7 Powerful Ways to Get Your Blog Post Noticed

Stanford obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social.

Great posts often get ignored.

It shouldn’t happen. Literary masterpieces should be revered but that just isn’t the case in the blogosphere.

On a blog, a post has a few seconds to capture and pull in a reader. The writer needs to state their idea and immediately begin to persuade, entertain, and motivate.

For many, writing a successful post is a game of chance. They write hundreds of posts only to see a few do well. On the other hand, some seem to have a gift a supernatural ability to publish one blockbuster after another.

What’s their secret?

After spending more hours than I can count analyzing popular posts on top blogs, I’ve been unable to unearth a pattern. I saw that the best writers consistently followed a blueprint for increasing their post’s chance for success.

After studying this blueprint, I found seven factors that can immediately pump more power into your posts. Take a look…

1. “I” focus instead of “you” focus

One unsavory quirk about human beings is that we instinctively focus on ourselves first. This means that your visitors immediately start scouring your blog for posts that mean something to them. If you start your post with:

“I just spent the day washing my kitchen floor.”

…your readers will ignore it. After all, the post is about YOU and YOUR kitchen floor and not about them.

Try this instead: Start your posts with a statement or question that uses the second-person perspective:

“Do you hate washing your kitchen floor? Is a mop the last thing on Earth you want to hold in your hand?”

See what I mean?

2. A focus on solving problems

Human beings are natural-born problem solvers. From the moment we wake-up to when we lay down to sleep we are finding answers to problems. Your readers will adore you if you can solve a problem that has been haunting them. Work hard to find these solutions and offer them often.

On the other hand, if your blog posts are getting ignored, it’s likely that you are solving your own problems and not your readers.

Give this a try: take out a sheet of paper and write down 11 big problems that keep your readers up at night. Now think of five posts that you can write for each of those problems. Sit back and look at your list of 55 blog posts. That looks like a solid editorial calendar for 2011, doesn’t it?

3. One idea per post

Research has shown that most people can’t hold more than one or two ideas in their head at one time. The more ideas you try to stuff in, the more likely you are going to get ignored.

Focusing on one idea is a sure-fire way to immediately boost the punching power of your post. If you have more than one then consider writing a series of posts. But, whatever you do, don’t shoehorn a thesis into your post. That’s a certain recipe for obscurity.

4. Excellent packaging

You know what? Blogging is a visual game. If your post is packaged well, it will get read. I’m sure you’ve found yourself reading a poorly written post wrapped in a great package! So, at least spend a little extra time to clean up look and feel.

A few pointers: use short paragraphs and one-line sentences to make your paragraphs visually interesting. Add mini-headlines throughout your post to help people who skim before they read. Last, find a picture (preferably of people) that grabs attention and helps tell your post’s story.

5. Down-to-earth practicality

Blog readers are a practical bunch. Like you, they want to be able to use what they learn. That means, they absolutely hate Ph.D. dissertations in blog-post clothing. Dense, fact-laden, verbose, diatribes repel readers and get ignored. Save this document for the place where it belongs: in an academic journal.

On the other hand, work to place relevant and practical information in each post. Your goal should be to illustrate your point in simple how-to pieces. Not only will people thank you in the comments, but they will also share your content.

6. Careful research

I’ve made the mistake of thinking that my readers shared my interests. I was wrong. The ghost town around my blog post provided all the proof I needed.

Research is the process of pinpointing what interests your readers. These days, research is pretty simple to do. You can simply ask for topics on Twitter, do a Google search with your topic and the word “help”, hang out in online forums, or survey your own readers.

Once you get the research right, you’ll soon be perceived as the go-to person in your niche. You’ll have the answers and your posts will attract eager readers by the bushel. Trust me. (By the way, if you are competing in a competitive niche, research is the number one way to get an advantage)

7. Rapport

When I started writing professionally, a mentor told me to write as if my reader was sitting on the bar stool beside me. That advice has been worth a fortune to me.

The best way to build this type rapport is to write with your natural voice. You know, the voice you use when you talk to yourself in the shower. The voice you use when you want to say something snarky but think better of it. Yep, that voice.

Once you start using it, your posts will stick in the minds of your readers. Lurkers start commenting and people start sharing. Got it?

Can you do this?

Did you put your finger on a few things your can improve in your next post? Which one of these “pitfalls” causes you the most problems? Comment below and we’ll chat about it.

Stanford obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social… except when he’s fishing for monster bass. Follow him to get the latest about his new ebook “Get Noticed.”

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Setting the Hook: Fishing for New Readers with Social Media Lures

This guest post is by Ben Harack of the Vision of Earth project.

Regarding readers as fish, and bloggers as fisherman, might seem strange. Bear with me as I show you part of why I like the idea of blogging as being similar to fishing.

Those of you who are familiar with fishing know that getting the fish to bite the lure is only the first step of the process. A good yank from your end is often advisable in order to “set the hook”, ensuring that the fish will be less likely to escape.

A new reader to your page doesn’t have the hook set yet, in fact, they might not have bit at all. They might just be moving closer, perhaps to sniff the lure.

Modern media speed and information overload has caused readers to be more cautious with the way they spend their time reading or browsing. The fish might just swim in a bit closer to see if the lure looks tasty. If the lure looks dead or unappetizing the fish will likely swim on to find something more interesting.

Lure readers in

One of the major topics on ProBlogger lately has been social media. While search engines have been very important in the development of the Internet, social media has led a revolution in how we interact with content.

I feel that the onslaught of social media has exacerbated the short attention spans of Internet readers. Social media information tends to come in small bites. I feel that this evidenced by the naturally short nature of Facebook statuses, tweets, and news headlines on Digg, Reddit, and others.

How is it best to lure people in with social media? This website is absolutely full of tips on this subject. To capture the power of social media, I can honestly recommend reading about:

• Social media in general: The 5 Foundations of Social Media Success that No One Talks About
• Digg: 4 Ways I Compose Posts to Drive Millions of Pageviews to Blogs Through Digg
• Facebook:5 Ways I’m Using Facebook to Drive Traffic, Build Brand and Increase Reader Engagement
• LinkedIn: Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn
• Twitter: Top Ten Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Small Business Blog Using Twitter

In a recent post about the small size of tweets, Darren raised the idea of a possible swing towards long-form content. From his post, and my own experience in the area, I have concluded that social media tends to facilitate the creation of connectivity, conversation, and community around content of value.

For bloggers, the hub of our content tends to be our blogs and websites. Social media can be regarded to some extent as the cloud of human interaction around a website. Darren illustrates this well in his post Home Bases and Outposts – How I use Social Media in My Blogging.

It is important to note that social media is not just another outlet for your standard content. If you only use it to link directly back to your blog, you are missing out on most of its potential. Social media is primarily a conversation created around you and by you. Without your interaction, conversations will still happen, but they will progress without you being involved. A megaphone isn’t a good conversation partner. To create a strong following, you need to connect with the people who are interested in what you do.

In the world of social media, quality of communication is key. Being restricted to about 30 words per unit of communication means you have to make each one count. With practice and care, it is possible to show that brevity does not preclude quality. It is possible to convey great meaning with even a single tweet.

We live in the age of the sound bite, the slogan, and the catch-phrase. In order to tame the beast of social media, we need to master its language.

Set the hook

You can’t force people to read what is on your page, but you can certainly encourage them. You can’t force them to come back, but you can provide some good reasons why they might choose to.

The specific techniques that I try to use are:

• Blog titles: 15 Ways to Rework Your Next Blog Title
• Opening lines: 11 Ways to Open a Post and Get Reader Engagement
• Scannable text: Writing Blog Content – Make it Scannable
• Lists: 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog

These tools cater to the tendencies of Internet readers. The intent is to grab their attention so that they will actually consume your content more fully rather than scanning it.

It is hard to set a dull hook. Sharpen your hook by making your website easier to navigate. Highlight your social media connections, and provide clearly visible ways for people to subscribe to your content or newsletter. Provide interactive elements such as contests and polls to generate additional interest.

I experimented recently with the creation of my own blog carnival called the Renewable Energy Review. Unfortunately as I found out, there is extremely little in the way of quality writing being pushed around the blogosphere on this topic. Our standards at Vision of Earth are high enough that only one article submitted thus far merited a link from us. This might sound harsh, but we have established standards of editing and fact-checking that are not matched outside of professional periodicals.

So what did I do? My team and I simply transitioned into creating a high-quality periodical of our own. Even with the publication so early in its life, we have noticed that it has already begun to draw some substantial interest. As a fledgling volunteer project/blog, we have been happy with the results.

More commonly, bloggers will write a series of posts on a topic to generate interest and subscribers. When people like what you write, and know that you will have more of it soon, they have an incentive to come back. All of the techniques for setting the hook eventually depend on you having content that is of value to readers to such an extent that they will come back again to experience more of it.

Eat your readers

Analogy taken too far? I think not!

Your readers consume your content, but you are the one who is attempting to make a living off them. If you are a Professional Blogger, the number and quality of your relationships with your readers are what literally put the food on your table.

Try to understand your readers and cultivate respect for them. Understand, because you may be fishing with the wrong lures or in the wrong part of the lake. Respect, because a genuine conversation requires some degree of shared positive regard.

Ben Harack is the leader of the Vision of Earth project, which attempts to study the key challenges facing society today. They publish on topics as wide-ranging as nuclear energy, ending poverty, and deliberate social change.

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How to Make Everybody Happy

A Guest post by Stanford from Pushing Social. Image by superbomba.

Your blog is like the popular kid at school.

It needs to look great, be funny, smart, and remember everybody’s name. It’s a tough job.

But the hardest part of the job is keeping everyone happy.

You are probably figuring out that your readers are not all cut from the same cloth. Although they may share a common interest, each has his or her own reason for visiting your blog. Some are casual readers, while others are hardcore fanatics that devour every word.

It’s easy to believe that every reader will be satisfied with your 300-700-word post. Not so. In fact, your standard post may only satisfy a fraction of your readers and leave the rest wondering, “Where’s the beef?”

If you want your blog to grow, get passed around, and inspire an engaged community, you’ll need to write content that makes everyone happy.

Wait, you can’t make everybody happy … right?

I know that blog readers — myself included — can be a fickle crowd. There’s a handful of blogs that I read daily and I have impossible standards. They need to write exactly the type of posts I like, publish them regularly, and never, ever, disappoint me. I’m a tyrant and so are your blog’s readers.

The problem is that you can’t write multiple types of posts every day to satisfy every reader.

But can you make all of your readers happy?

Crowd -> community -> core

Yes you can … by being smart about the content you produce and where you place that content.

It’s useful to think about your audience as overlapping circles of readers. At the center are the core readers. A little further out is your community of regular readers. Furthest out is the crowd, who occasionally visit. All together, these folks form the ecosystem for your blog.

Every day, people read your content and naturally settle into one of these circles. Your goal is to move the crowd to the core.

Let’s take a look at each group and some techniques for keeping them happy.

The core

These folks are dedicated to you. They visit your blog every day and are the first to comment, retweet, and mention your posts. You may even know these fans by name. Core readers are the first to sign up for email courses, pre-order products, and join your affiliate program.

Your goal as a “tribal leader” is to find and connect with your core as quickly as possible.

Core readers are disproportionately influential. Don’t be fooled by their small followings — their enthusiasm is infectious and they can rally a crowd through sheer persistence.

How to make core readers happy

Core readers hunger for more than your usual posts. They want to dive deeper into each of your posts and are starving for more detail. These folks have devoured your archive post and relate to you on a visceral level. You need to kick it up a notch to keep them satisfied. Here’s how to do it:

• Go deep: Use email courses, private forums, and ebooks to give the core a deep dive into your content. My own Spectacular Posts email course is designed to give my core readers new information that I haven’t covered in a post. I don’t hold anything back because my core reader has an insatiable appetite for more information. So does yours.
• Keep your eye on them: Create a list of your core readers in Twitter and bookmark their Facebook pages. Friend them, follow them, and regularly visit their blogs. Make sure they know that you are cheerleading for them.

The Community

Community readers are regular visitors to your blog. They are infrequent commenters but frequent retweeters. The community makes up the bulk of your blog’s traffic. They appreciate a consistent message and hate surprises.

How to make the community happy

• Be reliable: Your community wants a steady supply of information that serves their needs. They share your goals and interests and want to hear more from you. Consistent posting encourages them to visit your blog often. Over time, you earn their trust and convince them that you have a resource worth sharing.
• Use “edutainment”: Community readers plow through a lot of blogs every week. Dry, me-too posts are easily drowned out. To raise above the clutter, you need to combine entertaining and interesting viewpoints with your topic. These mashups can combine Lady Gaga and Blogging Tips or Ant Swarm Behavior and Project Management. This is guaranteed way to stand out in the RSS reader, and catch the eye of super-influencers too.
• Be relevant: Community readers have a low tolerance for loosy-goosy, feel-good content that isn’t practical. They were attracted to your blog because you helped them solve a problem. They keep coming back because you are interesting and have a viewpoint that fits them like a glove. Don’t disappoint them. Keep an editorial calendar that continually delivers on-point content.

The Crowd

Outside of the community lies the crowd. Crowd readers are usually referred by another source. They are not regular readers and may only spend a few seconds on your blog. Your topic is likely to be complementary to the crowd reader’s main interest, but not a tight fit.

It’s tempting to dismiss the crowd since they aren’t your bread-and-butter readers. But smart bloggers work to satisfy the crowd because they bring fresh perspectives to the community. Your goal should be to turn the occasional crowd reader into a regular community or core reader.

How to make the crowd happy

• Guest post: As you know, I’m a huge fan of guest posting as a way to reach readers that lurk outside your community. Guest posts allow other more influential blogger to vouch for you, giving you enough credibility to attract a larger audience. It’s not a mistake that many up-and-coming bloggers spend a large chunk of time guest posting to reach the crowd.
• Build outposts: Outposts are social networking sites where you maintain a profile and special content. Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are popular outposts that represent online watercoolers for millions of users. Pick one outpost to start with, and invest some time to build a presence there. Link your outpost to your blog and regularly post content there. Over time, your outpost will get on the crowd’s radar screen and start escorting new readers to your blog.
• Be a peacock Don’t be shy. Every once in a while, write a post that grabs attention. Your post can be provocative, epic, or piggy-back on a popular topic in the news. These “peacock posts” get noticed by influencers and passed along to their network. Even though it’s hard to tell if your post will be a barn burner, you can increase your chances by regularly writing them!

What do you think?

Can you make all of your readers happy? Which technique will you try first?

Stanford obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social — except when he’s fishing with his boys. Follow him to get the latest about his new ebook “Get Noticed.”

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4 Ways to Use Social Proof (Before Anyone Knows Who You Are)

Have you read the classic post from the Copyblogger archives explaining why you need to leverage social proof on your blog? If so, then I don’t need to convince you how important social proof is for online success.

Social proof is pretty simple. It’s just the human instinct that if someone else is doing something (buying a product, reading a blog, jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge) then it’s probably a good thing to do.

It’s not right and it’s not wrong — it’s just how we human beings are wired.

Social proof can give a blog great momentum. Once you have lots of readers, you’ll find new people purely because you have lots of readers.

But how can you pull it off when you’re just starting out and don’t have much social proof to leverage?

For example, new readers to Copyblogger glance over at the left-hand side of the site and see that more than 129,000 people already subscribe. The most common line of thinking is “Hm, maybe I should do that, too. 129,328 subscribers can’t be wrong, right?”

But when you’re just getting your blog off the ground, this kind of social proof simply doesn’t help. It took me a year to get 1000 subscribers on my blog, and when I did I proudly displayed my subscriber count for all to see — only to take it down a few months later because Feedburner was unreliable about displaying the right number.

You may not be able to use the same specific social proof techniques that the big blogs do. But there are at least four reliable ways I know to use social proof when your blog is still in the beginner stages.

1. Encourage comments

In the early days, a blog post that has no comments is like a party without people: no one wants to be the first one to show up.

A lively comment discussion shows new readers that your blog has an engaged community to interact with — that other cool people are at this party. The problem is, nobody wants to be first to comment, even if plenty of people are comfortable being second, third, and fourth.

One way to get readers over the hurdle is to specifically ask for comments. You can also end every post with a great question that encourages response. Some blogs even offer prizes for the best commenters.

But if you’re still having a hard time getting comments going on your posts, there’s an easy way to break the ice.

Get yourself a blog buddy who will comment on every post you write (you can do the same for them). Reply to each of their comments promptly.

When you respond to comments, others are encouraged to join in. Now that your blog buddy has broken the ice, others will be more comfortable about joining the conversation.

You may want to extend this to a small blog pack, a group of bloggers in a related topic who support one another’s work. It’s a great way to boost your traffic and subscriptions.

2. Tell stories

Social proof doesn’t always have to be about big numbers. You can also share stories that show how you’ve benefited others.

When I set up my web design company in 1998, I ran across many business owners who were skeptical about the need for a website. I started telling the skeptics a true story about one of my clients who shared their fears. That client took the plunge and cancelled his yellow pages ad so he could test the waters with a website instead.

He never looked back. His website was able to generate new leads for a smaller investment. And while his costly yellow pages ads ended up in the recycling bin the next year, his website is a great investment for years to come.

That story helped a lot of people find their courage and set up their own sites. Engage your blog readers by telling compelling stories that show how someone else has benefited from taking your advice.

You don’t have to go overboard — bragging will often chase readers away. Instead, tell the story like you would to a friend over lunch and you’ll hit the right note.

3. Get testimonials

In the early days of my blog I put up a raving readers page to let people know that yes, this blog did have some readers. And better yet, those readers were interesting, engaged, and global.

There are lots of ways to make testimonials work for you — but first you have to collect some.

When you start a new business or blog you may not have any clients who can vouch for you yet. Try giving a few people something for nothing and ask for a testimonial if they like it. Start with your friends and branch out from there. If you can’t outright give your product away, at least give out some free trials or samples.

Make it easy for people to give you testimonials. Try asking specific questions. You can also write up any compliments you get by email or over the phone, then ask for your fan’s approval to use it as a testimonial on your website.

(I hope it goes without saying, never write fake testimonials. You’re aiming to build credibility and trust here, not destroy it.)

If you offer a high-quality service or product, your customers will want to help you promote it. Include the name of the person and that person’s occupation or company if it’s relevant. Pictures can also improve your testimonials’ credibility and enhance the element of proof.

4. Incorporate media

Being mentioned in the media is another great way to leverage social proof. It’s surprisingly effective to add, “As mentioned/recommended in the Smalltown Weekly” to your blog’s About page, even if the media outlet is a minor one. Gather a few mentions and you might decide to create a dedicated media page. And while you’re at it, remember that a mention on a big blog can be at least as powerful as a print publication.

Two of my friends have a half-serious competition to get the most mentions in local papers this year. If the prize is a more successful business and bigger client list, I’d say they’re both going to win.

Spend some time brainstorming ways your business might be mentioned in the press, on social media, or on TV. Can you make a friendly call to journalists or bloggers who write about your topic, tell them what you do, and ask them if they’d like a free sample or a free consultation to offer to readers? Could you speak free of charge at an event to get your name out there and establish your expertise? What story can you tell that would interest your local paper or favorite blog?

Have fun and be creative. Even when your blog is brand-new, you can start leveraging social proof today while you wait for your RSS subscriber count to grow.

And of course, as your subscriber count grows, you’ll have even more options.

How about you? What’s your favorite tip for leveraging social proof on your blog?

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