Comments on: Readers vs Visitors – Whose Needs are You Meeting?

By: Lorelle

Lorelle — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:42:20 +0000

Moria: You bring up a very good point. When you disconnect from your readers, you disconnect from your blog.

By: Moira

Moira — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:57:57 +0000

Great post, Darren. I’ve been posting a lot of holiday gift suggestions (playing to visitors and SEOs) for the last few weeks and my traffic started to drop off. My core readers weren’t interested and even I was getting bored with my blog.

This made me get back to content first — combined with a little sales PR. A much better mix for me. Thanks, Moira

By: 66tx

66tx — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:15:43 +0000

Great distinction between visitors and readers, Lorelle. And very insightful.

By: Lorelle

Lorelle — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:21:29 +0000

Thanks for the great comments. I’ve been on the road, so let me play a little catch-up here.

The people you want to go after are those who want your content. Those are the ones who may be back for more, if you keep giving them what they want.

A few months ago, I was hunting for information on FireFox extensions and found a fantastic article about them, including great reviews and resources. I was thrilled to find such comprehensive information and looked forward to more. I added the blog to my feed and two months went by with me eagerly waiting for more on FireFox – and not a FireFox article was published.

By the third month, without a single article of theirs catching my attention, I removed them from my feed. This blog lost a chance to turn me from a visitor to a reader because they didn’t meet my needs.

Sure, you will serve the visitor, but why not serve the reader more, encouraging them to return for more of what they want, and make the experience of reading and “seeing” your blog an enjoyable one. In turn, the visitor is also better served.

As for the notion that a visitor becomes a reader by after adding your blog to their feed, that presumes your readers know what feeds are. Most visiting and reading my family history blog have no idea what a feed is. I meet people constantly who are fairly web savvy who still don’t know what a feed is! They add your site to their favorites or bookmarks and return through there. It’s a habit. And many of these are fans of my blogs, and I talk about feeds to remind them how it works, but they still don’t “get it”.

Again, meet their needs, don’t assume their needs.

MaxBro made a very good point. The ones who return carry many added benefits, like submitting your site to site submission and bookmarking sites and services and blogging about you, often with praise since you keep giving them what they want.

As for who makes you more money, analyzing the stats will help you determine what part of the action is on the ground that converts clicks to cents, and which ad campaigns are working better for you from which types of visitors. Just avoid the assumptions and dig for the reality.

RobG: All tools are good to use as they often, as you say, provide conflicting or additional information. Use them all, not relying upon one.

Sue: The “digg-effect” rarely turns visitors into readers. It increases them, but research, while anecdotal, concludes that your readership base rises by tiny increments over the long term unless your blog specializes in the information that created the digg-effect, becoming a resource and source, not just a one-off, attention-getting article. I’m being redundant here, but give them what they need and they come back and bring their friends.

Evan Hadkins: You won’t get lots of traffic to your site unless you use this type of advice. :D

Your content is your blog, and your visitors see only the content. Make sure it’s good. Make sure there is enough to keep them interested on the subject that brought them there in the first place, and the income and increase in readership will happen naturally.

Just don’t totally trust your stats or trends. Really get to know what your average reader needs and give it to them.

By: Gisele B.

Gisele B. — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:58:38 +0000

I have been using my stats to change and improve the user experience for both visitors and users. I have to say that a number of changes have resulted in lowering the bounce back rate of my site by 20% … which I consider to be quite amazing.

I’m in the same boat as BradV…my blog is under a year (6 mos in fact) and it does take time to convert visitors into readers and turn one time visitors in to regulars.

That said, I’ve notice that the more content I add, the more this impacts these stats.

Gisele
http://www.mybeautymatch.com

By: Paidforwritedown

Paidforwritedown — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:25:43 +0000

I think we should write for both. Many times readers don’t give you profits if you are using PPC programme for your earning.

By: DigMyPage

DigMyPage — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 04:01:13 +0000

In the “how to make money blogs”, The type I reader are like your visitors. They will quickly scan the article to find if there are any money making tips available.

The type II readers will read articles so that they can put their links in the comments section, just like I am doing here :)

A type III reader is looking for ideas to write articles for their own blogs, and possibly share link love in the anticipation of getting the same back in the future.

A type IV reader find your particular article interesting and then move on to find interesting articles in other sites.

A type V reader is a true fan of your blog who will read every thing no matter how mundane it is.

By: Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:08:42 +0000

You want to convert viewers to readership.

By: Brad V.

Brad V. — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 19:24:26 +0000

Because my blog is still under a year old (but will be hitting that one year mark in December) I still get more visitors than readers. However, one of the pleasures of blogging is seeing visitors turn into regular readers. But it’s a long process that takes a lot patience.

Great post!

By: sven

sven — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 10:26:00 +0000

There is definatly a difference, you should not try to please one of the two and rather do what you feel is right, then everything should work out for both sides. The most important part is the content and when the content is good, or even outstanding you should be able to convert a few visitors to regular readers, while you still offer your regular readers what they are looking for.

By: Antoine Khater

Antoine Khater — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:43:13 +0000

WOW !!!!!!!!!

Great article, what else could you suspect from Lorelle

By: 30 Day Man

30 Day Man — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:11:32 +0000

Yeah it’s always a hard when you see a good RSS feed and reach; but know that access to your mainstream ad’s are reduced.

By: * Miss Universe

* Miss Universe — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 05:40:43 +0000

One good tactic is to TEST your Website or blog on Webmaster forums to get feedback.

Inform them ahead of time who it is designed for – and usually the Admins will engage their friends to give feedback in order to get a well rounded perspective

By: Evan Hadkins

Evan Hadkins — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:52:43 +0000

I guess this advice will be useful when I have lots of traffic to my site.

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:22:56 +0000

RobG, I think that awstats just estimates the bookmarks. I’d trust the google analytics, which is logging the IPs of your visitors/readers to know how many are returning. And those coming in direct from the google analysis are those who most likely have bookmarked you.
I’m just wondering how best to leverage a surge of visitors into regular readers.

By: RobG

RobG — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:28:12 +0000

Good article but here are the questions as a newbe…
What is the best tool to use (analyzes) your traffic?

I use Google analytics and awstats which both give different views Google says I get 5 -6% return visitors but awstats says that 35 -37% are from Bookmarks… is that good or bad?

I have solid growth…what should I be looking for in my stats?

By: Ahmed Mohamed

Ahmed Mohamed — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:54:16 +0000

Although I have less readers than visitors, but I agree that pleasing my readers comes first.
One step that I took is to educate visitors to become readers by writing an article about RSS feeds, I will continue educating visitors to become readers through other technologies as well.
However, writing the RSS article came from readers that wanted to know what it is. So again, I agree to the fact that pleasing readers comes first.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:35:18 +0000

So true, sometimes we end up focusing on the stats, rather than on developing quality content. Blogging, espically if you are trying to monetize your site, is like a popularity contest – getting the most readers/visitors.

Who generates more income for you though? Readers who subsribe to your feed, but never actually go to your site….or vistiors who come to your site via a search or referral? I have found I get more “clicks” from visitors than my regular readers on a standardized basis (ie I compared 100 reader clicks vs 100 visitor clicks in a 3 month window).

By: MaxBro

MaxBro — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:23:01 +0000

One huge reason to write with your Readers in mind is because they can become the gatekeepers to your further success. They’ll be the ones who Stumble, Digg, Reddit and bookmark your work, helping you to reach a larger audience and potential new readers.

Great post Lorelle.

By: Jason Green

Jason Green — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:04:38 +0000

I agree.

Pleasing your readers definitely comes first. The success of a blog is often defined by its stickyness – by that I mean how many people who visit will stick to the site and keep coming back.

Those people that visit regularly are also the most passionate about your site’s topic – they will likely post about your articles on other websites, social bookmarking sites, forums – comment on your articles and be most responsive to your ads.

In essence they help maintain your site, make it grow and give it long term value.

Jason
http://www.sitesalary.com