Bring the Audience to You
By Rhett Soveran • Jan 23rd, 2008 • Category: Writing
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First thing, let me just say, that I am completely aware that I am not helping myself or getting any street cred for having a picture of Dane Cook.
Last night I was working on the free eBook that we will be releasing soon for our subscribers. Actually, I wanted to have it ready for today, but a couple things have kept me busy and I am behind schedule. The eBook—which would be more appropriately called an eEssay, but that’s too difficult to say—outlines the current status of blogs/bloggers and where we should be heading. In lieu of having the eBook available, here is a brief look at one of the ideas in the essay.
The tagline for Epiblogger is: The organic center of blogging. Ignore organic for now. The true center of blogging is writing or communication. This is what we are doing. We are communicating with each other, helping each other and building relationships. But, I read post after post from other meta-bloggers about how to write for your audience. How to get the attention of X, Y or Z audience. If you want to get dug, write this. If you want to get stumbled, write that. And so on.
I completely disagree with this strategy. It is too hard to write for an audience that you don’t really know. It’s true, they might pick it up. The idea of being dug is a huge temptation. Lee and I were even discussing the possibility of his 404 post being dug. That’s not why he wrote it, but I was excited that the Digg kids might dig us (I am sure that joke is more than dead, but I like Dane Cook so I don’t actually have a real sense of humour, right?). But more often then not, they won’t pick it up. You used all your energy, targeted a group and missed. You can try again tomorrow or maybe it’s time for a new approach.
Why not put the work of writing something brilliant into something you want to say, in a way that you want to say it? The reason there is a picture of Dane Cook is because of something brilliant he said in an interview (not verbatim): I don’t tell jokes that I think my audience want to hear, I make them come to me. Whether you like Mr. Cook or not, I think you will agree that he tells jokes his way, his style and makes the audience part of the experience. He doesn’t mimic Seinfeld or Hedberg or Chappelle. He brings the audience to him, with his jokes (although he has been accused of stealing material, but just ignore that because it will ruin my post).
There are enough people trying to say what they think people want to hear—eBrown-nosers. It’s a guessing game that only a few will win. Instead, write your way, in your voice and bring the audience into your world and subject. I am one of thousands of meta-bloggers. Why do I even bother with this blog? Because I believe that I have a unique view and way of communicating, not necessarily because I have something new to say. You do too. I promise. It might even take a while to find something that feels right. Explore different voices and styles and when it’s right your audience will find you.
Photo by merfam
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I see where you are coming from, but I really think blogging is changing and ought to change. This is essentially what the eBook is going to be about. I will say that in order to build readership we have lost something significant. I believe there is just a little bit too much business in blogging.
In my mind it really comes down to who you believe your audience to be: consumers or people. Are we continuous marketers hocking our words or people communicating with other people. Because the idea of building a readership is really just building a consumer base for one to profit. There is room for business in blogging, but it has been given too much weight for too long. I certainly hope and am working for a day when I can blog full time with Epiblogger. But I also believe that we bloggers (generally) have lost quality in our writing and content because we have given in to superficial, weak and proven strategies in lieu of writing beneficial and quality material in order that we might communicate fully with other people.
This all might come off as a bit ideal and I recognize that, but I think there is room for a shift in thought on how we blog. Essentially, I think we can have our cake and eat it too.
Despite your latest post, I’m not entirely sure that you and I are in disagreement. I think that bloggers who strictly adhere to the strategies prescribed by the experts (writing explicitly for Digg or Stumble) will end up with posts that come across as contrived, and that will ultimately turn readers off and away.
Still, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with learning these strategies and applying them where appropriate. For instance, if you’re trying to teach your readers something, there’s nothing wrong with using a “How To…” title. To me, there’s a difference between operating from strategy, and working with it. I don’t sit around thinking up list posts, but if I come up with a post idea that would lend itself well to a list, then I will certainly pursue it.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that there’s a happy medium. We blog to please our readers. Our readers like catchy headlines, lists, and tutorials. They like whatever it is that makes a post Digg-able. If we know what readers like, why wouldn’t we try to bring some of that to our blogs, at least when doing so is natural?
There’s an old saying regarding writing and grammar: Learn the rules and then break them. I think that applies here as well. It’s good to know what works, what attracts readers, but that information should indeed be used judiciously.
[...] Are we pumping our blogs full of hot air so they’ll float into the blogospere, or are we grounding them with solid content? Are we more concerned with inflating the numbers (comments, page rank, subscriber count) than making them a true reflection of our blogs’ relevance and usefulness? Do we really have anything we want to say? [...]