Do You Know What Reader’s Think About Your Blog?

No you don’t, simply because you are busy performing the same routine of searching new ideas, working on it, developing content, and optimizing your blog. This happens with all bloggers. They are too zoomed-in into the posts, and so deep into the words that they don’t know how their entire copy looks like.

Besides, most bloggers are emotionally attached to their work. Even if the content is not appealing, they simply love their post, and admire their blog. However, this is not how your readers might perceive your work.

Here are few ways that will help you zoom back and look at the big picture:

1.    Give Some Time

As soon as your finish your first draft of an article, leave it alone for some time, at least 24 hours. For some, it would be irresistible to stay away from written content, ready to be posted. But wait for a while before you return to the copy.

When you grab it again, after few hours, you will have new ideas to infuse, and surely you will spot many errors in the article. You might even fall off laughing at some errors. This is the magic of ‘leaving it alone’ for some time. You are out of your writer role, and enter the casual reader mode, which you help you gain different perspective about your blog post.

How long should you leave your copy alone? If you are a blogger, leave your post alone for 12 hours or a day. However, if you have just finished with an ebook, wait for at least 3 weeks or a month before you start proofreading the content.

2.    Become a Reader

When you grab your copy after a day’s break, try to enter a reader’s mind, and read it from their perspective. Check the article out as if it’s the first time you are reading it.

Don’t make any corrections. Simply read it. You can do this by getting a printed version of your post, or converting it into PDF file so editing is not possible.

While reading the post, check for:

Vague Ideas

Extra, Unnecessary Content

Redundant, Obsolete information

3.    Seek Feedback

Instead of assuming your blog is superb, seek for real feedback. You can get actual feed back from your commenters, forum participants, and writing circles. However, don’t ask you family, or friends, especially your mom about your blog. No matter how stinky or irritating your post is, they would always appreciate it.

While asking for feedback, make sure you are clear on what you want. Don’t simply ask them to check your article. Instead, ask them specification on whether you want them to check for typos, unnecessary information, clunky sentences, or other errors.

4.    Proofread Your Article

Typos or grammatical mistakes are common in blog posts. But, to make sure you don’t make any major ones, proofread your articles well. I find it really helpful to proofread on paper. We generally tend to skip mistakes that aren’t picked by spell checker or grammar checker. So, doing it on paper would be very effective.