You Gotta Give Bloggers What They Want (And Need)!

I was culling through my email inbox on Monday morning, frustrated that I was once again finding it peppered with news releases. Don’t get me wrong: I use press releases to help tell my readers a story and sometimes that news gives me a leg up on my much larger competition. There is something immensely satisfying when you’re the one breaking the news!

Admittedly, I don't always jump for joy when unsolicited news releases come my way, especially when delivered by someone I don't know.

Alas, most news releases these days are wanting, not in detailed information but in relevant information. And there is a significant difference between the two.

What Kind Of News Do You Have?

For example, you may have a new product that is just right for the car, but if I have to dig through a lot of information to find out what you’re saying (and selling) I may not be so patient. Unlike desk journalists who may write a handful of articles each week, I write that many and more on any given day. Cutting to the chase, if I have to really work hard to get the job done I may simply move on to something easier to handle.

At the risk of sounding impatient, I’m just sharing with you the plight facing a lot of people whose online work trumps everything else. The nature of blogging means that whatever news you get is fresh and when one article is done bloggers are often off chasing the next story (or we don’t get paid). At least that is the case with meta bloggers who update one blog several times a day (similarly, I update several blogs once daily along with articles and web content for my clients).

Keeping It Real (And Simple)

Lately, some people have been pitching their story ideas to me in different ways, beyond my inbox and phone number. Though I appreciate the news and the new contact, leaving a message with me through Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere can be difficult. Right there you are asking us both to take several additional steps involving back and forth tweets which I’m loathe to do. Instead, keep your news coming the best way you know how: via email.

But perhaps the most important aspect of getting your news republished is spending the time to get to know who will be writing something on your behalf. Though the blogosphere can be terribly impersonal (admit it, how many of us will we ever get to meet in person?) there is something to be said about people who take the time to get to know someone at least on a basic level.

If your news is good I may read it. If your news is wonderfully written and what I need, I may publish it. But if your news is great and you took the time to reach out to me on a personal level, then you’ve also won a friend.

I really like the “social” part of social media!

See Also — Where Has All Of My Blog Traffic Gone?

Where Has All Of My Blog Traffic Gone?

A client shared his concerns with me over a sharp downturn in traffic to one of his sites and was thinking about launching an expensive advertising campaign to bring people back. This particular site consists of standard HTML pages which means it isn’t based on a blog platform, rather on a nicely designed CSS theme, and is updated fairly regularly.

Although I’m not directly involved with this site, I reviewed his pages and then assured him that the drop in traffic was probably seasonally related. After all, we’re in the middle of the summer months and when your site is seasonally themed, then there are times in the year when an even steeper drop will be noticed.

When Your Blog Loses Traffic

My client’s concern brought up an issue that many bloggers contend with too – a sharp drop to their blog’s traffic. Blogging can be immensely frustrating especially if you pour your heart and soul into it and the returns are just not there. After all of that work you notice that your Alexa number continues to rise, your PageRank sinks and your traffic numbers plummet. But on closer inspection and after an honest assessment of your site, you may discover a number of reasons why traffic is down. Let’s take a look at five of the more notable ones here:

Seasonal Traffic – If you have a Christmas season site, you’re probably going through one of the biggest drops since December 26th. Very few people are thinking about Christmas shopping, but I would venture to say that once Labor Day has passed your traffic will begin to tick upward, increasing noticeably in October and surging by early November. For everyone else (in the northern hemisphere), the months of June, July and August are generally slower as even web addicts like to take a break, head to the beach, visit their families, etc. They haven’t logged off completely, but they’re making good use of their warm weather time. Surf’s up!

Blogging Frequency – Have you been blogging less frequently lately? Check back to when you first launched your blog and compare how often you blogged then with how often you blog now. Over time, you may have gradually slipped to where you’re posting less frequently. Perhaps when you got started you wrote 15-20 articles per month but have since slipped to around 12. Fresh articles bring in the traffic, so consider ramping up your production to match or even exceed previous levels. Don’t let your quality slip!

Article Appeal – Maybe your subject matter simply isn’t of interest to your readers. I always tell bloggers to write about their passion as their enthusiasm will shine forth. Enthusiasm is contagious and people are drawn to blogs where the blogger knows his stuff, is excited about the topic and offers a unique and helpful perspective to his readers. If you’ve gotten in the habit of producing boring articles, then your uninspired audience will flee. Time to ratchet up your blog’s appeal!

Check Analytics – I use Google Analytics to review my traffic on a regular basis. Analytics and similar free or low cost tools give me clues on where people are coming from, what search terms brought them to my blog, which articles were most read and a host of other nifty features. You don’t have to be a statistical geek, but it is certainly helpful if you have a general understanding of these types of programs. You’ll also want to make sure that your sitemap is up to date, that Google webmaster tools is indexing all of your pages and you’ll want to check the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to see how high your pages are appearing for certain traffic generating keywords. Make adjustments as needed and your traffic numbers should increase.

Promote Wisely – I’ve noticed that some bloggers aren’t very active in promoting their articles. I arrived on the blogging scene late, launching the forerunner to this blog in December 2005. For the first full year, my site wasn’t set up to encourage commenting (people had to register which means few left comments) and my articles were stilted, not conversational in nature. By Spring 2007, my traffic numbers began to increase sharply as I understood that making my blog user friendly would be a big help. I also joined StumbleUpon, which soon began to bring more traffic to my site and carefully chose several other social media sites where I began to establish a presence and a following (Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, to name just a few). Needless to say, when I stoke the social media flame these days, my traffic numbers increase; if I neglect adding fuel to that fire, then my traffic gradually slides.

Thoughts For Your Day

Technorati tracks blogs and regularly issues a “State of the Blogosphere” report which offers excellent insight into the world of blogs. This report gives a fascinating and comprehensive look at blogging and what all of this means to you. The top blogs out there have been around for three years or longer but as you might guess, the vast number of bloggers eventually give up.

If you plan on being around for the long haul, then develop a strategy to increase your visibility in order to bring in more traffic. Quite a few of my blogging friends are committed to blogging until their fingers fall off, creating interesting and engaging posts on a regular basis. These people know where their blogs have been and they know where they’re going, setting themselves up for long term success.

Oh, what about my client who was worried about his traffic? He decided that a marketing campaign wouldn’t be worthwhile and is the process of making some changes to his web pages. The coming weeks should reveal whether these changes bring in more traffic, but if not I may have another gig to take on.

See Also — Is Your Work To Marketing Ratio 2-1?