You Must Adapt to Your Readers Needs
2 January, 2008 - Blogging - 6 Comments
In June 2007 when I set out on the exciting, passion-inspired journey of blogging, I installed WordPress with the sole aim of publishing my advice, tips and experiences as a young entrepreneur. I intended to share inspirational stories, motivational speeches, marketing advice, sales tips and conduct interviews with interesting figures within the business world.
We Grew And We Changed
The more I wrote on this blog, and the more my subscriber count increased, the more clear it became that my entrepreneur related topics were no longer the most interesting items of the blog. A few months after starting the blog, I tested the waters by writing some Internet marketing and ‘blogging about blogging’ related posts. It became immediately clear that these two topics were far more interesting for my readers.
But Jamie, How Do You Know This?
Each week I analysed my stats and each week I saw a trend. On the one day of the week that I wrote about Internet marketing, I saw five things:
- Social networking traffic increased
- The number of Web sites linking to my site increased
- The Internet marketing post received far more comments than any other post during the week
- Overall visitor numbers for the day were higher than all other days of the week
- The click-through rate from users reading the post in their feed reader and coming to the blog was higher than all other days
It seemed logical, then, that I should switch the focus of the blog. As much as I’m passionate about being an entrepreneur, I’m also passionate about Internet marketing. I can blog about either with nothing but happiness, so it made sense to choose the niche that was going to produce the best community, the best blog, and yes, the most income.
The Result Of Change?
Since I redirected the focus of the blog, I’ve seen my subscriber count increase by 300%, the average comments per post increase 300% and the average number of visitors per month more than double.
So How Do You Adapt?
You must constantly adapt to your readers needs and wants. Adapting doesn’t mean a complete 180 degree switch in direction, like I did. It can be as simple as writing more posts on a particular topic in your niche (if your niche is Internet marketing, maybe your readers want to see more posts about social networking).
There are several ways you can find out what your readers want:
- Ask Them - I know, some say it stinks of being a blogging newbie, but it’s a written fact that there’s no better feedback than that from your customer.
- Count Your Comments - Each week, make a note of how many comments each post receives. You’ll soon start to see trends that allow you to determine which topics spark the most interest and discussion
- RSS Click-Through Rate - Each month, open up Feedburner, click “Item Use” under the “Feed Stats” menu and choose “30 Days” from the “Show stats for” drop down menu. This will show you how many times users clicked through to individual posts from their feed. You can identify which posts were the most popular by taking note of the posts with the highest click-through rate.
- Monitor Trackbacks - Which posts generate the most referring links from other Web sites and blogs? Watch your trackbacks to see which topics spark the most discussion outside your blog.
You must constantly analyse, monitor and adapt to the needs and wants of your readers and the wider community of your niche. Failure to do so will result in you getting left behind your competitors.
Do you try to monitor your most popular content? Have you ever surveyed your readers to see what they want from your blog? Do you use different methods from me to track trends? Let us know!
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Posted on 2 January, 2008 by Jamie Harrop
Filed Under Blogging |
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Change isn’t bad. It’s good to evolve your content and style… something that is especially obvious with any online comic is how later posts are more refined and grow on the collective wisdom of the previous years.
Hope 2008 is a great year for you!
Amen to that, Andrew.
Happy 2008!
To be honest, I didn’t really notice the shift in direction. Since you were new to blogging maybe I didn’t realize what your main focus (other then being an entrepreneur) was in the early days so the change wasn’t really seen as a change, but more as growth or evolution.
This really is the Internet, it’s always changing and those that don’t change get left behind.
I guess if you didn’t notice the switch, that’s a good thing.
Yup, the Internet moves faster than any other business medium, that’s for sure. But that’s why we love it, right?
Oh ya I always love feeling old and out-dated. LOL
Great also that you had the scope to roll with the tide. Keep up the good work.