How to Feed Your Blog: The Scheherazade's Approach

     

Soap operas are addictive

In case you have forgotten the tale: Scheherazade escaped the death she was due to meet at dawn by not telling the sultan the end of the story she had begun to tell in the night. The sultan spared her life because he wanted to know the end.

The power of the to-be-continued phrase has been used for ages by all kinds of people, not only marketers. How many parents have already promised: "I'll tell you tomorrow... if you sleep right now".
The promise of a good story does not lose its magic as the listener grows up. Its name changes. It is called a serial story, a saga, a series, a novel... or a blog post. It appears in the form of a book, a movie, an audiobook, a DVD ... or a blog.
It is always the same old storybook. Even the one that comes dressed to the nines and is called "news" is no more than a story. It is well groomed to hide it is a bad one.

Each and all human beings like stories. Your prospects and customers as much as yourself. Give them what they are craving for. Blogging is easy. In fact, there are few things easier to do than to tell stories. You are an expert, like anyone else. A story does not start with "Once upon a time..." but with "It's not me, Mum, it's the dog". And if you say you are not an expert, you are telling a story!

Of course, it asks for some work and skills to write it into a satisfactory shape. Not any form suits any story, even if it looks entertaining to write a detective story into the form of sonnets. The readers will not follow you. To keep your readers, choose the right form. In case of doubt: the simplest pattern will always beat the most appropriate.

The Scheherazade's approach works fine with everlasting stories. The end of the episode must never coincide with the end of your blog. The chapter you post ends with something on the lines: "... and suddenly, as he felt he could no longer hold her above the precipice... (to be continued)".

If your company is large enough, it is likely that many things happen, almost on a daily basis. Your Scheherazade may tell a true story: yours and your company's.

It is not a quick strategy (though I assume that porn stories quickly get a large audience), but it is a winning one. You cannot be wrong with telling the right story.