Looking for Something?

Highway Blogging: How to Keep Your Readers Happy No Matter What Their Experience Level

Author:

highway Recently, I went on a pretty epic road trip to visit family members living in various east coast states. Driving thousands of miles gives a person a lot of time to think (especially when your boyfriend/driving buddy falls asleep like a baby whenever he’s sitting in the passenger seat of a car for more than five minutes). Y’all know me: when I have a few minutes to my mind turns to my favorite subject: blogging.

Somewhere in Tennessee, I started to think about how to better please my blog readers.

One of my challenges has always been figuring out how to keep readers happy even though they are worlds apart in terms of experience and skill level.

Here on the NMX blog, we have people who are just starting out, but we also want to keep our long-term, more experienced readers interested. It’s a tall order to provide educational content for someone who has been blogging for a decade AND someone who only recently started blogging.

I call this highway blogging, because you need lanes for everyone, from slow, inexperienced drivers to drivers who are testing the limits of their cars speedometers. Without enough lanes, the highway is congested and drivers get frustrated.

So how can you make sure that your blog’s highway is wide enough to accommodate all readers without being too unfocused? Here are some tips I use:

  • Schedule your content: When you look at a calendar of your content, you can easily see if you’re posting too much beginner content or too much expert-level content.
  • Err on the side of “advanced”: You’re more likely to lose experts who are bored than beginners who are in over their heads. Beginners are hungry for knowledge, so even if they aren’t quite ready for your advanced content yet, they’ll bookmark it to read later.
  • Focus on being unique: Even advanced users will read your beginner content if your approach to the topic is unique. Remember, people come to your blog to read posts from you, with your style and voice. Teach from a different perspective and an expert in your niche will still share your content, even if it’s teaching a skill they already know.
  • Combine content: There’s no reason you can’t cover a topic from both educational levels. Start with a few paragraphs about the basics, then go over some advanced content as well.
  • Poll your readers: You might be wrong about the skill level of your primary audience. You might think that most of your readers are more advanced (or more beginner) than they actually are.

To be honest, this is still something I struggle with: finding that balance to keep all of my readers happy. Leave a comment with your tips. How do you  cater to all experience levels on your blog?

Learn About NMX

NEW TWITTER HASHTAG: #NMX

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives