while back and gathered up the responses. The funny thing is..I feel like I haven’t really implemented them. I can’t really figure out how best to do that. Now that’s it’s been some time, maybe I should go back and revisit the survey and see if I can look at it differently and get some new ideas…and maybe ask the question again..”what are you struggling with :)” Thank you!
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We have a nice blog and we get good traffic but our readers just don’t seem be connecting with us and I’m not sure why. They cone to the site, read, and leave. Some will come back but only when we maybe update with something that interests them and they see it on Twitter or Pinterest. I feel like we aren’t a site our readers are bookmarking to check back on, you know? I thought about posting a poll to see what they want to see more of but I’m not sure how many would respond. We offer an ebook for signing up for our newsletter and it helped grow our subscriber numbers but only 20% actually open the weekly update. Any suggestions?
Reply Hi Amber,
Of course there could be any number of different things going on here, but I think since you have the statistics available, it’s probably a good idea to step back and look at which of your posts are getting the most traffic, which posts have the lowest bounce rate, and which posts have the highest amount of time readers are spending on the page. Then take a look at the same information on your newsletters – which types of headlines get the most opens? Which ones have the most clicks through to your website? Part of understanding what your readers need is looking at the behavior of the people who are already there and experimenting with giving them more of what they’re already responding to…and also cutting out the things they’re not responding to.
One other question I might ask you is, do your site readers know what the benefit of subscribing is for them? Aside from the free e-book, I mean. Do you tell them what to expect and why you’re the best person to deliver that?
Just a few thoughts. 🙂
Jeni
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Amber I have the same issue. I have great traffic but almost no subscribers. I tend to get more comments on controversial posts but those are few and far between and I’m a travel blogger so I can’t be controversial all the time.
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After your last post, I sat down and wrote a list of 45 future blog posts with my one reader in mind (after reading your article, I knew exactly who she was!). It has helped me immensely to keep her in mind when I’m writing and when I’m deciding what to write.
Asking myself how I can add value to my readers’ lives will help me focus that list even more, helping me to get closer and closer to the blogger I want to be. Thanks Jeni!
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I ask as part of my site’s autoresponder series because the answer to this question can give you so many ideas for posts and opportunities to help someone directly via email, which can make a fan and friend for life. I need to do a better job of doing this more often, more than just in the autoresponder, because it’s such a powerful question. Thanks for the reminder!
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I would like to solicit ideas and struggles from my readers, but I’m not sure how best to do it. I’ve seen FB engagement drop off terribly in the past year (since Pinterest became big), and my comments slowed before that. I rarely have readers comment on the open-ended questions I put at the end of blog posts, and nowadays when I post questions on FB I don’t get a response (because they’re not seen by anyone). ??
Reply Hi Gina, I appreciate you sharing your challenge here. Have you thought of holding a live event – like a Google Hangout – where people can ask you questions? Like a Q&A session your readers are invited to. The questions you get there would really help you get a taste of what your larger audience probably wrestles with. Plus, you’ll be introducing yourself in a much more personal way to your readers, and people are more likely to interact with someone they feel they know. I hope this is at least a little food for thought… So glad you’re here!
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Often is the case, the best answer (approach) starts with a simple question. The one caveat I have with this “what are you struggling with” question is when it comes from the person (too soon). For some reason, it doesn’t seem as sincere when that question comes up too soon in the relationship.
The question I ask my clients is; Who do you want to be a hero to? Given my profession in the social seo space, it fits more often than not.
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Jeni-
I cannot thank you enough for this post, and for the free 5-ways to grow a blog download. I appreciate your shrewd understanding of blogging, and I love that you encourage us to think realistically about our blogs, NOT idealistically. There is a huge difference between the two, right? 🙂
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I’m just starting out. This isn’t my first blog, but it’s the first one that I’ve been passionate about. Interesting how one of the first rules of blogging is to write about your passions. I hadn’t been doing that until now.
What I have been doing in the meantime is seeking to understand personal branding and marketing. I’ve wanted (for years) to write a novel and one of the most complicated aspects of doing so is marketing the novel and branding yourself as the author. The most important thing I’ve learned is how significant communication is in creating relationships with the people who will eventually purchase the product.
I ask questions all the time. It’s not just about creating a call-to-action in the blog post itself, but about communicating through social media. Commenting isn’t everything: Questioning serves the purpose of finding out where the reader is today and what s/he needs to get from the blog.
Today was launch day for me and I already have a small handful of people asking me for tutorials about how to play the ocarina. Knowing what the reader wants to get out of the blog will help me to know what content to keep refreshing, what to pare back on, and how to keep people coming back.
Fingers crossed, it’s also going to help in the future with advertising partnerships. If I’m delivering what my readers want, my hope is that some of the sellers I currently buy from will be interested in reviews and advertising partnership because I’m answering the questions that their customers ask.
Thanks!
Reply Sounds like you have a great plan, Becki. Cheering you on as you move forward!
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this site is really very inspirational and conducive . I would like to create a mathematics blog where I am intended to show the very basic math concept in an intuitive way and as I am currently unemployed So I would like to make some money also from this blog.is it possible or not?I am extremely beholden to you for your response .
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You seriously have shown an amazing perspective about blogging. Following everything that you have mentioned here can truly be helpful and inspiring, which can ultimately get subscribers and readers. It is indeed all about knowing what exactly does the reader look forward to and the effort should lie in connect to the readers in a personal manner.
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So I dont have many subscribers/fans and I am running out of ideas to write about and I need help on knowing how to become more known and have more ideas.
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