There is a term in the blogging world that makes bloggers an easy target for people.
That term is Pageview Journalism.
It’s not a word you want your blog associated with but there are some people out there that will always see bloggers and modern day online journalists this way. It’s just the way it is and you have to look past it if you want to succeed.
Pageview journalism came about because advertisers want pageviews and if websites want money from advertisers they need to get pageviews. As a result you get articles on blogs and news websites that make you click seven times to read an entire article. You get slideshows and other crazy things that are just a pain in the rear end.
What you also get are bloggers and writers that are only looking for pageviews. It makes sense because that’s what pays the bills. What seemed to happen along the way was that some bloggers and even journalists would do all they could even posting things that weren’t true in some cases just as a way to get pageviews from people looking to be entertained. It didn’t matter because in a few seconds the news would change anyway and as long as you got a few pageviews out of the deal you were winning because all the advertisers want are large pageview numbers.
Phew.
Enough of that BS.
Business bloggers don’t need to worry about the pageview journalism because they’re not chasing pageviews. In fact, it’s not really a stat you need to pay attention to as a business blogger. The more important stat is how many new customers you get as a result of your blogging efforts.
As a business blogger you’re chasing dollars. New customers mean more dollars and growth for your business. You can try to squeeze more money from your current customers, but in the long-term the best way to grow your business is by getting new customers. Blogging can be a great way to get those new customers, but you have to chase the dollars instead of the pageviews.
In order to do this you need to write for the right people. Really focus on who your ideal customer is and figure out what they are interested in. Write about those things and those things only on your blog. Don’t stray from that and don’t get caught in the pageview game. You can have a perfectly successful blog that doesn’t get a ton of pageviews, but gets you a good amount of new customers. That’s really the only metric you need to follow.
Heck, for Country Music Life I don’t even track the pageviews. I track the conversions for the email subscribers and the sales of the CML t-shirts. I actually turned off the Google AdSense ads on the site a while back because I didn’t want to be caught in the pageview game. It’s hard not to fall in love with the pageviews, but if you do you’ll find yourself focusing on the wrong metrics. You’ll be caught up in pageview journalism. That’s not the best way for businesses to blog.
Chase the dollars. It’s ok and it’s what your business is all about.