How to Optimize Your Content by Managing Reader Expectations

Converting visitors that stumble upon your blog from search engines, other blogs and social websites into loyal blog readers is challenge for any blogger. The ability to establish a cohesive and supportive user community is a key element which leads to monetary success for blogs and the businesses they might promote.

Kathy Sierra of Headspace recently suggested in her article that blogs or businesses achieve real success by merging their interests or content focus with the interest of their readers.

She writes about the secret to the success of Headspace (ranked 81 in Technorati) and her publishing business:

The secret is simply this: you have a much better chance for success when your business model makes what’s good for the users match what’s good for the business, and vice-versa. Our books are best-sellers not because we’re better authors or teachers (a meritocracy), but because they were literally labors of love.

She also suggests that a key question should be posed before developing a new blog or product:

“What will this help the user do?” Not, “How can we make a great product?” Nobody cares about your company, and nobody cares about your product. Not really. They care about themselves in relation to your product. What it means to them. What it does for them. What it says about them that they use your product or believe in your company.

When we relate this to our discussion on content optimization, it simply means that your blog’s focus must be inline with user perceptions of how your blog can benefit them. You need to manage your readers’ expectations by providing content that adds value to their personal or professional life.

To achieve this objective, you’ll first need to analyze how your readers currently perceive your blog. What does your blog do for them? What do they want to see more? Do other bloggers feel comfortable referencing your blog?

You can then use the information you gathered to ensure that you produce content that complements and exceeds their expectations or needs.

How to Optimize your Content from a Reader’s Perspective.

The very first question I always ask myself before writing a post is “How does this article help me make money online?”. Placing myself in the reader’s shoes ensures that the post is tightly focused on my blog niche and doesn’t stray from it.

Focusing on reader-needs leads to highly relevant & SEO-friendly content that is consistent with Dosh Dosh’s focus on making money online. Readers can expect that each post will undoubtedly offer information on short and long term money making opportunities.

If you’re trying to build a flagship blog for your business or profit, it is important to make sure that your blog consistently adds value for all your readers. You want them to come away from some knowledge which they can apply themselves.

You want to introduce them to a new perspective on certain subject and you also want them to benefit from the time invested in reading your material. The best way to achieve this is to keep the question “How does this help my reader?” in mind before you develop any content for your blog.

Discovering What Your Readers Want

To produce optimized content that takes into account reader expectations and needs, you need to understand or anticipate what your blog readers want, what interests them and what makes them come back to your blog. What can you offer that is unique or different from your fellow blogger?

This user-content-user feedback loop is different from the traditional advertising strategy: You don’t create needs or wants, instead you perceive and fulfill them consistently by providing relevant content on your blog.

Six Ways to Monitor Reader Expectations

Here are some easy ways to understand what your readers expect from your blog. These methods are fairly easy to implement and by using them, you’ll be able to better develop content that resonates well with your blog community.

This will lead to reader satisfaction, which is very important when you are using your blog to push affiliate products or your own business and services.

1. Track searches on your blog - A great method which lets you know how users perceive your blog. What they search for the most through your blog’s search box should be included as a part of your content.

   Wordpress bloggers can use the SearchMeter plugin to track searches. Hosted blogs can probably use the Adsense search box, although I’m not sure if it tracks search terms.




2. Monitor Comments and Post Views - Which posts have the most comments or have the longest running discussions? Make a list of the top 10 most commented or viewed posts and try to observe if there were any common factors which resulted in their popularity. This is a great way to understand what content pushes your readers’ buttons.




3. Try Heat maps. Websites like Crazy Egg allow you to understand which part of your site attracts the most views. This can be very helpful when you want to promote or test the popularity of specific content. Place them as separate articles in locations which have proven to attract the most visual attention.




4. Analyze Trackbacks. Visit websites which reference any specific material on their blog and read their comments. Observe how they reference your blog and which part of your content they found the most essential. Take note of how they expand on your post, because their perspective might be something you neglected in your original post.




5. Evaluate Search Engine visitors - Find out how most visitors usually land on your site by monitoring what search terms they use. You can use Google’s Webmaster Tools or just Feedburner’s Stats. Convert these visitors into your readers by offering content that expands on their keyword searches.




6. Use a poll - Easiest way to get some information from your reader. Can be very useful when you need yes/no answers to specific content questions. Note that your blog can become predictable after using them too often.

While I don’t think bloggers should only write content that caters to the desires of their readers, I believe that a blog’s success in building a strong community depends on empowering readers with reputable content that incorporates their perspectives and exceeds their expectations.

An example of a blog that utilizes these principles is Daniel Scocco’s Daily Blog Tips, a relatively new blog that’s rapidly building a solid blog community by offering valuable practical information that bloggers can instantly implement on their own blogs.

Daniel’s blog is only a few months old but has already crossed the 1K mark in feed subscribers, which is a pretty impressive feat. I believe much of his success centers on holding the question “How will this article benefit my reader?” in mind when creating valuable flagship content that maximizes the average user’s view or experience of his blog.

Mastering the reader’s perspective and understanding how they view your blog will allow you to produce optimized content that meets and anticipates your blog community’s expectations or needs.

This is one of most fundamental aspects of building a strong community for your blog or business.