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Posted by Max Davis as Blogging Lessons, Lessons on Blogging
I’ve been doing some thinking lately (I know it’s dangerous)…
Looking back at all of our businesses over the last 5 years, plus the 100’s of websites I’ve consulted with or studied, it seems like most sites fall into one of two categories.
The first is where the website’s purpose is to educate the reader.
This can include things like teaching valuable lessons, giving outstanding advice to people in their market, sharing things that most people don’t know about, etc.
This is basically the model I chose when I took over the BloggingExperiment blog a couple months ago. Since taking over the site, the traffic level remains pretty steady compared to when we bought it. The RSS subscribers has increased slightly. Income has increased significantly. BUT, the site hasn’t taken off to the equivalent of an A-List Blog…
My initial thought was, people NEED to learn how to make money online, and I was determined to teach people what I knew.
I’m not saying this model is flawed, but it may not be the best option if you want a super popular website.
The second path people take with their sites is to primarily entertain their readers.
I was listening to an interview Frank Kern did a while back where he gave this example. I can’t remember the exact way he stated it, but it was something like this:
“People are painfully bored in their lives and they are desperate for entertainment…your job with your website should be 15% content, 85% entertainment” (something to that effect anyway)
Then he gave this example:
He said “close your eyes for 10 seconds, and think of 4 things you learned in college. Next, close your eyes for 10 seconds and think of 4 characters from the tv show Seinfeld”.
Sure enough, Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer came to my mind MUCH faster than anything I learned in college. In fact, not one single thing came to mind when I thought about what I learned in college.
The difference?
Entertainment is more enjoyable and easier to remember than even the best education or training.
Is this the reason why JohnChow and Shoemoney are two of the most popular blogs in the make money online niche? Probably so. Do they always give out the best content? Not even close…
So, what direction are you taking your website or blog?
Are you so focused on educational content that even though you have incredibly valuable stuff to share, it’s just not catching on because you are “not entertaining enough”?
That’s why celebrity gossip is so popular, as well as reality TV, soap operas and Youtube. Entertainment trumps true content every time, but is it a more profitable direction to take your business?
Which do you think is best?
16 Responses
Vlad from FreshRevision
June 12th, 2008 at 12:29 am
1Max you read my mind! I was going to write a blog post about this topic. I am a firm believer that people remember interesting stories and not lectures. A blog should be 80% real life stories and 20% lessons. What did you resonate more with at school, interesting stories from your teacher or random lectures?
Sell More Art Online
June 12th, 2008 at 6:55 am
2This is a very important post. My blog on selling art onilne gets a great focussed amount of traffic. They engage with em and are with me on the ride of acheiving a collective goal. John Chow can carry on entertaining to his hearts content tho…
Barry Z
June 12th, 2008 at 9:57 am
3On the topic of entertainment. Humor does sell or, at least bringing viewers.
because I read this post the first thought it came to my mind was Cramer of mad money. High on entertainment value low on content value.
“Sell more art” brings up a good point on storytelling. Combine humor and storytelling and the names that come to mind for me are the greats like Zig Zigler, Les Brown to name a couple.
How do implement that into blog, that takes great skill.
Mike Stoute
June 12th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
4We have gone back and fourth with this idea a few times on our site. I agree with the entertainment end fully though, the problem is that you actually have to be entertaining.
Not easily accomplished by most. I feel that if you are going to be entertaining, then you have to really put some thought into how you will make this a reality, if you are not funny or enterteining, plan on shelling out some bucks to someone who is..
This is where you are going to make it or break it these days. You need to be more than just a blog. You need to become media producer.
CBM
June 12th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
5To add to what Mike Stoute said, a good example of the entertainment angle and a site that does it well is The Onion. They’ve built a whole news & information portal around satire, humor, etc, and it works.
I think that’s the beauty of the net, you can come online and access both the informative and the entertaining. I am trying to figure out a way to be a little of both, particularly in regards to eCommerce. I can’t possibly compete with the amazon.coms and eBays volume wise, so I want to create a site similar to Woot, they’ve done very well with humourous/entertaining product descriptions, one product a day, it’s worked well for them.
You have to stand out from the pack to be noticed, with more and more people coming online. I think education is important but also, a good way to educate people is to entertain them, example, Sesame street and the genius of Jim Hensen. If you can educate and entertain, you’ve carved yourself a sizable slice of the internet pie, I think. Good post.
The Infotainer
June 13th, 2008 at 6:06 am
6Great topic and spot on about Information and Entertainment being great bedfellows.
I am a Master Magician and for many years have been hired by businesses to deliver key information bullet points at a variety of events (like Trade Shows, Product Launches and Training Seminars) because it gets more attention, makes the audience sit up and take notice, absorb it, remember and recall more efficiently.
I’m now creating materials (eBooks, courses etc) revealing just how this works together with some tools so people can do it themselves.
They used to say that “sex sells” and perhaps it still does, but now there is so much of that in the open (so to speak) it isn’t anywhere near so effective at even getting attention. No, there must be relevance so that the information is absorbed almost subliminally. Kids cannot easily remember a string of dates and names from school history lessons but can recall every detail, including hundreds of names, places and detail from a movie, an electronic game or ‘whatever’.
When we enjoy ourselves, we are open and curious. Who wants a wary, closed mind!
John Gordon
The Infotainer
Andy - Mr MultiVar
June 13th, 2008 at 6:58 am
7If you check out “Hot for words” on YouTube, she has a perfect combination of entertainment and education.
So, I think if you can balance both aspects, you are onto a winner.
Personally, for this blog, I hope it stays more focussed on education though since the topics are more specialized towards us geeky/marketing types.
But it would be fun to see a video of Max the cable man who became the Internet tycoon LOL Maybe like Trump the construction worker?
Max
June 13th, 2008 at 8:46 am
8Ha Andy, I don’t have my old cable man gear anymore. That stuff was burned the week after I quit my job 6 years ago!
Great points everyone. I agree a balance between entertainment and education would be ideal. Me, I’m a pretty boring guy
Karl Staib - Your Work Happiness Matters
June 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
9I believe that you need both. A truly entertaining website doesn’t stick around if it doesn’t allow people to take some education away from it. Although, I may not be the typical person in this area. I love NPR, books on CD, and Discovery. Most people prefer escapism from really good information. With that being said I still think you need both. When I watched Seinfeld I learned about Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s perspective. So much of their comedy was true to life that I felt like I had a better understanding of my society. I might be deluding myself, but isn’t that we are all doing anyway.
Dean Saliba
June 15th, 2008 at 10:40 am
10I could not have put it better myself.
Natalie
June 19th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
11As a writer using my blog to create a community around the themes of my debut novel, I try to slice it right down the middle.
I educate because my blog mostly consists of reviews of films and books on the same themes as my own novel, picking out both mainstream and lesser known books and films.
And hopefully, I entertain by injecting some humour into my reviews.
But yeah, it’s difficult. You can easily get into a lot of details in a review, whereby you might educate the reader about the style of a specific writer for example but frankly, you also turn it into a boring lecture and you will turn off most readers.
Personally, I like 50% education and 50% entertainment. However, I know a lot of people who go for 10% education and 90% entertainment so if you want a popular blog, I guess aiming for 20/80 is quite good. As for myself, I try to stick to 50/50, as let’s face, as a writer, I don’t try to attract audiences who spend all their day glued to Big Brother or the latest reality TV show lol
Nikki
June 21st, 2008 at 10:31 am
12As a newbie, I’m still trying to find my way with my blog.
As with the reality show obsession, alot of surfers are voyeurs as well. People want to know how YOU are making money online. They want to know how YOU figured out a tip or trick.
If you’re a REGULAR person doing it, so can they.
Teaching with occasional warped or dry humor works. At least it does for me as a reader.
What this cleverly does is lay your personality right there on the table, and they are usually the ones that have a nice mixture.
Your example is so true, I can’t remember squat from college off the bat!
You know what’s funny? Seinfield’s television niche of everyday, “NOTHING happening” humor is prevalent in blogs today.
information with a dash of humor?
or humor with a dash of information? hmmmm…
great post.
The Infotainer
June 21st, 2008 at 8:12 pm
13A further point is that it will, of course depend upon your own style and character and also that of you target audiences.
It would be wrong to even attempt to do something in a style or manner that was out of character. I think a Blog is about being real and allowing the readers to get a glimpse, insights, a sneak peek at the real you, rather than the hard sell they may expect on a Sales Mini-Site for example.
Then, people have different learning styles. We assimilate information in a variety of ways and use our filters to deal with inputs and deliver content in our preferred mode.
Some prefer audio and others are more visual and again, others more attracted by emotional (kinesthetic) content. As we appeal to a mixed audience, we must cover all modalities. However, as a rider to this …. via story telling, information has been passed down generation across centuries. I believe that it’s an innate sense and we respond to on a subconscious level. See some wonderful work on mythology by Joseph Campbell.
John Gordon
The Infotainer
Nikki
June 21st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
14“A further point is that it will, of course depend upon your own style and character and also that of you target audiences.
It would be wrong to even attempt to do something in a style or manner that was out of character. I think a Blog is about being real and allowing the readers to get a glimpse, insights, a sneak peek at the real you, rather than the hard sell they may expect on a Sales Mini-Site for example.”
Absoluely agree. I love that saying… Speak to one, speak to all. Speak to all, speak to none.
And too, whether it’s strictly educational or strictly entertaining, the content that you are delivering plays a major part in your tone.
Nikki
June 21st, 2008 at 11:24 pm
15please forgive spelling error due to fast fingers.
An Independents Guide to Politics, Religion & Campaining
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
16I’m fortunate enough that I have partnered with a friend who is very witty. Our deal was simply, I’ll work the back-end (design, infrastructure, marketing, etc.) he would produce the content. So far, it’s worked out great. When we first started we focused entirely too much on education and being serious. Through trial and error we have now found our “voice.”
Our blog is, in my opinion, a good mix of entertainment and education. As we’ve switched to this combined format our interactivity has increase as has our readership.
Next step is to monetize it!!
The Chief of Staff
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