Every blog needs die-hard fans.

You know, the group of people who continously read, comment, and share your articles.

It doesn’t have to be a huge group—as Derek Sivers said, you only need one.

Why do you need these readers?

They lead to more exposure, more readers, and more fans of the same breed.

So here are a few ways you can turn 7 ways to turn active readers into die-hard fans.

1. Respond to every comment

You don’t know who will be your next die-hard fan, but you can make sure you don’t lose out on one by responding to each comment on your blog.

It’s simple and easy, but it makes a huge difference. People like to see a blogger who steps down from his throne to get to know each one of his readers.

2. Comment on your readers blogs

If your commenters engage with you, why not do the same for them?

Some blogs get no readership, so when you visit one of your fan’s blogs and leave something as small as a comment, I promise you they’ll take notice.

If your readers aren’t commenting on your blog, then search twitter & other social networks for people that are sharing your content. Find out where they blog, and leave an insightful comment for each of them.

3. Find influential readers

The easiest way to the top is to find your readers with influence, and engage with them. Remember, if they’ve commented on your blog or shared your content, they’re probably interested in both you and what you’re doing.

If you’re regularly interacting with your commenters, both on your blog and on theirs, you’ll see who has the influential blogs.

So, once you identify them, try and build those relationships through email, twitter, and Linkedin.

Once these people with influence get to know you better, they’ll be more likely to share your content, and if you continuously crank out great content, there’s no reason why they won’t become a die-hard fan.

4. Send your readers a quick “thank you” email

I did this a couple weeks ago, and I was happy with the results.

On my blog I have about 10 people that have left a ton of great, insightful comments, and I wanted to show them how thankful I was.

Because you have to leave your email when commenting, I found their emails through the comments section in my dashboard and wrote up a personalized thank you letter to each. Here’s an example of one I sent out:

(Name),

I know it might have been just a few minutes you spent reading and commenting on my blog a few months back, but I’d just like to say thanks. It really means a lot that out of all the SEO blogs out there, you decided mine was important enough to read and comment on. Also, the comments on my “as a link builder, I’m disappointed” post you left gave some great insight that your fellow readers and I thoroughly enjoyed.

I was wondering if there was anything I could do for you? Whether it’s any questions you have, and advice you might need, or anything else you could think of, I’d love to help out in anyway I can.

Thanks again (Name)!

Jon Cooper
Point Blank SEO

It took me a few minutes to write up each email, and I’ll bet my commenters never received something like that before. By showing them I care, they’re much more likely to consistently read and share my content.

5. Reader Hall of Fame

I saw this on a post about a year ago, and it really resonated with me.

If you see a reader that’s going above and beyond in consistently leaving comments or sharing your content, reward them for it.

Create a monthly “Reader of the month” post, interview them, give them a few links to their blog, and maybe even a free t-shirt.

Add them to your Reader Hall of Fame section, and I guarantee they’ll become one of your biggest fans.

6. Surprise your readers

Do something so awesome for your readers that they’ll be too excited not to tweet and share what you did with all of their friends.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be overly impressive; look what Charles Sipe did for Ian Lurie, and look at Ian’s response post.

7. Give away free stuff

You know why I’m such a big fan of Appsumo?

They constantly give away free stuff not only on their website, but also via twitter.

For those with a big budget this might be doable, but for others on a tight budget it’s not. For me, I’m planning to give away free link building services in a contest over the next few months. Sometimes your time is worth much more to your fans than a $10 giveaway.

Conclusion

The power of one is enormous, so take the time to get to know each of your readers and to nurture each one of those relationships.

You never know who’s going to be the reader that’s going to get your content seen by some of the top influencers, and when that happens, your success is exponential.

Do you know any other ways to turn active readers into die-hard fans? I’m dying to hear them in the comments below!

About the Author: Jon Cooper is a link builder who blogs over at Point Blank SEO. If you liked this article, follow him on twitter and add Point Blank SEO to your circles.

You know that email marketing is one of the best ways to grow your business.

How do you get started with email marketing?

You’ll need an email signup form. We’ve pre-coded email forms for those of you using AWeber, MailChimp, and GetResponse.

But today, we want to give you one last freebie that should make adding an email signup form to your site even easier.

The Problems We Set Out To Solve

Anyone who uses WordPress knows about WordPress widgets (and how easy they make editing your blog).

Since Thesis has a widgetized sidebar, you can tweak your sidebar anyway you want by simply dragging and dropping a widget in the sidebar area.

Previously, if you wanted to install one of our option forms before, you had to use a text widget to do so. While this was relatively easy, it posed three problems:

1. You needed to rely on using some extra HTML
2. It often made your widget area a little extra clunky
3. It was a little harder to understand for some less experienced WordPress users

So, we had a great idea…

Why not specially develop a widget that can streamline the installation process of an optin form?

One that required little-to-no knowledge of HTML and can be easily edited.

Good idea, right?

Right!

The Email Opt-in Form Widget (And it’s All Yours)

Check out the image to the right, and you can see just how flexible this widget is.

How great? It gives you LOADS of options that make tweaking and adding an email signup form to your sidebar a cinch. Here’s what it can do:

• Add your own title — Set the title of your optin form to anything you want, and easily change it later.
• Write your own description — You are given a text area to write a short description/pitch of what your newsletter is all about.
• Paste your optin code — You can paste your very own optin code right into this widget and not worrying about going back to your FTP to edit it anymore.
• Add social proof — We’re big on social proof here and if you want to add a quote or testimonial you received from someone about your newsletter, you can paste it right into this widget.

This widget is incredibly easy to use, and it displays an beautiful opt-in form right on your blog.

Take a look at the optin form I created using this widget in my upcoming Thesis skin, Marketers Delight 2:

Well, with this widget, you can have an equally beautiful opt-in form on your blog right now. And it’s free.

Download This Widget

Just click the big button you see below to download this awesome widget. Everything you need to know about this widget is in the ZIP folder you are about to download, including:

• Detailed installation instructions (it’s easy to install)
• How to customize your signup forms (for the non-code-savvy)
• Tips for formatting and managing your code

Warning: If you copy and paste the code incorrectly, you can create a PHP error on your site. To fix that, you’ll need FTP access so you can remove the code that you added into the custom functions file

Once you have the widget up and loaded on your site, be sure to show it off in the comments! I can’t wait to see how you guys use this great tool on your site.

About the Author: Alex Mangini is an 18 year old Thesis expert from New Jersey who creates premium Thesis skins at Kolakube.com.

Contrary to popular belief, how your blog looks has little to do with a great blog design.

Yes, a sweet blog design gives you an edge, but that’s the last thing you should worry about.

So, what makes a great blog design?

Answer this question:

Why Do People Visit Your Blog?

There are three types of blogs. There are blogs that focus on text content, audio content, or video content.

Which one do you have?

You likely have a blog that focuses on text content, and that’s perfect.

So, what’s the most important thing on your website?

It’s not your design… It’s not your opt-in forms… It’s your text.

The most important thing on a text-based blog is the text.

Go figure

But the question remains…

What Makes A Great WordPress Blog Design?

If text is the most important thing on your page, then the first thing you need to worry about is how your text looks, or your typography.

Luckily, with Thesis, many of your typography settings are already handled out-of-the-box. If you don’t use Thesis, you can use Chris Pearson’s golden ratio typography calculator and wrestle with CSS.

But after those typography settings, what else should you worry about?

How People Interact With Your Content Visually—And Why It’s Important

Each blog has what’s called a visual hierarchy, which is fancy for the information your text conveys without people reading it.

“Wait, what?”

Blog posts have structure. There are headlines, sub-headlines, regular text, links, and block quotes.

(In rare cases, you also have captions, call-outs, block quotes, and other forms of text-differentiation, but that’s for another day)

Each piece of this structure has a different goal… and more importantly… looks different than the other pieces.

So, let me break this down for you:

The Headline – The point of your headline is to grab attention, and that’s why it’s often the largest piece of text in your blog post.

The Sub-Headline – Your sub-headlines also grab attention, and their main purpose is to turn scanners into readers. So, they must be as compelling as your main headline, and thus, larger than other text on your page (aside from your headline).

The Links – Your links are often a different color than the rest of your text, and that’s the way it should be. Links beckon clicks.

(Warning: I’ve seen some people who make headlines and sub-headlines the same color as their links. That’s a mistake. There is text you read and there’s text you click. Don’t confuse the two)

The Lists – Lists break up large blocks of text, and since people have short attention spans, this helps you turn scanners into readers, and it also helps you keep readers reading.

The Regular Text – This is self-explanatory. This is the text that people read on your site, and it should be no smaller than 14 pixels.

Now why is this important?

If your blog doesn’t have structure, you’ll confuse your readers. They won’t know what they can click and what they can’t click.

They won’t know how to figure out what your article is about without reading it.

All-in-all, no structure is bad news.

But after your visual hierarchy and typography, what else should you worry about?

What’s The Main Goal Of Your Blog?

Look—when you run a blog, you’re doing it for a reason. You’re doing it for readers, revenue, and in some cases, reflection (but let’s be serious, if you did it to reflect, you wouldn’t make it public ).

You’re likely doing it for some financial reason, and that’s perfectly okay. Serious blogs take a ton of work, and you should be compensated.

So, given that, you’ve got to decide, what’s the main goal of your site? If it’s revenue, what’s the best way to grow that revenue?

In some cases, you may need to add ads on your blog, and that’s fine. However, if you’re selling products and services, or creating paid membership sites, I recommend email marketing for bloggers. It’s the best way to capture prospects that buy and continue to buy.

Given my focus on building an email list, the next part of a great blog design is all about how people subscribe to your email list.

You can start with the 4 high-converting email sign up forms (note how easy they are to add into Thesis).

Then, after that, you can work a Feature box into your design for the best conversions.

But now that you have your goals straight, what’s the next important thing? Is now the time to focus on the blog design?

No.

Can People Find The Information They Want?

When people visit your blog, yes your blog design matters, and yes it’s vital for building trust, but if people can’t find what they want, your design is pointless.

How can you help people find what they want?

That’s easy.

Create resource pages. A few of them. For example, we’ve got one about email marketing and WordPress SEO on DIYthemes, and that helps. We also have Thesis Tutorials and WordPress tutorials at RTFM.

You?

You need to create resource pages too, and you need to make them easy to find. I personally believe they should be featured prominently in your navigation or in your sidebar.

Most bloggers only feature navigation items like “Home, About, and Contact.” However, that’s a mistake. That’s not descriptive. That doesn’t help people find the information that your blog provides.

Resource pages, on the other hand, help them find exactly what they want… in just a few clicks.

Now what else do you need in your WordPress design?

Finally, you can focus on your WordPress Blog Design…

…But it’s not about being fancy.

It’s about having a cohesive blog design.

I write about that ‘how to create a wordpress blog design,’ but here’s the rundown:

1. Pick a nice font for your logo.
2. Pick another nice font for your sidebar headings.
3. Pick a color for your links, and then another color if you want it for anything else.

And bam.

You’re done.

Now I Pass It To You…

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.

Today, I’ve got five quick links for you.

How to Add a Pinterest Pin It Button to WordPress and Thesis

You might have heard about Pinterest. It’s becoming a huge deal, and in the past few months, has soared into one of the most popular websites on the interent (Alexa ranks it at 135). See the graph here:

Well, here’s how you can add a Pinterest Pin It button to your WordPress blog so you can potentially score some traffic.

Note: I don’t usually value Alexa data, but when a site soars that quickly, and it can be seen on Alexa just like that, it’s usually a huge deal.

Discover How Your Readers (and Customers) Make Decisions

Ever wonder what makes people choose one product over another? Or why discounting is HORRIBLE for business? Or why people use emotion in decision making (Hint: If you’re as rational as Spock, you’re doomed)?

Listen to this audio master class with Jonah Lehrer and I to learn all about it.

Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion

By now you’ve heard about the importance of stories, but why are they so effective? In this article by Psyblog, you’ll learn about the psychology behind what makes stories sell. Hint: It’s all about transporting your reader from one place to another.

Read Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion

The Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing

Did you see the latest resource on DIYthemes? It’s called Email Marketing for Everybody, and we dub it the “beginner’s guide to email marketing.” If you haven’t already, check it out.

A Complete Guide to Ranking Higher in Search Engines

This is an older resource, but still just as valuable today as it was when it was first written. This is the beginner’s guide to WordPress SEO. If you need a refresher, go check it out.

And that’s it for today!

If you have any links that you’d like us to Feature on DIYthemes, pop over to our Facebook page and let us know.

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you how simple text emails are more preferred than fancy html emails.

Now, the question is, how wide should you make your simple text newsletter?

Hardcore internet marketers often send a thin email, often no wider than 300 pixels, or 45-50 characters.

I always believed that was too thin, and on Social Triggers, I’ve often sent emails that were 380 pixels wide, or around 65 characters.

However, here on DIYthemes, I decided to run some tests, and here are the preliminary results:

First, Here Was The Setup

On AWeber, my personal favorite email provider, they make it extremely easy to run a split-test broadcast.

After clicking “create split test broadcast,” you’ll see a screen just like this:

As you can see, I just simply added 25% to each section. Then, when you press create split test, AWeber automatically generates 4 separate emails, each of which goes to 1/4 of a randomly selected portion of the email list.

Cool, right?

Now What Were the Email Split Test Variables?

As I said, I created 4 separate emails, and here’s how I broke each one down.

• Email 1: This email was limited to 380 pixels
• Email 2: This email was limited to 450 pixels
• Email 3: This email had no width, meaning the text would expand to the browser window.

And then, for an added test, this last email was a different type of email.

• Email 4: This email had no width, but the font was larger than then the other 3 emails.

So, for the purpose of this test, Email 1, Email 2, and Email 3 were competing with each other.

And then, Email 3 and Email 4 were also competing.

Now let’s look at the results.

If you’re wondering how I limit an email to a certain width, I simply add a table into the broadcast section with a specific width. In AWeber, it’s as easy as pressing a button

Preliminary Results: How Wide Should You Make Your Email Newsletter?

So, here’s what happened:

Now, as I said, these are preliminary email split test results.

But as you can see, it appears that no width with a larger font is the best solution.

Let’s break it down…

The first 3 emails were using the same font, and in that scenario, 380 pixels was the best for clicks, by a large margin.

To put that in perspective, on 10,000 emails, Email 1 would generate 380 clicks, whereas Email 2 would only generate 320 clicks, which means the results of Email 1 are ~18% better than email 2.

However, when you look at these test results, you can get the same number of clicks with less unsubscribes by simply using no width + larger font.

Now, I’m not one to complain about unsubscribes. If people are going to unsubscribe, they’re going to unsubscribe. That’s just the way it is.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek to minimize them where possible, which is why I like Email 4.

Further Testing Needed

The above test was based on one email broadcast.

And while the sample size was more than adequate, I won’t be happy until I replicate these same results over the course of several different broadcasts.

So, you can bet I’ll be doing that over the coming weeks.

Now, if you want more on email marketing, here are some articles you should check out:

1. Why Email Marketing Crushes Social Media Marketing (and How to Get Started)

2. Here’s How You Can Build Your Email List Fast (Three Articles on Effective Email Marketing)

3. How The Feature Box Increased Our Email Subscription Rate by 51.7%

And now, what do you think of these test results?

How wide is your email newsletter?

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.

The most efficient way to build a blog is by learning from your competition.

The problem is that most people don’t know what to look for…

…So they end up copying and stealing ideas—wholesale—with hopes and dreams of blog success.

Naturally, that often doesn’t work.

Yes, it’s possible to experience “some” success, but breakaway growth? I wouldn’t hold my breath.

So how can you learn from your competition without copying, stealing, or wasting your time?

The Pebble in the Pond

A few years ago I read a fantasy novel by Terry Goodkind, and he introduced me to an idea that he called “the pebble in the pond.”

It’s a simple idea, but the meaning behind it is remarkable, and when you know how to take advantage of it, you’re golden.

First, what happens when you throw a pebble into a pond?

A small splash, and then some ripples emanate from the contact point.

Now when you’re looking to create a blog, or do anything worthwhile, you want to be the pebble thrown into the pond.

You want to be the rock that causes the ripples, successfully altering the state of your world…

Because when you’re not the pebble, you’re simply surfing another pebbles’ wake, and the best you can do is pick up the scraps.

But, “Derek…”

What does the “Pebble in the Pond” Have To Do With Blogs?

When you look at what your competitors do right, and copy them, you’re not the pebble in the pond. You’re spotting your competitor’s ripples, and picking up the scraps.

That’s not learning from your competition. That’s copying them, getting sub-par results, and wasting your time.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to settle for the scraps. You can become the pebble that creates the ripples, and it’s easier than you think.

How?

The simple solution is this:

Look For a “Thread of Discontent”

Right now it’s easier than ever for people to air their opinions about other people, blogs, and companies. With blog comments, social media, and review sites, it’s almost impossible to escape them.

Now most people skip over these comments without giving them a second thought.

However, when you want to learn from your competition, you can read their comments and look for a “thread of discontent.”

What’s a “thread of discontent?”

It’s a problem that a majority of people have with one specific blog or company. It’s a chink in their armor, and it’s an opportunity for you to convert them into loyal subscribers and customers.

Why?

Remember, your competitor has created some ripples in their pond. When you find this thread and discontent, and solve it, that allows you to become the pebble that creates the ripples in the marketplace.

But now let’s look at some real life examples:

How Threads Of Discontent Helped Me Grow Social Triggers

As you read about in “reason why” article, when I launched Social Triggers, I did so by taking advantage of threads of discontent.

Back last year, people were complaining about blogs that would post fluff content with no data to back it up. I cured that by citing data in every article of mine.

People also complained that people were writing about the same ole stuff. I cured that by talking mainly about how psychology meets marketing (and I even quoted the psychology studies and researchers to back it up).

But even most recently, just a few weeks ago, I took advantage of another thread of discontent.

There are loads of podcasts in the world, and people would complain that they’d see “the usual suspects.” The people they’re used to seeing everywhere.

So, when I launched my podcast, I decided to go outside of the realm of the “usual suspects” and instead decided to feature world-class researchers from top universities, New Tork Times Best-Selling authors, and other people that may have been “unknown” in the world of blogging.

And what happened?

Simply telling people my plan attracted THOUSANDS of people to my site in 24 hours… The introductory blog post also attracted well over 300 blog comments.

Why?

It’s all because each “thread of discontent” helped me create the ripples in the pond, allowing me to experience breakaway growth… instead of scrounging for scraps.

How DIYthemes Took Advantage of A Thread of Discontent

Back when I got started building blogs, things were different. Really different.

I remember I started an entertainment site, and I wanted a 3-column WordPress theme. I wanted my content on the left, and 2 sidebars on the right.

I also wanted to add a unique header image to differentiate my site from the rest of the blogosphere.

I searched through the web endlessly for a design that would fit my needs, and I couldn’t find one. I ended up paying a developer a few hundred dollars to create me one from scratch.

I was annoyed, naturally.

And I wasn’t the only one.

Turns out that most people who were looking for blog designs wanted a specific column layout, a customer header image, a little embellishment, and that’s it.

No reason why that should cost $500 or $1000 or more!

That’s where DIYthemes came in.

Chris Pearson made it dead simple to create simple designs like that without using any code. What could cost as much as $1,000 suddenly cost $85 plus a little bit of elbow grease.

DIYthemes suddenly became the pebble in the pond.

And what happened? With over 40,000 customers, you can see first hand how lucrative curing a thread of discontent can be.

(Also, if you don’t currently own Thesis, learn more about it here, and see the pricing here)

Each Time One Thread of Discontent Disappears, Another Pops Up

Now you might be wondering:

“What if everyone solved every single thread of discontent in my market?”

But that’s just ridiculous.

As the market develops, new threads of discontent spring up, and it’s your job as a new business or existing business to find them.

And If you don’t, before you know it, it won’t be a pebble hitting your business… it will be a meteorite.

How Can You Discover “Threads of Discontent?”

That depends…

First, you need to find your competitors.

Remember, even though the blogging world is all about community, make no mistake. You’re competing for attention, and to win, you’ve got to treat it like a competition.

Now you likely know who your competitors are, and how to find them. If not, a simple Google search will help you.

Then, you need to infiltrate their community

I know that sounds shady, but I’m not talking about espionage.

Instead, simply read their blog comments, see who talks to them on Twitter, read reviews about their site (you’ll find them in Google), and do other market research just like that.

If you want to know what frustrates people, you’ve got to see it first hand. Plus, you can also implement my famous “what are you struggling with question?”

(That’s not necessarily about analyzing your competition, but you’ll find that people often respond with comments that can be weaved into a thread of discontent)

And Now I Pass It To You…

Are you the pebble in the pond, or are you trying to pick up scraps?

Tell me about it in the comments.

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.

There are millions of blogs, and the sad truth is this:

When someone visits a blog, they decide whether they should read or run in a few seconds.

You likely prefer that they read, so the question is, how can you prevent them from running?

You need to cure what I call “back button syndrome,” and here’s how you do it with these 3 trust triggers.

But First, What Is “Back Button Syndrome?”

People move through the web FAST.

And when they stumble on a site that they feel is “shady,” they slam their back button.

(Some people won’t even stick around to discover your “reason why.” They won’t even give your blog a fair shot).

Hence the name “back button syndrome.”

The problem is that there are some sites that lose visitors by mistake…

These sites aren’t shady… they’re just presenting themselves the wrong way.

And that’s where these trust triggers come into play.

What Are Trust Triggers?

When you use trust triggers, you can prevent your website from losing out on the visitors you rightfully earned… and DESERVE.

Why?

Again, remember, when people stumble on websites they decide whether they should read or run.

One of the ways to get people reading is by triggering trust because when people trust a site, they stick around. It’s that simple.

How can you trigger trust?

You can use one of these 3 trust triggers.

Trust Trigger #1: Logos

Have you ever been linked by a popular website? A news site? A blog? Anything?

Even if you haven’t, it doesn’t matter. Any logo helps build credibility instantly.

I’ll explain.

That's the DIYthemes sidebar

When people visit a website, they often look for a trust trigger. Something that makes them say to themselves “Okay, this site is the real deal… I won’t flee.”

Logos are one of those trust triggers. Even if people don’t recognize the logo.

Why?

People like knowing that other companies trust you and your blog. It’s social proof at work.

So, feature logos on your blog.

You could put them on your about page—like I do at Social Triggers—or you can feature them in your sidebar—much like we do at DIYthemes.com.

One note:

Before you feature logos, do make sure you’re allowed to do it by asking for permission.

Trust Trigger #2: Blog Comments

As you know, when people stumble on a blog, they decide whether they should read or run.

When they’re uncertain, they’ll look to other people to see what they decided, which means it’s not just about logos… it’s about people too.

That’s where blog comments come in.

If people stumble on your blog and see a lot of comments, they assume other people trust your site, and thus make the assumption that they should trust your site too.

Note

See how large I make my comment count?

If you don’t get many blog comments, don’t worry about it. You can dial down the importance of blog comments on your site by not displaying numbers unit you get them.

However, if you do get a lot of blog comments, you can dial it up by making your comment counter larger—like I do over at Social Triggers. Look at the picture to the right.

Trust Trigger #3: Subscriber / Follower / Reader Numbers

Like with blog comments, the number of people who subscribe, follow, or read your site can help you build trust instantly.

But first, what’s the difference?

Subscriber numbers are people who subscribe to your blog via RSS or Email.

Follower numbers are people who follow you on Twitter. For Facebook, you can simply call this “likes.”

But my favorite number is readers. This is quite simply how many people visit your blog.

It’s less specific, but it’s the best metric to display when you’re just starting out because it’s usually larger than all of your other numbers.

For example, if your site gets around 3,000 unique hits each month, you can easily say that you’ve got 3,000 readers monthly.

Now the question is which one should you show?

You should show whatever number that proves you’re credible, or in other words, whatever number is the largest (in most cases).

Because remember, when the numbers are small, and insignificant, it can have the reverse effect. Instead of building credibility, it can erode it.

The Bottom Line

Now that I showed you these 3 trust triggers, which one do you plan on using on your site?

Remember, even if you’re legit, and you’re running a real business that truly helps people, new visitors don’t necessarily know that.

You’ve got to help them “see” that you’re the real deal in just a few seconds and these trust triggers can help.

And then, the rest is up to you.

Once you get people to stick around, your next goal is to convert them into loyal subscribers. The feature box works perfectly for that.

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.

When you want people to read your blog or buy your products, you’ve got to convince them to do it.

And despite all the rage about the “caveman diets,” you can’t apply that here, and beat your customers with a club.

Instead, you’ve got to incentivize them. You’ve got to dangle a carrot, and let them chase it.

But what type of carrot should you dangle? Riches? Fame? World Peace?

Well, that depends…

Let’s Take a Step Back…

In the mega best-seller “Freakonomics,” Levitt and Dubner said “there are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social, and moral. Very often a single incentive scheme will include all three varieties.”

And they’re right.

In the online world, there are three incentives, and the trick to convincing people to do anything requires a mix of all three.

It’s not about which carrot you should dangle… it’s about how to dangle three carrots that send people in the same direction.

What Are Economic Incentives?

This one is easy…

It’s all about the money!

When people, especially in the business niche, decide whether they should buy products or read content, they often think “how will this help me generate revenue?”

And it’s up to you to connect those dots.

You can’t assume—or worse, Hope—they know how your product will help them generate revenue. You’ve got to tell them in clear terms.

Heck, look at how I started this blog post:

“When you want people to buy your products…”

And now, let’s move to the next incentive.

What Are Social Incentives?

Deep down, no matter who you are, you’ve got the innate desire to belong.

It’s firmly rooted in our DNA, and we likely evolved that way as a survival tactic. After all, human beings in groups were more powerful than human beings alone in the wilderness.

This same thing applies with products.

Without sounding cliche, just think about the famous Apple commercial where they make PC look nerdy, and Apple look cool. (You know, the whole “I’m a PC commercial…).

And Finally… The Elusive Moral Incentive

I’m of two minds when it comes to moral incentives for one reason:

Most people get it wrong.

Here’s the deal…

You might want people to support a great cause, but it’s not that simple.

Your morals are not your customer’s morals.

But keeping that in mind, morals, doing the right thing, and to a greater extent, justice, can kick people into gear to read your content and buy your products.

When you trigger it right, that is.

Now Let’s Talk About Why This Matters…

When you write content and sell products, you should aim to trigger each of these three incentives.

Not every piece of content needs to do it, but you should strive for it.

And what happens?

People will buy your products, share your content, and of course, read it to begin with!

How can you trigger these incentives?

There’s no hard and fast formula, unfortunately.

You just need to know that they exist… and when you’re getting ready to prepare content or a sales pitch… think about each incentive and how it applies to you.

Now I pass it to you…

How do you trigger each of these incentives?

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.

I’ve got some brutal advice for you today:

Just because you have a blog (or a business) doesn’t mean you’re entitled to readers (or customers)…

…You’ve got to earn them.

You’ve got to give these people a “reason why” they should read your site or do business with your company.

That said, I have a question for you:

What’s Your “Reason Why?”

Take a hard look at your blog or business.

Why should people do business with you instead of your competitor?

What do you offer that your competitors don’t?

What can people get from you that they can’t get anywhere else? What’s your “reason why?”

If you don’t have one, you’re doomed.

Before you focus on WordPress SEO, split testing, or anything like that, you’ve got to find your “reason why.” It’s STEP ONE.

Heck, I’d even go so far as to saying that you need your “reason why” before you even have a WordPress installation.

What Happens When You Have A “Reason Why?”

Good things…

Actually, make that great things!

I can only speak from my experience, so I want to share three stories with you:

1. The Entertainment World

By now, you’ve likely heard that I got started with blogging by running an entertainment site. The site was huge, and in one year, the blog generated around 30 million hits.

How did I grow that site?

Part of it was that I was in the right place at the right time, but what really helped me stand out was this:

Back then, I was the only entertainment site (celebrity gossip) that targeted college aged men—most gossip sites targeted women.

What was my “reason why?”

Men read my site because I gave them the gossip they wanted to read about.

2. DIYthemes Blog

You’re a loyal reader of the DIYthemes blog, so now I’d like to let you in on a little secret:

Loads of people read the DIYthemes blog because we offer practical information. Information that people can read, and go use on their websites today.

Yes, we traffic in “theory” once in a while—you need to—but mainly we focus in on practicality.

That was no accident.

I’ve heard complaints from people that blogs don’t offer any actionable information. So, when we launched the DIYthemes blog our main goal was to give people actionable information.

So what’s our “reason why?”

You read DIYthemes because you get actionable information that helps you build a successful blog.

3. Social Triggers

Earlier this year, I noticed some other complaints going on in the blog world…

People were sick and tired of reading fluff blogs (blogs that are all opinion with no data facts).

So, when I launched Social Triggers, my goal was to always present the data AND opinion. I focused in on psychology research, conversion optimization, and various other personal experiments I’ve ran on my own sites.

Or, in short, my “reason why” people should read my site was because I presented them with what they wanted: data.

Now I Pass It To You…

What’s YOUR “reason why?”

And if you don’t have one, find one.

If you don’t have one, people will go to competitors who do.

To get you started, here are some quick tips for creating your “reason why”:

1. Keep it concise (the shorter the better)
2. Keep it concrete (the more tangible the better)
3. Keep it clear (if you’re the only one who understands your “reason why,” you failed)

And that’s it.

Now I’d love to hear about your “reason why.”

Share it in the comments.

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.

It’s that time again…

We’ve got three resources you must check out.

There’s something for designers, bloggers, and of course, Thesis users.

Let’s jump right in.

1. Attention Design Nerds!

It’s time to take the guess work out of typography settings. In his latest article, Chris Pearson shows you how to tune your typography based on “characters per line.”

Additionally, he worked this magical formula into his golden ratio typography calculator.

What’s better than that? Good content + Great typography tool = WIN!

2. How to Land Major Media Coverage with No Connections

If you’re looking for more traffic, look no further…

Nothing builds credibility and generates traffic like getting featured on high profile blogs and in the main stream media.

How do you do it?

In this master class—it’s 100% yours, no charge—you’ll learn how to do it with “the drafting technique.” It’s super easy, and anyone can do it.

You’ll also learn the answer to the age-old question “is any publicity good publicity?”

3. The Beginner’s Guide to WordPress SEO for Thesis

Are you struggling with all the WordPress SEO options in Thesis?

We’ve just whipped together the beginner’s guide to WordPress SEO for Thesis, and it’s worth checking out.

And that’s it.

Hope the New Year is shaping up to be a good one for you!

About the Author: Derek Halpern is the marketing guy at DIYthemes, and the founder of Social Triggers. If you liked this article, you'll love his FREE podcast "Social Triggers Insider." Get it on iTunes by subscribing here.