Know Your Audience : How to influence the type of readers your blog attracts
Having a good relationship with your readers is an important aspect of making your blog a success. Your posts influence the type of reader you get however your readers can, and perhaps should, influence your posts as well.
Know Your Audience
When I say that you should know your audience I am of course referring to your blog readers. More specifically, I am referring to those who comment on your blog posts on a regular basis. I am not suggesting that readers who don’t comment are worthless however since they are not voicing their opinion it’s impossible to know how they feel about subjects you have written about.
Of course, knowing how your readers feel about certain subjects and knowing what they are interested in can be incredibly helpful but first I want to talk about how you can influence the type of readers your blog has.
How to influence the type of readers your blog attracts
There are many factors which will determine the type of reader your blog attracts :
Blog Topic
The main focus of your blog will have a big influence on the type of people you atract to the site. For example, political blogs can expect lengthy and sometimes heated debates in the comment area whereas sports blogs will attract people who are extremely passionate about their sport or team.
Information and skilled based blogs (eg. medicine) should attract more educated readers where debates are more polite and professional however blogs which deal with sensitive issues like Religion or Ethics expect a lot of heated battles between readers. Also, in general I have noticed that blogs which target a younger audience (eg teenagers) attract a lot of trolls who post spam, hateful comments and racist remarks.
The tone of your posts
The tone of your posts can be a big influence of what type of reader your blog attracts. If you regularly write negative posts and throw mud around and insult people then you can expect your readers to be of a similar volatile nature.
Note, being opinionated or passionate about a subject does not neccessarily mean that you can expect heated comments from readers. Infact, I think that being passionate in your posts is greatly beneficial to your blog. Just remember, the tone in which you write your posts has a big influence on the type of readers you attract and the type of comments which are left on your posts.
How knowledgeable you are
Being very knowledgeable about the subject you blog about will greatly influence the type of readers you have. If you are incredibly knowledgable about a subject then you can expect a lot of your readers to be equally as knowledgable as you in many respects. For example, a blogger who runs a a retro gaming blog may talk about many old games and gaming consoles that a lot of non gamers will not be familar with however the blogs core readership will likely be familar with these games and gaming consoles too.
The opposite is also true. If you are not very knowledgeable about the subject you are blogging about then you will attract readers with similar experience. Think about it : why would people who know more about the subject than you visit your blog, they won’t, as they have nothing to gain by doing so. As such, the people who do read your blog regularly will be those who know the same or less than you about your blogs main focus. This may not always be the case. The more you learn and the more research you put into your posts the more likely you are to attract readers who are more experienced and knowledgeable.
Overview
The comments that are left on your blog are a fantastic indication of the type of readers your blog is attracting. The key thing to remember is that whilst you can’t 100% control the type of readers your blog has, you can greatly influence it by the tone in your posts and the information you present in them.
Tomorrow I will be talk about how you can grow your blog by knowing your audience 
RoWeb Design | August 14th, 2008 at 9:55 am #
I think a person who start a blog should have something to say. Professional or personal.
If it is professional, then you should know your audience, people with whom you work every day, clients, beginners or students. You can give them tips and share with them your experiences.
If it is personal, then it is for who is ready to listen - your friends and all the world!
But it is true that when you open a blog, as part of your business marketing plan, then you should study your market: what are their interests, their needs. In this case link baiting is very important.
Laura | August 14th, 2008 at 10:15 am #
Ok, what if you have something to say, and you know a good bit about what you’re talking about, etc. but your target audience may not necessarily be all that internet savvy. How do you attract readers away from the ordinary web sites to the blogosphere? I thought I was fairly internet savvy and just discovered blogs a few months ago. Almost all my commentors have blogs. I want to reach those who never heard of a blog.
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | August 18th, 2008 at 7:38 am #
I wrote a post a few weeks ago about this Laura entitled ‘>Your readers might not realise they are reading a blog‘.
I do know what you are saying though I think the design of the site can be influential in this. There are a lot of blogs which look very bloggy ie. they have loads of ads, their main content is squeezed into the left hand side and they have loads of pointless and irrelevant links to top sites, banners and whatever on their sidebar…in other words, too much clutter.
Many top media sites like about.com could in theory be done with a blogging script but it comes down to how you present your information.