How do you do that as a blogger? With the right photo, of course.

I’ll be writing a post soon to help you figure out exactly where to get good photos that won’t break the bank, but for now, just know that posts with engaging photos get read more and shared more—even on sites that you aren’t necessarily active on.

Why You Should Touch the Heart and the Head in Your Posts

One of the biggest factors in remembering something—an image, an experience— is how much emotion is attached to it. For all you science lovers, here is the reason: The amygdala, the center of emotion in the brain’s temporal lobe, lights up when emotional content is shown, which in turn boosts the activity in areas of the brain that form memory.

The non-geek explanation: The brain is hard-wired to remember things that evoke emotions. Either you want to remember something to avoid it (if anger, pain or sadness was felt) or you want to keep it as a memory to return to the experience (if you felt joy, happiness or fun).

5 Emotions That Pack a Punch in Photos

If the content that is most remembered appeals to readers’ emotions as well as their intellect, then our blog post photo becomes an important way to make that connection. There are endless emotions we can evoke, depending on our post’s topic. Here are five examples:

Fear

In What’s Under Your Bed: 10 Monster Blogging Fears Worth Chasing Down, I tackled the fears bloggers have that keep us up at night—all the what-ifs. What better picture than a child sitting up in bed, afraid to go to sleep?

Vulnerability

I wrote Is Writing with Vulnerability a Sign of Low Self-Concept? to provoke a discussion about whether the best bloggers and writers take off their armor and allow themselves to be ‘hurt,’ whether being open and vulnerable enables them to connect with their readers on deeper levels. The photo? A cute baby expressing surprise and wonder.

Frustration

In Social Media Fail: 5 Reasons I Will Unfollow You, I shared my frustrations with following someone on Twitter, only to find out that their tweets are divisive, or too ‘me-centered,’ or one-way broadcasts. The photo evokes emotions of unhappiness and disappointment.

Compassion

In the lingering pain of 9-11, my post, September 11, 10 Years Later: Why Stories Still Matter, focused not on the anger and sadness surrounding the event, but on the acts of kindness and compassion, often between total strangers. The photo of the NYC firefighter holding the photo of the girl I mentored, the child who wanted an autograph from a firefighter, appeals to compassion and reconciliation.

And one to just make you laugh

They say that laughter is the shortest bridge between two people. In Why You Should Be a Copycat Blogger, I compared my crazy experiences as a nervous first-year teacher to the challenges of beginning bloggers as they make their way through those first months. The photo: a cat whose whole purpose is to make you smile.

Do you know what you want your readers to feel with each blog post?

Do you use photos to evoke emotions?

If you use photos to make your content more powerful, which types work best for you?

As in any game, the players are more visible. Noticed more.

We remember them more. Why? Because the players on your blog are the readers who join in the conversation. The ones who talk to you—and the rest of the community. The ones you know by name.

But just as important are the spectators. They are the ones Havi Brooks of The Fluent Self blog calls “comment mice.” They read. They may hang around and consume lots of content. Sometimes they become your biggest fans. But they are your silent supporters.

And yet spectators are a crucial part of your blog. Because without them, the stadium would be empty. Without them, you wouldn’t be pleasantly surprised at the moment you least expect it.

Blog Like Nobody is Watching—and Everybody Is

The Boston Globe reporter who read my blog and asked me for an interview was a spectator. The agent who read my blog and became familiar enough with my writing to put me on her Blog Roll was a spectator. The Emmy-winning journalist who invited me to explore an exciting collaboration with her was a spectator.

These are busy people. They are consumers of content. The fact that they don’t comment does not mean that they aren’t paying attention.

My point is this:

Blog like nobody is watching—and everybody is.

In this day of fragmented, scattered  social media venues, it can feel like the readers are gone. They are not gone. They just may be hanging out in other places.

We need to start thinking about the consumers of our content in different ways. For instance,  share numbers on our blog posts may be much more meaningful than our comment numbers. I’d rather have 100 tweets of my blog post than 100 comments on my site because that means that, exponentially, my content is getting seen by tons more people.

What about you?

Are you disappointed when a post you were proud of gets very few comments?

Do you have many more spectators than players at your blog?

Do you have other ways of knowing that your posts are being read and shared?  Or does it not matter to you?

Today’s guest post on the Cat’s Eye Writer blog comes from Ali Luke, who heads up aliventures.com. I met Ali on Twitter and both she and my other half, @bobwp, will be presenting at Blogworld in New York City in June, so I’ll get to meet her in real time. I’m also looking forward to reading her new book,

Do your readers stick around for the long-term, cheering you on, offering feedback, and buying your products? Or do they flit away after glancing at a single post?

If you want to be a successful blogger, you don’t necessarily need lots of readers. Sure, it’s nice to have your Feedburner widget showing 1,000 or 5,000 or 10,000.

But if your goal is to make money from your blog, then a few hundred truly loyal readers are far more valuable than a few thousand readers who rarely pay any attention to your posts.

You know your readers are loyal if they:

• Come back again and again

• Subscribe so they never miss a post

• Leave comments on a regular basis

• Share your posts on their social media networks

• Buy your products and services

If you have traffic, but it’s not translating into subscribers, or if you have subscribers who never comment, or if you have a big audience but you’re struggling to sell, then it’s time to turn your casual visitors into loyal, engaged readers.

There’s no magic-bullet trick for that— no perfect words that convert a first-time guest into a rabid fan. But there are plenty of straightforward things you can do to increase your readers’ loyalty.

#1: Give Away Valuable Content

One of the very best things I’ve ever done for my blog was to give away a bunch of free mini-ebooks. Every newsletter subscriber gets access to a little library of goodies, for them to download and use at any time. And, from the comments and emails I get, I know how much this means to my readers.

It can be tough to give away your best content, whether that’s in the form of blog posts, recordings, or ebooks. But it’s also one of the most powerful techniques for helping your readers to like and trust you. And if they get great, useful content for free, they’ll be much more likely to take the plunge and buy from you.

Do it:  Over the next month, write an in-depth, hugely valuable blog post or mini-ebook that answers one of the key questions you get from your readers/clients. If your goal is 4,000 words, you can do that by writing 1,000 words a week, or just 200 every weekday.

#2: Post Consistently

Whatever you’ve heard from blogging gurus, you don’t need to post every day. Think about your own blog reading habits: you probably prefer blogs that have just one or two fantastic posts a week, rather than a couple of so-so posts every day.

What matters is not how often you post, but how consistent you are. If you post once a week for a while, then go silent for six weeks, it’s hard to build up a high level of reader engagement.

Do it: Figure out a comfortable blogging schedule for you. That might be three times a week, once a week, or even just once every two weeks. Commit to sticking to your routine for at least the next month.

#3: Include Snippets of Your Life

Although the primary purpose of your content is to provide value to the reader, you’ll also want to slip in an occasional anecdote from your own life. That might mean writing about personal experience with the topic, or simply adding occasional moments of trivia about your daily life – perhaps mentioning where you live, a particular hobby, and so on.

There’s a fine balance here: too little information about you, and readers won’t feel a sense of personal connection; too much, and they may wonder what the point is. Ideally, you want to choose brief moments of your life that make the reader laugh, that show how you’ve struggled through something similar to them, or that offer inspiration.

Here’s a great example from Judy’s post, The Introvert Blogger’s 5-Step Guide to Acing an Interview:

The fear started building one day in 5th grade when I gave my lame, over-rehearsed “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” talk to a group of rowdy, pre-hormonal 10-year-olds, including Stewart Granger, who sat in the front row and pretended to pick his nose every time I looked his way.

Do it: In your next post, make sure you have at least a sentence that talks about your personal experience with the topic that you’re discussing. Aim for something friendly and lighthearted.

#4: Reply to Comments and Emails

One of the best ways to build loyalty is to engage in conversation with your readers. That means replying to their comments, emails, tweets, and so on. Yes, it can be tough to find the time for this, but it means a lot to readers to get a reply.

Even if you feel like a small fish in a very large blogging pond, your readers look up to you as an expert source of guidance. A short, friendly reply from you could make their day. Plus, if you want more comments on your blog, replying to them all both boosts your comment count and encourages readers to comment again.

Do it: Use threaded comments on your blog to make it easy to reply to people, and schedule time each day for comment replies and emails (handling them in a batch is usually more efficient than trying to reply to them as they come in).

#5: Encourage Readers to Dig Deeper

When a new reader arrives at your blog and reads a post, do they have an obvious next action to take? If you can encourage readers to stick around and devour several posts, not just one, then you’re much more likely to convert them into loyal subscribers.

Here are three easy ways to do that:

• Each time you write a post, link to at least one other post on your blog (either within the body of your post, or as further reading at the end).

• Have a “Popular Posts” section in your sidebar to help new readers quickly find your most valuable content.

• Include links to some of your best posts on your About page – this is one of the most-read pages on your blog.

Do it: Head to your most recent post and see whether there’s any encouragement for readers to stick around. If not, add a link to a related post at the end.

#6: Give Readers Multiple Ways to Connect With You

Not all readers will want to leave a comment or send an email. Some will be keen to follow you on Twitter, so they can interact in a casual way; others may prefer to use Facebook or LinkedIn, depending on where they feel most at home.

Make sure that readers know how they can connect with you. Don’t assume that they’ll notice the little Twitter logo in your sidebar or that they’ll seek you out on Facebook: give them a clear link on your About or Contact page (or both!). I’ve found that my Facebook page has gained many more “likes” since I added a simple section to the bottom of all my newsletters – “Find Me Online: Handy Links.”

Do it: In your next post or newsletter, mention the key ways that people can connect with you (e.g. by email, on Twitter, on Facebook) and give them links to each. It’s a very simple thing to do— and also very effective.

#7: Include Calls to Action

You’ve probably heard the term “call to action” before. It simply means that you should ask readers to do something. You can technically do that at any point, but the most effective place is usually at the end of a post.

Your call to action could be almost anything, but it should offer some benefit to you, as well as to your reader. For instance:

• “Click here to read my post on …” This helps the reader by giving them more information. It helps you by building reader loyalty.

• “Leave a comment below to let me know your thoughts.” This helps the reader by encouraging them to engage with the material. It helps you by bringing in more comments and feedback.

• “Find out more about my services here.” This helps the reader by introducing them to ways you can assist them further. It helps you by bringing in new customers.

• “Get the RSS feed here.” This helps the reader by sending your content straight to their RSS reader (or inbox). It helps you by building your subscriber base.

Do it: Each time you write a post, think “call to action” at the end. You might want to come up with a list of possible calls to action so you can rotate between different ones.

#8: Guest Post on Blogs with Great Readers

The loyalty of your readers isn’t just to do with what you do … it’s also determined by where they come from. If most of your traffic is from StumbleUpon, visitors may only stick around for a few seconds; if you get traffic from guest posts on relevant blogs, those visitors are much more likely to become loyal readers.

When you’re looking for blogs to guest post on, don’t just consider the size of their readership: look at the comments section below posts. Thoughtful comments (not just “Great post!”) suggest readers who are likely to appreciate your valuable content. If a blog has a high readership, but only a handful of short comments, that suggests their readers aren’t as engaged.

Do it: Find a relevant blog in your niche to guest-post on: look for a site with a larger reader base than yours, but with strong reader loyalty (that might mean avoiding the biggest blogs in favor of slightly smaller ones).

How do you build reader loyalty on your own blog?

What makes you a loyal reader of other blogs?

Ali Luke is currently on a virtual book tour for her novel Lycopolis, a fast-paced supernatural thriller centered on a group of online roleplayers who summon a demon into their game … and into the world. Described by readers as “a fast and furious, addictive piece of escapism” and “absolutely gripping”, Lycopolis is available in print and e-book form. Find out more at www.lycopolis.co.uk.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never be a world-class speaker. Speech class in high school was for me the equivalent of Chinese water torture.

The fear started building one day in 5th grade when I gave my lame, over-rehearsed “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” talk to a group of rowdy, pre-hormonal 10-year-olds, including Stewart Granger, who sat in the front row and pretended to pick his nose every time I looked his way.

I had no sooner opened my mouth that day when my fidgeting fingers managed to send the erasers on the chalkboard ledge flying amid great white poofs of dust. I choked on my words—literally—and the classroom exploded, kids falling off their chairs, all of them  laughing at me.

I was washed up, my speaking career irretrievably broken. And all at the age of 10.

Introverts in the Real World

I may still be an introvert but today, as a blogger, I see how important it is to get out there in the world. To tell my blog’s story. To give my best 5^th grader’s speech, in front of the whole class.

If you are a blogger and you happen to be an introvert, you no doubt find solace and comfort in blogging and the whole social media thing. For me, Web 2.0 was the most noteworthy invention since Magnetic Scrabble. I could actually take my time, think first, then carefully compose an email or blog post or forum comment. It was really still one-way communication, though it felt two-way. Write. Click. Send. Repeat.

But last week I stepped out of my comfort zone. A reporter from the Boston Globe had read a post of mine, Here She Comes to Save the Day: Wanton Exclamation Point, and emailed me with a request for an interview in real time. He was writing a story about punctuation abuse and how social media, texting and email are making the problem worse.

Interviews, speaking engagements, appearances on radio shows, these can be challenging for introverts. Our brains work a little differently. We need time and space to interact in a way that values our thinking style. It’s why we aren’t fond of answering a phone call when it comes out of the blue.

We need time to listen and process.

But sometimes it’s hard to do that and keep up with the conversation. Here are some things I learned as I prepared for my interview.

The Introvert Blogger’s 5-Step Guide to Acing an Interview

1. Nail down the interview topic as specifically as you can.

If the interviewer has already prepared their questions, ask if you can get a copy beforehand so you can do some pre-interview thinking. With my recent interview on Andrea Hurst’s blog series, AUTHORNOMICS, I got a copy of the questions and was able to formulate thoughtful responses.

2. If you landed the interview because of a specific post you wrote, go back and review the content in it.

Obviously, something in that post caught the reporter’s eye. Jot down a few notes in case he asks you more questions about any of the content in it.

3. Make a brief outline with talking points.

Now you don’t always need to do this, but having sub-topics with a few key phrases under each can help you keep your thoughts organized— and even jump start your thinking.

4. Be specific, give lively examples and throw in a little humor if you can.

Our brains always remember the specific over the general. As my friend Kare Anderson, former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Emmy-winning journalist for NBC, said in a blog post for The Harvard Business Review: “When asked how he managed to write such gripping horror novels, Stephen King once responded, ‘I cut out the boring stuff.’”

5. Brainstorm a few succinct, memorable quotes.

For introverts, sometimes the exact words you want don’t easily roll off the tongue, so give some thought to one or two lines that the reporter might just want to pull out and use for his article.

What about you?

Are you a spontaneous interview subject or do you plan ahead for the experience?

Do you think extroverts and introverts approach interviews differently?

Do you remember Apple Computers’ 1997 Think Different ad campaign? Narrated by Richard Dreyfus, it had actual footage of people in history who chose to break the rules every now and then.

The copywriters who produced this commercial were brilliant marketers. By using video of other people who ‘thought differently,’ like John Lennon, Albert Einstein and Jim Henson, they made us somehow feel that as Apple users, we were a member of  that exclusive club.

And who wouldn’t want to enter that circle?

Here is the ad script:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They are not fond of rules and have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

We bloggers can be a crazy bunch, too. We also like to ‘think different’ from time to time.

In honor of bloggers everywhere, borrowing messages from this 15-year old campaign, here they are: 5 ways to shake up our blogs and rid ourselves of vanilla posts forever:

1. Be a rebel.

Now I’m not saying to take an anti-status quo stand just to be contrary, but go against the “thought leaders” when you feel strongly about something, like in this post, where I question the theory of ‘original content’ by telling my readers why it’s okay to be a copycat blogger.

Zig when everyone else is zagging. You may be surprised at the discussion you start (and at how many people actually agree with you).

2. See things differently.

Come at a post from a different perspective. How would a mechanic see your topic? What can Saturday Night Live’s Matt Foley, the motivational speaker who ‘lives in a van, down by the river, teach us about blogging? Or time management?  Or sales?

Maybe Dr. Seuss has some blogging lessons for us.

3. Break the rules.

Who says you can’t write a post that is all questions?

Or go off topic when something important has happened in your life? Or how about devoting a whole post to recognizing someone who doesn’t get much attention?

4. Mix things up.

Try something new. Hey, you may bomb, but you’ll be in good company. Like most of the crazies throughout history, you’ll find some things work and some don’t. You just keep trying.

If you are a 1,000-word blogger, try saying it in one paragraph. Or go with images with short captions and make that your post.

Ask your readers to write your post for you. Pose a question and let them provide their answers in the comments. Take one of the most interesting comments and write a new post with that fresh angle.

5. Get a little ‘crazy.’

Does something bug you? Or make you sad? Blog about it.

Talk about a practice or strategy in your industry that drives you nuts. Tell us why. And what you would do differently. Or take something as common as the tragic misuse of the exclamation point and tell people how you really feel. Get a little crazy.

Come on. You know you want to.

What about you?

Do you ever shake things up on your blog?

Have you done any of these?

Do you get crazy in other ways?

This revised and updated post originally appeared on For Bloggers By Bloggers.

The best part was the final round, The Winner’s Circle. One player, with hands strapped to the chair’s arms, so they couldn’t give away the answer with a hand gesture, would give the clues and her partner would have to guess the category the words fit into.

And if they got through all six categories, they won the big bucks.

Here is an example:

Player One: “summer dresses from magazines, no-bake brownie recipes, pictures of wedding gowns, colorful travel photos, pictures of yoga poses…” 

Player’s Partner: “Wait, Wait. I think I know. It’s things you would find on Pinterest!”

Visual sweep: the world of  Pinterest

Maybe it’s because we are losing our ability to focus. Or maybe we are discovering the deep, universal power of photos to evoke memories and emotions. Whatever the reason, Pinterest, the site that can be compared to a digital bulletin board, is the newest social media craze.

With very little thought and just a few seconds of our time, we can pin images from practically anywhere and share our most passionate interests with the world. We can follow other people’s boards, leave a comment and repin the things we find most interesting, creative or inspirational.

But did you know that your blog post photos can bring loads of traffic from Pinterest?

You say you don’t have any time to join yet another time-sucking site? Well, copyright violation issues aside, here’s the beauty. You can set up an account, create boards, and start pinning yourself. This incomparable post by my friend Sarah Arrow at For Bloggers By Bloggers will show you how.

Or, you can just post great visuals and interesting images to  your blog and people will find them and share them on their own Pinterest boards.

I created an account but haven’t had time to do any pinning myself.

But I then began to notice something in my blog stats. I was getting lots of referrals from Pinterest back to my blog. Someone else was finding my photos and liked them enough to pin on their boards. And when I took a closer look, I saw that they were being repinned by others—often multiple times.

But is it the kind of traffic you want?

Might be. Might not. In my case, I am always looking to attract more readers—bloggers and writers— who are trying to figure out this blogging thing. If I draw people to my blog from photos shared on Pinterest and, once they get there, my content is relevant to them, I’ll very possibly pick up some new subscribers.

Case in point. Recently, a mommy blogger began pinning a lot of photos from my posts. For instance, this photo that she pinned, was the one from my post, “How to Write an Irresistible Blog Bio.” And from the original pin, it was repinned by others on pages labeled “ideas for business,” “Blog Stuff,” and “blogs.” :

As a mom, it was the photo of two cute little kids that pulled her in. But others followed the link to the post and repinned it on their blogging tips pages. And I got increased exposure for my blog and, possibly, even some new subscribers.

5 Ways to make your blog post photos Pinterest-friendly

Take a lead from the color-splashed, glossy magazine covers, or even the most appealing photos you see in the ads inside. :

1. Go big and use full color.

The nice thing about buying professional (stock) photos for your posts, is you don’t need to purchase the biggest size. Usually the smallest (least expensive) size will do and you can blow it up without losing the clarity.

2. Evoke emotions.

Often I look for a photo that will make my readers feel something. It could be anger, it could be joy, it could be something else. Photos that appeal to an emotion will attract more readers and those readers will remember the photo (and your message) longer.

3. Tickle the funny bone.

Photos that make people smile help you bond and connect with your readers. When we laugh together, we just feel closer to each other.

4. Surprise.

Sometimes a photo can even get people to think in a different way about an issue or topic. It catches your readers off guard and that makes them more open to your ideas.

5. Make people curious.

Sometimes I choose a photo that doesn’t always match my post title, but will make sense after people have finished reading my post. The key here is to make them wonder, now why is that particular photo here? And they will have to read your content to find out.

You’ll find visual examples of some of these strategies in a post I wrote at For Bloggers By Bloggers: 5 Ways the Right Photo Can Get You More Blog Readers.

The rules for enticing photos in blogs apply equally well to Pinterest.

What about you?

Are you getting any traffic to your blog from Pinterest?

Do you think it may be because of your photos—or something else?