What do your readers think?

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Recently I've been raising a few questions at the end of my blog entries.  One of the recurring questions is: What do your readers think?

Know your audience.

Every time you write a blog entry, you should be asking: what will my readers think of this?

Many of the recent comments I've had on my blog suggest that my readers can relate to my content.  It's not so much a case of agreeing with the person whose blog you're reading - it's that you understand what they are talking about and why they feel the way they do.

Connect with your audience.

It's very important to write content that your audience not only relates to, but that they find engaging and, ideally, that provokes them to post a comment.

Generally speaking, most readers do not comment.  Some may comment from time to time but not on every blog entry.  Some may comment a bit more frequently.  Some may just read and will only comment if you have truly "wowed" them.

Wow your audience.

In the world of blogging, I think it all comes back to a few simple points.

1. How well do you know your niche?
2. How many people are interested to read about your niche?
   
3. How original is your content?
4. How focused is your content?

Choose a niche that you know well, and write good, quality content every time you post.  Writing the same thing as everyone else will not get you noticed.

Adapt and conquer.

Even if you post lots of great content, you'll probably find that some topics are more popular than others.  Keep an eye on how many comments each blog entry gets, and watch your stats to see the posts that get viewed the most.

Jamie Harrop has written a great blog entry on adapting your blog - You must adapt to your readers' needs.  Jamie is obviously very receptive to what his readers enjoy most from his blog.  Follow his example - look out for the most popular posts on your site, and consider writing follow-up posts to maximise value.

And it's not just blog entries.

In Reduce your clutter!, I suggested reviewing every item on your site to ask whether they all benefited your readers.

Before you add a new script or ad to your site, ask if it is relevant to your target audience.  You should also review the ones that are already on your site.

For instance, I recently saw a blog that had a clock in the sidebar to show the current time.  I've seen many business websites that do this too.  Frankly, I think this is a waste of space.  In Windows XP, there is a clock on the taskbar.  Physical clocks and watches do the same thing.  Somehow I doubt that most people need to know the current time when they're on your site - as soon as they navigate to another site, there goes the clock!

Do you always consider your target audience?  Be honest!

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