Checking in with the Audience

Last updated on April 4th, 2021 at 06:52 pm

Let’s keep it real for a moment, here. (Well, I always do, but heck, I felt like opening with that.) Some days I can go through an entire day without being able to figure out what it is I should be posting on the blog that day. There obviously has to be way more than 365 ways in which we can improve ourselves and the world around us, but there are days where a good topic just doesn’t want to make its appearance.

This morning, when a guy hurriedly reaching for a pole on the subway knocked a copy of Men’s Health out of my hands, I was going to post about Learning to Laugh at Yourself — but that wasn’t really happening in that scenario. It was more being forgiving and letting things slide, but I wasn’t game for writing about either of those, either.

And when I read about a TD Canada Trust (one of the big Canadian banks—we only have a handful of banks up here…) study about the fact that 30% of Canadians say they don’t earn enough to cover their living expenses and 54% find it difficult to save, I felt that maybe it was time to start blogging about financial tips and how to get your bank account under control, but after enough years working for that same bank and giving tons of advice, I realized that I’m not quite ready to go down that path. (Though, my brother—an excellent financial sales representative there—has given me carte blanche to farm his Facebook page for the advice and tips he regularly shares, so that may find its way into this space yet.)

I even considered discussing the marketing ebooks that I’m reading, the top-secret projects that I’m working on or some of the things I learn daily from the articles I read, but none of those struck a chord either.

But then I realized something.

I’m finding it hard to focus on what it is I should be writing because I don’t know the audience that I’m writing for!

It’s a little hilarious, actually—time and time again, I’m surprised when I discover that people I don’t expect have been faithfully following the daily posts I’ve been putting up, but I have no idea of what my audience looks like. What does my audience like? Are there posts I put up that they’re really into and others that just don’t do it for them? I really don’t know!

So I’m going to try my best to discover more about you all. I want to write partially for me, so that I can keep myself accountable in my self-development through these posts and learning from the interactions I have with others, but—and I’ve said this before—I also write for others. For them to learn, to grow, to be able to live their next day better than the one before. And I need to figure out the best way to go about doing that.

Will it be through analyzing the data on my site from Google Analytics to see what topics work and what don’t?

Or perhaps through a number of surveys to see what you anonymously think of the blog so far?

Perhaps I’ll randomly ask people in person if they’ve read my blog, and if so, to give me an honest critique of the stuff I’m putting up?

However it happens, I’m committed to always improving and giving you content that actually matters to you.

With that said, I’m about to improve the environment around ME by cleaning up a little before I go to sleep.

See you tomorrow, one and all!

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