Write What They Want to Read-A Hierarchy of Business Blog Content Themes

You don't have to be a creative or copy writing "genius" to attract traffic to your web site or blog.  You have to write interesting content - content that your target audience finds valuable.

How to do this if you're not Shakespeare? By writing what others want to read! 

An analysis of my own blog traffic, plus watching the comment streams at other top blogs, has helped me develop a "hierarchy" of blog content.  Based on its appeal to business readers, here's how I grade my own blog posts.  The more my posts climb this scale, the better audience traffic and links they attract.

A Hierarchy of Business Blog Content Themes

Actionable - Readers' #1 interest is in content that can help them DO something.  They want specifics about what actions to take to improve their lives.  The world is full of vague advice and strategies.  You can differentiate your content by publishing detailed, specific advice.  This is why comparison shopping sites succeed - they tell you where the best deal is, so you can take action.

Specific opportunities for saving money are what powers Woot.com, Brian Clark's Copyblogger.com teaches bloggers to write better, Darren Rowse's blog and new Problogger book teach you to make money as a blogger, and actionable details for starting an online business are what has attracted all these positive reviews for my book, Internet Riches, on Amazon.com.

Useful - Maybe not immediately actionable but useful, more general, advice is also appreciated by readers.  Posting current news items or statistics relevant to your industry or target market is a great easy way to serve the audience here.  You don't need to know what they'll do with that news or those statistics but if you've added value by filtering that info for them, they're likely to return for more. 

That's why readers collect links and feeds from news sites, as well as subscribe to blogs/noozles like the Center for Media Research's Daily Brief, Mike Arrington's Techcrunch, or Search Engine Watch.

Interesting - Less actionable or useful are the "interesting" factoids, thoughts, or commentary that you can share.  Readers file these away mentally and often use them for watercooler conversations.  FARK.com is a prime example here, as is Valleywag, Dick Morris' blog, or the "offbeat news" page on Digg.com.

Inspiring - Content that motivates or excites is both "useful" and "interesting" but often vague.  Helping people feel better about themselves is a valid goal but without being as "actionable" it falls lower on the utility scale.  Inspirational content can be a winner, however, because even when people forget what you said, they're likely to remember how you made them feel.  If they felt good when reading your blog, they're likely to return for more. 

Early to Rise, SelfGrowth.com, or Heroic Stories make a business out of this category online.  Print authors like Deepak Chopra and Richard Bach have sold millions of books here, too.

Entertaining - We all appreciate distraction from daily chores.  Humor or recreation are great attractors of traffic but difficult to replicate every day. Perez Hilton, YouTube, and Kongregate all entertain surfers with great success but little actionable result.

Tittilating - Sex sells the best, of course.  It's a great attention-getter but difficult to use to build your business readership unless your business model tends toward p0r n.  (Insert your favorite example here...)

Your goal as an online content producer is to attract repeat readers.  I propose that the more your content climbs this scale toward actionable, the more useful business readers will find it. 

[Thanks to John Jantsch's recent "Hierarchy of Social Marketing" post for inspiration here, as well as Abraham Maslow's original 1943 "Hierarchy of Needs" research in Psychology.]

What do you think?  This hierarchy probably applies best to business advice content, right?

Does this approach work for your target market, too?

[I've also included this post as a fr-ee PDF that you can download here.]

Comments

[Jim Vickers]

Scott,
I'm trying to dip my toe in the water and began a new blog on Blogger as a place to start learning and applying what I've been studying. In that regard, I've also been reading some info the past week about something new to me called google sandbox. It appears that even if I have the best content on the internet, it would be of no value to me or anyone else for 6 months due to a Google "probationary" period. Can you recommend the best way to deal with this inability to be found for 6 month? Thanks for your good work.
Jim Vickers

[Scott Fox]

Welcome, Jim.
The "sandbox effect" on Google refers to an alleged "probationary period" for new web sites where they are indexed but not displayed/ranked in that search engine's results.
Experts disagree as to its length or importance. In fact, it is disputed that this effect even exists.
Here's an article explaining it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_Effect
As far as I know, even if it does exist, it doesn't apply to search engines other than Google, fyi.
In any case, as I often recommend, the sooner you get your site up and get that clock ticking, the better.

[John Henderson]

Scott,

Just a quick note to express my appreciation for the 'blog content hierarchy'. I'm currently in the process of creating online materials that will teach young students the new skills that they will need once they have left school and started at college or university. I'm racing against time to create enough products to launch my site before the start of this coming academic year.

In the past, I've found it difficult to put my finger on exactly what it is about the existing crop of student 'how-to' guides that is so... lacking. That is, until today. Although your hierarchy was intended to describe the content of blogs, its "sliding scale" has given me the perfect framework to understand and describe both the content of the existing student publications and illustrate why my own will (hopefully) be an improvement.

So thank you, Scott - your hierarchy will be an invaluable creative tool!
John Henderson.

[Michaele Gibbons]

Scott,
I've been inspired as I read "Internet Riches", but as a neophyte to the world of e-biz I'm confused by Mobiletracker.com, one of your "success" stories in the book. I've visited it several times but find no content, just sponsored links ~ not a word from Jon Gales, just one link after the other to other sites! I see he's mastered the art of affiliate advertising, but where's the beef?
Thanks for all you do,
Mike Gibbons

[Scott Fox]

Hi Mike - it looks like Jon has moved on, doesn't it? I interviewed him in 2005, so it's not too surprising that things change but I'll email him and some people we know in common and see what happened.
Thanks for checking in and welcome to the neighborhood.
Scott

[Scott Fox]

John - Very glad that this hierarchy was so helpful to you.
More to come!

[kher]

I came across your book some time ago in and I'm impressed by its informative content.

I agree with your Blog Content Hierarchy. I feel we are looking for specific answers to our problem. Not just some feel-good stories or inspiring quotes.

Personally, I would consider Brian Clark's Copyblogger as between Useful and Interesting, rather than Actionable. Most of the posts are merely advice or guide to good writing.

[Scott Fox]

I think that's a fair comment, Kher.
Thanks for contributing.
Glad that you enjoyed Internet Riches, too.
Scott