Three Formulas for Sparking Conversation
A year ago, I wrote about creating reader-engaging posts. In that article, I discussed the benefits of creating posts that got your readers involved. Now I want to point out some techniques and formulas content that will keep your readers talking, on and off your blog.
For your content to truly be great, you don’t want people just reading it. You want people discussing it. However, many bloggers struggle to create “conversation-worthy” content. What is the magical formula to sparking discussion?
As it turns out, all you really need to spark imagination is a little imagination. While there are many ways for you to draw in readers, it is the creation of discussion that will keep them here. Here are some formulas for creating comment-worthy content every time.
1. Be Entertaining
Half of the readers of blogs on the internet do not actually focus on educational value – they focus on entertainment. If you can get people to have some fun while still learning your lessons and understanding your primary message, then people will start talking about your content. Here are some example entertaining headlines:
- 23 Reasons Your Content Reminds me of my Moldy Sweater
- An Open Letter to the Makers of My Horrible Couch
- Blogging: Better than Freshly-Baked Sliced Bread
Click here to read the full blog post!
Double Your Readership with a Fantastic Introduction
Your introductions are not that great. Sorry to be rude, but you could be getting ten times the readers if you only wrote better opening paragraphs. If you’re wondering how this is possible, consider the opening to this post. How did I grab your attention?
Your blog could have the most informative content on the internet with a design that blows others out of the water and still not get a lot of readers. The reason for this is that your introductions just aren’t sucking readers into your content. You need to get them hooked on your posts, right from the start. To do this, you’ll need to pull a few tricks out of your sleeve.
Five Sure-Fire Introduction Formulas
The Hypothetical Situation
Imagine this: you come across a blog post that assumes you have $5,000 to spend on a start-up website, and asks if you think you’d blow it on the wrong things. Sounds like you’re interested in your budgeting now, huh?
The hypothetical situation is great for drawing attention from specific types of readers. It takes some imagination to put yourself in the shoes of readers, but once you’re there, they’ll follow you wherever you take them.
Click here to read the full blog post!
How to Keep Your Reader’s Attention Using “Grab Words”
I have a secret – this post is going to be loaded with grab words. You might be wondering what exactly a “grab word” is. That’s perfectly okay, because you’re going to learn not only what a grab word is, but also what it does for your content and your blog.
But wait, there’s more! I’m also going to give you a list of grab words you can use to generate interest on your blog, to engage your readers!
What is a “Grab Word”?
A “grab word” is a word that grabs the reader’s attention. Words such as “attention, free, money, sex, radical, new.” There are tons and tons of grab words that you can use to enhance your content. The best part? Your readers won’t even know or care that you’re using specific words to make them listen! If you use them correctly, your content will have more personality and your readers will love you for it.
Grab words work because they change the dynamic of the content. Instead of phrasing your articles around yourself and your knowledge, you’re phrasing the article around the reader and what he or she wants to hear, learn, or experience. Grab words form a strong connection with the reader, and in turn, suck them into your content so you can deliver the primary message.
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You Need to Sell Your Blog Posts!
One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make – but still expect reactions and feedback – is to ignore the basic fact that in order to engage their readers, they need to sell their blog posts. No, I’m not talking about literally selling your content on article market websites. I’m talking about selling ideas through your blog posts to your most favorite customers, your readers. Are you ready to close this sale?
It’s not a big stretch of imagination thinking of your ideas as if they were products you need to sell through you blog posts. Looking back at a past article on Blogsessive, we can link the proper blog post structure to one of the most basic, yet highly effective selling technique: The AIDA Model.
What is AIDA?
AIDA is an acronym that stands for: Attention, Interest, Desire & Action, and is a selling model developed back in 1925 by psychologist E.K. Strong Jr. Don’t be fooled by the date. The AIDA model still holds strong and is still being considered by many as the copywriter’s best friend.
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Reader of the Month – Time to Give Back
Dear folks, I’ve been thinking of a way to give back some of the appreciation you’ve shown me since day one, a way to compensate for the time you spend reading these blog posts and commenting upon them.
Initially, the famous “Top Commentators” plugin crossed my mind, but since it will be hard to keep out those who (unfortunately) try to “beat the system”, I’ve decided to choose another method.
Since I already go through every comment I receive and appreciate those comments that contribute to the amount of quality information of this blog, every month, I will pick one of my commentators to be awarded as “Reader of the Month”.
Click here to read the full blog post!
How Not to Blog: Don’t Force Page Views on Readers
As many of you know, when submitting a story to social news or bookmarking site, you risk having a lot of traffic to that page alone and having people leave your site immediately after reading the post in questions. There are several things you can do to keep readers engaged and direct them to different articles: really great content, related posts, links in your sidebar and many more.
But the purpose of this article is not to teach you how to go about getting legitimate traffic; it is to show you how not to act to get the same, yet temporary result. There’s a new practice: something mixing the multiple page posts with the well know “read full post link” used on blog homepages. It translates into going to the post page, reading one or two paragraphs and seeing a “read more” link.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Who Are You?
The last time I did this was back in May, when Blogsessive had ten times less subscribers and definitely less awareness. All this time, I’ve tried to write quality posts and give back to my community resources like the Simple Balance theme and the Feedsessive free RSS Icon set.
With each post, I put a small piece of me out to the world. Every reader can find out more about Blogsessive and me and I really love reading your emails, even it they are simply “Hello” emails or in need of advice.
The downside of it is that while concentrating on delivering quality through my actions and posts, I did not get to know more about you, the readers of Blogsessive. And I mean YOU. Who are you, are you a blogger? What do you blog about? What do you do for a living? Even personal stuff that you want to share. Feel free to ask questions, I’ll be happy to answer.
As I’ve said about a million times: my full respect and attention goes to my community, and a community is made out of real people, people just like you, the one reading this lines. So, give me 2 minutes of your life and let’s sit back to a friendly talk.
PS: First time commentator? Don’t be shy, join in! That’s how we become friends!
Blogsessive is a Technorati Top 10K Blog
I’m sure that those of you who have been following my posts for a while, know that I’m a pretty passionate blogger, enthusiastic and always looking to try new things and experiment.
I take pride in what I do since it’s what I love to do and wouldn’t want to do anything else, even more whenever my experiments and efforts are successful.
Today, Blogsessive hit another milestone in its journey in the blogosphere. This happened: 
According to Technorati, Blogsessive has become one of the top 10.000 blogs in their system, and considering the millions of blogs they watch, that’s a huge achievement!
My friends, thank you! It would have not been possible without your loyalty and friendship!
What About the Readers’ Perspective?
Blogging, before being a tool of expression and communication is a tool of desire, especially these days when thousands of people start a new blog each day, hoping to become successful.
It doesn’t matter how each and every one of them defines success. It can be a big readership, new relationships, business leads, money making or whatever, in the end, it starts out from the desire of doing better for yourself.
Unfortunately, that’s the point where most bloggers get stuck. Success is a two-way street, a give and receive relationship between the blogger and its community, and a blogger that cannot see his work from the readers’ perspective is bound to fail.
Have a clear and easy to digest message
As bloggers, you are the experts, your ideas make sense to you and probably a lot of your readers too, but don’t expect everyone to be able to understand and follow your thoughts as easy as if they were of your level.
In order to attract and maintain a good readership you need to appeal to the novice and the expert both. You need to be able to explain things in such way that novices could understand, but interesting enough so that you engage the advanced ones too.
A good way to reach that is to avoid a vocabulary consisting mostly in technical or complex words. Rather than using such a vocabulary, add references to each of your articles, encouraging the novice to find out more about the topic. The experts can still be engaged by leaving enough room for conversation or second opinions, but don’t expect them to come by their own. Ask for opinions. Different people handle the same situation in different ways and those people might be willing, if encouraged, to share their experiences and results.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Writing Reader Engaging Posts
From where I stand, the greatest advantage of blog writing is, without doubt, the instant feedback. Unlike classic media, like newspapers or magazines, our blogs give us the possibility of getting valuable opinions on every post that we publish. Of course, not all feedback should be considered valid, but this is a matter of personal choice and analytic skills.
Writing reader engaging posts is definitely one of the biggest challenges of every blogger, since these posts are usually excellent ways to create and grow a community around your blog. At a short glance, among the advantages of writing reader engaging posts we find:
- Community growth – Obviously, writing quality posts has the power to turn casual visitors into loyal readers, as long as you maintain a good flow;
- Social media exposure – The more interesting and better written the post, the more people will want to share and recommend it across services like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx and so on;
- Conversations – A good post is more likely to entice readers to engage in commenting. This is a great way to further develop the topic or even generate new content ideas;
- Networking - Engaging posts are great ways to network with other bloggers in your niche. Write something appealing and you’ll surely make their link-round-ups;
- Quality traffic – Of course, all of the above are great ways to generate either a great deal of traffic or quality traffic.
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