*WARNING: This entry is not suitable for bloggers whom “I blog for myself” or “aku pedulik apa orang baca ke tak”.
As real life always put us in the state of perplexity, so does blogging world offers. For some bloggers, either uncertain in themselves or outsider-influenced, blogging always put many of us in dilemma.
Below are some the bloggers’ dilemmas, especially for newcomers to this blogging world.
How Sticky Is My Blog?
You can use www.alexa.com to evaluate your blog. Comparison between a famous and a not-that-famous blog:
famous blog (not mine)
infamous blog (also not mine)
You can see from the traffic rank, the famous blog ranked 300k, which is very good for a personal blogger, while an infamous blog ranked 9millions.
Readers get engaged with the famous blog for 3.3 minutes average, enough time to finish reading an article and maybe to drop some message. But for the infamous blog, the average time readers’ spend is only 30sec; which most probably they just scan the whole blog (looking what is interesting) and close the window (after find out the blog is not interesting enough).
Before you start a blog, ask yourself, whose blogs you like to read, and why? 85% of the blog readers have the same idea with you. You can imitate the ‘why I like this and that blogs’ before you start blogging, if you want your blog attractive (or sticky) enough to many readers.
Remember my previous tips about being unique, you don’t have to be an alien to be a famous blogger. Just be yourself and find which area in you that maybe others would like to know and would like to ‘follow’. This is important if you want to attract a complete stranger to read your blog, rather than just regular friends and relatives.
For example, you want to blog about your house. Then, what’s the special about that? Everybody lives in a house, so who cares what happens to your house, regardless your friends and relatives? Find a point about your house that relates to other than your friends and family. Maybe some tips to decorate a house, gardening and so on. Most people like to read what relates to them, so be as close as possible to your audience.
Except, if you own a house that is so spectacular that an average person will never have it, e.g. a mansion at a beach. There are people who like to read about unique experience and lifestyle that they don’t or can’t have.
Depend on who are your target readers, plan before you start blogging. Be connected to your target audience. Unless you’re already have the credibility or earned such celebrity, that time even if you write about ‘Today my house is sleeping’ pun people will follow. Just like, people want to know how Siti Nurhaliza’s house look like, but do you think people want to know yours?
Get close to your readers before they can trust you.
Key to kick this dilemma out : Set your target audience and write what you think they’ll like to know.
Google Adsense and Nuffnang Are Just Crap!
You can’t deny that lots and lost of people are making money from Google Adsense and Nuffnang (just to name a few) but when you tried to do it, you don’t even get any single cent.
This is relates to point no. 1 above.
But, before you decide to make money from anything, you HAVE to know how the system works. I dunno if you believe in Skim Cepat Kaya or such, but believe me that there’s no easy money. You think Google and Nuffnang are charity bodies ke?
Advertising company like Adsense & Nuffnang basically will pay you from the clicks you get (let alone CPM, CPE, CPA, etc.). If nobody clicks on the ads then no money. That’s why you have to undertsand your audience and watch your advertiser very carefully; your job is to connect them both. If you can master this single technique alone, the money will come to you very much easier than you can imagine. So, try to undertsand why people should click on your blog’s ads (unless you’re the one who ask them to do so).
Targetted traffic is the most important crtiteria if you decide to make money from blogging. After all, do you think Celcom or Maxis will iklan in TV3 if not enough youngsters watching the channel? So make sure your blog visitor are ‘potential reader’ who are seeking for information rather than reading for fun. The possibility for information seeker to click on your adsense is 989% higher than other kind of reader.
Key to kick this dilemma out : Understand what your advertiser want, and give them what they need.
I Need Comments On My Entries, Not Myself!
Some readers just like to say “You’re so pretty”, “You’re loser”, “You’re too fat”, etc. rather than giving constructive comments on your blog post. Some bloggers are just don’t care but there’s bloggers who really care about comments given.
This one you should re-check your writing style and how you presenting your blog and blogposts. You might be too emotional, or too ‘expose’, or too over, etc. Write in natural and avoid being emotional.
If you’re not sure, after you finish writing an entry, save it in draft first, go out take fresh air or a cup of coffee, and read it back. If you smell of ‘emo’ in the entry, do some editing. And you might reduce sticking your own photos in your entries to avoid any negative comment about your physical look (if you just care!).
Key to kick this dilemma : Re-evaluate your post before publish.
I Know Lots Of People Reading My Blog But Why Don’t They Leave Comments?
Unless the reader has nothing to do, you need some sparkling elements to trigger the comments.
Example, if you write about “Today I eat nasi, I feel kenyang, alhamdulillah..”. Some readers can la.. leave comment like “Good!”, “Good for you”, “Congratulation!” but some others just like to keep it to themselves je since it is not enough aura to attract comments. But if the commentators are your own friends, they definitely don’t mind what you write, they’ll leave their comments.
Unless if you write like this about the same topic (kenyang makan nasi) “Nasi contains fibre that is very good for your guts and it will converted to glucose to give you energy. Because of its properties, nasi can make you full”. Same topic but readers have many angles to put their comments on, isn’t it? Some maybe say “Oh I dunno about this, thanks!”, or “Could you please elaborate more in converting nasi into glucose?” or “What is fibre doing with guts” or at least “A very good info”. See?
You can tweak your writing style into something that makes people eager to know more or eager to comment on. Should not use any bombastic words, enough with how you arrange the phrase and the sentences. And how you make the issue ‘lively’ even if for the common ones.
I suggest you to read a lot, especially good blogs that get many comments, how the blogger writes and elaborate the issue.
And don’t forget to reply to each comment! (This is also my weakness)
Key to kick this dilemma : Be creative and dare to write from different point of view.
I Don’t Know What to Write ABout
Everyone of us have our own specialty. It can be lesson learnt from our day-job, conversation with friends or just something you keep on thinking yourself. If there is, just write about it. Whether you noticed or not, there are someone ‘out there’ begging for information that only you have it; without you realized. Bringing up to the world can be a noble way of “giving back to society”.
I totally agree when Dr M said last Tuesday (appear in STAR), “Malaysian bloggers should promote critical thinking among themselve”
If you totally have no idea what to write, this tips might spark some idea. you can go to alexa and type in your favourite blog. Then, click on the “keyword” tab. You’ll notice some keywords that you can write on. I find this strategy very useful if you want to make money from blogging in Malaysian market…
I Don’t Have Good Writing Skill
Who cares! You are not writing for English or BM teachers here. But you need to strike a balance between formal & informal writing. Reason being, too formal article can be so boring to most (as if like reading newspaper/journal) at the same time people tend to discount the quality of the article if it sounds too informal. What is balance like is again depend on your target readers.
I Don’t Know About The Current Hots and Nots..
Don’t bother! Write anything that meet your interest. You need to have passion in your writings, so write about what you like (and have knowledge) the most. If you like your baby the most, write about your baby. Find uniqueness about your baby and what you’ve been doing with your baby that you think others can benefit.
Most readers like things that relates to their life, and talking about your life can get them close.. but make sure you find the ‘conversion’ point. Instead of just talking about your baby.. baby bangun baby tido…, share some tips, your readers must love it!
Key to kick this dilemma : Let your passion rules that can helps your readers!
I remind again, you might not need those tips if you’re ‘blogging for fun’, just write it for yourself, etc. But I’m sure you’ll appreciate my points if you blog for something, especially to gain more and more visitor.
To Post or Not to Post
Just do it!
As long as you’re not breaching the ‘blogging act’, you’ll be safe 😛
*I think now blogging is not the right channel to shout your dissatisfaction on some organizations. Could this be a dilemma to bloggers who blog about politics?
-this entry is written for Yoyooh cabaran minggu ke-3-
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