Success: Are you riding the wrong horse?

Our host today is Joella Molson. If you're interested in getting in front of the readers of Site Sketch 101, check out our guest posting invitation here.

I was really struggling with my blog. I wanted more readers, I wanted more comments, I wanted better web stats, I wanted more front page face time on Google, I wanted… Well you get the idea, I wanted the things that so many bloggers are after. The problem was I wasn’t getting them in the ways everyone kept telling me I would.

I tried everything the gurus said I should try to make my blog more successful. And I mean I tried every idea out there, all at once. But it seemed to make little or no difference. I was trying to do so many things for my blog that my head was spinning.

Stop Everything and Truly Assess Your Efforts

Then I did myself a favor. I ceased all my frenzied activities and took a step back. Then I asked myself why I was making so little headway? Was I missing something?

I certainly was going in way too many directions at once to really be effective at anything. But my biggest problem was that I was focusing on the wrong thing. I sensed I needed a new focus.

I stepped back and looked at my blog with a dispassionate eye. Suddenly I had an epiphany. It’s not my blog, not really. It belongs to my audience, to the readers. Well duh? I knew that. But somehow it wasn’t translating into how I was trying to create a more successful blog.

I changed horses in mid-stream, I completely changed my tactics. I took some time to get creative and bring my efforts home. I stopped asking myself what I needed to do to create a successful blog. I formulated a new guiding question: What could I do to make my blog better for my readers?

My new mission in life was to make my blog as user-friendly and interactive as possible. After several months of creative experimentation, I’m finally seeing a payoff. More unique visitors, more visitors coming from search engines, more commenting, readers who stay longer which results in a lower bounce rate.

How does this benefit my potential readers?

It took time but it wasn’t really difficult to achieve. Now all my blog related activities are based on “How does this benefit my reader or potential readers?”

Here’s how it translated into action. First I took great pains to make it very easy for my readers to find what they wanted. The top section of my blog now includes:

• A clearly visible navigation menu on all pages.
• A List of the 5 most recent post titles.
• A drop-down menu for browsing blog categories.
• A search box for finding posts on their desired topics.
• Access to subscriptions via RSS reader or email.
• An invitation to follow me on Twitter.
• And a featured items section where I feature my readers blogs.

I feature a minimum of 3 bloggers on the top of my blog every month: my current blog carnival host, my top commentator for the previous month and my top Entrecard dropper for the previous month. There’s even a fourth spot that I can use for whatever I want.

All these things were a great start, but I felt I needed to do more. How could I make them a part of my blog and not just merely spectators.

I put my thinking cap on and here’s what I came up with:

• A monthly Blog Carnival that readers could host and or contribute to.
• A guest posting page with a form for submitting guest posts.
• A page with a form for suggesting topics and getting blog help.

Not only are my readers getting more involved, but I’m having a blast. It’s fun getting to know them and so rewarding to help them with their blog problems or craft a post from their suggestions. My blog is now a group effort.

Going the Extra Mile…Make it Personal

But I didn’t stop there, I also installed some useful plugins:

• KeywordLuv and CommentLuv to encourage and reward readers for commenting
• Subscribe to comments plugin so readers could follow commenting conversations.
• Top commentators plugin on the homepage with a dofollow link back to their blogs.

Recently I began using Twitter to focus on potential readers and their needs. Now I search for tweets from bloggers who have problems, blog issues and questions. Then I research until I find the answer they need and tweet it to them. I’m happy to say that I’m seeing more Twitter followers and it’s good to really be able to help.

Lastly, I decided to add a personal touch to networking with others in my niche. I visit and comment on colleagues’ blogs. I share and promote their posts and special projects whenever I can. I regularly link back to them in posts that I write. I even send them guest posts already written and ready to go . No one yet has refused one.

Now I’m a part of a very caring and supportive group of colleagues. Who knew there were so many amazingly giving people online? Especially surprising when they are suppose to be my competition!

Well there you have it. It certainly is amazing what a little creative user-centric thinking can achieve. I started getting more of what I wanted when I focused on what I could give instead. Could this be the Golden Rule of blogging? And all because I changed horses in mid-stream.