On Getting Your Content in Front of People
Filed Under: My Writing, Web Design
Smashing Magazine, a great website dealing with all things web design, had a really great article the other day titled “10 Ways to Put Your Content in Front of More People.”
Not all of these ideas are applicable to everyone–some are quite specifically techy. Most creatives don’t really need an Adobe Air app on someone’s desktop, and they don’t need to create an API or widget (although widgets are often produced for authors by larger publishers. I don’t know that they get used by fans much, but they do get made).
However, the basics, like Facebook, Twitter, guest posts, and more are all very applicable methods. Using multimedia is still somewhat rare in the author circles I frequent, so it’s open for some real innovation. Book trailers are just a start. I’m working with one client on something that takes advantage of all these options. More on that when it’s done.
My approach for my author clients is that any readers of their online media presence are potential readers of their books. But I don’t have them treat their online presence as a giant advertising platform for those books. No, the key to getting more people to look at your content, above all else, is to write compelling content.
There are tricks to making your web content more compelling when it’s in a blog style format. The specifics of those techniques I save for my consulting clients. In general, pay attention to the kinds of posts that go viral, get retweeted and linked all over. And match those post styles, but within your own niche.
Of secondary importance, after the content, is establishing a good niche and thus an identity. If you maintain a niche, create a solid identity (and thus some authority), and write in a linkable and web-friendly format about compelling subjects, you’ll grow readers like crazy.
As many blogs out there as there are, people are always looking for something new that grabs them by the throat. Something that educates them, or titiliates. There are a lot of ways you can be compelling. Hell, we all struggle with that in the non-online types of writing we have to do. But it’s not enough to just blog about your day and your word count, or your latest photos. It’s fine if you don’t mind what your audience size is online, but if you’re interested in building a following, you have to take it further.
That’s what I’ve been trying to do with these posts, appearances on podcasts, and so on. And to be nice about all of it. I genuinely enjoy helping people with this stuff, and sharing what I’ve learned. So the extra readers are really just a bonus on top of the main motivation.
Comments
05-16-2009
Nice post – thanks!
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