How to Solve Your Reader’s Problems

Solving your reader’s problems is the foundation of every successful blog.

Why then do few bloggers make real money online if they know this basic truth?

Well, many bloggers have no clue in heck how to actually solve their reader’s problems. They know the basics: help people, promote other bloggers, be useful, persist, blah blah blah….but do not know specifically how to extract problems from their reader’s minds.

This is an art form, this problem-solving bit. If you master the art you help folks and earn sweet income online. If you struggle to master this skill you will be as frustrated as a little baby who’s crying for its rattle.

Think more like a surgeon and less like a blogger. Surgeons cut with precision. Surgeons study and observe and mindfully take steps to repair the human body, scientifically moving through the process in a logical fashion.

You too will become a surgeon. A blogging surgeon. This means you will carefully and deliberately think through how you can better get inside your reader’s minds to serve them dutifully. No need to ever reach for a scalpel either, if you are squeamish.

The Challenge

The chief challenge of solving problems is not knowing how to identify and extract problems from our readers. Most folks hate sharing their pains. They do not want to complain. Other people are living a lie, trying to create the illusion of being successful but in reality, struggling to get around blogging-wise like a spider with 1 leg.

Your biggest challenge is learning how to skillfully glad your readers to share their problems so you can solve these issues through your blog posts, videos, podcasts, and eBooks.

Why Solve Problems?

Your reader’s problems are goldmines. All the traffic, profits, comments and loyal fans you desire rests inside these pain points. Find ‘em and you will unlock the prime secret to successful blogging: problem solvers have fun serving others and problem solvers get paid!

Take the focus away from you. Move your attention to your readers and their biggest issues. This magical shift cultivates your compassion, expands your awareness and allows you to serve people effectively.

Follow these 3 tips to solve your reader’s problems

1: Ask Questions Via Social Media and Your Email List

Asking questions via your email list and social media is the easiest way to solve your reader’s blogging problems.

I made the silly but painful mistake of trying to guess my reader’s problems for many years. Sometimes I nailed down a particular struggle effectively but going to the source would have saved me year’s worth of headaches.

Email your list. Ask readers what problems they are having with their blogs. Ask what they are struggling with. Ask if they need your help.

2: Spot Pain Point Patterns on Top Blogs from Your Niche

Spot pain points on authority blogs from your niche to solve reader problems easily.

Industry heavies have their finger on the blogging pulse of your niche. If they address these pain points your readers are suffering through similar problems.

Trawl comments on top blogs. What do bloggers seem to struggle with the most? What irks them? What frustrates them? Polling your readers is a simple way to spot pain points but observing patterns via top blogs verifies your poll-induced hunches.

Simply checking out blog post titles on top blogs clues you in to pressing pain points.

3: Compassionately Step into their Shoes’

Sometimes successful bloggers get out of touch. Many forget what it feels like to work 12 hour days to only see 5 visitors a day to their blogs. Few top bloggers remember how it felt to bust your tail for months only to make pennies through your blog for a 6 month period.

Step into your reader’s shoes. Be compassionate. Visualize yourself building a blog with common fears, hopes and dreams dancing around in your head.

I love imagining myself as a struggling new reader before I write any blog post for Blogging From Paradise or guest post. Patiently step into this person’s reality. Think and feel like a human being. Either these folks are new to blogging or have struggled for a while. A percentage of these readers may be successful but want to step things up 10 notches.

Picture yourself as these readers from a compassionate space to better solve your reader’s problems. When you see blogging as they do you experience their problems and deftly create solutions tailored specifically to those problems.

Your Turn

What tips can you add to this list?

Author Bio: Ryan Biddulph is a blogger, author and world traveler who’s been featured on Richard Branson’s Virgin Blog, Forbes, Fox News, Entrepreneur Dot Com and Neil Patel Dot Com. He can help you retire to a life of island hopping through smart blogging at Blogging From Paradise.