Are You a Master of Assumptions?
One of the biggest mistakes that all of us make from time to time is assuming things that are probably not true. We all like to assume that everyone’s going to get our jokes. Or people are going to be polite. Worse yet, you might just assume that people are going to stop when they see the stop sign. It’s OK to cautiously expect something to happen. But if you think of it as a foregone conclusion then you can be in deep trouble. The same issue exists in the blogging world. We all like to assume that people know how to use Google. We write our blogs and wonder why people don’t subscribe to our feeds, not realizing that people don’t know where to find the subscription button or what it even means. That’s exactly when assuming things can cost you!
During my blogging career, I have come to realize that one should never assume things. If you want to get the maximum results on your blog, you need to make things super easy for your visitors to understand. Whether you want them to sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your feed, you need to make it almost too easy for your audience. Here are 8 things that you should avoid assuming things about:
- Twitter: everyone’s heard of Twitter, right? They must know how to follow you and connect with you on it, correct? Not really. A lot of people have heard of Twitter but have no idea what it is or what it does. So you can’t just put a Twitter icon on your blog and expect people to follow you. Just tell folks what to do. Wouldn’t it be easier?
- RSS Feed: a lot of bloggers tend to get fancy with their RSS icons and design very creative ones to use on their blogs. Whatever you do, make sure you tell your audience what they need to do!
- Newsletter: don’t assume that people are going to sign up for your newsletter just because you have a form on your blog. Just let your visitors know why they should sign up, and how to confirm their e-mails.
- Social Media: people are not going to digg your blog post just because it’s great. You need to make it super easy for them. You can always grab one of those simple buttons from digg and other social media sites to keep things simple.
- Technorati: similar to the previous item, you want to make sure you ask your readers to favorite your posts on Technorati. Don’t just assume they will.
- Search: you should never assume that people are going to find what they are looking for on your blog without a search box. Make it easy for them to search for things and find what need fast. Who would put up a site without a search box these days anyway?
- Related posts: you should always give your visitors a way to find more relevant content on your blog. One way to do that is by providing them with related posts under each blog post. Don’t assume they will find related posts all by themselves.
- Linking: make sure your visitors have everything they need to link to you properly. Top bloggers provide their visitors with the HTML code that they can just copy and paste on other sites. Yes, there are still people out there who don’t know how to create a link.
Keep things simple is the best way to go if you want to get the most out of your blog. Your audience is not just one person. You’ll have many visitors from all walks of life. Don’t assume they know everything. Why should they?
You may also be interested in reading:
- Discover New RSS Feeds with Feedmil
- Broadcast Your Content To Social Networks with Dlvr.it
- 5 More Ways To Take Your Podcast To The Next Level
- Add Retweet Function To Your Blog with Topsy
- Get More Blogging Ideas with Topsy
