Is Anyone Actually Reading Your Blog? (Part 2)

In our last post we mentioned a study written by Professor Barbara Kaye of the University of Tennessee. It was titled “Going To The Blogs: Toward The Development Of A Uses And Gratification Measurement Scale For Blogs.” She outlined nine different reasons that people read blogs today.

This time we’re going through the final four (the first article is here). As we do, continue to think about which type of customers are drawn to your blog. This stuff is make or break for your content, so make the most of it!!

• Personal Fulfillment: These are the people that just visit blogs to be entertained. They read them because it’s fun. They’ll likely visit again and again.

• Political Debate: Blogs are a great place to have debates. In fact you have probably seen an article in a comments section just turn into one big argument. This can actually be a great thing as it means that your customers are passionate about your topics and willing to spend time discussing them.

• Diverse Opinions: With the huge amount of blogs across the Internet you can almost always find somebody answering a question in a way that you agree with. Some people may visit your site simply because they enjoy your take on life and the way that you solve problems.

• Direct Inquiries: For a specific question there is no better place to go than the blog of a guru on the topic. These visitors will come to you because you know what you’re talking about and you provide some of the best information out there.

Time after time it has been proven that many businesses believe that their readers simply come to their page looking for information. But the fact is that no matter how good you are at using the correct keywords and putting out the right type of content you still need to have a site that your readers find interesting and are able to interact with. Simply put, the more engaging the better!!

If you are still working on your blog and are having trouble getting started, here’s a few questions you may want to consider as you develop your site:

1. Is my content unique?
2. Do I separate myself from those around me?
3. Do I care about the content that I produce?
4. Will I go the extra mile to provide the best information available?
5. Do I provide the content that my readers want?
6. Do my readers feel like they can have an open discussion over the topics that I cover?

Professor Barbara Kaye wanted to help business owners have a better understanding of why their customers arrived on their site and chose to spend their time there. With this information businesses were better able to cater to the base needs of their customers. The intention of the nine groups was not to say that an individual must fall into only one category. Instead it was only meant as a way to shed some light on why people still read blogs.

By using these nine reasons that people read blogs to identify your customers you can provide content uniquely designed for them.

What do you think about these nine reasons? Which types of customers are spending their time on your site? Let us know what you think in the comments below; we’d love to hear from you and help you ensure your blog stands out from the crowd.