by Skellie
Photo by *Dario*
The marketer’s daydream is to ‘evangelize’ products and brands — to create customers who are passionate about what the marketers are trying to sell. When it comes to blogs and websites, having a passionate readership is just as valuable.
By evangelizing your blog, you create an audience who is eager to link, comment and vote for your content. You create an audience who will speak about you with respect and admiration. As Seth Godin recently pointed out, how much you talk about yourself will never compare to the power of others talking about you.
Having a passionate audience is incredibly useful (and rewarding). You don’t need to have many readers or subscribers to grow a passionate audience, either: in fact, I’d suggest that a small, passionate audience is more useful to us than a large, disinterested one. Passionate audiences will rave about your content, link, comment and vote for you more often than is usual. In this post, I want to explain how you can create passionate readers.
Give your audience what they need
Both online and in day life, we find ourselves gravitating towards people who give us what we need, as opposed to what we want. To my mind, ‘wants’ are the things we think we need. Needs are the things we actually do need. Likewise, your readership has its ‘wants’, but satisfying a need will always leave a more significant impression.
For your content to be worth evangelizing, it must focus on needs. “Got it,” you’re probably thinking, but one essential question remains: “How do I work out what my readers need?” There are two strategies you can use to answer this question.
1. Think like a reader
If you weren’t you, you’d read your own blog, right? That sentence is horrible, but it gets my meaning across: there’s a very good chance you’re part of your blog’s target audience. What you need may just be what your readers need.
Any unanswered questions or confusions you have could be questions and confusions shared by your readers. Simple tips, tricks and methods that have helped you immensely might just do the same for your audience. A useful brainstorming session could start with the following questions, viewed through the prism of your blog’s niche:
- What do I need?
- What have I needed in the past (but have since found)?
- What don’t I need?
2. Listen to your audience
The world’s greatest comedians will shape their performance depending on audience reactions. If a joke receives rapturous applause, they’ll extend it longer than they’d planned to, or refer to it again later on in the performance. If a line of joking seems to be falling flat, the comedian will quickly transition to new material. If a particular gesture or facial expression seems to be drawing laughs, the comedian will repeat it again and again until the novelty has worn off.
In many ways, creating content for an audience can be a similar experience. We try to do a lot of what works well, and steer away from what doesn’t. Like comedians, we have an audience there to help us out.
When a particular article becomes very popular, we can ask: “How can I expand on this idea more in another post? Can I recreate this formula on another post topic?” When a different article seems to generate very little interest, we make a mental note not to approach the same topic again (or at least, not in the same way). Listening closely to the way your audience reacts will help you become more attuned to what they do and do not like.
You can also listen in a more traditional sense: by reading comments and emails and looking for questions or frequently mentioned topics. When a topic or question comes up again and again, you can bet a significant portion of your readership needs help with it, or wants to hear more about it.
Go the extra mile
Customers won’t become evangelists for a product or brand unless they see it as exceptional — one of a kind. The same principle applies to blogs or websites.
Here are some ideas for how you can go the extra mile for your readers:
- Write a post offering to answer every question left in the comments section.
- Share your best ideas.
- Give a service away for free.
- Link to reader-submitted tips on a specific topic.
- Answer every well-meaning email you receive (even if the answer is a polite no).
- Get to know your readers outside your blog.
- Leave comments on reader blogs.
- Vote up articles on reader blogs.
- Highlight great comments in posts.
- Answer comments and questions left on your posts.
- Ask your readers what they think.
Treat your readers with respect
Perhaps the most important step of all is to treat your readers with respect. While speaking kindly to readers is something you’d hope all bloggers would do, there are a few more things you can do to show readers that you respect them.
1. Respond to feedback. If you write something that gets a lot of constructive criticism, it might be a good idea to acknowledge that in your next post. Have you learned something, or are you determined to stick by your guns? Even if you don’t agree with the criticism, you should acknowledge it (particularly because if your readers like you, leaving constructive criticism is a tricky thing for them to go through.)
2. Highlight gaps in your knowledge. Another common mistake bloggers fall into is ‘marketing their knowledge’. The pressure to be seen as an expert can sometimes lead us to come off sounding as if we think we know everything. However, if we never highlight gaps in our knowledge, or ask readers to fill them, readers may start to feel that their input and presence simply isn’t needed.
3. Show gratitude. A fundamental part of showing respect is to show gratitude when a person helps you out. The same applies to readers. Whether you hit a $100 a month blogging income milestone or the front page of Digg, you would not have reached that goal without your readers. Say thank you earnestly, and at regular intervals. You’d be surprised at how much your readers will appreciate it.
Note: the title of this post is a tribute to Kathy Sierra’s now defunct blog, Creating Passionate Users.
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28 Comments, Comment or Ping
Kelly Wissink
I think you’re right on.
But, I think in order to create passionate readers you have to be a passionate reader yourself. As a former teacher, I always instilled in my students that “Readers are Leaders.”
Thanks,
Kelly Wissink
Jan 15th, 2008
Sucker
That’s so true - a group of passionate readers is better than the biggest “digg me, I digg you” circle (or whatever one is going for.)
Good tips, I’m actually working on #2 a lot right now, so let’s hope for the best
Jan 15th, 2008
Joshua Clanton
You’re right about the importance of listening to your audience. My best posts tend to be the ones where I have been paying close attention to what they are interested in.
Jan 15th, 2008
Melissa Donovan
Truer words were never spoken. I’m always surprised when I stumble into a blog that seems to have complete disregard for its audience. Often these blogs do not respond to comments, have no never link outside (especially to their readers’ sites), or ramble on in a self-absorbed manner. A little audience appreciate goes a long way. I feel that way as a reader, so I approach my blog in the same manner as a writer. Thanks Skellie!
Jan 15th, 2008
Bente Lilja Bye
One of the remarkable features of Skelliewag is the contact between the blogger and the readers. Not seen anything like it anywhere else. I think this is one of the keys to the success of Skelliewag and your other professional development, Skellie.
Jan 15th, 2008
Read Scott
My favorite point is to offer a free service. For me, that means doing custom Wordpress installs for readers who contribute to valuable discussion.
Jan 15th, 2008
Dan Cole
I think readers and visitors will be more passionate and more interactive if your on a more personal level with them. Some blogs that I visit seam like there walking to me through a cage and I don’t know who is on what side of the cage.
Jan 15th, 2008
pablopabla
I’ve been passionate about Skelliewag since the first day I popped in
Now, I try to create my own passionate readers
Jan 15th, 2008
Evan
HI Skellie,
Points well made I think.
I think this aspect of blogging probably has as much (if not more) to do with the response to readers (comments and posts responding to comments) as to the content of the posts.
One caution: their is a difference between what people need and our reflection on their wants and our perception of their needs. An example: what is needed is a re-establishment of a public language that takes account of spirit. This need cries out - look at any public discussion. A blog on this making the front page of Digg? Methinks not. Distinguishing between wants and needs is tricky.
Jan 15th, 2008
Mrs. Micah
I really enjoy interacting with my readership…and having been a passionate reader of some blogs, I try to figure out what my readers will like.
I think you’ve got good reader-serving skills.
Jan 15th, 2008
Sonia Simone
My blog is kind of like the Velvet Underground–I forget if it was Lou Reed or one of the others who said, “Not that many people bought our stuff, but every one who did made a record.” I have a small readership but they’re very involved and passionate about the blog and the topic.
You can get such valuable stuff from conversation with your readers. I got an idea to produce a simple video (still working on it) about how to lighten up about money from one of my very early readers, and *that* idea opened up a whole line of thinking for a series on a more soulful kind of marketing–based more on connection and less on trying to hypnotize people into doing something they don’t want to do.
Jan 15th, 2008
Warren
Just what the doctor ordered. I was just thinking about my plan of action for getting closer with my readers today. Thanks for the tips. They have been added to my notes on the subject.
Jan 15th, 2008
skellie
@ Kelly Wissink: Good point. Definitely something to remember.
@ Sucker: A small passionate group of readers is probably better for social media votes, too :).
@ Joshua: I’ve experienced the same thing. I had so many people as about the Flickr images on Skelliewag that I decided to write a post outlining everything I knew on the topic. It’s a simple article, but it’s proven to be one of this blog’s most popular posts.
@ Melissa: Good points — I think we can learn a lot from the things we don’t like on other blogs. It’s very useful to develop the habit of questioning why you feel either positively or negatively towards another blog. You can transport a lot of those lessons to your own work.
@ Bente: Thank you — I actually started this level of interaction from a pretty self-interested vantage point: because I enjoy it! It was only afterward that I realized that readers appreciated it, too ;-).
@ Read Scott: That’s a really cool idea!
@ Dan Cole: I agree — you’ve got to give of yourself if you want readers to give something of themselves in return.
@ Pablo: Thank you — and I think you’re doing a good job at it :-).
@ Evan: I agree — trying to predict needs is never going to be easy, and sometimes it is nigh on impossible. But it’s still a worthwhile thing to do, because when it works, it really works.
@ Mrs. Micah: Well, thank you :).
@ Sonia: Very cool quote about your passionate readership. What’s interesting is that you can visit a blog with tens of thousands of subscribers and find that it just feels dead: the discussion going on is shallow, the blogger hasn’t found the time to interact with their audience, and so on. On the other hand, you can find a blog with maybe a few hundreds hits a day that seems to be absolutely thriving with a vibrant discussion and exchange of ideas. I’d pick the latter any day — and it sounds like you would too.
@ Warren: Good to hear, and good luck with them :).
Jan 15th, 2008
pablopabla
Feed subscribers have slowly but steadily been increasing over the last month. I hope this shows that I am on the right track. Your tips work!
Jan 16th, 2008
Kim Kinrade
Every time I read your blog I come away with new ammunition. It’s not that I don’t appreciate my readers. I just find myself getting carried away with the topic and forget to look at it from the reader’s point-of-view.
Jan 16th, 2008
Nice from Thailand
I’m one of your passionate readers
(although I don’t comment much as my english is not quite well)
Today I read http://www.dailyblogtips.com/10-simple-productivity-tips-for-bloggers/ and think “oh this is a good post”
then I realized that it’s your post again! (after reading the comments)
Although it’s maybe impossible if that blog has 100+ comments,
as a reader, it feels good that the blogger answer the comments one by one.
so I do that too.
Jan 16th, 2008
Sonia Simone
I’ll throw in another factor that I think is very useful–as a blogger/writer, you’ll gain passionate readers by being human and complex. No one feels too passionate about the AP wire or the yellow pages. Passion is about relationships.
Have opinions, be cranky every once in awhile (if that’s your style), don’t be afraid to show a bit of your goofy side. You don’t have to be consistent, you just have to be real.
Blogs are conversations, and it’s much more fun to have a conversation with a well-rounded (perhaps sometimes quirky) *person*.
Jan 16th, 2008
Conrad Hees
Great tips Skellie
I have found that actively participating in your readers’ blogs is the best way to create a passionate readership. The major downside to it is that it is extremely time consuming to actively participate in more than a few of your readers’ blogs on a consistent basis.
I have been experimenting with different forms of networking online recently, and the more I do it, the more I realize that with a fulltime job as well as a blog to write, there is very little time to respond to every comment, or keep up with all of the responses on a forum. I guess that it is the nature of the beast.
keep up the great work and I hope that Anywired is even more successful!
Jan 16th, 2008
Iacomus
Hey! Just had to say that I love the pictures you post. Being a photographer myself, It is always interesting to see what you find to showcase!
~Iacomus
Jan 17th, 2008
Joan
Skellie –
I don’t know why I haven’t discovered you before, but I’m sure glad Andy Wibbels pointed ms in your direction.
I’m envious as hell that you’ve turned blogging into a full-time pursuit with a full-time income — I’m still doing the happy dance on any day where I get more than 10 visitors!
Brava for the great blog content — I’ll be back, and digging deeper.
Jan 30th, 2008
Mariana Faithful
Hi there. I am glad I have discovered your site.
It’s really neat.
Some blogs do not get a lot of traffic at all. I think it is because the blogs are narcissistic.
Do we really need to know everybody’s dream the night before?
Keep up the good work.
Thank you people.
Jan 31st, 2008
Amos
Hi, thanks so much for sharing this. I really agree, that creating passionate readership is important to success of a blog. Quality is more important quantity. I guess the biggest challenge is… time to write original passionate content for your readers. That’s certainly my challenge right now.
Thanks again for this blog post! Very useful.
Feb 12th, 2008
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