What to Write About and Who to Write For

 
Blogs should add value to readers' lives.  Think back to your high school English classes.  Do you want your blog to be entertaining, informative, or persuasive?  Maybe all three? Some blogs are inspirational. Some focus on how-to's and life hacks. Some teach a specific skill, like cooking. 
What do you want your blog to do? And for whom?

Before you ever write your first blog post, take a few minutes to answer these questions:

1. What are you passionate about? What are you going to write about?

Ideally, they will be one and the same.

2. Who is your target audience?

Some people suggest you pretend your audience is just one person.  Who is that person? What do they care about? What impression do you want to give them?

3. What do you have to offer your readers? (Entertainment? Expert knowledge?)

Sometimes, entertainment and inspiration is enough!  Sometimes, readers want a friend - someone who is like them and shares their struggles.  Others want more concrete information about a certain topic.

4. How do you want readers to feel when they visit your blog?

Inspired? Comforted? Excited to try something new?

5. What makes your blog stand out from the bazillion others out there?

What's unique about your perspective? 
 
After you've answered these questions, it's not a bad idea to put the answers on your "About" page.
 
Here’s an example for a fictional blog:

1. What are you passionate about? What are you going to write about? 

Exercise, motherhood, eating healthy. 

2. Who is your target audience?

Busy moms who want to get in shape. 

3. What do you have to offer your readers? (Entertainment? Expert knowledge?) 

I am a former personal trainer with 4 kids under the age of 3. (This is fictional, thank goodness.)  I will entertain my readers with stories about my crazy life and offer exercise tips and challenges. 

4. How do you want readers to feel when they visit your blog? 

I want reader to feel inspired and motivated towards realistic fitness goals.  I want them to feel like we are friends.  I want readers to get to know me personally. 

5. What makes your blog stand out from the bazillion others out there? 

I focus on realistic fitness goals and exercises you can do with your kiddos.

Now, a blurb for the “About” page on this fictional blog.

I have 4 kids under the age of 3, and I know it’s hard to stay in shape when you’re a busy mom.  But my former life as a personal trainer has given me a leg up.  I’m here to help other moms find the time and energy to get in shape while balancing the demands of motherhood!  Stick around for healthy recipes, realistic fitness challenges, and more!

Use this handy worksheet to answer the questions. (Free for email subscribers.)

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Naming Your Blog

Blog names should be:

• Short. (On the Banks of Squaw Creek is a wee bit long, in my opinion.)
• Easy to spell. (Because some of us are never going to remember if there are two a’s or two v’s in saavy.  Or is it savvy?)
• Easy to remember. (Because, duh.)
• Not too cryptic. (What does it even mean?)
• Not too specific. (You mean you’re only going to write about shoes, for the rest of your blogging life?)

Blog names should take into account:

• Your personality.
• Your target audience.
• Your blog’s purpose.

Stuck?
1. Make a list of any word you can think of related to your blog’s topic.  (Use a thesaurus!)

running, exercise, fit, healthy, trim, weight lifting, weight loss, muscle

busy, crazy, motherhood, parenting

2. Make a list of any word you can think of related to your blog’s audience. (Use a thesaurus!)

moms, parents, women, busy, frazzled, motivated

3. Make a list of any word you can think of related to your blog’s purpose. (Use a thesaurus!)

inspire, motivate, practical, realistic

4. Then, put words together.

Crazy Fit
Motivated Mama
Muscle Moms
Running from Motherhood

5. Google those phrases.  Type the phrase followed by .com in your nav bar.
(Yes! www.runningfrommotherhood.com is available!  Someone else had the great idea of Running THROUGH Motherhood, though.  Too similar? Maybe!  Good thing this is an imaginary blog!)

Still stuck?
Try one of these formulas:
(noun) & (noun): Running & Mumming (Is Mumming a thing?  Like, being a mother in England?)
The (adjective) (noun): The Running Mama (or is it Momma? This breaks the “Easy to Spell” rule.)
Add –ista or another suffix.  (Sheilapalooza, anyone?)

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They don't care how much you know...

I’m a teacher by trade. And one of the most important (although often forgotten) parts of a lesson is the hook.

Before anyone can truly learn new information, they have to be emotionally engaged. Teachers do this by getting students excited, trying to explain why the lesson is important, or by tying the lesson back to something the kids already know.

Our well pump broke once. And I asked my husband what was wrong with it. He went into a lengthy description of the broken part – what it does and how to fix it. My eyes (and brain) glazed over after about 3 seconds. Why? Because I didn’t care. I knew he was going to take care of the problem, and that’s all the information I needed.

The same thing happened occasionally (more often than I’d like) with my students. They simply checked out when the lesson didn’t interest them.

And it happens with our audience. Except, the problem is not that they’re not engaged. It’s that they don’t trust us.

I never had to fight that battle as a teacher. My 4^th graders trusted me as an accurate source of information. (Remember when you were a kid and you thought teachers were the smartest people in the world?)

But our audience doesn’t trust us. Why? Because there are certain values they associate with good farmers and certain images they associate with good farms. And our farms don’t look like the ones they’re imagining. If our farms look different, our values must be different, too, right?

We know that’s not true. We know that farmers’ values haven’t changed over the generations. But our audience doesn’t know that. Many of them have never met a farmer. And many of them who have believe that family farmers are the exception, not the norm.

Our values haven’t changed and it’s up to us to tell them. And show them.

Show them that we care about the land. Show them that animal welfare and food safety are top priorities. Show them that we are dedicated to our families and communities. Show them that we take our decisions very seriously. Show them that we care.

As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

We can spout off facts about agriculture as much as we want, but that won’t have an impact on our audience, unless it’s accompanied by a strong dose of values.

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Dealing with Haters and Internet Trolls

Whenever you write about something controversial, you open yourself up to haters and internet trolls.

I want to make it clear, however, that these are two different groups.  Readers who respectfully disagree (we're going to call them "haters" for sake of simplicity) deserve a different response than trolls, who are not respectful and not open to dialogue.

My friend, Janice, has had experience dealing with both, and she recently gave a presentation at Austin's SXSW conference detailing the best way to respond when haters and trolls show up.

Read her blog post here.

#h8erprep #truth #sxsw pic.twitter.com/IGxyJGuwSq
— Jessi Odenbach (@JessiO) March 13, 2015

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Our Audience

My high school English teacher taught me to consider my audience whenever writing. We need to do the same thing when we are sharing our farm stories.

Our audience:

- Is not stupid or ignorant. Most people who are skeptical of today’s farming methods are educated.
- Is motivated by emotion. And unfortunately for us, fear is a very strong emotion, and one that the media uses frequently to sell a story.
- Is part of the “moderate middle.” Food Babe is not part of our audience. Vegan activists are not part of our audience.
- Lives in urban and rural areas. I find that many people in rural areas remember what it was like when their parents or grandparents were farming, and want modern farming to look the same.
- Trusts farmers and ranchers, but does not trust “Big Ag.”
- Does not know that 93% of farms in the US are family farms.
- Needs to know that even though farms look different, farmers’ values have not changed.

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