The Power Of Personal Stories
As usual, I have been visiting a lot of websites recently, from blogs to corporate website and sales pages. The thing I noticed was that while some really engaged me, others never even began to capture my attention.
The one thing above all else that really grabbed my attention and made me want to read more was the inclusion of personal stories.
Let Me Give You Some Examples Of Personal Stories:
- A Blog Where The Blogger Shares Their Experiences
This is one thing that I have really tried to make a regular part of my blog, because I see a lot of value in the power of being a personal blogger.Now when I say ‘personal blogger’ I am not meaning the ‘bear-all, dear diary’ type of personal blogger. What I am talking about is using stories from your personal life to highlight the points of your post.A great example of this would be my Mountain Climbing postabout goals (which just so happens to be my most commented blog post.Benefits Of Personal Stories In Blogs
It Builds A Relationship With Your Readers
No longer is your blog ‘just a blog’ – there is now a person behind the blog, that they can relate too. I have found being personal to be one of the biggest assets to the growth of my blog. - A Corporate Website That Includes Testimonials
Have you ever been to a corporate website and while it looks professional and everything seems legitimate, there is just something that doesn’t sit right. Because while a company can say as many nice things about themselves as they life, if they do not have a few short statements from a couple of clients – it is all just self promotion.Now I know that a company would never put a bad review up, but it does give a sense of security knowing that regular people do recommend the company
. - Product Sales Page With Personal Results
This is one thing that I have never been able to understand. I constantly see a lot of products being promoted on Clickbank, or PayDotCom promoting products supposedly created by the writer of the sales letter – that do not include personal results.I have not seen the sales statistics for these products, but I will take a guess that they are not selling very many copies of their product.
For Example:If you are promoting an ebook telling people how to build a massive list, then we want to see pictures of your Aweber account with a huge amount of subscribers. A video would be even better.
If you are selling an acne cure report we want to see before and after pictures. Something even better would be before and after pictures of not only you, but also people who have successfully used your report.
The whole concept about being personal with your blog, website or sales page is that people like to read about other people, they like to be entertained and they want to know they are learning or buying from a real person (not just some lifeless computer generated sales page.
What are you doing to make your blog personal? Or do you not agree with what I am saying at all? Either way, comment below with your thoughts!
I think I wouldn’t blog if it is wasn’t about personal experiences and I think that is the essence of blogging. Or at least how this blogging thing started at least. Of course there are many reasons to blog, but I mostly write about things I’ve done or tried, and write how I did it (e.g. how-to/ guide) or what’s my opinion on something (e.g. review), etc.
But reading your thoughts on this and the great mountain climb post, I see that there is room for “more personal touch” in my writing. and yeah, sales page without proof of results and testimonials is pretty much doomed :)
I agree with your thoughts. I am trying to be more personal with my blog. I find myself tending to read blogs where the author shares his/her experiences and is more open. I feel I can trust these bloggers more than others and value there thoughts much more. I hope to replicate those feelings with the people who read my blog.
Zemalf – I totally agree. If my blog wasn’t personal, it wouldn’t be half as fun to write!
Ryan – That is exactly it. Trust is something I forgot to touch on in my post, but one of the major benefits of personal blogging.
Oh I agree 100%. There is an awesome power in personal stories. Stories keep people’s attention. Every spiritual tradition I know of uses stories to communicate the message.
Facts and figures are great and necessary, but the stories make those stats personally meaningful.
It’s a good strategy to have some personal input for your posts. I haven’t been really using personal stories that much after I ‘transformed’ this blog of mine to a niche blog. Anyhow, it’s great to get reminded that our readers are interested about us occasionally. Sometimes I tend to communicate with them more in comments/on their blogs. I guess both ways are important.
Thanks, Thomas.
@wchingya
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