You Write - But Do They Read?

You can write on your blog day after day. But if no one is reading it, it won’t do you any good.

You’ll often hear big names quote statistics in the thousands. Authors, speakers and consultants that have a worldwide audience can gain readers in the thousands in just a few months. I myself added 162 new readers to one of my blogs just this past weekend.

How did all this happen? Marketing.

The only way to build up your business is to market what you do. Your marketing goes beyond a brochure for your products or services. You also need to build up your interest.

If you’re writing on your blog several times per week, you have the first task down. The second task is harder to build, and harder to understand. You don’t want to share your ideas with an unknown audience. You need to target who’s reading and give them what they want.

Imagine someone comes in and reads one of your articles. They find it interesting and want more. At this point they don’t want a sales pitch - they want more information similar to what they’ve just read.

The more you write, the more they will stay. Once you peak their interest - it may take one blog post, or it may take 20 - then they have a desire to connect with you. They may sign up for your RSS feed. Or want your newsletter. In either case, they don’t want the sales pitch - just the ability to keep connecting with you.

Now that they’re on your list and hear from you again and again, you can begin casually dropping promotion ideas. Nothing hard-selling; just an occasional item on what you are offering.

I’ve been on lists for months before I decide to make a purchase. I keep up with them through every newsletter and through every post. And when I have a need, I almost always have a resource to go back to.

What are you doing to provide quality content to your readers that will keep them reading?