The following is an excerpt from the book, Sticky Readers: How to Attract a Loyal Blog Audience by Writing More Better by Margaret Andrews.

Introduction: Sticky Content and Sticky Readers

The last time I walked Sheila, my pet ostrich, was nine days ago. Greasy-haired Lance at the drug store asked about her today even though she always pecks at his jar of lollipops by the cash register. I miss walking Sheila, her lustrous feathers catching on every rose bush, the dog park people staring as they clutch their little yappers closer to their chests, Sheila spitting on every fire hydrant….

Did that paragraph grab your attention? Did you want to know what happened to Sheila? Were you able to imagine an ostrich in the drug store stealing lollipops?

An engaging story leaps off the screen and comes to life. It captures the reader’s attention and compels him or her to read on and come back for more tomorrow. An engaging blog is a frequently visited one.

What Is Sticky Content?

Sticky content refers to content published on a website, which has the purpose of getting a user to return to that particular website or hold their attention and get them to spend longer periods of time at that site. Webmasters use this method to build up a community of returning visitors to a website.

– Wikipedia entry for “sticky content”

The above definition specifically refers to websites such as forums, horoscopes and the weather, but you can create sticky content with a well-written blog, too. If you write interesting and compelling blog posts that hold the readers’ attention, they will come back again. In other words, sticky content attracts “sticky readers.”

If you improve your content, make it more compelling and interesting to read, here’s what will happen:

1. Regular readers will perk up and take notice. You’ll hear about it. Probably in your comments section or via email. Boy, will that be good for your ego.

2. Brand new readers will stumble on your blog and stick around for more, hence the term, “sticky readers”.

3. Your numbers will increase naturally. And when I say numbers, I mean all of them: Google followers, Twitter followers, comments, Feedburner subscribers. But don’t pay attention to that. Don’t think about it. I shouldn’t have said anything, actually. Just let it happen. It’s a Zen thing.

Who says “content is king”? Actually, everybody says that, and they’re right, but it’s usually swept under the rug while they tell you all the social media tricks of increasing traffic to your blog. They don’t stop and tell you how to make your content more engaging, and there are so many ways to do it.

Advisors say stuff like, “write a top ten list”, but they don’t tell you how to “kingify your content” (yes, I’m verbifying a noun, what of it?) This book will tell you how. It will explain how to attract a loyal blog audience by writing more compelling content.

I know this hurts to hear, and I don’t enjoy saying it, but your blog bores some people. My blog bores some people. There, I said it. That wasn’t so hard, was it? When you can be more objective about your writing, it’s easier to admit that it can always be better.

The good news is that while some people aren’t attracted to your writing now, some of those some people would be if you cranked it up a notch. Many bloggers are not conventional writers in that they didn’t go to journalism school or get an MFA in Creative Writing, but here we are on the internet, producing words. Why not incorporate a few creative writing strategies on your blog?

This book does not tell you how to monetize your blog, or drive traffic to it through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). What this book does do, however, is show you how to write more engaging content and attract a loyal blog audience. It is geared toward bloggers who include personal anecdotes or stories in their blog posts.

By the way, if you know anybody who sounds like James Earl Jones, have them call me because I need him (or her) to say “Kingify Your Content” for this new commercial I’m working on.

(end of INTRODUCTION chapter)

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