This video has been around for over a year now (I made it just after ProBlogger was last redesigned) but I think it’s particularly relevant for this time of year when many bloggers are looking at refreshing the look and feel of their blog.
First impressions matter both in real life face to face interactions with new people that you meet AND the first interactions you have with new readers. In this video I examine 5 ways you can improve the impression that you leave on first time readers and give three questions to ask when thinking about how to leave good impressions on readers.
Of course overarching all of what I mention is that your content needs to be of the highest quality to create a good first impression. Your design, titles, tag lines etc can all be amazing but unless you’ve got something useful and unique to say – the first impression will not be as good as it could be.
Further Reading:
- Run a First Time Reader Audit on Your Blog – mentioned in the video.
- How to Craft a Blog Post – a series that covers how to create content that makes good first impressions and that particularly focuses upon crafting titles and opening lines as mentioned in this video.
- 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky – once you’ve made a good first impression it then comes down to ‘hooking’ new readers and making them loyal to your blog. This post shows you how to do it.
![How to Get Dreams Out of Your Head [And a Video of Me Wearing Tights]](https://problogger.com/wp-content/themes/problogger-redesign/build/placeholder.png)
Thanks for the post Darren! very useful indeed.
This is one of my many concerns. We’ve only been running our blog for just over a month and whilst we’ve had a reasonable amount of traffic it would be nice to convert one time viewers into regular readers.
Martin
http://www.talkingfuture.com
Thanks for the useful video. Finding a way to make a connection with your audience is the difference between a successful and unsuccessful blog. I’ve seen sites with interesting content that were visually attractive, but struggled to get comment or sustain readership.
Hey Darren,
The first part of that video where you’re changing the look and feel is fantastic. In that small few seconds my whole image of you changed. Suddenly, there was a lot more personality (not that there wasn’t before. But with that video, there was a lot more).
I’m off on a tangent, but I guess it goes to show the power of video.
First impressions really are important in all aspects of life. Over the last 12 months I’ve made an effort to real form an impression of somebody the first time I meet them and try to look for the eye contact and the quality of the hand shake. I can certainly see how this can be the same in blogging.
Jamie
A great reminder that for blogs, like for people, first impressions matter.
First impressions in the blogging and social media world are just as important as first impressions in the real world. It’s easier to overcome bad first impressions in the real world; however in the blog world… another blog wih a great first impression is just a click away!
Great Reminder!
What about pictures? Most of my blog posts begin with an interesting picture to draw the reader in and then I quote a piece of the article I’m referencing and then a paragraph or two or my impression of said article. Does this work?
fantastic entry… so true! i’d like to cite an earlier tweet of mine:
http://twitter.com/_enzo/status/1101855777
tom hopkins knows his stuff… keeping your word is the best way to solidify great first impressions and maintain integrity with any and all users who are interested in what you have to offer.
Great tips… I didn’t know that writing and creating a good blog emphasises so much on making a great 1st impression on readers.
Thanks Darren! You really never run out of useful tips!
Perfect timing! on January 22 my ad will come up in a local newspaper so I need to take note of these tips. Mahalo (that’ thank you in Hawaiian :)
First impressions are paramount to lasting opinions. What you say doesn’t necessarily need to be unique, but it does need to be well said (at the very least).
Tired but true – you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Great post. Also fall in line with creating landing pages from social media platforms.
Many times readers may first arrive at your blog through Twitter or Facebook and the first thing they see is your latest post, which has the potential of being one of your worst posts.
So it’s always good to create these landing pages to help the reader really understand who you are what you’re all about as well as links to some of your best work. The work that will draw the reader further in.
First impressions should not be misleading, too. Your design, logo and tagline, for instance, needs to reflect the blog’s tone of voice and personality.
All good usability advice. Great post. Thanks!
Great information as always and so true! I have recently redesigned my blog and I’m enjoying a huge increase in visits. Before, I got a lot of complaints about difficulty reading the posts, etc. that made people not return.
How well you look according to your first impression, so how good are you to provide your best impression to someone?
I can’t miss any post of problogger.net since your blog impressed me two years before. What you are saying is what you are doing.
Thanks Darren!
You seem like such a gentle and totally relaxed type of person.
Awesome tips and insights as usual. We are continually having to prove ourselves through our blog design and content to encourage new, and hopefully, faithful readers.
Mine is always in some state of flux, whether it’s adding new components, deleting pieces that don’t fit or work very well or improving writing skills. I guess you could say your blog should grow and change as does the blogger. I believe that makes it interesting and fresh for the readers, new and old.
Thanks for the opportunity to share on this post.
Thanks Darren for this.
“First Impressions Last.” Hmm…where did I hear this slogan? But yes I totally agree with it. So let’s not waste those precious first impressions.
Though first impressions last, we should not forget to be consistent with the impression we are giving. This way, first impressions “really” lasts. ;)
God Bless you all!
Your first impression is everything so it is always best to have your best content on the front page of your Blog if you know people are going to be coming that day. Or the easiest thing to do is always write great content. Remember, content is king and it is likely people subscribe if you have great content.
Snazzy suit Darren. Learning how to create a first impression is an essential in blogging. And guess what, with your suit you already created a great first impression on me, way to implement your strategies. Good content combined with an eyegrabber impression maker, can springboard you to success.
I like the start of the video, it was entertaining. :)
Thanks for always coming up with great content. More power!
Exactly Darren,
One of the example is me. I subscribed to your blog the day I first visited your blog.
Its all about useful posts and niche. For example, I am in the same niche and like to read about this niche only. So I surf around for related content of this niche. And some blogs made me their loyal readers. Though, some couldn’t. The speciality is so clear but still hidden, i.e, quality content.
If one delivers the content what readers for his/her niche requires then no body can stop that blogger from attracting permanent readers.
Regards
Laksh
http://makemoneyonline-withme.blogspot.com/
Thanks for bringing forth this tipvid. It’s was great! Helps me to remember what’s important, and how to develop a good relationship with my readers. The video had a great beginning too! :-)
Very interesting video.
You brought up some important concepts about blogging, and mostly, what you said is true.
I think that the first thing in absolute, is to choose a nice theme. That’s what,(at least for me) makes you go ahead and explore the rest of the page.
Next, of course, you need to write good. Meaning no spelling errors, short and concise phrases.(then again, this depends..). But you definitely don’t want to write all long phrases, it may become boring.
Cheers.
One cannot read too much into the behavior of first time visitors by looking at the community (bloglog, blogcatalog) widgets etc. Also, they don’t provide rich information on individual visits – nor does Google Analytics.
However, first time commenters can be tapped into. What I do is to use my little plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-commenters) to understand who visited and commented for the first time in the last several days or since inception of the blog, who was active several weeks back but no more etc. Then I contact them via email provided by the same plugin.
This has resulted in retaining some readership – I should say ‘active’ readership.
A user-friendly page is the absolute best way to create good first impressions. If someone has arrived at your page though a search engine you only have a few seconds to provide what they are looking for. It can be hard to know what things people will not find. Usually the menu should easy to use, simple, and quick to find. A search should be near the top of the page. I wrote a an article on user friendly pages at
http://www.dashaver.com/website-usability
First impression is last impression and so a blog needs lots of quality content to give a first good impression.
Regards,
Shaan Haider
Thanks for the pointers, Darren.
I am moving my blog to a web page soon and we have already renamed it because it is not about Zumba, which I love, but about each person finding what works for them in overcoming the struggles to eat right and stay in shape.
I love to Zumba, so it is one of the ways I exercise to stay in shape. These last few months, I got engaged and had a long distance relationship until I moved, now putting two lives in one household and changing schedules, adjusting to each other, and some of the pounds returned. I’m now going thru each day with whoever cares to follow and watch, learn, apply what they can to their own life. I know I will succeed, but most people trying to lose weight and get into shape do not know that.
My goal is to organize the website into areas that can be easily found, but still have a rolling daily update.
Yes, I’ve got your book!
I clicked the video just because you were sporting the suit! GREAT VIDEO!!! Great message – and all because of the great impression you made with the suit. ;)
Nice points here. You can always steer your business in any direction you want, but I totally agree with you that the BEST time is up front…think about these things as early on as possible and set yourself up for making the right impression from the start.
It’s so easy to create a good first impression too. You don’t need to spend lots of money or go over board. Just a clean simple to the point site can do wonders.
When I visit a blog directly, I gave some importance to images and nice design. On the other hand, if I visit a blog via search engine (searching something) then I give importance to the matter that whether I got the information that I searched about.
Darren, Thanks for the informative piece. I am just contemplating creating my own blog – I’ve been posting on other blogs for a couple of years – so the information is quite useful.
I have some experience in live perfomance and I think It’s very telling that your live presentation skills in this piece back up what you are saying about the written word. Your skill at speaking without blinking is remarkable.
Tom Vincent
“what I mention is that your content needs to be of the highest quality to create a good first impression”
In my opinion, this is where most bloggers fail.
Even if you have everything else wrong with your site, the content will help bring in readers. The rest will help increase that, because as you say, people make quick judgments and will leave based on their initial reaction. It can also help differentiate you if you’re blogging in a competitive niche.
Most people don’t realize what they write, or how they write it, just aren’t worth reading. Some people just can’t clearly put their thoughts into words or just don’t think about anything interesting.
That’s why you see so many people copying content from other sites such as blogs that just copy and paste news articles without adding anything of value.
The sad thing is that many people don’t realize this. I remember some study a few years ago that basically said incompetent people don’t realize their incompetent.
You’ve probably run into people like that at work. You know, the people you wish you could grab and shake during a meaning yelling something like “what the hell are you saying?!?!?!?”
People getting into blogging now have a lot of competition. Before blogging started to gain momentum, you could be mediocre and still gain an audience, but now you’re hard pressed to find a niche that hasn’t been tapped so you need to be outstanding to get even a little bit of traction.
Good advice in your video though for those people that have something worth reading.
This was definitely a hard-hitting video for most bloggers! Very useful, and super informative. I do agree with the above commentor that the competition is definitely fierce, and no longer can mediocre blogging gain quick momentum like it used to before the onset of the mass bloggers of present day.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing! (even if it’s been a year or so!) – Nice suit as well!
Great advice, I will certaintly use it. The last question is especially important. “How can you make it better?” Value creation is definitely the most important aspect of blogging.
I always worry about the first impressions that I present, because I know that a lot of work has to go into the impressions that you create and sometimes this doesn,t happen overnight with good first impressions.
But I am certainly trying hard with the great content.
Well, readers retention should be the first thing in mind when creating a blog. I can’t agree more about providing value and useful information. This advice is evergreen.
Thanks for the video. Very enlightening. Yes, it’s always very important to leave great first impressions on readers. With the gazillion pages on the Internet, it’s most unlikely that your readers will return if you turn them off the first time. Thanks for sharing.
nice advices and suggestions, however, i always do think before writing a blog post, that what impression is it going to put on the readers, but it happens that apparently i dont succeed in getting the right kinda traffic perhaps. that is also one major issue you might wanna discuss about Darren????
Darren it was quite useful and impressive!!
Thanks for the valuable information Darren. Its very important for a baby bloggers to turn first time readers in to subscribers. your always inspired me.
thank You,
Exellent post. Evertytime I read your post I learn something usefull, something that can add valut to my website etc. You definetly make a great first impression! Thanks.
Thanks Darren. You produce quality videos. Let’s see some more.
Great video!
I have been incorporating video into my blogs for quite some time and I always see great results.
I think that video is one of the big blogging trends that we will continue to see in 2009.
Michael
Power Blogging Tips
Awesome video and post Darren, thanks a lot!
Very interesting and useful video. You are so right about the first impression. Thank you!
Really good stuff.
I like the fact you keep it relevant and solve real issues with proven practices. Then again, I’m a patterns and practices kind of guy.