Putting Readers First: Creating Content That Builds Trust

Jessica Woodbury, CJ Affiliatejwoodbury@cj.com

@jessicaesquire

Let’s Talk About Goals• Blog• Travel• Financial• Business

What Matters to Brands• Quality of Content• Quality of Photography• Relevance to their consumer• Numbers

The Most Important Question You Can Ask:

What am I doing to help my readers?

Helping Readers Helps You• The more readers enjoy your posts, the more

likely you are to get:• Returning readers• Social shares• Links from other sites• Brand interest• Higher search rankings

Types of Readers• Regular Readers• New Readers

Types of Readers• Direct• Referral• Social• Search

Regular Readers• Care the most about your voice and photos• Most sensitive to sponsored content• Rely the most on trust

New Readers• Social/Referral: • headline

• Search: • answer question• provide information

All Regular Readers were once New Readers.All New Readers can become Regular Readers

Of course it’s for my readers. Who else would it be for?

Post #1• Hotel I stayed in• Restaurant I ate at• Attraction I visited

What Do Readers Get

Out of It?

Post #2• Several hotels with detailed comparisons• Dining options with different cuisines• Research on multiple attractions • Package and tour options• Choices in different price points

What Do Readers Get

Out of It?

Helping Readers Helps You• What’s the experience like navigating your site…• For the first time?• On mobile? • If you want to subscribe to posts?• If you want to follow on social?• If you want to contact you via email?

Helping Readers Helps You• Is your site design and navigation…• Simple?• Welcoming?• Bombarding people with ads?• Using pop-ups that are hard to close?• Working with ads that cover your images?• Making it easy to find relevant content?

Insider Information• When Brands Look at Your Site• Numbers aren’t enough• Working together means putting my brand on your

site• I need to want to come back

Insider Information• What Matters for Search Rankings• Topicality• Authority• User Signals

Helping Readers Helps You• Improve search rankings• Detailed, thorough, relevant content• Links from other sites• Time spent on site• Clicking through to more posts

More Readers Means…• More leverage and influence.• More name recognition.• More brands say yes.• More people click and purchase through affiliate

links.

Help Readers Monetize Better• Creating opportunities for sponsored content• Higher traffic• Higher search rankings• Higher social shares

Help Readers Monetize Better• Creating opportunities for affiliate links• Posts that answer questions help increase clicks and

sales• Posts that help readers gather information increase

conversion rates• Posts that rank in search help you leverage higher

commissions

Add One Step To Your Post Process

Did I help my readers?