I think we’re all pretty much aware by now that nothing draws in the herd like the offer of free stuff.

Even the savviest of college kids will cheerfully sign up for a credit card with almost illegally high rates if you give them a t-shirt or free cable or something.  So why not take advantage of that yourself?

And we’ve talked about the value of giving away your own merch, such as pens and coffee mugs and whatnot with your name stamped on it, but here’s a new idea you may not have thought of, and even I didn’t, until last night.

If you’ve been writing a blog for any length of time, chances are you’ve written other stuff to.  Maybe some articles that you couldn’t get published or something.  Well, now’s the time to take your castoffs and sew them into a big technicolor dreamcoat and call it a “special report” or even a book.  Then you turn around and offer your detritus in a fancy new package for free! …to subscribers.  Or anyone who leaves their email address.  Or to anyone who does what you want them to do.

Everybody wins here, of course–you get readers, your readers get free stuff, and as long as your free stuff is of halfway decent quality nobody comes out behind here.  So next time you’re looking for a way to boost readers or start a newsletter or get a subscription drive going or something, offer access to a “special report”.  Nothing gets people quite so interested as insider information.

First off, I’d like to thank reader Consolidation School Loan for giving me this idea, because it really is rather timely.

We’ve talked at length here about capturing attention, and Consolidated School Loan finally broke down and basically asked which one is the most important?

The simple answer is neither.  But when in doubt, err on the side of your readers.

See, the whole reason to appeal to search engines is to GET you readers.  If, in the beginning, the search engines aren’t happy with you you’re not likely to get very far.  But once the search engines start bringing in readers, that come back regularly, well, then there’s not much point to the search engines any more, is there?

Search engines don’t buy your merch.  Search engines don’t click ads or leave comments. All a search engine does is BRING READERS, that in turn, do all those things.

Search engines take territory, to misquote the military parlance, but readers hold it.

So if you MUST decide between the two, choose readers.  Do what you can to keep the search engines happy, because they bring more readers.  But don’t sacrifice your readers’ happiness for the search engines. What does it profit me if I have the highest-ranked blog on Google, but spend all my time screaming keywords and racial epithets?  Who’ll stick around and read THAT?

Don’t ignore the search engines.  That’s a move you make at your own peril.  But neglecting the search engines a bit in favor of your readers, a sixty-forty split, say, will not go unrewarded.

I probably got someone to spit their drink all over their monitor with that one.  Apologies if you personally happened to be the person who did the spit take.

Anyway, the title’s a little misleading, but it’s pretty close to what I’m suggesting.  If you’ve been having a hard time getting attention for your blog, try introducing yourself around.  Take just a couple minutes a day and send a few emails out to the writers of big blogs in your industry or niche.  Tell them who you are and offer up a link to your blog.  Don’t specifically ask for a link, either–not this time, anyway.

It’s a long shot that may pay off pretty big dividends.   I emphasize the may, of course–chances are your letter will be ignored and at the very worst you may well alienate the writers of some big blogs, but even this worst case can be worked against if you mention how fond you are of the site they right.

I’ll tell you this much–blogging, nine times out of ten, feels like screaming at an empty room.  But getting an email from a regular is very encouraging.  You may be able to use that encouragement to your own advantage.

Let’s face it, folks. You can have the best blog ever known by mankind.  You’ve got traffic monitors and more hot links than a sausage factory.  If Cory Doctorow saw your blog he would drop to his very knees in awe and ecstasy, tears of joy trickling gently down his face.

But if no one sees it, then what good is it?

Like asking the question about trees falling in the woods and the sounds they make when no one’s around to hear them, so too does your blog run on readers.

I know, this is sort of a basic-level concept, but it’s the kind of thing that you may not be thinking of in a rush of ideas about the long tail and web 2.0 and the legion of other buzzwords that you hear about blogging on a daily basis.  But it’s the kind of thing you’d do well to bear in mind.  Remember, it’s all about the readers.  What do they want to see?  What do they want to know more about?  The more you can do to engage your readership, the more they’ll do to keep you alive and blogging.  And the more your readership does, the better your bottom line as a blogger looks.

Think about how you read your favorite blogs, do you scan them quickly looking for the really important pieces of information? Do you judge the content by the headline and the paragraph headers?  Do you look at the image to see how it relates to the post?

Thinking about what appeals to you as a reader is a great way to define what you should include in your writing. Try writing a post, then instead of publishing it, use the “Preview This Post” button and try reading it as your readers will.

What is appealing about the post ? Does it flow? Is it scanable? Would you read it all the way through? Do you need to know the subject well?

I’m not suggesting you do this with every post, unless of course you have a lot of spare time, but doing so every now and then and certainly after every 5 posts or so will help you keep your readers in mind with both your content and the layout of your content.

Does your reading affect the way you write?

You might be wondering what You Appeal is. Its a concept familiar to a lot of sales people and it can be used by bloggers for a similar affect.

In sales, You Appeal means to get the prospect talking about themselves. I’m sure you want to know what that has to do with blogging, I mean, how can readers talk about themselves, apart from the comments section. Well the other way You Appeal works, is when the sales person, or in our example the blogger, talks about the prospect, and talks to them in a very focused way.

So instead of saying something like “I will tell you what You Appeal has to do with Blogging”, I used the phrase “I’m sure YOU want to know what it has to do with blogging..” By placing the emphasis of the sentence on the reader and not you, your writing becomes immediately more appealing.

How could you use You Appeal to reach your readers?

Rather ask what you can do for your readers (with apologies to JFK for paraphrasing). Seriously though, in the mad rush to get yet another post out, connect with yet another sponsor, increase ad revenues but just a few more dollars, it can be all too easy to forget why we have a blog and who it exists for.

Of course it exists for you but where would the fun be if you were the only person reading your blog, what would be your motivation for writing it? Where would your ad revenue come from? So the next time you go to hit publish why not take a step back and ask, what does this post do for your readers. What have you given them that they can use?

Maybe you went out of your way to do some research and share the results, perhaps you hunted down a cool new tool for them to use. Find something that you can honestly say, yes, I have given my readers something today.

What will you give your readers?

Ending your blog posts with a question is a great way to get reader interaction through your comments. However, it isn’t the only way to do it. Having a post that poses questions for the reader throughout rather than simply providing answers is also a great way to encourage interaction.

In that vein I am taking this opportunity to ask you, the reader, what you want to see more of on this blog. Take a moment to look through the recent, popular and most commented posts on the right hand side and then leave your thoughts, tell us what you are looking for from the site and we will try to meet your needs. After all this isn’t all about us.

So what would you like to read here?