Blog Better: Your Audience

If you've been following my advice on becoming a blogger, or, a better blogger, in order to market and promote yourself, your book, or your business, then you know that you need an audience.

The Battle Cry

"To build an audience, push content." Ah, yes. We hear that all the time along with "Content is King."

I've talked before about specific ways to get your imagination working for you in generating topic ideas. Just look read any of the articles in Internet Success and/or Writing Biz.

Today, I'm going to give you another tip about creating content and pushing it out into the cyber world.

Who's Your Daddy?

Actually, the question is: "Who's your audience?" But, it's kind of the same thing in that you want to know who's the boss, who's top dog, who's supporting you. That's the audience. Your audience. Of course, that begs the important question: Who are these people?

Get your note-making apparatus (pad and paper, netbook, PC, whatever) and let's start learning about the people that read you: your audience.

Even if no one currently knows you're alive on the Internet, you are, and, to paraphrase a line from one of my favorite movies, Field of Dreams: "If you write it, they will come."

Let's put on our sleuth hats. (Looks like that silly thing Sherlock Holmes wore in the old b&w movies.) We'll begin by asking an important question. You pretend to be the reader for whom you search.

Important Question

What information do YOU want from a blog?

Yes, you. Because you should have a lot in common with the readers you want to attract. If you're cruising the Internet, you're looking for certain information. That information depends on what interests you. That's probably the kind of information you want to present on your blog.

Are you starting a blog about collecting teddy bears? Then what would you want to learn from a blog like that? Where you find the teddy bears? How do you determine value? How do you clean old teddy bears? How do you store them or display them? History of various famous teddy bears? How do you avoid fakes? How do you make replica teddies? On and on, the questions go, generating topic ideas about which you'll write.

Are you a freelance writer and want to start a blog about that in order to increase your visibility to the Internet world? Then what kind of information would you be looking for as a freelance writer? Paying market information? Avoiding would-be scam artists who cheat writers? How to write better? Faster? How to generate ideas? How to sell yours services? How to create a royalty system that pays you again and again?

Are you starting a blog about your favorite pro golfer? Then what would your readers want to know? If you were a typical reader, what info would you want? The latest woods and irons on the market? How to hit a fade? How to play for free? Profiles of PGA golfers? Photos of famous golf courses? Your opinion about the recent PGA Championship?

Got It?

By now, you're probably saying: "Okay. I get it. I'm not just a blogger, I'm a reader too." Yes, you should be interested in reading the same kind of content about which you'll blog. You'll think of questions for which you'd want answers, and then you'll write those answers in the form of blogs.

Create Average Reader

Write down the ideas about your readers as you discover them. Then, write a short paragraph about your average reader. Male or female or both? Age? Why they want to read you? In fact, do as many fiction writers do and make a storyboard with pictures of your readers. Get some old magazines and cut out pictures and tack or tape to the storyboard. Make a sign with your blog title and tack it at the top.

When you write a post, visualize talking to Average Reader because, in my opinion, that's what a good blog post is: a conversation between you and your reader.

Takeaway Truth

By what you write, you will help someone with a question, problem, or issue they're confronting. When you put a face, albeit imaginary, to your readers, the content becomes organic and much easier to create because you're not working in a vacuum. You're making a human connection.

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