When people visit your blog for the first time, do they see a “Welcome” message that communicates value and tells them why they should stay? Or is it all about you?
My website is undergoing major renovations. One of the things I’m adding to my to-do list is creating a short “Welcome” blurb along with my photo. I’m taking a cue from blogger and social media marketing expert Mark Schaefer, whose short welcome message at his {Grow} blog might well be the best I’ve seen:
Isn’t that great?
Who doesn’t want to grow their business and be more profitable? Who doesn’t want to meet fascinating people? He’s even going to stretch my mind. And he promises it will be fun!
I immediately added Mark to three of my circles on Google+, and I made sure I was following him on the other social media sites.
I don’t even know him. But already, I’m a raving fan. His message has touched me in a way few others have. I wanted to know more about him, so I clicked on the “Us” button at the top of the blog.
Go to your blog right now and read your Welcome message. Is it all about you? Or is it all about your visitor?
It’s a good message but personally I dislike that use of “grow.” It’s overused business-speak. “Grow yourself.” Whaaaat?
It might have to do with where we each are in our businesses right now. I definitely need to grow! Maybe that’s why it resonated with me. Thanks for commenting, Janice.
I actually love the word grow. Coming from a self help profession and wellness platform, I guess it is in my belief system that we are always growing. Learning new things. Sometimes our businesses can only grow when we learn more about ourselves. But I hear you, loads of people are teaching growing your business by growing yourself and it does seem to be a common thread. Interesting!
Thanks for your comments, Sandra. Regardless of whether or not we like the word “grow,” I still love his Welcome.
Hi Joan!
We LOVE Mark! He has great insight and content. He has two useful books, too – The Tao of Twitter and Return on Influence. His Welcome is strong and it also presents a nice Call To Action, I think.
Thank you for sharing!
Best,
Lisa
Thanks for sharing the book titles and for commenting here, Lisa. I’m following Mark on the social media sits. Great find!
Hi,
I’m Edwin from Indonesia…
When I first came to your post, I thought I might find a “How to” post…
Because I’m actually looking for the HTML code to make such welcome note on my blog…
But, aside of that, I also find that welcome note interesting.
I should create a welcome message which is “all about my visitors”
Thanks for sharing…
Cheers,
Edwin
Edwin, thanks for stopping by.
The “Welcome to my Website” video was professionally shot in my office for just a few hundred dollars. I uploaded it to YouTube and used the YouTube embed code at my site.
My blog grows in size weekly, The growth needs to be in unique visitors. I would like for growth in popularity, I would like growth in earnings. My blog hasn’t made me even a dime. With 1700 plus articles. I write from within. Growth comes into play with getting discouraged. How many more will be homeless, or be evicted to move into a new location. Every situation is as unique as DNA.
Timothy
Brother Timothy, don’t just wait for the traffic to come to you. Go to where ideal readers for the blog are location on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Share snippets of your blog posts with them, and link to the posts.