There’s someone watching. We all have traffic measurement software. We can see the peaks and valleys and equate those to numbers, but behind those soft falling crests and mesmerizing integers come human beings. (Unless of course your traffic analysis software mistakenly counts bots, but I digress.) Those humans are trained readers, and everyone of them carries their own grenades to the blog post you’re writing at this moment.

These grenades can best be described as the reader’s indifference weapons. The moment our writing veers from their scope of interest the pin might be pulled, leaving their hand flinching with anticipation. They want to toss it into your corner and go scurrying for their safe zones — those blogs they frequent. You must answer why they should stay.

We all have an audience. We want the traffic, and we want the recognition for our hard work. We think our egos are bulletproof, protected from those grenade blasts, but they are not. We need a comment — a bone, thrown.

What goals do our readers have? Can we find that out? Are they seeking to create their own webpages, learn more about pottery, fix a tire, write a letter to the great beyond? How did they find us? What role does our blog fill?

Know Thyself

We each have our experience, education, language, problems, family, and work.  Our blogs may deal with those things or completely ignore them. The visitors to our blogs have their whole package of influences. And they have their grenades poised to erase you from their environment. If we know ourselves, though, we can draw in those who can relate to our blog posts. They may come sheepishly at first, so we need to reinforce their initial impression through quality, focused writing. Those who toss their grenades and vanquish our blog from their landscape may find somewhere else they can relate. That’s fine. What should and does matter are the readers who stay, those who sign up for the RSS feeds, comment on the posts, and praise the good work of our writing.

Our writing can be expressive, tunneled outpourings that drench our readers. Or, it can be simple, instructive and concise on the topics we are passionate.  

Through blogging, we all have audiences. So look up from your keyboard, survey those reading, and, most importantly, know yourself.