How to create a blog that has a lasting impact on readers was first published on ProBlogger.
Photo by Christian Angelo on Unsplash
If you want a blog that changes the lives of those who read it, I recommend answering three simple (but powerful) questions:
- Who are your readers?
- What do they need?
- How will they change as a result of reading your blog?
I wrote very briefly about these questions and suggested that they might be a good way to set a goal for a blog.
Since then, I've interviewed four ProBlogger readers who have asked themselves these questions and applied them to their blogs and seen significant improvements in their blogs.
So today I want to emphasize them again.
Let's go through the first two together and then look at the third.
Who are your readers? And what do they need?
Understanding who reads your blog (or at least who you want to read) and what their needs are is important because:
- what kind of content you should create (topic, writing style, etc.)
- how to attract readers to your blog
- How to connect with your readers and build a community on your blog
- how to monetize your blog (if that's your goal)
Understanding your readers also informs design, which social networks to use, which opt-in methods to use, how often to post, and more.
I've already posted a reader profile or persona building exercise to help illustrate this point. And if you're a ProBlogger member (FREE membership), I have a spreadsheet that walks you through the process of creating a reader avatar for your blog.
After all, knowing who reads it goes a long way in creating a useful blog.
Without this light you will stumble in the dark!
How will your readers change as a result of reading your blog?
Over the years I've been very focused on understanding the needs of readers, but it wasn't until last year that I took the next step and started thinking about how to change readers.
It's one thing to know who's reading, but if you want to create an epic blog, your blog needs to have an impact on people .
I recently spoke about this idea at a conference and shared the slide below. Although I didn't spend much time learning the idea, it was the biggest tweet of my conversation.
Photo by Kate Davis on Unsplash
The blogs that change people are the blogs that keep those people coming back.
Blogs that change people are blogs that build trust and relationships with readers.
Blogs that change people are blogs that readers share with their networks.
I've always known this - it's not exactly rocket science - but for some reason I've never defined the difference I wanted to bring to my readers!
As a result, some of my blog posts engaged readers, but many did not.
Why leave it up to our readers to decide what changes we want to make? Why not identify where they are and where we want to take them?
Call the change and then break it
Take my main blog, School of Digital Photography, as an example.
My answers to the above three questions are not that complicated:
- My readers are camera owners
- My readers are not using their cameras to their full potential
- My readers will gain creative control over their cameras by reading dPS
I know dPS can give camera owners creative control over their cameras so they can start capturing images that help create wonderful memories for their families, capture magical moments on their travels and create art and expression. yourself creatively.
These are the tangible benefits and results of reading our website and improving the lives of our readers.
Once we've identified the difference we want to bring to our readers, we can begin to make more informed decisions about the content we create simply by breaking it down.
What's it like to have creative control over the camera? This change consists of several parts. Some of them will be:
Of course, these are just a few things that a camera owner needs to understand, but you can see that we have already identified several topics to explore that help achieve the main goal of the site.
Doing this exercise gives us a content and community strategy that is more focused than sitting in front of a keyboard every day thinking about what we want to write.
By being intentional, we create content that moves people through a process and leads to a concrete, life-changing outcome.
So what changes do you want to make?
My challenge today is to answer the three questions above and then start breaking down the changes you want to make.
- Who are your readers?
- What do they need?
- How will they change as a result of reading your blog?
If you're serious about building an audience for your blog and want to increase traffic, ProBlogger's Finding Readers course will give you a map and walk you through 6 clear steps to find readers.
This article was originally published on June 20, 2014 and was updated on June 30, 2022.
How to create a blog that has a lasting impact on readers was first published on ProBlogger.