How To Get Your Readers To Listen To What You Say

What motivates you as a blogger to share your thoughts? It’s the desire to make others listen to what you have to say. It’s the same desire that motivates us to write and speak, wherever we do. Your ability to get your readers to listen to what you have to say is what will mark your success. It’s from here that you grow into popularity, into profitability. Let Your Audience Know How Your Blog Will Benefit Them Your audience is not like the people we face in real life, who will listen to us out of sheer politeness. No, your audience is going to listen to you, and follow you, only if they understand how your blog will benefit them. This is up to you. You have to convince your readers of the value your blog presents to them and how your posts are aimed at solving their problems and helping them find solutions. Use your About Us page and landing pages to highlight the value you bring to people’s lives through your blog, in terms of content, tips, industry experience and subject matter expertise and products. Cultivate A Bond Of Trust When you share your personal experiences in any domain, you make an emotional connection. Your readers then see you as a person just like themselves, who has to live through the same world, experiencing the same vagaries. This creates a bond of trust, and your readers will come to lean on you not just for facts, but also for your understanding. When you share your stories, you will inspire your readers to share their own, which inspires further sharing and trust. Use A Friendly Voice Adopt a friendly, amicable tone of voice in your blog. Blog in the third person, so that every reader perceives you’re speaking directly to him or her. Use the active voice and avoid passive voice structuring. Keep your sentences short and sweet. Overall, make sure that reading your posts is a pleasurable, no-stress affair as far as the readers are concerned. Write Strongly, With Conviction You can write strongly and with conviction only when your facts are straight and verifiable. This means your research has to be gilded in gold. Indicate your unshakable conviction through factual, detailed content that is strong but not forceful. At all costs, avoid coming across as opinionated and forceful. No reader appreciates being bullied into accepting facts. Your job is to present facts and information in a way that is easily understood, assimilated and used. Connect The Missing Dots Readers look for content based on specific keywords because they want to understand things better. It starts with a vague idea, combined with half-baked thoughts before the search engine is launched. When a reader finds your site, it’s in the hopes that you will connect the dots for him, explain things in a way that makes sense. Whether this is about backpacking travel tips to Australia or specific dos and don’ts pertaining to a product, the reader looks to you for clarification. Connect the dots, fill in the words and earn his trust for a lifetime. Infuse Humor Into Your Writing A little humor is never amiss. We’re not talking major chuckles here, but a slightly snide, critical, tongue-in-cheek humor displayed in appropriate doses is ok. You can be funny in your posts but don’t litter them with smileys and winks – especially if you are blogging on a professional topic. Empathize With Your Readers And Make A Connection Demonstrate that you empathize with your readers by sharing experiences that you’re sure will strike a chord. For example, if you’re blogging about smart handhelds and selling Amazon’s Kindle on your site, talk about the problems you’ve faced with handhelds. Express the issues you’ve faced in a way that clearly says you understand what your audience has experienced, and you sympathize with them. Be Authoritative In Your Subject You may or may not be a subject matter expert. It’s great if you are, but what you need is to know enough about your niche to speak with authority. Don’t come across as wimpy, apologetic and humble in your writing. This won’t convince your readers of your worth. State your opinions with authority and back them up with well-researched facts, if you want to be taken seriously. Of course, we don’t mean that you should lay down the law on the topics you write about, but show enough authority to generate trust and respect. Don’t be afraid to take charge. Highlight What Sets You Apart In your About Us page, highlight what makes your blog unique. Include a mission statement and links to authority sites in your network and associations where you are a member. Doing this will impress your audience sufficiently to establish your perceived authority. You’re your audience sees you as different and special, they will want to emulate your attitude. That’s when you know you’ve succeeded in making them listen to you.