A lot of this will seem ironic…but at least I’m not ignorant. Here is a list of things you really need to think about if you own a blog.
First, visitors take about 10 seconds to determine what kind of content you have. And they have a set of assumptions and things to focus in on when they show up. They aren’t going to read all of your posts to decide that they like you. They may read one, but other things will catch their eye.
If the visitor has access to your traffic reports, Alexa rank, PageRank or RSS subscribership, you need to be cautious. People are afraid to admit that they trust the ‘market’ in terms of quality articles. If the first articles they read are poorer but you have a large number of subscribers, they will continue reading. If your first few articles are good but you have a weak subscribership, they will continue reading. But if you have a few weak articles and a weak subscribership, they won’t be coming back. If you’re not sure what a strong subscribership looks like, you should look around at the established blogs in your niche. Most have over 1,000 people subscribed. That doesn’t mean you should hold off putting a widget on your site; after all a few hundred subscribers still looks good. But for the most part hold off for a bit showing your subscribership.
If you’re blogging about money, don’t focus too hardcore on yourself until you get established. People will only want to hear from you once you’ve become an icon for blogging success (read: John Chow). Until then try to focus on your readers. I don’t mean ‘suck up to them’ but you more the less need to do that. Don’t build yourself up yet; the only real thing between you and your readers is that you own the blog. Problogger’s little cartoon described it best: To become a famous blogger you either need to blog and then become famous, or become famous and then blog. So just be yourself.
One last thing is tailored towards the finance/home business blogging family. Okay, you’re making money, great. Don’t make it into your website theme. You aren’t John Chow. Don’t turn your blog into your adventure to make money online, because it puts too much focus on yourself, not your readers. Do they really want to keep reading if you are only talking about how you’re doing great, and how they could be too? You want to sound like a blogger, not a pyramid scheme advertiser.
So I guess the point of this article is basically to say, don’t try anything out of your reach when you blog. Stick to your guns, represent yourself well on your blog, and at least try your best to sound like you know what the hell you’re talking about.
