by Skellie
Photo by Jekkyl
If you’ve been wondering why your blog or website hasn’t been growing as quickly or steadily as you hoped, you might be encountering one (or more) of the five barriers to success. So far, I’ve covered two parts:
- Content with a lack of significance for its target audience.
- A lack of diverse entry points to the site.
In this post, I’ll be discussing the third barrier to success: a badly defined (or un-defined) target audience.
Barrier 3: The Absence of Definition
When you ask a blogger or webmaster for an elevator pitch, they’ll usually say something like: “I write about this, this and that.” I’d like to alter this habit. I’d like us to start saying: “I wrote for the following types of people.” Let me explain why.
If you’re writing for people rather than on topics, you’re forced to think about who you’re writing for, what interests them, what their needs are and how you can be useful. If you’re writing about topics alone without considering the context, there’s no compass to follow.
If your blog is about Firefox, anything you write about Firefox meets the criteria. But does anyone want to read it? It’s incredibly difficult to evaluate what you should be writing about, and how you should be writing.
Instead, think about what kinds of people are interested in the topics you want to write about. How can you tailor your coverage of the topic to suit their needs?
Value is subjective. If you haven’t defined your target audience, you can’t hope to work out what is valuable to them.
The challenge I give you today is to sit down and answer the question: Who am I writing for? Once you answer that vital question, knowing what to write about, how to write it and how/where to promote your blog becomes a whole lot easier.
* * *
Skelliewag reader Heshy has written a post inspired by his Audacious Blogging experience. Go check it out if you’re interested in the idea of audacity.
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14 Comments, Comment or Ping
Selene
When I began planning my blog about surviving high school my entire focus was on fellow high schoolers. The reason I’m so passionate about my subject is, because other high schoolers can relate to going through similar things and they can learn from my mistakes. I completely agree with this post, because my blog would be nothing if I didn’t write for my audience.
Feb 2nd, 2008
Mrs. Micah
I have an idea for another blog…sort-of…but so far I haven’t been able to really define its audience and theme. So I’ve let it stew on the back burner for now. Just no point in putting in energy until I know what I’m doing and can do it right.
Feb 2nd, 2008
Arachne Jericho
Skellie,
Thank you so much for this series. More than anything else I’ve read so far (and I’ve been scouring the blogging sites and feeds and such) this has helped me refocus my site.
This third article finally triggered the last insight I needed to bring my blog on seemingly disparate subjects together. I had in the past few weeks started to post specific category areas as my website to different sites; but now I have no shyness about just posting the address to my main site.
Going forwards, I now know who I’m going to write for. This is the first solid ground I’ve reached in blogging (only since Oct. 10th, mind you), and I feel wonderfully hopeful.
Thank you again for writing this series, and for keeping Skelliewag and AnyWired up and running. You are one of the best resources in the blogging community about content and its organization thereof.
Feb 2nd, 2008
hersh bhardwaj
This topic is very easy to put across and very hard to put into practice. Isn’t this a marketing motto? Define your customers flesh and bone!! Easily forgotten, thanks for reminding.
Feb 2nd, 2008
Mary Jaksch of GoodlifeZen
This excellent post has made me sit back and think.
I’m still struggling with who my readers are. The reason is that the appeal of my blog seems to be much wider than I anticipated.
Initially I thought I was writing for people interested in Zen. But then I noticed that a lot people who have no connection to Zen but are generally interested in questions of life and spirituality are enjoying my blog. So, who am I writing for??
It’s like searching for my audience on the horizon, only to find they are sitting right behind me!
Feb 3rd, 2008
Kathy
Interesting point of view and def. something to consider when writing.
Feb 3rd, 2008
Lexi
great post, as usual, skellie! reminding myself about my target audience just today helped me come up with an idea for a series of topics for my blog.
Feb 4th, 2008
plonkee @ the religious atheist
Hmm. I’m pretty much writing for people like me. The me that likes personal finance, and the me that is interested in religion and atheism (on two separate blogs). Perhaps this is why my blog is growing slowly.
Feb 4th, 2008
Anthony Lawrence
From the very first day I have been writing for people like me: technical people working in a Unix/Linux environment. That includes a lot of self employed people, so of course I write about that too. Self employed people need websites, so I do that also..
So my blurb reads “Information and Resources for Unix and Linux System, Bloggers and the self-employed”
Feb 5th, 2008
Ani
Thank you for this reminder. My purpose is to share knowledge with others, but sometimes because of my devotion to the topics, I might become to introspective or technical, and make the content less available and interesting for readers.
Mar 2nd, 2008
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