DISQUS

thebeginner · 2 years ago

however, I dare say, the president will never read a blog that no one reads, and will most probably read what is posted on the most popular blog around. That is why politicians bother reading the popular newspapers. not because they want to know the news as much as know what is on most people's minds. And that is determined by what is written in the most popular publications.

you cannot escape the power of numbers.

jon burg · 2 years ago

I totally agree, but if the President is reading in Google Reader he's not going to show up as a page view, and I have know way of knowing that he read my blog. How would authors know if influentials are reading if they aren't commenting?

Kfir Pravda · 2 years ago

The beginner, Jon Burg, thanks a lot for your comments. they are touching an important topic, which is basically a marketing issue - how can I reach my readers.

I did not touch this topic yet, and I am working on a post that describes how you can get to these readers. In any case it is not an easy task.

However, this post doesn't discuss the method to reach scenario B. It only expresses my belief that in some cases high quality readers can bring more value to bloggers than a large amount of heterogeneous readers.

The beginner - you state that the president won't read something that no one else does. well, I believe that it depends on the value of the content in it for him. If it is an in-depth analysis on the way that the north Korean regime operates - I beg to differ. Yes, it is an extreme scenario, but look at it as such, as an extreme example to make a point.

Jon - you are asking how can a blogger know who are his readers if they don't comment. This is a tricky issue, no doubt there. There are methods of doing so. Maybe not with the president, but certainly with other groups. If you write your blog to a specific group, in most cases you can interact with it in other ways such as conferences, events, and social networks. You can sometimes even ask the readers who they are. I'd love to start writing about it - why don't we write a post about together?

Hagai Pipko · 2 years ago

i remmeber this idea from your lecture at radvision.

btw, it's true not only for blogs, sites etc...but also for a lot of other topics, especially in real life.

thebeginner · 2 years ago

I see your point, that targeting your audience is important. This is exactly why google's advertising is considered a generation ahead of putting an ad in the paper. And there is lot's of stuff written on that on the web.

However, what I wanted to stress, is that focused targeting of your audience is one thing, and the example you gave is not a good one for that.

The very nature of blogs is that the authority you have is largely based on your following. You are the wiz if the whole world reads your blog. You are nobody if no one reads it. The Prez would never read a blog that is small, as opposed to a specific paper written for his eyes by people with authority in a field. Blogging is different.

As the old Zen master once said:

If a tree falls in the woods and there is no one to hear it's sound...

A blogger with no readers does not exist.

Kfir Pravda · 2 years ago

The beginner - i have to agree with your sentence "The very nature of blogs is that the authority you have is largely based on your following" and disagree with "You are the wiz if the whole world reads your blog. You are nobody if no one reads it". If you want the whole world to read your writing - go work for the press :)

You are assuming that I want the press to read my blog - this is not the case in all blogs. Also, press figures are much higher than blog figures - and the whole notion of the blog industry is that there niche can provide value.

This post also talks mainly about business bloggers- where mass media is not always their target audience.



Hagai - true....

Idetrorce · 2 years ago

very interesting, but I don't agree with you

Idetrorce