5 reasons columnists blogs don’t generate traffic, comments
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Columnists are often regarded as the bread and butter of newspapers’ niche sections. Many believe that newspaper readers sometimes buy newspapers for the sole reason of catching their favorite columnist. So, if that’s the case, wouldn’t throngs of web readers flock to a columnist’s new blog?
Not so, as many online news sites have discovered.
Though it seems like the most simple and logical of transitions, columnists don’t always bring their audiences to the web. Here’s why newspaper columnists-turned-bloggers don’t always translate into website traffic and comments (audience engagement):
1. They don’t get promotion — on the web. How do web users find things to read? Mostly, web readers find interesting content through search and referrals.
2. They don’t get promotion — in print. The newspaper remains a very viable marketing tool. Advertisers still prefer to buy print ads than they do online advertisements. Wouldn’t it make sense to market a newspaper columnist’s blog in print as well? How are the print readers expected to know that their favorite columnist puts more great, engaging content on the web?
3. Poor headline writing. Yes, it’s true. Newspaper columnists can create zingers and wonderful one-liners. But headline writing isn’t one of their strong suits – at least when it comes to writing headlines for the web.
4. They don’t ask for interaction. Newspaper columnists have the speaking part down. They can talk for days. But what needs to be proven is that they can listen too. Columnists-turned-bloggers need to remind themselves that a blog is a two-way conversation. Readers of blogs know this and they expect a back-and-forth, at least minimal, with the blog’s author.
5. They’re just not that good — at blogging. Writing for print is different than writing on the web, especially when it comes to writer engagement. Blog writing is different than column writing. Not completely different, but there’s plenty of rules and strategies that apply to good blog writing that can’t be done in print. Rule #1 – LINK! Linking is the new new name in the paper.
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And they don’t do lists.
February 4th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
:)
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February 11th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Part of it is also down to the context of blogging for a particular website.
Starting a personal blog involves promotion via the likes of Entrecard, BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog etc etc. Creating your own 125×125 cards, experimenting with Adsense, and all the other widgets which are part and parcel of blogging.
Most newspaper sites aren’t set up to allow their columnists to start using these tools, and therefore, they miss out the important networking element, unless they can hack out a manual blogroll, if that…
That’s why I’d probably advise any columnist to set up an independant blog on wordpress or blogger, and link it to their newspaper site (and add the traffic totals in, etc), ideally ftp’ing it to the main domain, rather than using a set newspaper template, and losing individuality, flexibility, and all the other advantages of a blog.