Writing Articles That Keep Your Reader Engaged (& coming back)

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We read quite often how to get readers and drive up page impressions, but the next inevitable phase is How to keep those readers interested and coming back? After all, if each visitor only hits your site once, you’re missing something.

Know the Difference

There’s a difference between educational blogs (educational in the fun sense) and the “Now what?” blogs. You know what a “Now what?” blog is: One of those flashy gallery blogs that posts new content every couple days (or even multiple posts a day) and features lots of glossy photos.

They look nice, but they’re eye candy. Eye candy may sell good, but wears off pretty fast. The viewer is then left asking “Now what?” after he checks out the latest post. He comes, he looks (doesn’t read because there’s not much at all to read) and is left with a kind of unfulfilled disappointment because there’s nothing to get involved in — almost like it looked nice but was gone too soon. No PHP trick to try, no jQuery script to demo, no Photoshop tutorial to bookmark. Now what?

Educational blogs (in the creative, fun sense) get the reader involved. They have free downloads, a tutorial, or a plugin recommendation. Anything that gets them more involved and interactive.

Here’s a few ideas to help you go from “Now what?” to “Bookmarked, baby.”

Give the Visitor Something To Do

Getting the viewer involved — engaging his or her brain — is crucial to keeping readers coming back for more. After all, you’re giving them a reason to come back — more than just pretty things to look at, you’re actually giving them something they can use in a future development or design.

Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop is hugely popular. Even if you do a one or three a month, make this one of your features. And it doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy: People love to read even how to make a simple button or “Coming Soon” page — designers love to see how other designers work and create. That’s the key. Get the reader involved in what you’re creating.

Coding

Most of the time, a reader will either have his text editor already open (and thus ready to try out a code or script) or he’s looking for the particular technique you show how to do. Coding tutorials are great because of their versatility; Whereas Photoshop tuts show just one component of a design, coding tuts can be applicable on myriad different layouts and designs and be used over and over again.

Other Skills

Don’t think that just because it’s not tangible you can’t include it in a tutorial. There are tutorials about how to get inspired — even though we each have our own means and methods of summoning the muse. Creativity is intangible and yet there are a thousand and one articles about “how-to” be creative. Your intangible how-tos could include anything from fine-tuning your writing style to as simple as correct punctuation. Just keep it instructional.

Get the Reader Involved

Try to get the reader involved in your website — commenting, even contributing. If you keep the atmosphere friendly and equal, you’ll fair well.

Get People Commenting

Encourage comments as much as you possibly can. Getting people involved is key to getting discussion going — and discussion is where ideas are shared, built on, and ultimately utilized. When a reader comments, they invest a little bit of themselves and that gets them a bit, even a little bit, emotionally involved. Plus, if a reader comments they’re more likely to subscribe to future comments on that post.

Be Detailed but Not Exhaustive

Give your reader a reason to respond. A reader would love to comment and add a point you “forgot” to include — which is great. This encourages discussion and gets more people exchanging viewpoints and solutions. So write a good piece or tutorial but do try and leave some room for visitors to comment with their own take on something. Be detailed and on-topic, but don’t exhaust every aspect of the topic.

Encourage Subscriptions

More and more people are using RSS and feed readers to keep track of their favourite publications (given that there are so many of them out there worth reading). Don’t hide the Subscribe Now! button — stick it out there for people to click. Important also is the “Subscribe to Comments” feature. Make sure the reader can easily sign up for comment updates so they can keep in touch with others’ ideas.

Sometimes They Just Want the Candy

All that being said, sometimes readers come to your blog just to see some flashy goodness and awesomey Photoshop work. So don’t be afraid to include a gallery or artist showcase every once in a while.
I’ve found that gallery posts need to be longer than the educational ones. If you just post three cool Photoshop illustrations — unless they’re really, really awesome — they can be oohed and ahhed over in a matter of seconds. Educational pieces themselves don’t have to be long per se if you have a quick coding tip, but showcases really need to be long enough to give the reader a sense of satisfaction when he’s done. Remember, he doesn’t take anything away from a showcase except inspiration, so make it worth his while and give him time to get all fired up.

Related Articles

We read about increasing traffic to our blogs surprisingly quite often. I compiled a short list of helpful articles that speak to the point.

• 13 Tips to Overflow Your Blog with Traffic (via CreativeOverflow)
• Creating a Timeless User Experience (via SixRevisions)
• How To Write a Better Blog (via A List Apart; old, but good)
• Get People Talking About Your Blog (via Graphic Design Blender)

Your Turn!

So what do you think? Did I leave anything out? Got any tips to add? Feel free!