Find Out What Readers Think (and Feel) About Your Blog

Yesterday I shared a little exercise to help bloggers gain clarity around the branding of their blogs. The idea was to simply list what you want your readers to think and say about your blog.

Today I thought I’d share a followup exercise—one that I also do on my own blogs from time to time.

The idea of yesterday’s exercise was really to crystallize in your mind the type of brand you want to build. Doing this exercise can be powerful in framing how you move forward as a blogger, however the reality is that in most cases what you want your brand to be, and what it actually is, can be quite different.

So what is the reality, and how do you find out how people actually see your brand?

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The simplest way to find out is to ask people—and that’s what we’re going to do today.

There are a variety of ways to do this. Let me suggest a few:

Start a survey: One simple way to do this if your blog has regular readers already is to set up a simple survey using a tool like SurveyMonkey, and invite readers to fill it out. Design the survey to test the brand that you’re trying to build. Surveys can be particularly good because they offer participants anonymity, which can increase the likelihood of real and raw responses (just be ready for some honest and sometimes confronting answers).Email trusted readers: If your blog is smaller and you’re not confident of getting many survey responses, perhaps another method would be to email a few trusted readers—those that you do know read your blog. Even just a handful of responses from readers could give you valuable insights.Run a focus group: One blogger that I know recently held a small focus group with a group of local readers. She had them all meet at a cafe here in Melbourne and shouted the group morning tea in return for their insights into how she could improve her blog. The face-to-face interactions were not only great for getting feedback, but also building relationships with a few readers.Ask a friend: If your blog is really new, or you don’t know any of your readers to ask for feedback, why not ask a real-life friend to test your blog for you? Ask them to sit down at your blog, read over it for 15 minutes, and then give you feedback on what they think about it. Another thing you can do in this situation is actually watch your friend surf over your blog—don’t interrupt them, just watch how they use it. What navigation links do they click? What problems do they have leaving comments? This can be an illuminating experience.

However you do it, the key with this research is to try to get inside your readers heads, and learn about how they see your blog—particularly what lasting impressions they have of it.

Also keep in mind that brands have a lot to do with the feelings and emotions people have about your blog. So make sure you ask about those, too.

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How To Make Your Readers Love You And Your Blog

“You can get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”
Zig Zigler

Guest post bySteve Thomas

I read a lot of blogs.

I love to see what other people are saying. To be frank, I also like to see what they’re up to. Lately I have read some blogs that got me wondering if the blogger understood one simple thing.

Unless you’re writing your blog as a journal of sorts, chronicling what you had for breakfast, your blog should be about other people.

If your blog is a vanity blog, and you aren’t interested in solving other people’s problems, then you can quit reading this now and go write about your cat. You probably won’t have many readers, and many of them won’t be coming back, but hey, you and your cat will be happy!

If you are interested in blogging to help others, and for profit, then read on

Now we all hear a lot about blogging your passion, and I totally agree with that. If you try blogging about something that you have no interest in, then you are doomed to failure.

On the other hand, if all you ever do is write about you and your passions, no one is going to come back to your blog. No one wants to hear just about you.

We’re all selfish deep down. We want to know what’s in it for us. If it doesn’t benefit us in some way, we aren’t interested.

Oh, but, people want to read about all the interesting things I do!

Well, maybe, but you better be damned interesting!

Think about it this way. Let’s say you walk into a regular brick and mortar store. You look around and there are pictures on the wall, knick knacks here and there, some furniture, and it generally looks like someone’s living room.

The owner never asks you if they can help you. They just tell you all about themselves and what they are hoping to do tomorrow.

You ask what they have to buy and you are told, nicely, that there is nothing to buy. The store is all about the owner!

Would you go back?

You might, but it isn’t likely. You’d find a store that had the product or service that would help you with your life.

Blogging, especially successful blogging, needs to bring what you are passionate about to those who have the same interests and help them somehow. It needs to be about helping them. It fulfills a need they have.

Zig Zigler, a famous salesman and motivator said,

“You can get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

What he said was true.

A successful blog, and my definition of a successful blog is one that has traffic and brings you some sort of income, has to be about helping others get what they want.

If you focus on your readers, they will love you.

Sure it’s about your passion, whatever that is. However, that passion has to be used to help others with that same desire or passion. It doesn’t matter if your passion is knitting or sailing around the world. You have to help others learn to knit or sail.

Remember, if you want your readers to love you and your blog, make it about helping them.

Steve Thomas, better known as Fungeezer, can be found at Fungeezer.com

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