Letting Others Put Your Name Out There

Letting Others Put Your Name Out There

A final way to generate interested traffic is to send your entries to blogs that talk about blogs.  Slate Magazine features a column dedicated to blog entries about hot topics, and the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web” daily column provides a daily look at newsworthy and amusing online content.  Sites like these can introduce your content to readers that might never find you otherwise.  As you travel the blogosphere, be on the lookout for anyone who might need your content.  Then provide it to them.  Don’t get discouraged if they don’t feature you every time.  Remember, all your fellow bloggers (the serious ones anyway) are competing for the same attention.

Keeping Readers With Expertise

You’ll draw your readers, for the most part, by promotion - by letting them know you exist.  But you’ll keep them, if you keep them, by giving them value for their time.  Remember, your readers are ‘paying’ you a visit.  They are ‘spending’ time on your site, and they expect to get something in return.  If your site is an opinion or news site, that something is your valuable opinion on a posted subject.  If your site is an art site, that something is quality content and commentary.

You’re the expert here, or ought to be.  You will be expected to know more about what you post than anyone else.  Being the expert means that you’ll have to work harder and longer than any of your readers.  It means you’ll have to dig and cull and study.  It means you’ll throw away 10 stories or articles for every one you post.  It means you’ll know what your readers expect and you’ll give it to them every time.  That’s the price you pay for readers who value your opinion enough to come back day after day and week after week.

Writing Unique and Valuable Content

Your readers expect you to write what no one else is writing – that’s why they’re on your site and not another.  This should not be difficult if you decided wisely when you designed your blog originally.  You’ve got to make every entry a masterpiece: something worth reading and something worth linking to.  Just posting part of a story with small commentary works in small doses, but everyone can read the news themselves.  Unless you have something worthwhile to say about a story, some valuable insight to present or relevant commentary that ties this story to other stories, it may not be worth posting.  Your readers return because they value what you have to say.  Don’t disappoint them by giving them too much unexpected fluff, and don’t simply rehash the opinions of others without giving your readers the satisfaction of your own. 

Writing Timely Content

Valuable content is content that’s both relevant and timely.  If you comment on the news, re-hashing an article from 2 years ago is not going to cut it.  If you present the sports, talking about a game from last fall – unless you tie it into the next game – is going to leave your readers uninterested.  Whatever you write, you need to tie it to today, right now, this minute. 

That means, unless your blog is a reference site, at least daily updates.  It usually means several updates a day.  Remember, you are a member of the new media, and the new media is on top of the news.  When your readers return, they expect that you’ll be ahead of them: that’s why they are coming in the first place.  You’ll have to set an update schedule that will keep you ahead of your readers. It is also another method of branding your blog.