In a constant effort of trying to better this blog I took a moment to consider what types of readers I have. I broke it down into 3 categories.
The Daily Reader
I think this type are people who know who I am. They have an interest in what is going on in my life because it can effect their life. Mainly I think these are people I see on a regular basis (the majority) or people who just really like the blog (minority). They’ll read every post and check in either daily or every few hours to see if I have anything posted. These are my loyal followers and most likely friends. There might be a few lurker, regulars but I’d be surprised if that number is higher then 10. I don’t have to try to tailor a post to this group as they’ll read anything. Basically, I don’t have to change the blog at all to appease this group and they prefer frequent posts over long delays.
The Check in Every so Often Person
These are people who probably know me because they are friends with someone from the group above. They either found me through facebook or my name popped up in conversation and they remembered their visit to rnningfool.com. They are aware of my existence but it doesn’t really mean anything to them in their own lives. They won’t read any post that has a lot of text and they probably just scan through for anything that catches their eye, meaning pictures are good. The words Facebook, Jersey Shore and Lady Gaga are all meaningful posts that are likely to catch their attention. They come because they are bored and don’t plan to stay long. To entertain this group I have to keep posts short and sweet and write about current events or interesting stories. These are people who I would like to try to convert into group 1 above but it takes some time to develop them and I have to have quality posts to do so. Serious traffic is created by making these quickies into long term relationships.
Random Readers
They got here by mistake or through a search engine. I still get traffic for various searches for Ashley Banks or Larisa Oleynik but no longer Suri. These are the types of people who tend to “bounce” from the website. I’m not sure what intrigues them about the way my site is displayed by google but I know there is just a percentage of people who will randomly click, see its not for them, and insta click away. If your site has a bounce rate under 50%, it means people who find your site are generally finding it for the right reasons. Mine tends to be in the 65% area which means I get a lot of spew traffic. Unless I start finding original naked pictures of Katy Perry, these people aren’t going to stay on my sight for long. Content means nothing and I have to catch their eye in literally 1-2 seconds until they click away.
What about the group of people who were brought here by Sam?
I wonder which one I am.
I love how you said Jersey Shore is a meaningful post.
Finally Suri is no longer the root of this blog’s success!!
I didn’t think creating a specific category dedicated to you was worth the time.
then and than are different words…just saying….