Are You Lying To Yourself?

But I Know The Mission Of My Website

Do you? I had an interesting revelation this morning.  I just finished Darren Rowse’s Problogger book and I was going back to a site of mine to update the About page.  I scanned the text I had entered almost two years ago and realized something. It did not communicate to my visitors what the site was about really. Oh sure, it gave them a general idea what to expect on the site but it didn’t address the most important question- what can I do for you and why would you come here to learn it?

Of course, I started into editing mode immediately and set to fix that major oversight.  No problem, right?  Just be specific about what the site can do for them and you’re done, right?  After numerous attempts to edit this page to better reflect the site’s goals and mission, I fell on revelation number two.

I didn’t know exactly what the site was about!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I knew I had already written a post some time ago asking “Have You Defined The Purpose Of Your Website” so I thought I’d start there.  I didn’t have to get any further than stating the website’s purpose in 30 seconds or less to see my problem.  I couldn’t state it in 10 minutes.  So I took the next 30 minutes to decide exactly what I want to help my visitors do and how I would do it.  Once this was written it was a piece of cake to update the About page.  I made sure to save this in my site documents so I’ll be able to call on it in the future if my site goals change or I lose my way. In case you’re curious, I keep all my sites’ important stuff in Dropbox (not an affiliate link).

Still Stumped? Try This

One of the other things Darren suggests in his book is to write a post telling about yourself and how you got interested in the niche.  It will help your readers feel more like they know you and put a personal feel to your site.  The other benefit is that if you replay in your mind how you got interested in the niche there’s a good chance you’ll remember why you wanted to write about it in the first place.  So, take the time to really introduce yourself in a post and see if that doesn’t help you define your site’s mission.  Look for this post from me in the next week or so.

Why Bother?

Not only do I encourage anybody who blogs even for fun to read the Problogger book, but I also suggest you look at your websites’ missions and see if they make sense to your visitors. Anything you can do to provide more value to your readers will help to build loyalty and community which will boost your traffic, conversions and the enjoyment you derive from blogging.