Are you spellbinding?
Let’s be honest. It’s a huge
challenge.
Probably the biggest
challenge each blogger faces.
Because your readers
suffer from many distractions.
Social media. Email.
Other blogs. TV. Radio. Phone calls. Texts. A car driving past. People talking.
Music.Thoughts popping up.
How the hell can you
keep your readers spellbound?
How can you keep your
readers glued to your content until your last sentence?
How can you keep them
yearning for more?
It’s not easy.
But you can learn how
to master the art of being fascinating. Enchanting. Captivating. Almost
mesmerizing.
How?
You just need to
understand the triggers to being fascinating. Once you apply these triggers,
your readers will hang on to every word you write.
1: Passion
“Passion
is the sense of participation that you have when you’re with someone who makes
you want to come out of yourself and make an emotional connection.” — Sally Hogshead
For your readers to
react to your writing, and to share it with their friends, you have to create a
deep connection with them.
But here’s the thing:
Information doesn’t
connect with people. Passion does. And emotion…
So, to connect with
your readers, you have to infuse your writing with both passion and emotion.
How?
Simple.
Write about something
you’re passionate about. Let your personality shine through. Be yourself, warts
and all.
2: Mystique
“Mystique
flirts with us, provoking our imagination, hinting at the possibilities,
inviting us to move closer while eluding our grasp.” — Sally Hogshead
Mystique teases us
because we want to find answers, solve puzzles, and learn secrets. If you can
generate some curiosity in the headlines or sub-headlines of your blog posts,
you will increase the number of people willing to read them.
Have a look at these
headlines from Derek Halpern:
Make your readers
dying to learn about your next blog post, your next email, or your next status
update. Tell your readers what great, beneficial content you’ll have for them
in your next email.
Or just build
anticipation by announcing you’re developing something brand spanking new. Just
don’t give away all the details yet.
Mystique makes your
readers curious. And keeps them dying to learn more.
Trigger 3: Alarm
“Alarm
demands a response now.” —
Sally Hogshead
Of course, you can use
deadlines to get people to act. If you don’t download now, the ebook will no
longer be available free. If you don’t buy now, the price goes up. Or the
course closes.
That’s one way to use
the alarm trigger.
Another is to inspire
action by focusing on people’s fears. Their worst fears. For example: the fear
of being forgotten when we die.
You just have to be careful. Don’t apply the alarm trigger to each blog post you write. It stops working if you use it too much, and it can even get annoying.
4: Prestige
“[P]restige
can increase your perceived value.” — Sally Hogshead
How can you gain
A-list status as a blogger?
How can you be admired
and respected? And be recognized for what you’ve achieved?
Well, you’ll have to
earn your status. And that’ll take some time — you can’t develop a track record
overnight.
Take for instance Pat
Flynn of Smart Passive Income. He has
earned respect by sharing his tips for making money online and by showing
exactly how much money he earns from
his various online activities. That kind of success doesn’t
happen overnight, though.
Also, prestige doesn’t
necessarily have to come from money. If you get lots of comments and retweets
and likes on Facebook, people start to respect you too.
Of course, that takes
traffic. Thankfully though, there is a shortcut to generating traffic and getting more
readers:
If you guest post on
the best-known, most-respected blogs, more people will get to know you, and
you’ll drive more readers to your blog, not to mention raise your status just
through the power of association. For example, take the epic 7,037-word post like Tommy Walker did for
ChrisBrogan.com. If you write a post like that and get over 3000 shares and
Facebook and nearly that many on Twitter, everyone is going to take notice of
who you are.
The keyword in the
above paragraph: epic. If you want to trigger prestige, you need to publish
epic posts, both for A-list blogs and for your own.
There’s also one more
small trick to boosting your track record. Every time you publish a guest post
on a popular blog, put their logo on your site and say, “As seen on.”
Prolific guest blogger
Danny Iny has quite a few on his Firepole Marketing website. And Tommy Walker has a cool
quote from Chris Brogan on the Tommy.ismy.name website. That boosts his track record,
too.
: Power
“Whether
parental or dictatorial, authority figures use power to control us.” — Sally Hogshead
Power on the web isn’t
dictatorial. You can’t force people to listen to you.
But if you become an
authority, people will want to know what you have to say. They’ll seek your
advice. They’ll want to link to you.
How can you build
authority as a blogger?
Decide on your niche
and your mission first. You have to find a way to be different, to stand out
from the crowd. And then, build your authority:
·
Know your stuff;
·
Produce incredibly helpful content;
·
Develop a unique voice and have an opinion.
6: Rebellion
“Rebellion
is about creativity and innovation. It’s taking a problem that everybody looks
at in one way and interpreting it in another way.” — Sally Hogshead
Are you subscribed to Ben Settle’s email newsletter?
He’s an expert in
using the rebellion trigger at different levels:
·
He uses bad language;
·
He misspells words on purpose;
·
He breaks taboos: telling you to email your subscribers daily;
to ignore open rates, and to applaud unsubscribe rs.
You could easily
decide to ignore Ben, because it sounds a little too crazy. But you don’t
ignore him, because he balances rebellion with the power and prestige triggers.
Ben has a loyal
following of fans because he knows his stuff. For example: he often quotes
other copywriters – that’s the power trigger. He has also written for Copyblogger, and he lists
recommendations from high-profile copywriting experts on his website. That’s
using the prestige trigger.
That’s how you mix up
different triggers. Now, let’s look at a trigger that surely needs to be part
of your blogging efforts…
7: Trust
“You
can dabble in prestige, or experiment with power, but you can’t dip in and out
of trust. It must be established consistently.” — Sally Hogshead
The online world is
full of pretenders, spammers and liars. While you can discard other triggers,
you can’t do without trust. You can’t think of a popular blogger that’s not
trustworthy, can you?
To establish trust as
a blogger, you have to become familiar. Turn up regularly – on your own blog or
as a guest blogger. Use social media to stay in touch. Or even better: email
your audience on a regular basis.
In addition to posting
on his blog Chris Brogan sends
his subscribers an email each Sunday. He writes his emails as if you’re his
friend and if you’re having a cup of tea together. Same conversational style
each Sunday. That’s a good way to stay in touch with your audience. And to
become trustworthy.
Remember your mission?
Write about it. Often. And be authentic. You don’t have to bare all, but
you have to be yourself. Don’t pretend. Develop your own voice. And be
consistent.
Start building trust now. Because you can’t become popular
without it.