Kitties. Alright, I didn’t really want to use that word, but I hope you get what I was implying by starting a sentence like that. This blog entry is not about you, but what should be affecting the way you write. At sometime, for those that are considering creating a successful blog, you the blogger will have to realize you are going to have to stop blogging for yourself, and start blogging for someone else.
These someone’s are your blog’s subscribers. Facing this fact is kind of a horrifying idea. You really want to be writing for yourself. You want to be in control of your blog. A successful blog, however, is built around its readership. If you are providing good content for yourself that is rubbish to your readers, you will only ever have one reader (Two if you encourage your mother to subscribe. Thanks, Mom.).
I really hate to classify you in this category, but subscribers are greedy and selfish. Blog subscribers are cruel, critical, and they will find any little way to condemn your blog that they can (The three C’s?). Even if they have a small reason, even one that may not directly pertain to them, that reason will be enough for you to see a drop in subscriber numbers. New readers won’t even have a reason to not click the back button if they find one thing they don’t appreciate about your blog.
They will hate you for your blog design, the colors of it, and how the ads are laid out. If they only like blogs with “magazine-style” themes and you use a traditional blog theme, kiss that reader goodbye. If they don’t like the personality you show off, a subscriber won’t want to read you. Have a typo or grammar error? No problem! Not. The worst thing they could hate you for, though, is your content.
Write original gripping content and a reader may be able to look past their dissatisfactions. Capture them with an amazing title, and drag them further and further into your content with “flow”. Use hooks. Use stories. Use twists and turns. Use your life experience. Show off creativity in your blog with images. Make it complex enough for a subscriber that reads your blog posts minutes after you post (Link love to ESVL), yet make it simple to hold a new readers attention.
It is an incredibly difficult balancing act between aesthetics in your writing, and whether or not your kitties have something to learn from reading your content. So please those selfish kitties. Write for them while maintaining that inner voice that they love from your blog content, are alter it so they will love it.
