IF YOU'RE STRUGGLING TO GET BLOG READERS, READ THIS (OR CONTINUE WASTING YOUR PRECIOUS TIME)
People are looking for readers in the wrong places.
And if you’re struggling to get readers for your blog, I’m going to tell you right now: You’re also looking for readers in the wrong places.
I’ll explain.
Why You Want Other People To Send You Readers
As a quick refresher, the reason why you want other people to send you readers is because it’s the FASTEST way to build your audience. Hands down.
Most people create content and hope someone will notice them. They hope search engines will rank them highly and send them readers. They hope a big blogger finds them and links them. They hope a journalist “discovers” them.
The big problem with this strategy is that people are sitting around, waiting for something to happen.
(This is strange to me because while most people admit they’re not looking for a “handout,” that’s exactly what they’re doing!).
However, when you actively try to get other people with readers to send you readers (and potential customers), you’re taking control over the success of your blog.
That said…
Do you want to grow your blog?
Are You Looking For Readers In The Wrong Places?
So, the exercise is this:
Are you reaching ideal customers or industry professionals?
Obviously you want to reach the former. Why?
Compliments from industry professionals make you feel great, but sales from ideal customers help you live great.
Now take an honest look at your content. Are you reaching industry professionals or ideal customers? Are you writing for people like you… or are you writing for people who want to buy what you sell?
(If you made this mistake, in addition to the homework which I’ll share in just a second, I want you leave a comment telling me about how you made this same mistake).
And now, I’ve got more homework for you…
Here’s the directions for your homework today:
Step 1: Did you mistakenly write for industry professionals as opposed to ideal customers? Share your story as “Part 1” in your comment below.
Step 2: In my next blog post in this series, I’m going to show you HOW to get ideal readers back to your stories. So, what are your BIGGEST struggles when it comes to getting people back?
Be as specific as possible. Tell me who your ideal STEEMer is. Tell me what problems you have getting their attention. Is there too much competition? Do you struggle getting their attention? Do people read your blog… but they don’t convert into sales?
.......Quick story:
My lawyer cracks me up. He swears that the internet is useless for generating leads and sales for his business. He even went so far and said, “Creating content is a horrible way to attract business. I’ve been doing it and it’s not working.”
And that’s when I set the record straight. He’s my lawyer. Like you, he’s accustomed to my direct, no B.S. approach to everything.
So I told him, “First, my man. Your logic is flawed. Just because it’s not working for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Maybe the problem isn’t the strategy. Maybe the problem is you. I know plenty of people who use the web to generate leads and sales for professional service businesses. Yours is no different.”
Then, I fired up his site, and it all made sense.
He made the same mistakes most people make when they create a website for their business.
Before I dive into these issues, I want you to know my lawyer isn’t stupid. He owns his own firm, and built it from scratch to a decent-sized office.
And despite his glaring mistakes, he was doing a lot of things right.
He had a blog. He had a way to collect leads. His content was well-written, and it was also entertaining.
So, what was the problem?
He was attracting the wrong readers.
How did I know this?
Because when I read the content on his blog, all of it was tailored to other lawyers.
Meaning, if a random lawyer stumbled on his blog, they’d love it. But if I stumbled on it, I would be like “What? I’m not a lawyer. Next…”
His content was repelling his customer… and attracting his competition.
Head desk
What’s funny is, TOO MANY PEOPLE make this same mistake.
Example #1
A friend of mine is a freelance writer. She was complaining that her blog wasn’t attracting potential freelance writing clients.
I fired up her blog, and she had content like “7 mistakes freelance writers make when they work with a client” and “When you should fire your client” and “How to charge more for freelance writing.”
Now think about this…
If you were looking to hire a freelance writer, would you hire my friend? Or would you say, “You mean you want to CHARGE ME MORE? AND THEN FIRE ME?”
And then the only action you would take is clicking that X on your browser window to close out the site. Why? Because her content is tailor-made for attracting other freelance writers… not people who hire freelancer writers.
Example #2
Another person said they run a blog about fitness, and they said that their DREAM website was another huge fitness blog.
On the surface, this may sound like it makes sense, but here’s the problem:
People reading fitness blogs aren’t your ideal customer. They already found a solution to their problems.
Sure, you might be able to pick up a few readers here and there, but it’s not going to be easy… and it’s going to be an uphill battle.
Why?
Not only do you have to demonstrate you’re competent… but you have to demonstrate why someone should read “yet another fitness blog.”
So, are YOU looking for readers in the wrong places?