Blogging for Newbies: Who Are You Writing for?

Imagine you are about to open a restaurant.

You’ve found a nice spot in the center of town next to a popular bar.

What do you do next?

Trendy interior design?

Looking for a local supplier?

Talk to the owner of the bar next door to do business?

Let’s talk about menu creation.

How many appetizers do you need? How many main dishes?

And how many main courses are for dieters?

You are starting to wonder:

Who will come to your restaurant? Do they prefer fish, meat or vegetarian food? And do they prefer the traditional menu or the novelty dishes?

Like a restaurant, you need to know who your blog readers are before you start blogging.

Readers have a choice from millions of blogs. Why did they decide to spend their precious time reading your articles?

If you don’t know who you’re writing for, your blog will go in countless directions. As a result you are talking to nobody.

So how can you ensure that your articles are speaking to a target audience?

In today’s article you will learn:

Why you should write just for an ideal reader

Of course you want tens or hundreds or even thousands of readers to read your blog.

But the reader wants to know that you sympathize with him; that you can help him; that you are writing to him; that you can understand his fears, his struggles, and his dreams.

A target audience is a faceless crowd, and targeting a crowd makes you sound like a speaker, as if you were standing on a podium on a busy street corner.

Targeting just one target audience will make your writing come alive, and more personal. As you write, imagine you are having a conversation with a person.

But don’t think that means only one person will read your post.

Anyone who matches your target audience will feel your article was made for him. This will pique his interest and engage him.

Describing your ideal audience will help you generate better content ideas because you know exactly how you can help your readers. You know the challenge he’s facing. You know the difficulties he is facing.

Knowing your ideal audience makes your writing engaging. You will naturally approach your readers with the word “you” as if you were talking to your readers.

You should know your reader so well that you know the questions he wants to ask and you can answer them in your writing as soon as they pop into the reader’s mind.

Start visualizing your ideal reader:

Now, think about these sources of information and entertainment:

Finally, get in the mind of the ideal reader, so you can learn how to help him:

You might think it doesn’t matter what car your reader is driving or whether he has kids or not. But the truth is, if you can visualize your audience while writing and editing, your writing becomes engaging and conversational.

Knowing the car he’s driving makes him a real person you can talk to.

You can see him shaking his head when you make a typo. You can hear him chuckle as you make jokes. You may feel that he is ready to argue with you when he disagrees with you.

Give your ideal reader a name and see if you can find a picture or make a picture of him. Hang your ideal reader’s information on the wall or somewhere near your computer screen.

When you are writing or editing a blog, look at your ideal reader and picture yourself talking to him. Your writing will instantly become more engaging, interesting and persuasive.

Don’t describe the ideal reader you don’t like.

How can you generously share your knowledge if you think your readers are greedy?

How can you write a few really engaging know-how if you are hating talking to an ideal reader?

Never think that your ideal reader is just a bunch of idiots, because you can start raising your voice with him. If you want to engage the reader, think about him, and decide how you will help him.

What do you do when you target more than one audience?

We say you are a blogger about psychology. You have two audiences: men who are having a midlife crisis and women who have just gone through a divorce.

You create 2 profiles for your ideal readers – one for Ha who is just divorced and worried about taking care of her kids, and one for Dung, who is overworked, trying to stop smoking. drugs, and a little depression.

Imagine you are writing an article for Ha about how you can spend time caring for her kids while going through a divorce.

Do you think Dung, who is in crisis in middle age, is interested in that article?

Probably not – he’s not divorced, he has other problems.

Now, think about writing an article for Dung, about saying “no” at work so he can enjoy his life more.

Ha may not be interested in such an article. She is working part-time and has learned how to balance work-life.

What can you do if you have 2 different ideal readers?

You can decide to have 2 different blogs or 2 different categories – one for Dung and one for Ha.

But you will probably fail because it is extremely difficult to maintain two blogs. My advice would be to have a choice. Who do you prefer to work with – Ha or Dung? Blog for clients you love.

How to create your ideal audience profile?

Create a one-page resume for your ideal reader. Write down answers to the questions listed above.

To help you with this exercise, you can download the form here.

Remember, trying to write for too many readers makes your blog seem generic, vague, and tedious. To engage with your ideal reader, you need to write the type of content that targets him directly and on a personal level.

A carnivore won’t be thrilled about going vegan at a hotel, and your ideal reader can’t be tempted to read and share content they don’t care about.