I Can’t Tell What Your Blog Is About or Why I Should Invest My Time Reading It

Thousands of blogs are launched EVERY day. Which means there are thousands more blogs every day added by bloggers that appear to have no clue why their blog exists, what their goals are, or what purpose their blog can serve.

Quick, can you tell me…

• The purpose of your blog?
• Why should I read it?
• What will I gain from it?
• Why is it worth my time?

If you hesitated for a SECOND (or couldn’t answer those questions), then you aren’t clear enough about the purpose of your blog. If you don’t know these answers, how in the world do you expect new visitors to know within 30 seconds of finding your blog?

You are competing with millions of blogs and websites. Within a few seconds of that golden moment when I finally stumble across your blog, you have ONE CHANCE to convince me that I need to stick around, book mark it, subscribe to it, or plan to come back.  You’ll rarely if ever get a second chance.

Just Answer the Question

Imagine yourself as a first-time visitor to your own blog. What is your blog about? What will you gain from reading it? How can you subscribe to it? What is its purpose in life?  Make sure your blog can answer those questions clearly. If it does not, and you cannot, then do not expect your new visitors to have a clue or care.

General or Specific

The more general your blog is, the larger the potential audience but the harder it is to get people to stick around because you may or may not hit their “hot button” when they visit. You may or may not have enough material they specifically care about. Your answer to: “what is the purpose of this blog?” may appeal to a lot of people, but not give enough to any one one segment of those people.  For example, the topic of “money” hits a big audience. “Personal finances” is smaller but more likely to grab someone’s attention who needs that information.  ”Getting Out of Debt” is even smaller but highly focused.  You go from big audience, less focused… to smaller audience, highly focused. There are pro’s and con’s for either approach.

The more specific your blog is, what they call a “niche,” the more likely a new visitor will become engaged – but the smaller the potential pool of new readers.

It’s a Catch-22, and one you will have to decide on, because you can find endless arguments supporting both approaches.  Regardless, your blog should still clearly present what it is about, why a reader should stop and stay a while, and why they should come back.

If YOU can’t answer the questions -

• The purpose of your blog? 

 

• Why should I read it?

 

• What will I gain from it?

 

• Why is it worth my time? -

you can bet  a new visitor cannot either.  If those answers are not readily apparent, very few people will stick around and “dig” for them.

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