PB016: Solve a Reader’s Problem [Day 16 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog]

How to Improve Your Blog by Solving a Reader's Problem Today's episode is a writing challenge and is all about how you can spot and solve your readers' problems, which is a powerful way to grow your audience. Do it well and you'll make a positive impression on people, create a memory and give people a reason to come back, and give people a story to tell others. Businesswoman with a worried frown busy thinking by Lars Zahner on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Also - if you have a moment we'd love to get your feedback on the ProBlogger Podcast with this short survey which will help us plan future episodes. How to spot the problems your readers are struggling with right now How to anticipate your readers' future problems 5 ways you can solve your readers' problems Tools Mentioned in this Episode There are a variety of keyword research tools available but I’m going to recommend you read Rand Fishkin’s "Beginners Guide to SEO", which has a section on keyword research. He recommends starting with: Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool Google Trends Microsoft Bing Ads Intelligence Wordtracker’s Free Basic Keyword Demand The team at Moz also have good tips about how to do Keyword Research. Further Reading on Solving Readers' Problems Content isn't King - Here's What Is! Survey Your Readers and Discover Who They are and How You Can Be More Useful to Them Blog Post Idea: Answer a Reader Question The Surprisingly Simple Secret to Knowing What Your Readers Want Also check out these previous 'writing challenges' in this series at: Write a List Post Write a Link Post Come up with 10 Blog post Ideas Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 16 and day 16 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where I'm giving you a challenge every day for 31 days, which helps to build some habits for good blogging. Today's challenge is a writing challenge. You're going to write a post today that solves one of your reader's problems. I'm going to tell you how to identify problems and then give you the challenge to go away and write that post. I'd love to see the post that you do write today. You can go to the show notes at problogger.com/podcast/16 and share the post that you write as a result of today's podcast. Today's podcast is a really important one in many ways. This is what I build my business around, solving problems. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 16 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where we're going through 31 different ways to improve your blog. I challenge you every day to spend about 15 or so minutes working on a different activity. Today is another writing challenge. We’ve already had a few of these and I always hear back from readers that they love the writing challenges. After all, we are bloggers. Your writing challenge today is a little bit general. It's not to write a certain type of post, but it's to do something for your readers. It is to solve a problem for them. This is the backbone of my blogs, really. If I have to narrow down what I do every day, my goal is to solve at least one reader problem. Not just a problem for one reader (although that's part of it) but to solve at least one problem that might apply to multiple readers, at least one every day. I know that if I'm solving my reader's problems I'm making a positive impression upon people, that I'm creating a memory for them, and giving them a reason to come back. I'm also giving people a story to tell others.  If you think about it in your life and I think about my life, if someone solves a problem for me, it has an impact on how I see them.