I have been thinking over this past weekend about some of the bigger blog that I visit and what makes me enjoy visiting them each new post. What draws me into each of their post? You see I can visit a blog and it may have amazing content. The blog design may be the best I have ever seen. In fact, they may even have 50,000 feed readers and say they are making $2 million dollars a year, but I will still chose not to visit the blog – unless it has one characteristic.
I Want To Be Able To Relate With You
Who wants to visit a blog that where the blogger seems to be perfect? I know I don’t, because what can I learn from them. I will never be perfect so the tips I learn will never help me.
I know a lot of my readers are in the ‘make money online’ niche. Would you visit a blog where the owner seems to have the perfect run, everything they have done has turned out to be 10 times better than expected. They never choose the wrong ad keywords. They have never had a loss on a project. I don’t know about you, but I can’t relate to that.
I make mistakes – a lot of them. Some of my ‘great ideas’ are my biggest flops – but I learn from them. I have forgotten to do things that I say. I have even given up on projects that could have been a success – because I was too lazy. How am I supposed to relate with the perfect blogger?
In fact it kind of starts to annoy you a bit doesn’t it?
It’s like those people that are just good at anything.
You spend hours and hours each day to learn a new football (soccer) move (which I did heaps of as a kid) and ‘Mr. Perfect’ would come along and do it first go.
Or what about this one:
The parent that has the perfect child. While yours is eating dirt, running rampant, not doing what he/she is told – just being a kid, their child is already reading (probably the dictionary for fun), can do simple maths (like trigonometry) and can hold a civilized conversation with adults – all at the age of 6.
Ok. Maybe that last one was a bit of an exaggeration, but I am just trying to make the point that most people don’t like people who show off. People who try to put up a facade and make people believe that they are perfect – because usually they are not.
As a blogger, I encourage you to be someone that your visitors can relate too. Here are a few tips to help you:
Talk About Your Mistakes:
This is a hard one because everyone couples mistakes with failure. Mistakes should be seen as learning curves, learning curves that you can share with your visitors – so they don’t make the same mistakes.
Jonathan Volk did something I really admire. He is a PPC affiliate that his goals say he is doing $170,000 a month in affiliate sales. You would think if anyone didn’t make mistakes it would be him. But you would be wrong. Jonathan recently made a post where he told us that he lost $3,500 by accidentally paying up to $45 per click.
Don’t Alienate Your Visitors
No one wants to think that they are dumb. Sure you may be making 100 times what I am but talk about things that I can do to get to where you are. Make sure your posts are easily understood and implimented by everyone interested in your niche.
Another small tip is to make your post titles personal, by use phrases like:
- How YOU can make an extra $10 a week
- 5 different ways YOU can increase traffic easily
- 3 reasons ANYONE can be successful blogging
Don’t alienate your visitors based on their level of knowledge. Let it be know they they can do it. They are able to achieve the same level of success that you have.
Be Approachable
One of the best ways of relating with people is just being able to be contact. I know a lot of pro bloggers would get a heap of emails each day, but isn’t it just common courtesy to at least give a small reply to an email? I don’t care if it takes them a week to reply, I would just like one.
When I don’t receive a reply, it makes me think that I am below them. That they consider themselves much better than I am. And this is not something that you want thought about yourself as a blogger – you want to be relatable.
I remember when I wrote an ebook that I was planning on selling for $10. I email a heap of the top bloggers offering them a free copy of my ebook – no strings attached – hoping for a free review, but not expecting one.
You Know What?
Out of about 10 or 15 of the top bloggers in the ‘make money online’ niche I think I got 2 replies. One from:
JohnCow – where he thanked me for the ebook and offered to do a review of it on his blog (which is what I was hoping for and did get me a few sales) and:
Carl Ocab – who let me know of a few mistakes and offered to provide a great testimonial for my sales page.
None of the other bloggers even took the time to thank me for the ebook, or let me know that they even received it. To be honest this lowered my respect for a lot of them – because it made me feel small.
One of the things I have done to try and make myself as approachable as possible is make myself available for any of my visitors to contact me with questions and thoughts that they may have about my blog, their blog or blogging in general. And they WILL get a reply – and maybe even a link in one my posts if I choose to feature the question or thought.
The Key Is Just To Be Someone That People Can Relate Too
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Very good post, a lot of famous bloggers out there should read it, hopefully they would learn a thing or two.
Rajaie AlKoranis last blog post..5 Important Characteristics Of Social Media Content
You make some really good points here. I definitely agree with the last part. When I first started reading Shoemoney I was commenting on posts just like I do here and with most of the other blogs I visit…after a few days, I noticed that none of my comments were showing up. I sent off an email using the contact form and to this day have not received a reply and my comments still do not show up there!
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I hope so, although I understand it might be harder on certain subjects than the other. That’s also to be seen in the ratio of hits versus comments. Where the entries which receive comments tend to get the least number of hits.
The easiest way to relate is to read something you understand and something which to you appears as feasible. Heck if some self-proclaimed 6 figure blogger goes making entries like “How YOU can make $5000 a week!” I’d simply have a feeling of ‘yeh… sure, where’s the referral link I have to click’.
It’s something which turns me off in a lot of the semi-bigger blogs especially those in the range of 5~10k subs usually do that kind of stuff a lot. Might have related to them before, but no longer.
The best way for me to feel related to a blogger isn’t so much an emphasis towards ‘me’, but more an emphasis on the blogger truly writing on what aspires him or her. Suppose it’s cause I’m quite easy to get around with people and practically talk about anything making it easy to relate for me; once greed, hungry for money and obsessiveness with e.g. figures on feeds the feeling of being able to relate quickly plumits :).
I try to make my readers think that the message I’m talking about is personally for them. Sometimes though I tend to drift off topic. Haha.
Gs last blog post..How To Write Songs On Guitar
This is a very inspiring post. It shows one of the many things you need to be a better blogger, and to STANDOUT! By the way, you had an ebook? Was it the one that you showed how you made the cover for? (It was right? Yes it was)
What kid doesn’t read the dictionary for fun? ;-)
When you eMailed those top bloggers, did you send any of those that didn’t respond a follow-up eMail? It could be that some of them never saw the original message. Sometimes, eMail just seems to disappear into the ethers, othertimes it may end up in a junk folder or quickly skimmed over and marked as junk. The latter is especially easy to do when you have several spam messages sneak through your filters and an actual non-spam message is somewhere in the middle of them.
dcrs last blog post..Finding Your Voice
Great post.I hope now blogger`s understand the importance and how to relate with readers
Jagdesh-OnlyTechStuffs last blog post..Keyboard Shortcuts
Tom,
In all reality it would be impossible to respond to everyone that comments you if you got an average of 100 comments per post. You would never get anything done.
Now don’t get me wrong I totally agree with your thoughts 100% but I think in the defense of some of the pro bloggers who get so many comments a day per post, that they just kind of gave up knowning that there are only 24 hours in a day and they are extremely busy.
Check out this post I read on Courtney Tuttle.
http://courtneytuttle.com/2008/07/09/on-the-perils-of-emailing-popular-bloggers/
It is talking about this subject.
I admire your style and would hate to disagree with you, however, I am being the devils advocate here.
Nathanial – No the ebook was: http://www.beginnersbloggingguide.com/ I wrote it about 6 months ago. But have since sold it.
DCR – no i didnt send a follow up email. Will do next time.
Toms last blog post..Blogger, Can Your Visitors Relate To You?
I am new at affiliate marketing and so much I read takes me 3-4 readings before I can really understand it. That’s what encouraged me to start my own site. I’m trying to write for my reader…the average person trying to make a few dollars with affiliate marketing.
Diane Robbinss last blog post..FINALLY! A Top Affiliate Marketing program
Tom, Another stellar post! I will have to agree with you about some of the “big boys/girls” when reading “some” of their post and or comments I don’t feel like they are relating with us. Us being the general blogging population it is like they are talking down to us, and I have commented on some of their post and I have never seen my comment on their post. I do try to relate to my readers and I always acknowledge them. On the other hand I will admit I don’t have hundred of commenters to reply to, so until that happens (and it will happen)I will always acknowledge them. In regards to making mistakes I made several of them when I first started out and I am sure I will make more mistakes in the future. I agree with you that it is a learning curve and it shows that we are all human. Great post Tom!
jjmomscashblogs last blog post..How to Write Ads That Sell – Part I
Good well laid out point. I like the Jonathan Volk example, I too subscribe to his blog and got a kick out of knowing that even top affiliates make mistakes and lose money or time. But share that experience with his readers and the world showed that he also saw the humor in the mistake he had.
Joshs last blog post..3 Tips for starting a successful blog
I could totally relate to what you feel. Sometimes I just visit these Big blogs but do not bother to comment. However, the exceptions would be John Chow, Darren and John Cow. They do reply to my emails and questions and I admire them for that.
This is an excellent, well thought out post. It really brings home exactly what blogging should be, and as many bloggers know, somehow the purpose of blogging does get lost in the chaos of it all from time to time. It’s posts like this that remind us of what it is all about.
Kelly Lowes last blog post..TAC Scoop from an Insider
I also dugg it :)
Kelly Lowes last blog post..TAC Scoop from an Insider
Dude great post. I would have really needed this like 4 months ago, I got an e-mail saying I didn’t relate to my readers it changed my writing completely, and I hope I don’t make the same mistake twice.
Germzs last blog post..How YOU can save money online.
I like the point you made about discussing mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, and we can learn a lot from them, but the fact they are ‘mistakes’ mean we are often too embarrassed to highlight them.
swollenpickless last blog post..What if Cadbury and Nestle merged?
I think the most important fact is that you need to not only relate to your visitors by posting content in a manner that connects to them but also reply to their comments, email, instant messages and whatever else it may be. Great post!
Enkay Blogs last blog post..Are You Fast Enough?
Nice article. I had a bitter experience too. Its a year old thing. On my first blog I gave a blog review to one of the top blogger. I emailed him about the review. I at least expected a reply but there was none.
Agent 001s last blog post..Going back to College
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