31DBBB Day 17: Call your Readers to Action
This is Day 17 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project we are doing together in an attempt to improve our blogs and help each other become better bloggers. You can read more about it and still sign-up to participate here. Please subscribe to our RSS Feed to stay updated on the project.
- Week 1: Read about the first week of 31DBBB
- Week 2: The second week of 31DBBB
- Week 3: Our third week of 31DBBB
- Day 16 (Monday): Breathe Life into an Old Post
- Day 17 (Tuesday): Call your Readers to Action
- Day 18 (Wednesday): How to use a Magazine to Improve your Blog
- Day 19 (Thursday): Ask a Question
- Day 20 (Friday): Develop a Plan to Boost your Blog’s Profile and Readership
- Day 21 (Monday): 17 Statistics to Monitor on your Blog
- Day 22 (Tuesday): Plan the next step for your blog
Do you feel like you have passive readers? Would you like to have a more active and interactive audience? More than likely, the vast majority of your visitors are passive. They do not leave comments, vote on polls or subscribe to your RSS Feed. Have you thought about why? Maybe it’s because you rarely or never ask them to!
Today, we are going to spend some time writing a post that call your readers to action. What type of action could you include?
- Write a comment
- Subscribe to your RSS Feed, Twitter or Facebook
- Implementing something you just wrote about
- Voting in a poll
- Visit another site
- etc…
Tip for Calls to Action
- Only one call to action per post
- The call to action must be simple with immediate results
- Express clearly what you want people to do at the end of your posts
- Draw attention to your call to action
Assignment
Write a “call to action” post then come back and let us know how it’s working out for you.
Discussion
- Do you have passive readers?
- Can you give an example of a time when you were successful at calling your readers to action? Why do you think it was successful?
- What other advice do you have for converting passive readers to active readers?
12 Comments
well, currently I have a book giveaway. However, I haven’t received much feedback from it.
I believe my monthly contests establish this usage,but I think Aiden and Dylan’s polls are better examples. I think Peter at Magic Lantern does a good one oevery now and again as well.
I created a little incentive to increase my “Followers”. http://insightintoentertainment.blogspot.com/2010/08/follow-me.html
A short time frame and a concrete but achievable goal should make it possible. Go sign up to Follow Me!
Ha..ha.. that banana picture cracks me up, Castor. Well, I find that if I end my post with a question for their own picks or opinion about something, it tends to get better results. I am hoping to incorporate polls in my blog in the near future. Yeah, Peter’s Gimme 5 series do generate lots of comments because we always have our own Top 5 in mind.
I normally don’t have this approach with my posts lately I have been getting a lot more comments also and its always a good rating of how popular a subject might be some strange posts have had some good amounts of comments.
Anyways I implemented todays lesson in a post on a videoreview of Piranha 3D.
Go check it out: http://jodokast.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/piranha-3d-and-what-the-flick/
Eh. My readers are fine.
If there’s one thing that takes the wind out of my sails more than anything else in blogging, it’s putting out a call for reader (or listener) response and getting nothing. These tips are helpful, but perhaps the most helpful advice is to not feel discouraged at the lack of response. Readers are out there, so I’ve been told, even if they don’t chime in.
Oh, of late I’ve tried to add a question to the end of each of my reviews. Just a little query to jump off a potential discussion… which has yet to materialize on the blog.
This is my first time attempting to really engage my readership. I am assuming I have passive readers; my user stats would indicate as much.
I have used this assignment as an opportunity to create a series of blogs centered around my reaction to films that my readers recommend.
Ok. I finally did it. Sorry it’s about TV, but I did call my readers to action for tomorrow night.
http://colleeniescouch.blogspot.com/2010/08/emmy-watch.html
I am so behind.
At the end of each post, I generally ask a question or ask for the readers opinions on the post. I need a few ideas on how to write an entire post calling the reader to action. Anyone?
I just did one on my site asking whether people were gonna go see the re-release of Avatar. It was pretty straightforward and actually got responses from people that had never commented on my blog before.
http://www.thefilmcynics.com/blog/?p=4801
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