The more I read about blog promotion, the more I begin to think that some folks are missing the point altogether.
Heck, even I miss it, from time to time, and yet it is one of the main themes of this blog.
What is it we miss? Usefulness. Blogs are supposed to be useful to their readers. That’s one of the big things that differentiates them from simple static SEO websites. We’re all about building loyal readers, customers and clients by providing something of value to our readers, right? At least, that’s what we say we’re about.
But sometimes, we get off track. Feed stats and page views take precedence over providing true value.
Instead of helping other Internet writers to achieve their dreams, I focus a little bit too much on achieving my own dreams. In doing so, I work against my readers and, paradoxically, my dreams as well.
Take, for example, the idea of the links post. Everyone knows that it’s a good thing to link to other blogs. Not only that, there are almost always a large number of posts out there that our readers would find useful, maybe even more useful than our regular posts.
So, we collect a week or two worth of useful links and put them up on… Tuesday, right?
Nope. Links posts never go up on Tuesday through Thursday - those are typically our highest traffic days. No, we offer links when our traffic is at it’s slowest, preferably on a Sunday afternoon.
Why is this a problem?
In our quest to promote our blogs, we wind up being useful, but not too useful when it comes to pointing out other great resources. We also make the conversation on our blog that much more narrow and secluded by not engaging with other bloggers in our niche.
OK, so you move your links post to Wednesdays. Good form. Promote the pack and, in turn, the pack will promote you. Some of your readers will even remember who gave them all of those awesome links. That’s the first way to increase your blog’s usefulness:
Make links to other blogs a top priority.
What else, though? What can you do to make your blog more useful?
James Chartrand from Men with Pens asked recently, on Twitter, if bloggers ought to be allowed a posting vacation. I’ll leave it to James to gather and analyze the results of his little poll, but it got me thinking:
How often do you I post something truly useful on my blog? Let’s face it: sometimes, you post for the sake of posting, especially if you missed a day or three. Your forced content winds up being, in many cases, less than useful.
There are ways around this, of course. You can do like I did on Friday and count on your readers to make the post useful. (Which you all did, and for which I’m grateful.) You can’t do this all the time, though, or your readers might just catch on and take the conversation elsewhere.
So, how do we apply this idea?
Only post useful content, even if that means posting once a week.
A revolutionary idea, I know. Will it cost readers? Maybe. but so will the alternative, I think. Some of the biggest bloggers post on an irregular schedule, so daily posting isn’t a hard and fast rule.
There’s something else that can make your blog more useful. This one should be obvious, but I think it is so obvious that it becomes easy to miss.
Have you ever tried to read a blog with light gray writing on a white background? I’m 35 years old. I’m not old, but I’m no spring chicken. Reading gray on white is a pain in the ass. I can’t make it out. Same goes for that tiny print that the kids want to use these days.
I know, I know. Get off my lawn.
Seriously, though, your blog layout and design is an important part of being useful to your readers. If you make it difficult for readers to find archives or don’t offer a reasonably easy method of navigation, you’re making their job harder. At some point, readers will decide that it is not worth the extra work to find out what they were looking for.
Now, I’m not a designer. The “WJ” badge at the top of my blog is evidence of that fact. But, I do what I can to make my blog easy on the eyes and easy to get around, and I do that by trusting my instincts but also asking for advice.
That’s another way to make your blog more useful:
Make readability and navigation priorities in your blog design.
Do what you can. If you have a crappy “WJ” badge until you are willing to invest in a better banner, then at least make sure people can read your blog.
So, what else?
If I had to add a 4th way to make your blog useful, it would be this:
Foster a true conversation with your readers.
I don’t need to tell you how this works. You already know the drill. Put something in the comments and I’ll write back. Let’s do this one together, shall we?
What do you think? How can you increase your blog’s usefulness?
27 comments ↓
Share and share alike! This is why I love participating in the online community of writers.
I try to help writers by sharing the story of my own struggles and minor triumphs but I think there is more I could be doing to lend a helping hand.
For example, there’s the conversation that happens on the blog (#4 on your list), but the offsite conversation is perhaps even more important. I get questions from readers about their own attempts at writing stories. They ask for suggestions and comments.
Now mind you, I do run a site called How Not to Write. You’d think that label would be enough to explain that I’m not exactly an expert.
But then, when I do my best, I hear such wonderful things in return. I love that. I think I could do more to promote that offsite conversation. It’s good for my readers and good for me.
@ Jamie - The conversation starts on the blog, but you’re correct: it doesn’t end there. It goes on through e-mail, Twitter, via other blogs and even real-life encounters. Excellent observation.
I thoroughly enjoyed this article. Very insightful!
Skellie goes as far as saying, “The notion that subscribers unsubscribe if you post too little is a myth. If they like you, they’ll wait.” Source: http://www.skelliewag.org/the-pocket-sized-guide-to-blogging-282.htm
I’m a big believer in this notion. Perhaps one may lose some subscribers if posts aren’t done so often. But I can’t see why. Quality is very difficult to find out there — quantity is not. In that case, quality should have the greatest impact on ones readership!
Navigation is a big one. I’ve come across quite a few blogs recently that don’t provide a way to move from post to post. Sure, Recent/Popular Comments are fine, and if I was really interested I could go to the Archive page (if you have one), but having a next/previous link is a lot more convenient, and that’s really the bottom line if you want to make your blog more useful. Using it has to be convenient.
Hi Bob
I’m interested in the links question.
I link out a lot - just about every post I think, but I don’t write that many “links posts”, mainly because I find them dull as a reader.
I often skip over them unless they’re well written (tempting me to explore) Anything with more than 5 links makes me think there’s no way I’ve got time to explore them. So I skip to something else.
One of the reasons bloggers write links posts is for their own benefit: to attract the attention of other bloggers.
Does that make links posts useful to the blogger, or the reader?
Joanna
@ Bamboo - Thank you. I caught that from Skellie this week and I thing it applies for certain once you have an established readership. However, in the early days of a blog’s life, I think it doesn’t hurt to post daily if possible, just to establish brand recognition.
@ Kam - That’s a good point. In fact, I’m going to have to look into a next/previous link config for this blog. My D&D blog has it, but it’s a function of the template, I think.
@ Joanna - You raise a good point there. I’m especially interested, as a reader, in a link post that devotes two or three summary sentences about each of a dozen or so links. No, I’m not going to hit them all, but the summaries tell me what I might like to read. Those are valuable link posts, for me.
Here’s an example of what I’m thinking of, from my Dungeons & Dragons blog.
A list of 100 links can be all right, if they’re on a related theme. I still prefer at least a little commentary.
Bob, I mostly agree.
I do think that if you focus on who is reading, and how many are reading, you can lose sight of writing with authenticity. The quandary with blogs is that you are writer, publisher and marketer. The writer wants to be read and the marketer needs to make it happen. Learning to balance all of the needs and provide good content is the key. For a neat twist on linking, Harry (Men With Pens)has the best link post I’ve ever read.
Wait… you’re YOUNGER than me?
Excellent post, Bob. You make some very valid points.
I love to link to other bloggers simply because I LOVE a good blog. I get almost as excited about finding a great new (to me) blog, as I do about a really good book, and I just can’t resist the desire to share it.
While only posting useful content is good advice generally speaking, if the blogger is truly a good writer I enjoy even the occasional random or rambling post.
Fostering a true conversation with your readers is priceless and something I’m still working on myself. Getting folks to do more than lurk can be challenging, but is well worth the effort. My favorite blogs are those where there is a pack and some great discussion in the comments. In fact…that’s how I found your blog…through your comment on Brett’s post over at 6 Weeks.
Toward that end, I’d add that having a comments feed (as you do) helps to keep the conversation going, and having CommentLuv can certainly provide a bit more incentive to those that might otherwise lurk.
Thanks, Bob, for a very thoughtful and useful post.
@James -
Isn’t that “Younger than I?” :-p
Not in Quebec, where we take liberties and mangle the English language to suit our needs. ME. It’s all about ME.
@Dave Please be kind to James. A gentleman of his, well, [cough, cough] advanced years may get a bit excited when confronted with the more esoteric rules of proper grammar.
@Kameron Speaking of navigation, when are you going to get an email link up on that sweet site of yours!
@Karen As usual, a perfect comment… Speaking of Harry’s link post, does anyone else have good examples of this? I did some “round-up” posts awhile back but they always had the feel @Joanna was rightly smacking about.
Jamie Grove - How Not To Writes last blog post..Using Twitter as a Writing Warmup
Always determined to provide quality before quantity, I’ve only recently switched up from posting weeklyish to twice weeklyish (made possible by finally having my own comp too). It’s made for slower growing & going but results in quality readers also.
Navigation is the biggest problem just now which is why Rhodester (@ http://rhodester.net) & I have been anxious to switch to WordPress all along but had to wait on hosting. *sigh; migrating SOON*
While Rhodester offers up smiles & I’m serving food[coffee?]-for-tho’t, we do try to reward (if you will) the reader for stopping by. One thing we find key is to answer [nearly] every comment. Both comments & links are content, thus my ample linkage, as sharing articles & sites helpful to me shares the love AND the help. <3
(|_|*cheers*|_|)
“In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.” ~ Flora Edwards
What do I think? I think I love this post. Just yesterday I was perusing the latest Wordpress themes (I do this often, like window shopping for shoes…..such is the girl that I am
) grumbling the entire time at the dark, edgy themes, designed by, well, hell, I *know* they are not designed by a fifty something year old woman like myself.
You think reading black background with white type is hard at 30? Try it at 50 my friend…..it’s brutal.
I find myself operating on a purely pragmatic level with my blog and navigation is high on the list.
How many times have I cursed websites for their lousy navigation? Far too many. And I just can’t imagine how someone with even half a brain can’t figure these simple things out. I can only conclude they are close to the age of my teen son…..enuff said.
Usefulness is also key. Who cares what you ate for lunch with Aunt Sue? Who cares what your kids are doing (though everyone knows they are the cutest, most brilliant kids around…..but so are theirs, so back to the original question: who cares?)
I think by the time you start raising a family and taking on responsibilities, your perceptions and priorities change exponentially and consequently so do the reasons for blogging.
Great post. Very useful Bob.
@ Karen - I get what you’re saying, but I am convinced that providing value, in the long run, is the best marketing you can do. A quality product with 1000 lifetime customers beats out a crappy one with 10,000 one-time customers.
Oh, and I recall reading Harry’s post… but I can’t find it now. Do you have it, by chance?
@ James - Not by much, I’ll wager.
@ Lisa - Thank you! I get what you’re saying about an occasional rambling post, sure. There’s even some usefulness there (in that it is entertaining), if it’s done right.
And Brett… he doesn’t have a pack. He has a small country
@ Dave - ROFL!
@ Dorian - We’re looking forward to the migrations, too. You both have wonderful blogs. It’s a different kind of usefulness, to be sure
@ Magnolia - Thankya. When it comes to the navigation and design thing, I credit John at Poewar.com for putting that on my radar during his March Blogging Madness. Prior to those posts, I hadn’t thought much about functionality, only aesthetics.
[...] 4 Sure-Fire Ways To Make Your Blog Useful [...]
What I struggle with is being useful without being an “expert”.
I’m not comfortable in that role, and since my blog is about my quest to get my act together, I don’t offer “5 Tips”-type posts. Paradoxically, this is why I started the blog, so folks like me who struggle with organization and chaos could find a voice that doesn’t belong to an organizing “expert”.
Maybe I’m more of a cheerleader than an expert . . .
Ann at One Bag Nations last blog post..The Basement Report: an Update
@Ann, I have come to hate the term “expert.” I believe that all readers demand is authenticity. Be yourself, and be yourself boldly. As Stephen King writes in his book, “come boldly to the page.” Your readers do not require that you know it all, or have all the answers. In fact, your readers are probably there to grow and learn with you on the journey. You do not have to follow the formulas of experts, and gurus. You’re already an expert at being you.
Karen Swims last blog post..A Post About Nothing
@ Ann - It’s like @Karen says; describing your journey (which is mostly what I do here) is as useful, if not more useful, than a “4 ways to make your blog useful” post.
Having said that, Yaro makes a convincing argument for becoming an expert, rather than a reporter.
There’s something to be said for your term “cheerleader,” though. Perhaps that ought to be a third category of blogger.
@ Karen - In many cases, authenticity leads to authority. By coming boldly, you demonstrate a confidence that the things you write are true, even if they aren’t comprehensive.
@Karen and Bob: Great advice on being bold. One cannot be afraid of looking like a fool or even being wrong!
Admittedly, I may not be the best person to take advice from on this subject… though perhaps I have missed my calling and should become an expert at being foolish and wrong?
Press forward! Into them britches! (clearly, something has gone terribly wrong here)
@Ann I think you are approaching your blog in the best possible way. Telling your story from your own perspective. The trials and errors. The good times and bad. This is what real life is and sharing that insight is what blogging is about.
@ Bob, oooh I like this line - “By coming boldly, you demonstrate a confidence that the things you write are true, even if they aren’t comprehensive.” I am going to shamelessly steal it (giving you credit of course!). That is one fine nugget of wisdom.
@Jamie, hate to tell your bro but um you are an expert! Own it and keep doing what you’re doing.
Karen Swims last blog post..A Post About Nothing
@Jamie: I’ve waffled on the whole “email link” issue. There’s a part of me that still wants some sort of communication buffer. I’ll usually offer it if asked, and you can find it if you dig hard enough, but just slapping it up as a link on the blog makes me feel too exposed. Not that there aren’t a bunch of other ways to contact me via social networks.
@Kameron I understand what you mean. I blogged anonymously for many years, only recently jumping out there with my name. Of course, it was never all that hard to find me. Nothing that a little domain name lookup couldn’t handle.
Jamie Grove - How Not To Writes last blog post..Using Twitter as a Writing Warmup
@Kameron, you can always use an email contact link that doesn’t reveal your email address like the ones offered at contactify.com
@Jamie, not being anonymous makes us feel closer to you, as I know you know judging by the incredibly warm response you got.
I do think being easy to contact is important. People often won’t dig to find you and you could miss out on opportunities.
Karen Swims last blog post..A Post About Nothing
@Karen Quite true. I was completely overwhelmed by the response. Very awesome and a reminder of why being part of the online community of writers is so rewarding and fun.
Jamie Grove - How Not To Writes last blog post..Using Twitter as a Writing Warmup
In regards to only posting useful content, you never know what will be useful or draw a lot of traffic! I do agree that it is important to respond to all comments and that the blog design and useability are important though.
Nicks last blog post..DTMF Tone Workaround
Yep… I post my link posts on Friday. I don’t like to post on the weekend.
I don’t post five days a week either. If I don’t have something valuable to share or time to do it… I’ll skip it. Not going to waste your time with blah blah blah.
I think aiming for two posts a week is fine… even one is fine. We get burned out, you know? So burned out that we can’t prepare posts ahead either.
But haven’t gotten the community / conversation thing down… not even after all these years. Sad, eh?
Meryl K. Evanss last blog post..Blog 8th Birthday Bash Update
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