Want Your RSS Readers To Dictate Your Content?
I recently read a blog post at Balkhis’ blog about why readers subscribe to a blog. The points he is making are very true (explanation follows) but something “got to me” and it was not that “I saw the light” or anything like that… Actually it was somewhat like the opposite.
It is very true that most bloggers would love to have more subscribers to their blogs and of cause I would love the same thing… BUT would you want to change the content and the purpose of your blog to better fit what new visitors would want so that you could increase your number of subscribers? Would you change the very nature of your blog to gain more readers?
Blogs that are created with the sole purpose of making money by selling affiliate products to their lists of subscribers will want to have as many subscribers as they possibly can. No question there! And I fully agree that these blogs will benefit greatly from adjusting their content to fit the profile that most people would want to read.
But blogs that are not created with the purpuse of making money (such as my blog and several other blogs that I read) should not follow the advice Balkhis gives. Before anyone asks why I have Adsense on the site when I don’t want to make money, please re-read what I wrote… It is not my sole purpose with this blog to make money but I am not going to say no to money either. But money will not change the way I run my blog.
What makes blogs so unique and personal is that they are not meant to be followed by everyone (and his grandmother). I write my blog in a way that I find interesting and I love communicating with the readers that are interested in the same things and who likes to read what I write in the way that I write it.
Changing your blog to be something that it was not originally meant to be might give you more subscribers but it will also remove a lot of the uniqueness that made the blog the “special creation” that it was.
I feel that you should give your readers the best you got but that you also give it the way you feel like giving it. Please feel free to share your opinion on this subject. Whether you agree or not I would love your comment.
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I totaly agree with you Mikael.
If I had a blog whose only purpose was to earn money, I would do everything to get more subscribers and more visitors. But I’m not.
My blog, is where I write what I think is exciting. It would be stupid to change the whole blog, or big parts of it, just to get some new subscribers.
Because if you totaly change what you are writing about, then some of the ‘old’ subscribers and loyal readers would flee because it didn’t interest them anymore.
Hey Mikael,
First I would like to say thank you for the mention of Balkhis and putting your thoughts on the table.
I didn’t advice people to change their blog entirely. I only asked questions that were asked to me by many bloggers. Blogs are usually started for a reason. Like I started mine to share my experience and tips. No, I will not change it to what my readers want. I will change it the way I like it.
You just have to be yourself and I agree with you on that one. I think you might have misinterpreted my post. My point was not telling users to change your blog so you gain more subscribers. It was why your RSS readers subscribe and what you can do to improve. Having freebies and Giveaways is entirely upto the blogger. Wanting or not wanting RSS Subscribers is also entirely upto the blogger. It is their personal choice which they have to make. Just be yourself.
No they should not change their blog because their users want them to.
I just thought I should add that in because it is a different thing to have an opinion but an opinion that was led by a misinterpretation is another thing.
Syed, thank you for taking the time to respond to this post. I know that you didn’t advice people to change their blog ENTIRELY but you did write the following:
I can’t argue with you about whether or not I have misinterpreted your post because I can only read what you write and the statement above tells blog owners to write to specifically gain more readers and thereby I conclude that “gaining more readers” becomes more important than keeping the uniqueness of the blog.
If changing your writing from what YOU want to write about to what YOUR READERS wants to read isn’t equal to “letting subscribers dictate your content” then please try to explain to my why that is.
But to be fair I might not state that you ADVICE people to change what they write but merely that you are encouraging them to do so to attract more subscribers. Is that fair to say?
It’s a very interesting theme you have brought up here Michael (and Syed). And it could very easy be the same discussion in a lot of other areas of business. An amateur sing a song writer creates songs to express him self, not to make money. The same with most bloggers.
The Pro does it for money, and therefore it’s really the customers taste and frequency that decides his level of income. Therefore he have to do it much more for his audience, and much less for him self. And in order to do this he must listen to and follow his audience very carefully.
No one is more right than the other, but I think that the Pro makes much more money.
Yours
Pete
PS: I do it mostly for money…
The whole part about why people ask you why you have adsense if you don’t want to make money always pisses me off too. Its not like having a website is free, its not like it doesn’t also take up time and energy. As long as you are doing it ethically there is nothing wrong with getting compensated for your hard work.