143: How to Create a Discussion Starter [Challenge]

Challenge: Create a Discussion Starter This is 6th challenge in ProBlogger’s 7 Days to Getting Your Blogging Groove Back Challenge that we kicked off back in episode 138. You can listen to it in the player above or here on iTunes. If you’re new to the challenge - this week I’m nominating a different style of content for you to create each day over the week and the challenge is to create a post within 24 hours of hearing about it and then sharing it with us in our ProBlogger Challenge Group on Facebook in this thread. It’s Sunday for most of us as this goes live and so I’ve decided to make it a challenge that is potentially a bit more bite sized for most of us! Before I tell you about today’s challenge…. I also quickly want to tell you about something that is happening in a couple of days time - we’re putting virtual tickets on sale for this year’s ProBlogger event. We hold an annual event for bloggers here in Australia each year and this year - by popular demand - we’re bringing back our virtual ticket so that those of you unable to get out to Australia can come along virtually and get all the amazing teaching we offer live attendees. The virtual ticket will be available early next week at ProBlogger.com/virtualticket where you can now sign up to be alerted when they go on sale. My challenge for you today is to start a discussion and to create a piece of content that attempt to get your readers engaging in some way. Now this might be a bit daunting for some of you just starting out who might not have much of a readership yet - but it’s something that I used to do in the very early days of my blogs that I’m glad that I persisted with. You might only have 2 readers - but when you show them that you’re interested in engaging it can have a big impact. And remember - this challenge isn’t just about writing blog posts. You might choose today to create content in another format. Live stream Instagram Facebook Twitter 5 Quick reasons why asking your readers questions and starting discussions can be good: It gives readers a sense of Community and Participation - if you follow up when you do get an interaction it could be the beginning of a long term reader! It increases Blog Stickiness - people are more likely to come back once they’ve interacted These posts don’t take a whole lot of effort to write (although can take some moderation) They are great for helping you to gauge where your readers are at on certain topics and can even give you ideas for future posts. They open up opportunities for followup posts as you summarize the answers, pick up conversations and even answer the question yourself etc. What question should you ask? Keep it relevant to your blog’s topic Ask a question that builds on a previous post Ask questions that are answerable Ask questions that readers will want to know the answer to Suggest some possible answers Either or questions can be great for starting a debate You can use a poll plugin to give your readers a way to vote on options Controversial questions can be great for starting a debate Be willing to share your own answer Do this in the content itself Hold off and let your readers respond first Do you have a frequently asked question that you don’t know the answer to Sometimes more personal questions can be worth asking What is Your Favorite DSLR Lens? Most Popular DSLR Lenses Answer your own question in comments, specifically ask people to answer (friends, influencers, regular commenters), promote the discussion The Challenge: Create your discussion starter - publish it Share the link in this thread in our ProBlogger Challenge Group on Facebook - please look for day 6’s thread to do it in Check out what others are doing - please engage with as many as you’re able to - help each other get some discussions going Update: Here are the rest of the Challenges in th...