How Does Your Blogging Persona Affect Traffic?

(This is a guest author article.)

Nowadays everyone has a blog, which means there are many, many blogs out there. But who are the bloggers? Safe behind the computer screen, bloggers make choices about the image, or persona, they’re casting outward, and these choices can affect traffic just as much as the content.

A big component in what sets your blog apart from others’ is your voice. Your voice is the overall manner in which you present your blog’s content. Are you confessional? Or are you authoritative? Do you open up the floor for comments by asking your readers questions, or do you tell it straight up without much room for debate? How is this affecting your traffic? Do your readers visit once and then vanish, or do they return regularly and comment freely? Do newcomers often comment, or does it take them a few visits until they feel comfortable to contribute?

Your persona can also be formed through more indirect ways, such as your profile picture and your “About” section or page. Is your picture a casual, accessible photo of yourself? Or is it slick, posed and professional? Do you even have a photo? And then there’s the About area: do you list off your accomplishments or your pets names?

Depending on the style of your blog (confessional, authoritative, how-to, etc.), you’ll want to consider how you’re coming across to visitors. A quick exercise in this would be to take a look at blogs you visit often and ask yourself what it is about the blog that makes you keep coming back. Chances are it has something to do with the person, or persona, behind it.

Do you make a conscious effort to project a certain persona through your blog? Or do you wing it? How do you find this affects your traffic?