How To Close the Back Door of Your Blog
Close the Back Door of Your Blog
Have you ever seen a shotgun house? It’s the kind of house that popped all over back in the 1920’s and 30’s. They were called shotgun houses because you could fire a shotgun into the front door and the shot would go out the back door without ever hitting a wall. All the rooms were on either side of the main hallway.
Some blogs are like a shotgun house – people can easily walk into the front of it and walk right out without ever really exploring anything except the content immediately at hand. If you’ve never given attention to anything except the actual content of a single post, you may be missing out on some real community-building opportunities.
Castles, on the other hand, are quite different. They force us to get lost in their hallways, rooms, and passageways. We can explore for hours before exiting, and this is really intentional.
So how do you invite people to explore your blog beyond reading a single article? Here are some tips…
Lead Them to Related Posts
Web Design Ledger Does A Great Job with Related Posts
A number of plugins and hacks are available for almost all blogging platforms, and this is becoming more and more essential. When someone gets to the bottom of your post, do you invite them into the next logical room? Offer them a list of similar posts based on categories, or keywords, or be completely random.
Give Them Some Call to Action
Blogussion Does a Great Job Calling People to Action
When I get done reading your great article, what should I do next? If you’re not sure, then I’m most likely leaving to explore my next search query. But if you offer me a clear way to subscribe to your content, or leave a comment, or even purchase something. Call me to action.
Diversify Your Content and Your Style
The Webitect Does a Great Job with Diversity
One common question among bloggers is should my posts be short or long? My answer is “Yes!” Do both. Write off-the-cuff, then a well-researched article. Write a single high-impact paragraph, then a multi-page post. And go off subject now and then. Yes, you want to claim your niche and perhaps even dominate it in search engines, but I’m more apt to explore your blog if it’s interesting, and diversity is always interesting.
Get Personal
Angie and Rob Inject Their Personality in Each Post
If I’m invited to eat at your house, I expect to sit at the table with you, not in a separate room. So show me your personal side – offer me a piece of your soul. This doesn’t just apply to being personal in your content, but the overall feel of your blog. Can I see a picture of you? Can I follow you on Twitter or connect with you on Facebook (even a fan page would do just fine)? Let me know you – I’m more likely to come back.
The goal is to keep people moving around and make your site more “sticky.” Think about this question – would I feel totally “at home” in your blog? Have you thrown out the welcome mat? These are just a few ideas and you’re bound to have thoughts of your own and we’d love to hear them. How do you close the back door of your blog? How can we do a better job of this?
In addition to serving as Editor of Fuel Your Blogging, Brandon is also a Pastor at Saddleback Church and Online Community Coordinator for Pastors.com. He’s also a web designer, blogger, and church communications consultant. Catch him on his own blog or on Twitter.
Interesting article – many thanks for sharing your thoughts. A bit off topic perhaps .. .but that is a beautiful image of a doorway leading into your article … the colours, textures, rust, etc ….
Mark, thanks for the compliment and for stopping by!
Great step-by-step advice. I also really enjoyed the analogy of “Welcoming someone into your home”. It rings true! I always judge what is written by how visually pleasing the site is. Hopefully that doesn’t make me jump to assumptions, but that’s just how I’m wired!
Well done.
Megan, good thought – we should be challenged to put our best foot forward even on limited resources.
Hi Fuel.
These are nice ideas and great points. I love the shotgun house thing. Although if you’ve seen that movie (I forget the name) about bending bullets maybe it’s not such a great analogy. And the idea of a castle has fear and confusion written all over it.
Personally, I like the idea of a high rise or tower block —> Everyone enters at the ground floor and has to hit a button and select a floor. There should be clear directions in the lobby to help decide which number to hit. Maybe once you’re in the lift (elevator) there is some graffiti to coerce you in to trying something a bit different. Hopefully your readers (captive lift riders) will go up and find what they’re looking for straight away (whatever that is) and maybe something else too. Some people may even take the stairs and stop at every floor. And hopefully no one will get stuck in the lift or jump off at the top floor. Maybe some folk will come armed with marker pens and leave their own tags in the lift. It’s great when buildings come with a concierge too. Which floor today sir?
Cheers, Ben
Ben, you’ve thought this analogy through much further than I did, and I wrote the post, haha! Thanks for your thoughts!
Great post. As a matter of fact it is quite difficult to find out what stuff is going to make your visitors stay a little bit longer in your blog. But most difficult is to make them write a comment. I used to post large pictures and I have real diversified content. I have a category named breathtaking which shows beautiful nude women, not porn. I’m thinking about inserting a “sign up” page to allow visitors see this category. Here in Brazil people do not like to make comments inside of a blog. They just take a look and run. I reached 40,000 hits in nine months blogging. Not much,but not so bad. There are millions of blogs out there still trying to lift off. I have just received 966 comments…in nine months, and that’s too bad. I don’t give up. I love blogging, but I do not have the pleasure to receive, let’s say 10 or 12 comments. Thank you for your attention.
Nearing 1,000 comments after nine months is doing quite well in my estimation – keep up the hard work!
Interesting article. I love the shotgun house analogy. I find that related posts help the most in getting my visitors to stick around for a while. I’ve never done an author bio, but have considered it after seeing many others using that approach. Interlinking pages is another great way to lead visitors to other posts within your site.
Shawn, an author bio really does go a long way in putting a personal face to your blog, which establishes trust – I’d go for it!
Very interesting! I am definitely lacking some of these on http://www.jadgraphics.net
I need to include that call to action, as well as related posts right after the content.
Also, what about Re-Tweet, social media buttons? Those are good ones to include to this as well.
Jad, absolutely! Connecting people to our networks certainly establishes a long-term relationship!
I thought this was another security issue until I started reading … some good points there that I need to implement on my own blogs. Especially the related posts area with new posts and also (as I read elsewhere) remembering to go back to older posts and adding in links to newer posts as they are written!
Stephen, excellent point – was just reading yesterday a recommendation to link to your newer posts from the body of older posts and how this can improve SEO as well.
Very Insightful. The analogies are perfect. Looks like, my site needs some refurbishment too.. thanx for this article..
Richie, glad you found it helpful!
This is a great article! Thanks so much for it. I liked the assurance that I am not off-track if I wander a bit from the topic in some of the blogs, as that will make it more interesting. There are seceral tips you mentioned which I can put to use now. Thanks again for your article.
Carolyn
http://www.gatesoftheheart.wordpress.com
No problem, Carolyn, thanks for stopping by!
interesting one!
Thanks Franz – glad to be interesting!
Very interesting article…gives me lots to think about as I have just recently started my first blog…so much to learn! Thank you!