It takes a certain amount of strength to be an audience-focused writer.
It’s not for the faint of heart.
Because when you know your audience is the source of all good things for your business, you open yourself up to receive a lot of opinions.
But sometimes those opinions can also weaken the energy you invest in your business.
For example, you might receive opposing feedback.
Someone complains that you emailed about your special deal too frequently. Another person laments that you should have emailed more often so they didn’t miss your offer.
If you don’t have a solid content marketing strategy in place, it can feel very confusing.
You might become nervous every time you publish, and those nerves often trick you into diluting your content to try to please everyone.
Don’t do that.
You’ll never please everyone and you’ll miss opportunities to attract the right people.
It’s important to learn how to spot helpful suggestions and swiftly disregard the rest.
Here are five types of audience members you can safely ignore to stay focused on serving the people who appreciate your work.
1. The person who’s enraged by a typo
Yes, typo-free writing is ideal.
However, as much as we value strong editing and correct punctuation here at Copyblogger, we understand typos happen.
And if they only happen occasionally, they don’t necessarily indicate sloppy content.
So if someone says your content isn’t credible because they found a typo, that person is unreasonable. They’re likely more interested in feeling superior than connecting with your message.
Thank them. Fix the typo. Move on.
2. The person who doesn’t want you to have a point of view
This person means well.
It’s clear they like your content, but they’ll point out it didn’t cover every possibility:
“It sounds like this works for you, but it’s not going to work for everyone.”
Well, obviously.
No worries. Just appreciate the engagement.
You know the difference between content and content marketing.
3. The person who’s in the wrong place
When the wrong people find your content, they might ask you to explain your intentions for creating it.
They don’t understand your niche, so they’ll badger you with questions, almost as if they find you suspicious.
For example, after Sonia heard about my pre-pandemic search for the perfect nail salon, she told me about the Simply Nailogical YouTube channel.
Simply Nailogical has more than seven million subscribers, but it’s “not like other nail art channels.”
A humorless person looking for eloquent nail art tutorials might not understand Cristine’s sarcastic and silly approach to video content. That’s not Cristine’s problem.
4. The person who’s off-topic
Similar to the person who’s in the wrong place, this visitor seems a bit lost.
But they won’t ask belabored questions.
Instead, they comment on your blog or email you with information that’s not related to your content.
They might even ask to collaborate but demonstrate they have no idea what you do.
When their comments are public, you don’t have to be hospitable. In fact, it’s your job to shield your loyal audience members from anyone who wants to abuse your platform. It’s like protecting your family from an intruder.
Delete. Block.
5. The person who just wants to argue
This one is tricky.
Sometimes you’ll make a mistake and someone will correct you.
Your natural instinct might be to respond to them. It’s noble to admit your error and acknowledge that they raised a good point.
However, sometimes this person just wants to argue. And even if you rationally respond to their comment, they’ll keep coming back with a new jab at your response or content.
When that happens, it’s smart to realize that there’s no pleasing them and any further engagement from you is a waste of time.
If you have trouble letting go of the correspondence, just remember you’re spending energy on someone you’ll never satisfy instead of thinking of new ways to serve the people who appreciate your content.
Reader Comments (13)
Very insightful! This is excellent advice, not just for blogging, but for life in general. These lessons should be taught starting in kindergarten. If more social interactions were based upon these ideas, there would be more unity and peace, instead of divisiveness and hate. I look forward to your next blog.
Thanks, Douglas!
And we don’t always have to agree with each other.
I think we can welcome different opinions in peaceful ways, but it’s smart to recognize when someone isn’t playing by those rules. 🙂
I’ve experienced it all on some level. But, the person who just wants to argue was the hardest one to deal with.
I used to have a blog geared towards single men looking for love. It did very well and got a lot of traffic. But, I had a few guys who would argue any point I made, even if it was in line with their original opinion.
I remember one guy who affected me so negatively that I almost stopped writing on that blog because of him. It wasn’t just my blog that he was argumentative (really hateful) on. I had seen his comments on other blogs. But, it felt very personal.
He was just a miserable guy who wanted to fight, fight, fight.
My energy was drained from him. I knew that I soon as I hit publish on any type of post, he would be there bashing me and everything I said. I wanted people to feel free to speak their mind, but he was too much. Finally I had to block his IP address. Thankfully he didn’t get on a new IP address.
That’s a tough one. In my experience, blocking those kinds of relentlessly toxic folks from reaching you is the only way to move forward. There’s nothing constructive about that kind of criticism.
I’ve had too many of those – also known as trolls. The worst type of troll, in fact. I teach startups how to go to market and earn revenue in early stages of launch, and it seems like nearly every troll online wants to argue over some of the techniques, sources or tools I cover. Or just argue in general… about me, my writers, etc.
I’ve always wondered … are trolls aware that they’re trolls or do they really just think they’re doing the right thing by relentlessly arguing?
However, I’m also aware that answering that question is a waste of time. 😉
Writing a Comment Policy isn’t a waste of time though. It’s a great way to establish guidelines for your site, so you have a public document that clearly states what you will and won’t tolerate.
That’s a shame, Kari. It’s such an unfortunate part of being online that we can’t control.
Luckily, we can control our standards for our online homes, so I’m glad blocking his IP address worked.
Similar to the person that just wants to argue is the person that wants to “save” you. But since they’re always claiming higher ground and seeming not to be mucking it up, but simply not accepting your point of view, it can be pretty frustrating. Eventually I got to a place that I was grateful for their readership but understood that they just couldn’t understand me, and stopped placing any energy in it.
It’s definitely frustrating when you’re being “talked at” instead of having a dialogue.
Protecting your energy is an art.
Oh, this brings to mind a valuable lesson I learned with my first book! Reviews were coming in at 4/5* until I received blistering comment from a reader saying I had stuffed the book with quotations just to make it longer. I was crushed because I had worked so hard to avoid that very thing. I had a kneejerk reaction and immediately set out to remove ALL of the quotations. The book was self-published but still, it took me a few days to make the changes and ensure the integrity of the formatting. A day after I republished it I received an email from a reader (who obviously had the original version) praising the book and telling me how much the quotations inspired her! And yes, I changed it back to the original version. Oh, what a lesson that was and I’ll never forget it!
Thanks for sharing, Marquita! That’s a terrific example of how you can’t please everyone.
We’ve all had some version of that happen to us.
The criticism can really psych you out, but it’s a beautiful moment when you get that praise and (hopefully) regain confidence in your original vision, knowing you produced your best work.
How about the one who says “I love your content, can you point me towards more sources on X topic”? Only X topic is something that’s only tangentially related to yours, and it would take time to pull together anything useful for them…
That’s an interesting one, LJ!
It could be: “The person who asks too much of you.”
On the surface, if a reader asks for more information, it can be a great opportunity to provide value for them.
However, like you said, if they ask for something “only tangentially related” to your topic, they are essentially asking you to do their content research for them.
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