Home > blogging, personal development, sustainability, WordPress, Writing > Your Turn – Question For My Readers

Your Turn – Question For My Readers

by JimRaffel on August 20, 2010

This week I have shared four of the actions I take to get readers here and to keep them coming back once they find me. Here’s a recap of those activities:

  1. Why Images in Posts Work
  2. Consistency and Reliability Gain Readers
  3. Use as Many Channels as You Can
  4. Don’t Forget email

a few questions for my readers

I’ve been watching the Google Analytics for this site and I am pleased to report that, due in part to the above actives, traffic on this site is growing at a sustainable 30-50%/month right now. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like your help answering a few questions:

  1. What am I doing right?
  2. What got you here?
  3. What keeps you coming back?

If you have a few minutes to leave a comment, I’d appreciate knowing your answers.

Photo Credit

Tagged as: consistency, human interest, questions, readers, reliability, techniques

  • http://twitter.com/ShanSteffen Shannon Steffen

    1. You are connecting with your readers on a personal and emotional level. You are also providing information

  • http://twitter.com/ShanSteffen Shannon Steffen

    1. You are connecting with your readers on both a personal and emotional level. You are also providing value that can help shape your reader’s lives for the better.

    2. I original came here because we connected offline but found our offline conversation so inspirational that it seemed only fitting to connect with your online. I believe in surrounding myself with passionate and creative people – hence, here I am.

    3. Your content is fresh, short and to the point. Hardly do I walk away without saying “hmmm” to myself and jotting down a note.

    Irish smiles!

  • Tim Murphy

    1) Your style is very readable. It’s succinct, conversational, and your topics are very relevant to anyone interested in social media or entrepreneurship.

    2) I originally came because my developer, Aaron Saray, recommended your blog.

    3) I keep coming back because I know that I’ll get a short burst of great content every time. I miss out on reading posts on other blogs because I have to put off reading them (usually due to length). Not a problem here – so I rarely miss!

  • http://twitter.com/badgerdigital Michael Anderson

    Pretty simple Jim. Consistent, relevant posts to small business.

  • http://twitter.com/Spiffster Raymond

    Jim,
    Your writing style is very easy for me to read, well broken up and kept short and to the point. The content is consistently great and informative which I am able to use in my life, well most posts.
    I get here usually from one of your twitter posts.
    See point 1 for why I keep coming back.
    Keep up the quality posts.

  • http://linkedin.com/in/joesorge Joe Sorge

    Jim,
    You tend to illustrate ideas in a way that makes sense to me and I’m guessing many other readers of your blog.
    Our friendship got me here and it’s the regular, consistent content that keeps me checking your blog when I make my blog rounds.

  • http://JimRaffel.com/ Jim Raffel

    Thank you for the comments so far.

    Had no idea how important the length of the posts was to you guys. My gut was telling me the 300ish worders did better but your comments are confirming that.

    It’s often harder to keep the posts short than it is to fill the content out to that mythical 300 words. There are some posts where I literally delete half of what I’ve written before posting to keep it short. All that being said the 1200-1500 word posts will still come out from time to time when appropriate.

    Also, Tomorrow and Sunday’s posts are very short. Curious to see what y’all think about those.

  • Sue

    You’re doing a lot of things right. I come to your blog for the content and I walk away with either something to think about or an action item. (See I’m taking action by commenting!) My “moleskin” has at least 2 pages of “Ideas from Jim”. Your writing style is easy to read and I feel like you and I are having a conversation. I don’t know how I got here originally but I started in February, well before unGeeked. You come to my Daily Must Read folder via an RSS feed – Bloglines. Thank you Jim for inspiring me.

  • http://bananza.tumblr.com/ Bananza

    Ooh, homework!

    1. What am I doing right?

    You are consistent! You make it easy for your reader to get through your posts. You talk about relevant topics. You relate them to your everyday life. You keep it simple. You offer value. You are passionate about your blog. Your post titles reflect your content. You don’t ramble. You are constantly evaluating what you do and you share your tips for success.

    2. What got you here?

    I like you. You don’t have to do much more than that, really.

    3. What keeps you coming back?

    I know this blog isn’t a one-way street. You appreciate our comments as much as we appreciate your posts. Keep the good stuff coming!

  • http://JimRaffel.com/ Jim Raffel

    “homework!” – I’m smiling.

    thanks for taking the time to answer Anne. Yours and the answers of all you guys means the world to me. I sometimes feel like I’m short changing you guys with short posts. Seems like that’s not the case at all.

    I like you too :)

    I love and appreciate comments, yes, yes I do.

  • http://JimRaffel.com/ Jim Raffel

    There wasn’t much else to do with this post than comment ;) Well, especially for whoever got here first. You guys have not created all the value of this post. I love it.

  • http://JimRaffel.com/ Jim Raffel

    Thanks for jumping in first Shannon. Without you getting the comment train started the post had little value.

  • http://www.spaighttalk.com Sue Spaight

    Hey Jim. Don’t have much to add that is different than what the others said, but I guess there is value in consistency of comments, too, in this case. ; )

    1. What are you doing right?

    Totally agree that the consistency factor is huge. I know without a doubt that when, after a week or so of not finding the time to visit your blog, I finally get here, there is going to be great new stuff. I know I will never be wasting my time by coming.

    2. What got you here?

    I may have seen your posts on Twitter before we met in person at Ungeeked, but, since we had not really connected, I wasn’t as engaged. I came here for the first “real” time while sitting next to you, to see what you are about.

    3. What keeps you coming back?

    What Anne said. I just happen to like you a hell of a lot, like how you look at the world, and view it through a similar lens, most of the time (except that whole global warming thing…)

    Thank you for doing what you do!

    Sue

  • http://JimRaffel.com/ Jim Raffel

    Love your point 2. I’ve tried to explain to several people over the last few months that this blog helps customers and prospects get an idea what kind of person they will be doing business with. You’ve also mentioned that when you read here it’s like talking to me. I hope others feel the same way.

    I like you a hell of a lot too Sue. As for global warming – grown ups can disagree and engage in dialog and conversation to make the world a better place regardless of what the “facts” may or may not be. Look what you and Katie are doing for Teecycle :)

Previous post:

Next post: