Your Blog Needs You, Not Just Your Words

Posted by junger - 12/29/08 at 11:12:03 pm

There are just some blogs I hate reading. Specifically, ones written by people who write like

  • they have authority, but don't.
  • they're experienced, but aren't.
  • they've perfected the system, but haven't.

Somehow, the blogosphere has turned in to a world where people have to find a niche and they have to be a leading voice in it, even if they come off as complete phonies.

Don't waste your time. It's not worth it. I've tried.

You can learn all you want about a particular subject, re-package and relay that information to an audience, but if there isn't a piece of you in it, you're unlikely to succeed.

Are You Opening Up to Your Readers?

While the Internet is truly an amazing way to learn, it's even better at connecting with people.

Blogging gives you a way to share your stories with a community of readers. It gives you a way to connect with people across the world. And it gives you the opportunity to show a different side of your personality.

There are a number of things I've written in this blog and others that I don't normally share offline. It's not because of any particular reason — it's just that the medium allows for you to organize, manage, and edit your thoughts.

My goal here is to share my experiences, pass along what I've learned, and interact with you. I won't sit here and tell you that you should do the same, but you at least need to be honest with yourself — and your readers.

You can't truly connect with your readers if you are not sharing your experiences in your posts. If you have no experiences or thoughts, what are you writing for?

Your blog needs you, not just your words.

Is Your Content Valuable?

Posted by junger - 12/11/08 at 08:12:17 am

As you're reading information online, ask yourself: what is this worth to me?

Would I

  • actively find out more about the topic?
  • sign up to get more information like it?
  • pay money for it?

If you answered 'yes' to at least one of those, the content has value to you.

But as a Web publisher, you can't be sure that your readers recognize the value your content has unless you treat it valuably.

How Content's Value Has Changed Completely

The Internet has democratized information. It's a beautiful thing, right?

Well, not for traditional publishers. Control of information has been their domain for hundreds of years.

Newspapers are going belly up. It's not going to get any easier next year, and it will hit certain places much harder than others.

Now that information is available from millions of resources, much of the actual content has lost its value. It's not a rare resource, dominated by a few in power. Anyone can produce it.

Giving Your Content Value

So how do you give your content value?

For small Web publishers, your content has to achieve certain goals or you won't succeed. Even if it's not about making money, it has to serve a purpose.

Your content could:

  • Build a community around a product (ex. The Mint Blog)
  • Grow a brand around yourself (ex. Robert Scoble)
  • Market your offline services or products (ex. any freelance writer with a blog)

How to Make Money From Your Content

As forecasters expect online ad spending to decrease next year, you need to understand that pageviews are not going to pay the bills.

Even if ad spending was going up, users would still ignore ads unrelated to their online goals.

In order to make money from your content, you generally have two options:

  • Charge for it
  • Treat it as marketing materials for your paid products

Charging for content? Are you serious? Yes. Charging for content can be an extremely compelling business model IF you are creating the right content and, most importantly, targeting the right people.

Most people are not going to pay to read the Wall Street Journal online, especially because the information is available through other outlets.

But if you're a business owner, would you spend $100 to attend a specialized online training or business summit that will make you more money? Of course!

Targeting the right niche with information that will make them more profitable is, in itself, a profitable venture.

Use Your Content to Market Your Product and Services

Instead of charging for your content, use it as marketing for what you do get paid for.

Let's look back at the three 'free' ways to give your content value:

  • Build a community around a product
  • Grow a brand around yourself
  • Market your offline services or products

Each of these use your content to make you money.

If you sell a product, you want a thriving community of users, critics and evangelists.

If you are a talking head or consultant, you need to build up your brand in order to establish your expertise.

If you are a freelancer writer or designer, you need to show off your skills.

Treating your content as marketing does not, however, mean it should be a sales pitch. Like all other information, if it isn't useful, your users won't respond.

What's Your Content Worth?

You're already producing content. But why?

The next time you sit down to write something, measure the value of your content. If you're not getting anything out of it, then your readers aren't either.

For more, follow me on Twitter or sign up for email updates or via RSS.

What Does 'Blog' Mean to You?

Posted by junger - 10/27/08 at 10:10:30 pm

The world 'blog' is filled with expectations … but they're totally different, depending on who you are.

At work, we've been discussing the merit of adding a 'blog' to the cepro.com and what exactly it entails.

The editors have been asking for one, but it always leads back to these questions:

  • does that mean a place to express opinions?
  • is it just a rollup of one author's posts?
  • are they short quips and thoughts about a particular topic?

What exactly is a 'blog'?

The 'Official' Definition

Here's what Wikipedia says about blogs:

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.

Honestly, this definition means nothing to me. If a blog functions as everything, then it is absolutely nothing.

We already post stories in reverse chronological. Many of our stories express opinions. Some of them are based on reports in other publications.

So do we already have a blog?

Does it Really Matter?

In the old media world, the word 'blog' matters. If all of these bloggers are getting tons of traffic to their sites while you're cutting staff, it must be because you don't have a blog.

WRONG.

A blog is not going to save your business. Embracing the culture and connectedness of the Internet will.

But back to the actual word. If blog doesn't mean anything, why use it?

Totally legitimate question. But the response should be: if the word blog doesn't mean anything, why not use it?

The Moral of the Story

The takeaway here?

It's not the word that matters. It's what you do with it.

Here's Visual Proof Your Headlines Matter

Posted by junger - 10/07/08 at 12:10:22 pm

We've talked a lot about how much your headlines matter online and that when you produce a bad headline, your competition gets a leg up.

But if you still don't believe me, take a look at this listing of headlines:

(from the pfblogs.org RSS feed)

Without clicking through, can you tell me what these stories are about?

  • Still Risky
  • The Worst Decade Since the Thirties
  • Long tin hats and canned food?
  • Important Level
  • Biweekly Mortgage Spam

While you can get a general idea from these titles ("Biweekly Mortgage Spam" is probably about emails or letters about a mortgage that come every other week), these headlines fail to tell the reader what the story is actually about.

There's a reason you should write your headline first — without it, you're not going to tell readers why they need to check out your content.

How to Write a Great Headline

The easiest way to write a great headline is to distill your story down to its root. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What's the point of the story?
  • How does it benefit the reader?
  • If I was looking for this, what would I Google?

Once you've established the point of the story (hopefully something you've thought of beforehand), back up and look at it from your reader's point of view.

Is your reader going to get anything out of this story? What are they going to take away with them?

You can easily write a story for yourself, but if your reader doesn't benefit, you're not going to keep them around.

The third question — "what would I Google?" — is arguably the toughest question to answer. You need to step out of the silo that is your Web site and user base and think like a newbie.

If you want to teach someone to balance their checkbook, consider what they would look for — "how to balance my checkbook," "how do i balance my checkbook," or "how to balance your checkbook" all seem like logical searches.

3 Great Headlines In Action

Penelope Trunk, whose blog Brazen Careerist attracts a dedicated and vocal community, uses great headlines.

They give you the point right away. You don't need to dig deep to find what they're really about. And to top it off, they're provocative (Disclaimer: Brazen Careerist is a client of Junger Media).

How to Easily Practice Great Headline Writing

There's an easy way to practice your headline writing without having to write any stories: Twitter.

With its 140 character limit, you're required to get straight to the point and tell your followers exactly what they need to know. It's not a great medium for in-depth writing, but it's an easy way to analyze what you want to say and the best way to say it.

While you're at it, follow me on Twitter and I'll check out your status.

Surprise: Your Users Don't Have Time For You

Posted by junger - 08/27/08 at 09:08:13 pm

Your readers have better things to do than read what you have to say.

Don't believe me? Try these facts on for size:

  • 79% of your readers scan text; they don't read it
  • Reading on a screen takes 25% more time than on paper
  • Intro texts are skipped by 2/3 of users

That's all according to Jakob Nielsen's research, as conveyed during Usability Week 2008 in New York.

Why don't they have time for you? They don't think you're useless, but they care more about themselves. Who can blame them?

Your readers come to you to get a specific piece of information, and then they move on.

So to keep them around, you should bury what they're looking for, right? Wrong.

Give them what they want — right away.

3 Tips for Fast and Easy Comprehension

To make you content easier to digest, use these three methods:

  • Lead with the conclusion.
  • Shorten your sentences. Use one thought per sentence.
  • Visually separate key points with lists or bold.

Old media writers are horrible at this. They bury the lead somewhere in the third or fourth paragraph. Each paragraph is more than 3 sentences long. And the conclusion is at the end.

Don't worry about "giving away" the ending before the reader has done any work. That's not how they see it. Remember: you are not your users.

If you consistently deliver the information that your readers want and how they want it, they'll be back.

Make them happy. Give them what they want as quickly as possible. Or they'll choose someone else to give their time to.

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