What Are You Trying to Say?

August 23, 2010 By Tia Peterson

This is part 1 of a 5-part series on successful blogging.

1. Communication

The primary purpose of any blog is to communicate something. You can have one blog or you can have many; it doesn’t matter. Each blog is responsible for communicating something different.

What is your message? Why are you blogging in the first place?

Hopefully, it is not because someone in your networking group told you that you needed a blog. Starting off on that foot is going to cost unnecessary amounts of money and time. You should be asking yourself,

What am I trying to achieve?

The answer to that question determines what you will communicate, and so much more.

You can use your blog to

Drive sales
Keep consumers informed
Address industry-wide alerts and issues
Establish a customer service forum
Provide how-to lessons and tutorials
Something else

It’s important to establish this upfront, even if it takes a little while longer. Remember, if you know what you are hoping to achieve, you can communicate with intent and bring those goals to reality.

Bringing My Point Home

You cannot hit a target unless you aim at it. The best way to come up with a good content strategy is to keep the intent of your blog at the forefront of your mind when coming up with topics and brainstorming ideas.

Your Turn – Are You Making Your Point?

What presents the biggest challenges when it comes to feeling like you are achieving your goals or making your point when it comes to blogging? How do you know you are getting there?

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Dave@The Wandering Brit

I couldn't agree more. One of the most important things anyone should do before they start up a blog (or revisit if they already have a live blog) is to look at what the subject of the blog is going to be and to keep it consistent, otherwise, you end up confusing your readers and risk losing them for not being relevant to their interests.

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Daniel Sharkov@Reviewz &#39;n&#39; Tips

Knowing what to say and how to say it is certainly of importance when it comes to blogging. If your readers can't get to your message, then the whole point is pretty much missing. Drifting away from what one wants to say is a common problem. I tend to stay away from blogs that do not offer clear information.

Mitchell Allen

Hi again, Tia. I had to check out the first post in the series :)
Ya know, the word "eclectic" has been used to describe my blog. So, yes, I'm achieving my purpose, which fall under the "Something Else" category.

Basically, my blog is a creative outlet with benefits. Said benefits being that I get to spout my opinions, promote my creative stuff, play in blog memes and give Google the rigid digit because it's not a niche, LOL.

I learned the wrong stuff about blogging when I started. However, I soon decided that it was more fun to have a personal blog than a niche blog.
As for business, I choose to use the WordPress platform for my websites, since it's what I know and because it allows me to put a site online very quickly.

As for doing niche blogs? I can dance that jig, but it's tough for me.

Cheers,

Mitch

Justin Germino

I certainly agree that communication and having a clear topic/message to readers is important, nothing kills a post or your sales potential like rambling or losing focus and readers interest in the process

seospidy@Internet marketing

Blogging is my passion and i m crazy about learning and sharing and i feelin really excited if my followers follow good things in their life by reading my post.
very interesting post. :)

Kok Siong @ Cancer Research

Hi Tia! The reason why i blogging is to help to increase the awareness about cancer prevention and genetic disorders. Another thing is to share my life.

Julius

Nice Tia. Well for me it's hard to find a goal to focus on. I mean I want to make money but I know that if I start making money it won't be my primary goal anymore.

So this is actually the hardest thing for me - finding the right goal.

Sourav @ Tech N Blogging

Most of the times, I have a clear-cut goal of what I am trying to do, but sometimes when things go bad, I do question about my goal...if it is correct or not. In short, the confidence level goes down a bit.
Anyway, what I try to achieve with my blog is to share my experiences with my readers, and also share some how-to tips.

Tia Peterson

Hi Sourav!

I'm sure you're doing fine. It's good to test and measure, but even with planning, things will go wrong. As long as you know what your ultimate goal is, you are okay.

What you're trying to achieve - I can't imagine going wrong with that!

Wayne Howard

I think about this everday. What is the purpose from my blog and what message do I want people to take away. Do I want them to come for blog tips? Do I want to motivate and inspire people? Do I want to help them out in the business realm... All questions I'm still trying to figure out.

But luckily at this point, I just write what I feel. If it flies well, then that is great!

Hi Wayne,

Do you feel sometimes like you're still looking for an inspiration?

Or, you really can do all three of those things. That would be perfectly okay.

Selena @ Niche Blogging Diva

Very true, Tia! I have seen your comments over at Joseph's blog and you always have something useful to say. On this case, I think you can go even further: having a clear goal is essential in a lot of things, not just blogging. As a webdesigner, I have seen many "bad" designs, sites that might even look pretty, but you have no idea what the designer was trying to achieve. I would go as far as saying this is the number one thing that causes so many people to fail making money online.

Hi Selena,

Great points. Or in business in general. Lack of planning. The old adage is true, fail to plan, plan to fail!

I guess sometimes people don't really fail, but they never become truly successful, and I wouldn't want to be mediocre. I don't think I could be okay with that.

Sherryl Perry

My biggest challenge is that I originally targeted small biz owners and entrepreneurs who have or need to have websites and need help with an overall online marketing strategy. From the comments I receive, I’d say the majority of my readers are other bloggers or writers who are basically using their blog as their website with the minority of my readers needing help with websites. It’s occurred to me that some of my readers do need help with websites and they’re less comfortable commenting.

So, am I making my point? How do I know if I’m getting there? I'm thinking of adding a survey to my blog to ask my readers what they want me to blog about.

Hey Sherryl,

That's a good idea (about the survey).

I like your original target. It's true that those people may be less inclined to comment, but if you're okay with that, you could start optimizing your blog posts to answer questions that such business owners and entrepreneurs might have.

Using that model, you would end up with fewer comments/engagement, but likely more business.

Or, you could stockpile articles that are heavily optimized and just start linking to them with keywords throughout your posts. Making sure your sidebar is structured such that people looking for websites have something to click on and sign up or get a consultation... those are just some ideas that popped into my head.

The first model/idea is a trade off. A hard one to make for a blogger, too.

I decided to just create a whole new site for my consulting business since after 8 months it's clear now that BizChickBlogs has taken a new life! I like this life, so I'll keep it and make the other much, much more targeted.

The Bad Blogger - Fool Content For Smart Dudes

Usually, it's hard to explain, sometime I feel I'm getting it, but sometime I feel I'm stuck, although I'm clear that this will work successfully, but the implanting part seems like a puzzle to fix and it usually took a lot of time to slowly fix it up.
It's kind the hard to answer you about the feeling of reaching something because it's really hard to make the point we are trying to achieve.

Hi Bad Blogger :)

Depends on what you are trying to achieve. Some goals are measurable. I would try really hard to find a way to measure the goal.

Gera @ Sweets Foods Blog

Some bloggers share expertise, others entertainment, or others pure pitch sales but I see a lot that write without having a clear target, just to fill the everyday/every week post. Definitively a clear intention is vital.

My case in the tech-arena (btw increasing the social - tech posts at my blog) is sharing my experience in these fields and in the food area, is my other passion as a foodie. I know is a bizarre combo if we add a touch of food-healthy posts.
You see the return or not, in comments, traffic or votes.

Have a great week!

Gera

Hey Gera,

You have a hard one! Yet somehow you seem to be able to pull it off. I think it's your strong relationship skills that make it work.

I'm looking forward to more social/tech posts at your blog!

Cheers,
Tia

Samuel

Nice post! Well i can't really say lol but with the comment i get from readers i guess am trying! thanks for sharing.

Hey Samuel - That's a good way to gauge how you're doing but it's also good to ask just ask yourself what you are really trying to do, and then make sure that your content is helping to make that happen.

Good luck!

Tia