Blogging Tips

The eternal challenge of blogging is to lure readers back for more.  Branding helps — your reader knows what to expect so they stay with you.  Provided, of course, that you continue to deliver. 

You get about two or three shots for that to happen, then they’re gone.  When you set the bar high, it’s incumbent upon you to leap over it each and every time.

Once your brand is solidly in place, there’s an even better way to hook more readers, at least in the short-term: go serial on them.

If you want a ratchet up branding and reader acquisition — and who doesn’t? – consider delivering a multi-part blog series that goes deep into the heart of your chosen field of expertise.  Something that demonstrates that you are The Authority on the subject.

Nothing says authority quite like a series.

I’m living this one myself — I’m launching a 10-part series that’s actually more of a short training course or book than a blog.  And that’s a good thing, because my readers will, if all goes according to plan, be both hooked and hungry as the series progresses. 

Individual posts in a series do need to stand on their own.  And yet, they must also propel the reader into the next one.  A tricky piece of outlining, that.  An effective series is a whole that exceeds the sum of the parts, and make no mistake, it is the whole that sets you apart from your blogging competition.

Anyone can write a post.  But only an expert can craft a series.

The Next Level of Branding

Not all that many blogs have adopted a series strategy.  That’s because a large percentage are more journal than journalistic, more commentary than truly instructional.  Opinion is fine, but that doesn’t make you an authority — demonstrated expertise does. 

The more focused within a given niche your blog, and the more your voice resonates with authority, the more suited to a series it is.  Readers want content beyond affirmation and commiseration, they want mentoring.  

Chances are that if your blog legitimately comes from a place of expertise, then there are most likely certain aspects of your avocation or product realm that can’t be adequately covered in a single post.  So think big.  Carve out a slice and then serve it up as a series that puts it all into a neat little contextual box for your readers.

The deeper you go, the clearer you make it, the more solid your branded identity becomes.

A Deeper Realm of Value

For example, you can’t (or at least I can’t, nor can anyone I know of) explain the intricasies of structuring a novel in a single post.  It’s as complicated as learning to fly, and nobody wants a seat on that two-passenger airplane unless the writer has been through ground school.

And the ground school of writing a novel is WAY bigger than a blog.

But one can cover the 10,000 foot big picture of storytelling in, say, a 10 post series delivered in a sequence that builds with both logic and compelling applicability.   Once the big picture is clear, all the details to follow will arrive in context to it.  

In a world in which content is king, context is queen.  Together… they rule.

Serial blogging is the on-steroids version of the eternal wisdom we bloggers have had drilled into us from Day One: it’s all about the value of our content. 

And sometimes more is better.  Use a series to not only make content accessible, but to give it context, as well, and your brand as an authority will get the royal treatment. 

Photo credit: Tony Hanna