Where Do Your Blog Readers Want To Sit?

by Robb Sutton

It is the first day of school. Like any anxious student, you want to get to your new class first so you can get your pick of seats. You have heard that this teacher is pretty good at what he does. He have enough letters off the end of their name to about finish the alphabet, so he must be an expert in his field…that is why you picked this class. Joey from down the hall took this class last semester and gave you a fair warning. “Dude…seriously…the guy is good, but he is incredibly boring. Sit in the back and zone out…all of the notes are online anyway.” So there you are, competing with 30 other eager minds for the back row in anticipation of the glorious nap you are about to partake in for the net 50 minutes over the course of the next several months.

You find a chair in the back, grab a syllabus and zone completely out into a far off land…just waiting…for that one line that will come out of his mouth and grab your attention. That line never comes and you end up skipping the class half the time to keep out of the agony. How does he make napping not enjoyable?

Is This Student Your Blog Reader?

You have done your part! You created a blog, cemented your expertise to the point that people are signing up for your feed and newsletter and things are going ok. You are seen as an expert in your niche, but your blog is not growing quite as fast as you would like and and reader engagement might as well be a tumbleweed rolling across the road. Why aren’t you seeing the result you want if you have positioned yourself as the expert?

YOU ARE BORING

Harsh but true. You are that teacher that has more knowledge than attraction! Fact is…you have convinced readers to come to your class but you can not keep their attention for more than 5 minutes before they move on or zone out. So there you are…showing up in their reading list everyday just getting skipped over for another blogger that does not have the amount of knowledge that you do in a particular niche. I know…it’s sad and it keeps you up late at night, but there are ways to get over the boredom and come back to the living.

  1. Use Attention Grabbing Titles – You have a 2 second window of opportunity to get a reader to click on your link and read your article. That is it…so you need to have a catchy one liner as your article title or your incredibly boring (fixed in another point!) article is going to get passed over for some bit of sub par mess. You have to excite feeling in your blog article titles with the use of strong words and fixed opinions. Which of these two articles would you click on in a list?
    • How To Increase Your Readership With Pillar Content
    • 10 Tips That Will Gain You 1,000 Readers Today

    If you said the first one…you really are boring and need a reality check.

  2. Paint A Picture For Your Readers – Get out of using bland language that is as boring as the white on your page. Use descriptive story telling and pictures to help your readers actually feel what you are saying. People want experiences…not textbooks! Get as descriptive as you possibly can without going overboard like Lil C on You Think You Can Dance (shut up…my wife and I watch it as part of our “quality time”…if you don’t know who he is…search him out on YouTube. The way that guy talks is ridiculous. How many words can I use to say nothing?).
  3. Have An Opinion! – Yes…even you have a distint opinion about something so quit playing devils advocate. You don’t have to present both sides of the argument. Both sides of the argument is boring. State your opinion and stick to your guns. A blogger with an in your face opinion is interesting…the rest is just bland writing.

So there are a couple of tips that will make you the cool teacher that everyone wants to pay attention to. You no longer have to wake up your students with a yard stick slap against the desk because they are engaging with you and your content.

Image by flgr

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3 comments

Bob Bessette September 11, 2009 - 2:27 pm

Robb,
I agree. The attention span of an internet surfer is extremely limited so having an “attention-grabbing” title it so key. This is one of the true gifts of a successful blog developer. If the title does not grab you the content will never be seen.
You certainly grabbed my attention in this post!

Best,
Bob

Reply
Robb Sutton September 12, 2009 - 1:50 pm

Great! That was the point!

Headlines can be everything…no one is going to read what you have to say if you don’t get their attention.

Reply
Angie (Losing It and Loving It) September 12, 2009 - 7:41 pm

Hi Robb,
The attention grabbing headlines is what I have the most problem with. I used to write really well in high school sooo many years ago but now I can’t seem to get the words I want out so they are enticing to the reader. I’m working on it though!

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