Know, Understand, And Appreciate Your Readers And You Will Do Well
August 30, 2008
Often it becomes all too easy to lose focus in regards to the purpose of why we blog. Our reasons for blogging are as individual as we are. Our goals are as varied as the day is long. We who have chosen to write about internet marketing and search engine optimization have our own specific agendas as well.
I have embraced blogging with enormous enthusiasm. I use the blog as a teaching and outreach tool. I learned my craft plying SEO blog after blog for four straight months. I continued to this day to visit other blogs. I was able to freely glean from the wisdom of others. So when I write it is often with a sense of purpose and always with gratitude, that kind of gratitude that is difficult to express.
I think of it this way, “too him that much has been given, much is expected.” I learned from those who wrote for the shear enjoyment of sharing wisdom. I was exposed to various ways to monetize an industry specific blog. I read about what didn’t work but mostly I read about what did work.
It was a fascinating journey into an industry that I did not comprehend in the beginning. I love the mystery, the mystic, and the challenges of search engine optimization and its associated tools such as link building.
But the biggest joy for me is that I have a list of perhaps 125 blogs and forums that I visit on a rotating basis. These are my readers; these are the sources of many inspirations for posts I’ve created. I purposely visit the sites and blogs of my readers. They bring a freshness of thought into my life that is greatly appreciated.
I truly and strongly encourage you to visit those who have visited your blog and have taken the time to comment. Go visit their worlds and by all means do be social. One of the greatest joys that graces the days of my life are something called a trackback. The trackback being a notification from one blog to another that says “we’re talking about you.”
We have been blogging only since mid April. Since then we have received around 30 or so trackbacks and the feedback was all positive. I still find that I check the blog comments in the morning with a sense of expectancy and excitement on a daily basis. To me a trackback is a great honor.
Really, it still trips me out that we have done something and that someone else took the time to mention it on their blog and then linked to our website. Now, I will freely admit this is not an authority blog and most of the comments here are about our Do Follow List, but its free positive publicity from mostly industry related blogs.
We had studied the industry carefully before we embarked on creating this list, which is actually a small group of lists. We sensed that this Do Follow topic would begin to gather momentum again. We also saw that at the time we launched the lists there were no real quality lists available that were current and easy to use. So we set out to create a tool that would give back to the SEO community that had given us so much.
So know this, the message that I wish to communicate is this, get to know your readers, learn were they are coming from and what they are about. Do take the time to understand what they want and need, and then provide it as best you can. If you don’t take the time to know your audience then you may find that you are only writing for yourself and that is not a bad thing, but there is so much more available.
We invite you to join the conversation and leave a comment. We also invite you to continue the conversation on your blog or perhaps use a trackback, or maybe even social bookmark this article, give it a Digg it, or Stumble it.
To learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Solutions Small Business SEO Solutions Geo-targeted SEO Tucson Website Design
Niche SEO Phoenix SEO Tucson Search Engine Optimization Do Follow List
If your business is located in the US, Canada or through out Arizona and beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog or SEO please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479.
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Share with others
Comments
2 Responses to “Know, Understand, And Appreciate Your Readers And You Will Do Well”
Got something to say?
How important is it to have industry related links to my website? Also how many links is enough, is there a criteria for what amount. Where would I find that information? Or you may have answer. Thank You.
ADMIN: In the past, or in the early days of the search engine industry, any link was considered a good link. Things have changed a lot. Today your link building efforts should be built around related sites. An example might be a home painter linked to a home builders website.
Link building should be part of your regular website marketing efforts. You can’t stop because your competition is likely to stop. There is no set number that you can reach and call it good.
I have read your blog before and I really like how you handle the comments and questions posed to you, such as the one above. I blog and go to other blogs and you leave a comment but the author never acknowledges them. Thanks for sharing.
Admin:Jared, this is so true. It all depends on the writers motivation. We try to respond in the blog and by email, but it can be a time consuming task.