I don’t care who you talk to about online success because they’ll have to tell you user engagement is a very important element in success. If you’re unable to engage the visitor, then you’ve just lowered every other aspect of your blogging like commenting, value, opt-ins, social shares, etc. It’s important you know what it takes to engage the visitor so you keep adding those elements into your final product. Obviously, those with experience have been able to test and tweak different things over the last several years, making sure they provide the ultimate experience. However, if you are new to blogging, then it’s important you know what the MOST effective factors in user engagement are so you can continue to tweak and grow your blog going forward.
This is going to be a 37 part series on user engagement and what factors you should keep a close eye on going forward. It’s going to be an awesome journey and I hope you guys will provide feedback along the way.
A good looking group of young adults.
User Engagement #1 – What’s In It for Me?
One of the most important factors when creating a blog is to make sure your blog has a purpose. By having a clear purpose in mind, you’ll be able to ensure you provide your readers with substance. Think about it this way. Whenever you visit a blog, you are always looking for specific type of content, so, in other words, asking, “What’s in it for me?†As a blog owner, it’s important you create content looking at it from a visitor’s point of view and providing them with the information they are looking for. Even though this is very easy to remember, it can be tough to implement because you have different distractions along the way. For example, the Internet being so vast, it’s easy to lose track of your purpose and your bottom line. You’re often interested in the quick conversion and forget what the true purpose of your blog is for readers.
Going forward, let’s look at the main factor that determines how you’ll create your content and provide the right value.
Understand Your Audience
I encourage all my bloggers to always understand their audience because this will guide them during content creation. If you know what your audience is looking for, then you know where to go searching for questions they have in your niche. With the right type of questions, you can create awesome and engaging content that resonates with your readers. Personally, I’ve found creating content that solves a common problem in your niche is the MOST engaging type of content. Now the question becomes: How do you know who your audience is when you first start blogging?
First, if you’re blogging about your passion, then it’s going to be easy because it’s as simple as following your heart and what you know about the niche. Understanding your passion will help provide the fundamental foundation to get started. Secondly, you should research your competition, especially those who have been in the business for years, because they know their audience. Look over the following things:
- What type of content their writing
- Their social followers
- Get a breakdown by looking over Alexa.com account
- MOST shared content on competitor blogs
Third, you can write content relevant to your niche then build your engagement from the feedback you get from your readers. I have a huge list of subscribers and every month, I send out a follow up, asking them about the type of content they want me to write. This helps me cater to my audience and write content I know will resonate with my readers.
In the end, if you understand your audience, then you’ll be able to tweak your content to provide value to your readers. You’ll be able to answer common questions they have, making it easier from them to answer “What’s in it for me?â€