What is your blog's promise? Are you keeping it?
One of the strongest branding strategies that you can begin to craft from day 1 for your blog is to clearly define the promise(s) that your blog will not only keep but also perform against day in and day out.
Some call may call this a “Mission Statement” and I like those too but I like even more the idea of your brand providing a promise to your community and readers. I like it because it feels more personal, approachable, and sometimes just a bit more “real.”
It also brings a level of commitment up a notch, right? If you’re going to promise to do something then you’d better deliver or else face the consequences! I like raising the stakes and I think most communities appreciate it. It’s like saying:
I promise you, the reader, that I’ll do ________ because I appreciate you being here. Let me earn your return visit by making good on this promise!
I like that, a lot!
So what does a blog promise look like? What is it really? Nothing too hard, 2 things really:
- It simply states what your blog does.
- It communicates expectation.
Here’s my blog promise:
TentBlogger is all about excellence in blogging: Strategy, tools, and how to practically execute and generate amazing blog content.
You see, aside from the random post here and there this is what I do and this is what this blog does, day in and day out! My promise (and my blog’s promise) is that every single post has that goal in mind. The reader and community will come to expect it and hold me to that promise as time progresses!
You see, I promise that I’ll share with you everything that I know about those things and I won’t hold anything back! I particularly like the well-known quote by Joseph Badaracco, professor at Harvard Business School, who once said:
In today’s environment, hoarding knowledge ultimately erodes your power. If you know something very important, the way to get power is by actually sharing it.
This is all about influence and building it up!
So, what’s your blog’s promise? Love to hear it, or better yet, blog it and share with me a link!
[This is part of the Developing Great Blog Content Series.]
Help worship leaders sift through the ‘white noise’ of the constant new supply of worship music through a weekly song partnered w/ resources. Other than that, to be a real, authentic, & creative fiance, student, worship leader, and Christ-follower.
love this john!
To share awesome articles relating to my skills and experiences within business, social media and web design.
Interesting post! Thanks for sharing.
awesome articles are awesome.
Thank you for stating the value of the blog. I think the blog is the place to share and education readers. Good article.
sure thing jenny!
I promise to enjoy and challenge you: http://blog.ashleypichea.com/2011/02/be-faithful-in-small-things.html
Should be “encourage”, not “enjoy”!
sweet! love it ashley!
Hey, Ashley, I really liked that you promised to “enjoy” me as a reader. I actually thought, hey, I think I might check that blog out. All the other stuff including “encourage” just makes my eyes glaze over — we readers have heard it all so many times. But “enjoy” — that’s something! I’m sorry it was a typo. Oh well.
I do “enjoy” my readers as well… when readers comment and interact with me, it’s the highlight of my day! I’d love to “enjoy” you as a reader if you ever stop by!
that is pretty neat!
only one promise that i can help my readers in any way, the amount of knowledge i have with me
i like that. but anything more specific?
John this is a killer post and exactly what i was thinking about this morning.
Anyway – my promise is, everything about the blog is to “Encourage wholehearted worship worldwide”
This is a placeholder URL, but check it out. I’d love your feedback. Thanks!
hey, i like it! great pic of you, btw.
bro thanks for the feedback, you made my day. I’m a total beginner and it’s amazing how much I’ve learned from your blog in 1 week. Keep it coming. Thanks John.
sweet! glad you’re a part of this community!
Cool. This post prompted me to shore up my promise. Mine is; I promise that my blog will offer conversational reflections about life that are authentic, relevant and helpful. You can check it out here;http://jeffreyjeffords.com/about/
love it!
This has been a great challenge to me personally. Thank you. Time to refine my purpose and tell it like it is!
sure thing david!
My blog is about how an ordinary person can be creative and develop ideas as experienced through my goal to develop 100 new ideas in five years: http://hundredstudio.com/about
hundredstudio… talk to me about that name.
The name was coined on wordoid.com; I was looking for ___studio, a name that would encompass the various design fields I’ve practiced – landscape architecture, graphic and web design, lighting, etc. When the name came up it struck me, and seemed to follow a corollary to an idea Seth Godin put forth about naming a business: find a picture that would suit your business name, own the picture, then create a name that suits the picture. In my case, the purpose of the blog followed the name: set a goal to develop 100 ideas (mine always have stayed in my head), and put them in the public realm for accountability.
love that. thanks! do you have the seth post handy?
To blog.. like a BOSS
word.
This was a great post. I don’t have a fat clue what my blog’s promise is. I wish I did. Would to not suck that bad be an ok promise?
… it’s a start!
take a look at your categories… what do you see?
I promise to give you resources and tips to enable your graphic design business thrive rather than just survive.
dude. i love that! thrive, not just survive.
This is so important, John and until this year I didn’t have any particular focus. Thus, no promise to keep people coming back.
Today my blog’s promise is to explore the subject of identity and how it relates to walking in the fullness of our calling as Christians.
I definitely throw in a random post here and there but I think I’m doing a good job on delivering the goods.
love this tony.
Great post John and very true!
I just started a new blog (my third) and this is my promise: “At Youth Leaders Academy, you can expect daily new posts on youth ministry related topics. Our goal is to provide you with great practical training to grow in your role as a youth leader, whether as volunteer or on staff.”
I posted my ‘promise’ on the home page of http://www.youthleadersacademy.com
wow. that is a great promise. daily…!
Yeah, I figured if I would take the plunge to become a tentblogger, I’d do it right. Right?
Just popped over from one of Michael Hyatt’s retweets. You make this sound simple! Great post.
My blog’s promise: I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about writing, networking, and chasing the fantastic life!
http://jillkemerer.blogspot.com
Thanks, off to retweet this!
thanks jill…! and thanks for the RT!
My blog is about helping people connect to their joy. It is about accepting who they are right now & celebrating that. If we are living more in the joy of this moment more joy will continue to come.
It’s The Joy of Being You
how do they know what that “joy” is? do you help them with that?
My group blog focus is on finding God in every day life and growing your faith. Within that focus we feature on friendship, personal growth, struggles and trials, family, and time management.
Get you daily dose of Faith, Friends, and Frappuccino’s at http://www.faithchats.blogspot.com
fappuccinos…! so cold!
These bi-weekly essays explore matters of faith, family and culture from a pilgrim’s perspective (Hebrews 11), one that is biblically faithful and culturally thoughtful.
i like this. i like the idea of pilgrim.
I have yet to “migrate” and start a WordPress blog. Thinking about that for the next one, when this ends next year. For now, Bi-Weekly:
* To help heal and re-connect society. To encourage the hopeless. To educate the public.
that’s a BIG promise! can you do all those things all the time?
Where should this promise visually appear on one’s site?
in the about section perhaps… or somewhere visually! or, perhaps it’s not communicated explicitly… there’s a lot of freedom here.
My blog’s promise: First to stimulate the mind of the reader through thought provoking substance that will be a result of lives being morphed.
To motivate and lead by taking every reader on a journey to their real, genuine, authentic, self; ultimately, my goal is to strive to be a creative writer who is able to deliver concrete content because content, is king.
Transparency empowers, emancipates, and last, but not least, liberates all who is willing to delve into its arena.
what type of “substance”? is there anything specific? this is a BIG promise!
“I promise you, the reader, that I’ll share how to build lasting love relationships while pursuing financial responsibility because I appreciate you being here. Let me earn your return visit by making good on this promise.”
Thanks, John, for being my new mentor and virtual friend on this exciting journey!
ah, sure thing! it’s free coaching, right? that’s nice.
The name of my blog is ‘Illuminate’. The vision of this blog is to illuminate the full person of Jesus Christ. This includes His head and His body.
The body of Jesus Christ is the church. The articles posted on the illuminate blog help challenge the reader’s and the American culture’s status quo understanding of what the church is. This blog also seeks to illuminate what the actual body of Christ really is and how she should function.
good stuff jamal!
I have two blog ideas:
jesusDIVA.com: DIVA stands for Devoted to God, Determined to fulfill my Destiny; Inspired by and Instructed by the Holy Spirit; Valient and Victorious Living; Anointed by God for His service. I guess topics would go along with that theme. I see this as a lighthearted look at life.
captivenomore.com is about living the abundant, free life that the Lord has promised us. This is more teaching/encouragement focused.
Make sense? So now I have to write my promise, but I have to pick on to work on first! LOL
wow! interesting name and concept! go for it!
So, after reading this post I came up with this idea:
This blog is all about learning to become the man God is calling me to be as it relates to being a husband, dedicated Christ-follower and geek.
I didn’t realize how much having a focus and promise would help. It’s getting me really excited to start posting some great content for people.
i LOVE this! i love it when people get more excited to blog! thanks for the encouragement!
John,
You’ve smacked me across the face for six years of broken promises with my readers. After much reflection, here’s my promise.
the purpose of my blog is to challenge and inspire you to pursue the fullness of life made available in Jesus.
that leads to this question… Do I spend a great deal of time deleting everything in my archives that does not jive with this promise… or do I let it all go and start fresh?
Thanks for the blog. It’s been a tremendous help.
just keep on writing…! don’t delete, but refresh… tell your community what’s happening and where you’re taking them!
I will also suggest that you use your old post as “kickstarters” for new posts. Let the readers see where you stand now and what is different and how it is different!
I will use it as an exercise of growth!
i talk about this in linking too!
http://tentblogger.com/linking
Great – I just made my Promise post on the blog! Wow this thing we call blog keeps growing day by day! Thanks John – truly an inspiration and a resource for everything!
sure thing! you’re doing a great job!
Great post,
I struggled with this for a very long time and still playing around with exactly what I want to get out of my blog and how it can help others. For now I promise to provide helpful information about living and information to know to readers so they can live a more enjoyable life.
“helpful info about living”… what does that mean?
To deliver practical ideas, thoughts and experiments you can try to move from existing to significance.
what about simplifying it even more? i like this start…
I’m a year late with this response, but I’m just now reading all of this fantastic information. I think it’s a good idea to get my promise out there.
I promise to provide 3 recipes each week that usually are healthy, generally are easy and always use whole, natural ingredients. With a kid-friendly project thrown in from time to time.
I am really late to this post, but maybe it’ll show up and you’d be willing to share some feedback.
My mission is 3 fold but I’m not sure how to put in paragraph form.
1. Share the latest photographs I made at various Christian concerts including; technical details as well as my success and failures
2. Share tutorials on various aspects of my post-production workflow
3. (I’m stuck for wording) share various ideas and philosophy’s of and about artists (photographers & musicians) who are followers of Jesus
Great advice! Thanks so much!