There are plenty of tips and tricks I could give you about how to get more traffic to your blog.
And there are a lot of folks who can do that a heck of a lot better than I can.
The fact is, however, that getting traffic to your blog is only half of the challenge. Once a reader is on your blog, you’ve got to give them a reason to stay.
There are plenty of things you can do to increase your readership. You can hold a contest, for example, that asks readers to subscribe in order to enter. You can publish an Ebook and offer free to subscribers. These techniques are certainly valid ways to increase your blog readers, and they’ll almost certainly give your blog an immediate subscriber boost.
However, there’s only one thing you can do to guarantee people will come back to your blog again and again:
Write well.
Good writing is the key to successful blogging. Yes, all of those promotional techniques, from social media to article marketing, are important. They get folks to your blog in the first place. But good writing is infinitely more important in the long run. Why?
Good writing is pleasing to read.
According to studies, Internet surfers have horribly short attention spans. If you write poorly, your reader won’t understand what you write and they won’t enjoy it, either. Good blog writing means putting a smile on your reader’s face and getting your message across clearly.
That’s not all, though. There’s more to it. A readable style is only one part of good blog writing.
Good writing connects with the reader.
This concept applies to both the style of your writing and the content of your writing. To keep readers coming back, you have to write in such a way that they feel connected with you. You can’t write above their level, and you can’t write in the third person. In addition, you have to write about something they’re interested in.
Making those sorts of connections with your readers helps to establish a real relationship, one that involves trust. In fact, that brings us to the next point about good writing:
Good writing engenders trust.
There’s quite a bit of talk about “authority” in the blogosphere. Ultimately, authority is really about a trust relationship between you and your reader. You have something to say, and your reader trusts that it is both true and reliable. It really isn’t any more complex than that.
There are many paths to authority, too, regardless of what some of the experts might tell you. Getting readers to trust you starts, however, with your writing. You demonstrate your authority on a topic with good writing.
So, what do you think? Does good writing still matter online?
10 comments ↓
I think good writing matters when it comes to a blog’s success. I know I get irritated with writing riddled with misspellings and errors. Even worse is a piece worded in such a way it’s difficult to understand, or the sentences are so wordy, you’ve forgotten the beginning of the sentence by the time you get to the end.
One or two posts in need of sprucing up I can overlook. Everyone has an off day after all, but after a certain point, you can bet I won’t return.
I only have okay traffic, but I have a great ratio of subscribers. This is only because I put a lot of attention into the writing. I know that if I tried harder with SEO, I’d get a lot of traffic, but I can’t stand the idea of writing for bots instead of people.
I agree but I follow this principle and still lack high traffic. I keep posts brief and concise but entertaining and informative. I promote on- and offline, too. I have posted interviews with prominent figures in the niche.
Effective writing is the #1 means to increase readers but I don’t think it is the end-all-be-all. What else do you recommend to increase readers?
Aneesas last blog post..Breaking into Sports with the Mystics and Capitals
Aneesa: comment on other blogs, link to other blogs, e-mail other bloggers / popular people in your niche and make friends, and most of all just keep writing (and writing well helps, too).
Bob: Way to take something I said was hard advice to give and turn it into a post.
I think you did pretty well with translating it into better than just “hey stupid, write better!” so good job!
Bartoneuss last blog post..Memorable Death/Moments in Comics…
I think in the long run, good writing matters, but there are a lot blogs out that there have bad or merely mediocre writing that are very popular.
I guess it depends on the audience you’re trying to develop and for what. For example, People Magazine has a much broader readership than the New Yorker, but the New Yorker has better writing.
A People Magazine style blog will probably get more hits and rise more quickly if the owner makes the right connections, but the New Yorker style blog will probably attract more loyal readers.
Neither is inherently better than the other – it all depends on what YOU as the blogger are aiming for.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndromes last blog post..My Summer Someday List
Good writing matters more than a kick in the pants, but a knife across the throat matters more than good writing. Then there’s the falling airplane, full of Petco executives, plummeting toward earth in a fiery ball, soon to hit with such an impact that windows will rattle for miles around, causing dogs to howl and babies to cry.
This matters WAY more than good writing, but strive for it anyway.
RhodesTers last blog post..To the courageous..
@ A.B. – You’ve hit on what I’m saying here. I have never unsubscribed because of an occasional typo, but obscure wording and constant errors send me packing.
@ Writer Dad – Exactly. Better writing = stickier readers. They keep coming back.
@ Aneesa – My point here is that good writing doesn’t bring in traffic; it keeps readers once they get to your blog. Bartoneous’ basic advice is a great way to start getting traffic, but you’ve got to write well to keep your readers coming back.
@ Bartoneous – Heh. That’s what I do, my friend. Welcome to Writing Journey, by the way. Nice to see you made the jump across from the gaming blog over here!
@ Alex – I believe that, to a degree, those blogs you’re talking about are the exceptions that make the rule. Keep in mind, too, that popularity doesn’t necessarily mean loyal readers. If you take two blogs in the same niche with roughly the same traffic, the one that’s written well has more loyal readers, every time.
@ Rhodey – Way to give us some perspective. One question: do the dogs howl because it was Petco execs?
Part of my point here is that having readers is different from getting traffic. Loyal readers, in the long run, are much more valuable than traffic. Loyal readers believe in you, and are more likely to become customers. One loyal reader is worth a hundred one-time visitors.
The two – traffic and readers – aren’t mutually exclusive, of course. You have to have some degree of traffic to get readers. But turning traffic into readers is what good writing does for your blog.
I believe good writing is fundamental to any blogs success. I am constantly striving to improve my writing skills.
There’s another issue that resonates with me. A post that there really isn’t much to it, and it’s apparent that it was merely an effort to get one more entry written in, regardless of the weak content.
Granted, such matters may be highly subjective and what I find weak may be a treasure to someone else. Fair enough.
But…
If indeed a blog author forced an entry off just to be more consistent with their posts, I find that there is no greater insult to the reader.
If the blog author posts something they feel iffy about (just to be more consistent), what does that say about how they view their audience?
Bamboo Forests last blog post..Why Having to Say Hello Twice can Be So Awkward
Hi Bob – I totally agree – good writing and authority are a great way to get people coming back to your blog.
But, I guess it’s frustrating for folks who do those things and don’t know how to get people there to begin with.
And I don’t think there’s one magical way – well maybe there is for some people, but it didn’t happen for me. But over time, a few people will come, then a few more and if you keep writing stuff they want to read, those small amounts of people add up after a while.
That’s why I stop writing a blog post when it’s not coming together. I’d rather have fewer and high quality posts than many and so so quality posts. So I no longer pressure myself to post 4 or 5 times a week. In fast, I think I only posted twice last week — I did have more things going on than usual, too.
I hope that with school back on tomorrow, I’ll be able to get back to my normal schedule again. I miss it!
Leave a Comment