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October 26, 2005

Audience is Your Destination

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:33 am

An airplane traveling from New York to Chicago is off course 98% of the time. Still it gets there. Why? The pilot is always adjusting with his destination in mind.

The audience is your destination. If you’re writing for yourself, you’ll head in a different direction than if you’re writing for people learning what you already know. It may sound obvious, but it’s still worth stating–if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re not going to get there.

Too often bloggers don’t think through who their readers will be. As a result their blogs are all over the place. Ever loved a blog one day and didn’t know why you went there the next? That’s a blogger who hasn’t picked an audience.

Have you really thought through who your audience is? Here are some questions to help you do that. Take a shot at answering them all in one sentence.

  • Who am I writing for?
  • How are they like me and how are they not?
  • Why do they read blogs like mine?

Write down your audience profile. Revisit it every now and then. Adjust it as your readership grows and you get to know them better. Use it to guide what you choose to write about.

Now that you’ve got a clear destination. Other decisions get a whole lot easier. In my next post we’ll put this theory in practice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Filed under Audience, Blog Review, Marketing, Writing |



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6 Comments to “Audience is Your Destination”

  1. October 26th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
    Melissa said

    wow. I never really thought of it that way before. Good to know.

  2. October 26th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Thanks Melissa,
    Having a destination makes it easier to decide things. Now you can say, “Do I want to do this? Well, will it get me closer to my readers?” A lot of what were mushy nebulous questions can get held up to that”what would my audience want?” question and get answered easily.

    Liz

  3. October 26th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
    Marti said

    Good advice!

    I stick to humor, even though I have many other interests, because I want to maintain the continuity of subject.

    I’ll be reading regularly. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

  4. October 26th, 2005 at 3:41 pm
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    On my personal site, when I want to expand into other areas, I add a feature. I make it a regular feature that occurs at the same time every week–sort of like in a newspaper or a magazine. That allows me to introduce other “genres” and a little flexibility for those times that I don’t feel like doing the same thing day after day. It’s been very well received. Now I have a Writing feature, a weekly report by my alter ego, who happens to be a crayon, a random feature in which I say things in 25 words or less, but the rules for these features remain constants.
    Liz

  5. October 26th, 2005 at 10:54 pm
    Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) said

    I guess from my experience people like a little bit of routine - even with a blog.

    That’s why on my blog I have a Weekly QuickBits post every Friday that sums up the week and offers up links to 5-8 items that I think my audience might like.

    It’s a good way to blog, because knowing people are expecting it stops you from writers block and being slack.

  6. October 26th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    I agree Martin. Weekly Features go a long way to help stop “writer’s block.” Though I have to say I don’t really believe in writer’s block I do believe sometimes ideas are hard to come up with.

    What you call routine, I call structure. :) And I’m all for it. It’s one more way that I, as a reader can feel secure that I know where I am and that I’m not missing anything important.

    The Weekly Quickfits idea is great in that it works for you and it works for your readers. On Fridays, time is tight for everyone. You offer up something fast and quick-packed that I can come back to and explore on Saturday when I have more time.

    Thanks for adding to the discussion, especially for underscoring the point that readers want to know what’s going on.
    Liz

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