Lead with your blog just as you would in life
If you’re a self-loathing blogger, then you probably don’t want anyone to read your work. It’s awful, terrible, the worst thing anyone has ever read! Because of this, your blog confidence is low and you don’t SEO your blog posts (nobody’s looking for them anyway!), and if anyone does in fact find your blog posts, you want to send them away as soon as possible, so you load them with external hyperlinks.
If your goal in blogging is to not make money, to not get shared, to not drive web traffic, and to drive web visitors away, then a great way to stay out of the spotlight is to send visitors in the opposite direction from your blog as soon as possible.
We’ve seen lots of bloggers do this, but usually not on purpose.
If your blog confidence is low, and you really want to send traffic away from your blog instead of keeping it on your site, here are five great ways to do it:
Link to someone else in your first paragraph. Don’t give readers a chance to digest your point of view, just send them away quickly! Shoo!
Constantly refer and link to “the experts.” You wouldn’t want anyone to consider YOU an expert, right? So much pressure!
Don’t define your jargon. Talk like a suit so they need to leave and Google all of your fancy words. Swot analysis. Go!
Be passive. Start sentences with passive suggestions like, “You might want to add a 1/2 cup of sugar to your pie if you like it sweet,” instead of confident statements like, “Add a 1/2 cup of sugar to your pie if you like it sweet.”
Don’t tell links to open in a new window. Pretend your blog post never happened, like a regretful one-night stand. Send them away and don’t give them your phone number!
Don’t interlink any of your other articles. Cause when they’re done, they’re done right? GET OFF MY LAWN!
Congratulations: You’ve just completed the first course in sending traffic away from your blog!
[Tweet “Is your blog building you up, or putting you down?”]Wait, crap, you didn’t want to do that, right?
There are two types of people in life: leaders and followers. Think about the leaders you know. Maybe they’re speakers, business owners, authors, athletes or even good friends you look up to. How do they lead? Are they confident? Do people take them seriously because of that confidence?
It all comes down to confidence.
How to Turn That Frown Upside Down
Would you like to appear more confident on your blog? Here are five ways to keep people on your blog instead of sending them away:
Build your case before linking away. Your first couple of paragraphs should build a relationship with the reader, not send them away. If you have references, great, but sending them away too quickly tells the reader that the real source of information is most certainly not you.
Establish yourself as the expert. Link to other sources only when they have data you can’t provide, not to “qualify” information you already know and are teaching.
Create a glossary. If your business requires the use of jargon, create a glossary so that you’re not sending readers away when they need a definition.
Tell external links to open in a new window. That way, when they click away, your post is still there for them to continue reading.
Interlink blog posts. When you reference a topic that you’ve already written about, link to that blog post. That way, you’re sending them on a journey, keeping them on your site longer, and building loyalty with the reader.
Seems simple enough, right? If you’re confident enough to write blog posts, do your best to convey that confidence by being the resource readers are looking for, not just a gateway drug to the “real” source.
[Tweet “Make your blog a resource, not just a gateway drug to the “real” source.”]If you want a better, more confident blog, start with our BuzzAudit.
