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I want to be an Olympic blogger (Part IV)
If you want to get any die hard runner’s attention, all you need to do is to say something about running; it can be about racing, strength training, supplemental workouts, nutrition, or injuries, and you’ve got them; they will stand there and talk to you like running is the newest thing to hit the planet.
You see, the same goes for getting your readers attention; you want to get it, and keep them there.
Let’s look at some ways to do just that.
Advertise with care
If you have ever been to a race expo, then you know they are filled with big colorful banners, bright lights, lots of noise, and merchants selling the best they have to offer. But even if you haven’t been, that description may still sound familiar. Picture a blog with large flashing and rotating banners screaming “click me”,“click me”, with a slew of Google Adsense ads down each side of the page, followed by three or four “advertise here” place holders. Now does it sound familiar? I knew it would.
Blogs like these send most people running (pun intended) in the other direction. There are so many things diverting the readers attention that it detracts from the article’s message–that is if the blogger even wants you to see the article’s message. Often blogs like these are also associated with having low quality content; in my opinion, most of them do.
Fortunately for you, there are a lot of blogs like this; so as long as you continue to put out quality content with value, you will rise above them faster than Usain Bolt (world record holder in the 100m – 9.58 seconds) and websites that are out there to sell, sell, sell, and get rich quickly without any hard work (which is very rare).
Create titles with your audience in mind
Titles are a great way to getting a reader’s attention; and they must be created with careful thought. Catchy and witty titles are nice, but if they are too difficult to interpret, their purpose can be lost. And remember, the only purpose of the title is to get the reader to the next sentence. Create titles that take your audience into consideration. For example, any print that has the words Paula Radcliffe (woman’s marathon record holder with a time of 2:15:38) will get an elite female marathoner’s attention immediately.
Create a newsletter that rocks
A newsletter is a great way to get readers to subscribe to your blog, and to keep them their once they do. Create a newsletter with content that is valuable to your readers. Don’t just try to promote your products with it; that can become annoying.
Here is a little story.
Recently I have been enjoying the articles on a blog that I discovered last month, and so based on the quality of the articles, I signed up for the newsletter. When I read it, I was so disappointed. It was literally one big advertisement. First of all, the newsletter started off by asking the reader to send it to others, then it went into the actual content, which was a small paragraph that paraphrased the most recent blog post, and then ended the newsletter by asking the reader to visit the blog and add comments.
To me, there was absolutely no added value to being on this list. It was clearly all about what I could do for her. Now don’t get me wrong, you want to promote yourself and your products in your newsletters, but not in such a way that cause potentially cause readers to unsubscribe.
Give high value products away for free
There is so much free information on the Internet that giving away something for free is no longer impressive; I mean, how many cheap water bottles from races do you have to collect before they start losing their value. If you give high quality unique products like reports, eBooks and workbooks away for free, you increase the chances that your readers will stick around for your content and more.
You can look at it this way: there is this one race in our town that serves a free breakfast after the race and my boyfriend makes sure that he has that race on his calendar each year, just for the breakfast.
The end
At the beginning of the series I mentioned that at one point in my life I was trying to qualify for the Olympics in the marathon.
I missed it by 1 minute, 59 seconds.
The Olympic Qualifying standard for women in the marathon was, and still is a 2:42:00; Unfortunately there was a mix up with the marathon I had planned to meet the qualifying time in, and with short notice, I had to run one two weeks earlier (missing my full taper period). I ended up with a 2:43:59. I was on pace up until the last 3 miles.
And so it is…
See you in the blogosphere, and at the races!
(Along the way, share your race in the comments.)
Lisa H, aka RunningBear has worked in Information Technology
for 16 years, including
corporate training, web design, & technical writing.
She enjoys working out, cooking, volunteering with the local
track and cross country teams and spending time with her
sweetie, two cats and dog, and new blog
Getting to Zen.
Hey Lisa, Great article and advice for bloggers. I completely agree, fewer ads, add value and capture their attention. Basics but so many blogs cram their space with ads and I immediately leave. I wonder if the pennies they make are worth the lost readers. Oh well, to each their own. Sorry to hear about your marathon miss. But wow, amazing that you achieved what you did. Cheers.
Katie´s last post ..What is the World Trying to Tell You & Are You Listening
Hi Katie,
Thanks for stopping by. Yeah, I’ve never been a fan of big flashy ads, but it must be working for some–because they keep popping up.
Although I am curious about the success rate of that strategy in today’s blogging.
Yeah, it was a good hard effort, I just didn’t have enough time to train. Had the circumstances been a little different, so would have the outcome. Although I missed the Olympics, I am happy for the other world class races I have participated in.
Lisa H´s last post ..How to create the day that you want
Hey, Lisa. I just wanted to let you know about the great article I wrote over at . . . Oh wait . . . never mind. For a minute there I thought I was writing a newsletter :)
There are so many newsletters I don’t even open anymore because they’ve been just as you described.
One person who does an amazing job with his newsletters is Pat Flynn. He normally packs so much good stuff in his newsletters that you can’t help but be appreciative of the guy and think he’s brilliant to boot. If 10 people were offering the same product, I’d go out of my way to buy it from him. And no, I’m not an affiliate for any of his products :)
Hey Jean,
Thought I replied to you earlier. Guess I didn’t hit submit. Anyway, I am cracking up over your opening sentence. Fantastic!
Hmmmm…. Pat Flynn. I’ll have to look him up.
Lisa´s last post ..How to create the day that you want
Lisa,
That was a great article. First off, I have to admit that read so many blogs I’ve become an Olympic ‘skimmer.’ But, in your case I actually read every word of your article. That’s how good it was!
Your tips were excellent and fun to read. Rock on – that was awesome.
Hi Angela. Thank you. Olympic Skimmer. I like the sound of that. :-) Glad you found the tips entertaining and useful. It was a fun article to write.
Lisa´s last post ..How to create the day that you want
I have seen lots of examples of the “promotional” newsletters! I even remember a blogger who used to send only weekly blog updates(essentially, a list of all blog posts that week) and “special” mails with “special offers”.
I haven’t started running yet(I have always been a slow walker!) LOL.
Arggggghhhhhh!!! That’s all I can say. Don’t get me wrong, I think that some promo is fine and even necessary, but when it becomes more about what I can do for the blogger, it is a real turn off, and gives me a different impression of the blogger.
Lisa´s last post ..How to create the day that you want
Hey Ishan,
I forgot to add… slow walking is better than no walking. :-)
Lisa´s last post ..How to create the day that you want
Awesome tips for bloggers Lisa. I think you are right, having less ads in a page can be better for blogs since you will get more conversion and well the bounce rate will decrease
Thanks for stopping by. Yeah, too many ads send me in the other direction; especially when there are more of them on the page than the content.
Lisa´s last post ..How to create the day that you want
Hi Lisa – a very enjoyable article. Like you, I used to be a distance runner but now quite of Olympic standard!!! I still love to pretend I can do it, but these days 1km seems enough, It’s hard to think back to the days when 40km in a day was doable. Love your tagline by the way-if only – maybe two weekends???
Hey, hey fellow distance runner. I love it. There has bee no other sport that gives me the physical, mental and emotional feeling that long distance running does.
We do what we can. There have been times where I too have been at 1km. :-)
Thanks on the tagline.
Lisa´s last post ..How to create the day that you want
nice and real helpful keep the article coming
Amy´s last post ..The Diet Solution Program Review
Thanks Amy.
Glad you found it helpful. :-)
Lisa´s last post ..Sometimes it’s the small things that matter most
That is terrific and so well thought out. Usually I won’t make comments on the internet, However , I have to give you props on this one. Great blog
Hey there. Thanks for stopping by, and for the comment. It’s nice to know what people are thinking. :-)
Lisa´s last post ..Sometimes it’s the small things that matter most
Hi Lisa,
I sign-up for newsletters of th blogs which provide some useful information on their posts. The free stuff(mainly ebooks) also lure me to sign-up. But then when I find that the newsletter is used only for promotion purpose, it simply disappoints me.
At the moment, at least 5 people are trying to promote the same thing to me via their newsletter, and that too in a repeatedly. I used to think that these “big” bloggers will help me to build a better blog, but now they are ruining my inbox.
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I hear ya! How disappointing and annoying. I look at those types of newsletters as examples of how not to write a newsletter. Although it is amazing how many successful bloggers have newsletters like this, so on some level they must be working, but not for me.
Lisa´s last post ..Exercising and Eating your Way to Wellness