Blog Traffic Tips Weekly Newsletter
by Yaro Starak – The Blog Traffic King
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Do you remember when you first started to learn how to use the Internet?
I do.
I remember the first time I went into an online forum, an IRC chatroom and the moment when I discovered the wonderful world of music on MP3.
I spent a good few weeks hunting around all the terrible search engines they had back then trying to find a favorite track of mine – “Smells like teen spirit” by Nirvana.
I did eventually find my MP3 but what I didn’t realize was how much I was learning as I went through the process. I was so determined to find solutions to my problems that I would trawl around the web trying everything. I learnt so much about how things on the Internet work that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for going through that learning curve.
My early training formed the foundations for everything I do on the Internet today. I make my income from the web and most of my working pleasure also comes from web related activities like blogging and writing newsletters. But like everyone else, I was a newbie once, and I always remember this when I think about how to help other people learn to do things online.
DON’T FORGET THE BEGINNERS
No matter what you currently blog about there are people out there who benefit from your knowledge because you are at a higher point on the learning curve than they are. You would not have started a blog if you didn’t believe you had something interesting to say. What you write comes from your knowledge and experience.
One of the things I often do when I brainstorm ideas for blog topics is to think about how I learnt to do something. It may be doing something as simple as commenting on a blog or sending an email with an attachment, but I know there are people out there who have yet to learn how to do these things, and they appreciate a lesson from someone who has.
As the Internet grows more and more beginners jump online and the cycle of learning continues – your “how to” articles will be foundation lessons for each new generation of beginner. This is a great way to come up with “pillar content” as I have written about in previous newsletters.
THE DANGERS OF WRITING FOR NEWBIES
When you publish an article specifically for newbies you inherently create a problem – your non-beginner readers who already know the basic stuff find your newbie articles boring. They may leave comments telling you that you are wasting your time teaching things that everyone already knows.
Try and ignore these comments if they represent a minority. Remember most beginners won’t thank you for writing introductory articles, but advanced readers will love to show how smart they are by publicly telling you that your content is redundant. Sometimes the negative people are more vocal – it’s the nature of the Web as I have written about previously.
As long as your traffic doesn’t drop you can assume that your beginner articles are well received. Chances are even if a person already knows how to do what you are teaching they will still learn something from you because everyone goes about things differently.
You may provide a more efficient way of doing something or maybe a person will comment with a suggestion for a better way, in which case you learn something too, which is great, but what is better is that the whole solution is on your blog, within your article and the comments. It doesn’t matter who provides the wisdom as long as your blog is known as the place to go find it.
FIND A BALANCE
For my blog back when I first started, I wrote many how-to introductory articles teaching basics. Today I don’t write as many of these because I have already covered a lot of what I know from my “back-catalogue” of skills and experience. On occasion I will write beginner articles, when inspiration strikes.
I have found a good balance of materials for beginners and more advanced users works well to retain both groups. Your beginners will progress to advanced and will stay with your blog throughout the learning curve. By doing this your beginners feel a sense of loyalty as you have been with them from the start of their journey.
It is vital to have some beginner articles because it is beginners who will often stumble across your blog when trying to learn something by searching online. A “how-to” article placed well in the search engines may be the first “taste” a person has of your blog.
It is possible to focus only on beginners or only advanced users. How you define this is based on your own goals and whether you are capable of producing content strictly to meet the needs of a particular user.
What is most important is you understand your target reader so you create articles of relevance. There is no sense in writing an introductory article on how to grow roses if your blog is about tennis. Think about what the beginners in your industry need to know, and blog about it.
BRAIN-DUMPING TO YOUR BLOG
It is important that you realize what you currently know has value to other people. Don’t discount that fact. Provided you have lived a little, you are a treasure trove of experiences and knowledge just waiting to be opened. All you need to is take what is in your head and put it on your blog for others to enjoy and learn from.
Go write an article for your beginners now.
Here’s to your blogging success.
Yaro Starak
Blog Traffic King
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More Newsletters
- How To Choose The Right Blog Topic
- How To Get More Blog Comments
- How To Build A Popular Blog
- Don’t Make This Mistake With Your Blog
- The Secret Of My Blog’s Success – The Pillar Article
- Is Blogging About Your Mistakes A Good Idea?
- Do You Have To Blog Full Time To Succeed?
- How One Technique Increased My Traffic By 25%
- What Is A Trackback And How Can It Increase Your Blog Traffic?
- How To Interlink Your Blog Articles To Increase Traffic
- How To Laser Target Your Blog Traffic
- How To Attract More RSS Subscribers
- Start Relationships For Win-Win Blogging
- Are You Trying To Run Before You Can Walk?
- Make Money From Your Blog Selling Text Links
- WordPress Bloggers – Install This Plugin To Boost Your Traffic
- The Power Of Credibility
- How To Deal With Negative Comments On Your Blog
- How To Leverage Online Forums For Blog Traffic
- What Is The Most Powerful Blog Traffic Technique?
- How Important Is SEO For Your Blog?
- The Death Of Link Exchanges
- Where To Find Photos To Use In Your Blog
- What Do You Want To Achieve From Blogging?
- Do You Blog Strategically?
- Don’t Forget The Newbies
- Competing For Attention In An Attention Deficit Blogosphere
- How To Be An Exceptional Blogger
- How To Create A Community At Your Blog
- Does Your Blog Have A Hook?
- Why Being Perfect Can Hurt Your Blog
- How One Blogging Technique Attracted 6000 New Subscribers
- Track Your Long Tail Trends For Traffic
- Track Your Blog Traffic Using Alexa
- Does Your Blog Design Matter?
- Why You Must Be A Thought Leader
- Establish Preeminence With A Pillar Article Series
- Is It Time For A Kick In The Pants?
- Why Do RSS Readers Unsubscribe From Blogs?
- Have You Considered Selling Ads Directly From Your Blog?
- Sell Direct Advertising On Your Blog Using This System
- How To Attract Blog Sponsors
- How To Kick-Start The Launch Of A New Blog
- Try This Tip To Attract Offline Traffic To Your Blog
- Apply This HTML Code Tip For Better Blog Headings
- The Most Powerful Blog Traffic Technique
- Can You Make Your Blog Readers Feel Like This…
- The Secret To Successful Blogging
- Why Bloggers Don’t Make Money From Affiliate Programs
- How Does Getting Paid $500 An Hour Sound To You?
The following lessons are from my original “blog traffic king” email newsletter, my first ever email course with one lesson per week delivered for a year. There are some real gems in these articles too, so don’t skip them!
