Being a stay-at-home mom, I have a strange love/hate relationship with daytime television.
Since there are only so many judge shows a person can handle, I cling dearly to anything that breaks that mold. And my 3pm guilty pleasure is Let’s Make a Deal.
If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s a remake of a 70’s classic where folks are given fabulous prizes — and the chance to give them up for something even better.
The rub? Oftentimes, you give up something pretty darn good just to get “zonked.” This means you’re left with a clever prize worth nothing, like a pair of giant rubber stinky feet (I’m not making that up).
The other day I was watching LMAD (hosted perfectly by Wayne Brady) and a woman was straight-up given $1000. As a college student, $1000 was a pretty sweet deal for her. But, she gave it up for the chance to win a car.
In the game she played, she was shown a board with 25 keys and 30 seconds to find the one to unlock the car.
She got through 10-15 keys before time ran out. This is a game based purely on chance, because there’s no way to tell one key from another.
But, what if there was? What if you had a way to throw out half of the keys right off the bat? You’d have a darn good chance of winning that car.
Do you feel like that scrambling game show contestant?
After the last lesson, are you the one standing on the stage with 25 keys without a clue which to try first?
You’d find yourself in quite a pickle trying to tackle them all, even without the LMAD-ish time limit. Like I said the other day, what that list really represents is options — in all likelihood, you could haunt each of those locations and pick up some new readers. But which ones are the best sources? Where will you find the most likely readers?
Remember principle #5 of reader-centered marketing? We’re all about streamlining promotion and working smarter — not harder!
Our goal today is to narrow down your reader hangout list into (no more than) the five best locations. Then, for those five, I’m going to issue you a challenge — but I’ll explain in the homework 
SO, how do you evaluate each location? Before I give you the scoresheet (because you guys know I’m all about easy-to-use worksheets), let’s examine just what makes an awesome reader hangout…well, awesome.
4 Secrets to Choosing the Right Reader Hangouts
It’s about quality, not quantity
Think of yourself as a blob of peanut butter, and the locations in which you’re marketing are each represented by a piece of bread. The more places you hang out, the less of you/peanut butter you’ll have for each piece of bread. You’re literally spreading yourself too thin!
Trust me, the potential readers will be able to tell.
Taking Twitter as an example, which author do you think will earn more readers?
- Nicey Nancy, who spends about 30 minutes a day replying personally to comments and creating tweets of value -OR-
- Spammy Sammy, who preset two weeks worth of tweets consisting of nothing but links to their work?
I know that’s kind of a silly, obvious example, but you know you’ve seen authors who have done that. They’re likely the same authors who then wonder why Twitter isn’t working for them!
Find common ground with your reader
What hobbies or interests to you have in common with your reader?
It doesn’t do you any good to hang out in a cooking blog (even if your reader is passionate about it) if you’re more likely to order takeout.
Human beings have an incredible ability to determine when someone is being genuine about a passion or interest — even online. We each have a wide variety of interests, experience and knowledge — I know you can find something you and your reader have in common!
Only choose places where you can add to the discussion
Wherever you hang out, ensure you can stand out in each location.
That is, you’ll need to contribute to the location’s dialog, adding value to the discussion. In a way, this goes hand-in-hand with finding common ground.
For example, let’s say your reader is a travel afficionado. Maybe you like travel as well, but when you visit travel blogs you find yourself simply saying ‘great post,’ no matter how hard you try to think of something to add.
Sadly, that commenting strategy isn’t going to be effective in piquing the interest of potential readers. If you are truly passionate on the subject, however, and can contribute through a guest post or inspiring/funny/controversial/intelligent comments, the results will be much better.
Don’t take the easy route
It can be temping to stick to online locations to find readers, but don’t neglect the possibility of checking out offline locations.
Check out every location last lesson’s exercise produced! Don’t ix-nay a location just because it might be too much work. Sometimes it’s those locations that pay off the most!
If the location holds no interest to you, however, it’s probably best to cross it out.
Need help? Check out the Sweet Reader Hangout Scoring System
Now, the rules above are a pretty good set of guidelines for whittling down that list, but maybe you’re looking for something a little more black-and-white. I hear you — something it’s a tough call to make on gut-feeling alone — that’s why I created the Reader Hangout Scoresheet.
Download the PDF or use the template below to score each location. For each criteria, give the location a score of 1-5, 1 being lowest, depending on how much you agree with each statement below.
- This is a location I would visit even if readers didn’t hangout there
- This is a location in which my readers are highly engaged (ie, can’t wait to visit/devotes total attention while there)
- This is a location my reader sees as authoritative or trendsetting
- This is a location where I can easily add to the discussion
Scoring System Example:
(the below is totally made up and isn’t intended to be representative of any particular author/genre)
Twitter: 5 + 3 + 3 + 5 = 16
Rationale: I love Twitter, but my readers have told me they’re only half-paying attention while visiting the site. Probably because there’s so much spam out there — it’s hard for the site to be very authoritative. You can’t tell what’s valid from what isn’t! It’s really easy for me, however, to add to the discussion on there.
Facebook: 5 + 5 + 4 + 5 = 19
Rationale: I’m not going to lie, I log onto Facebook every morning and I know my readers do the same. There is some spam on Facebook that gets tuned out but, for the most part, it’s a great spot to find new trends. I hang out on several pages my readers frequent — they’re topics I really enjoy, so it’s easy for me to add to the discussion.
Travel blog A: 3 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 18
Rationale: Travel blog A is okay, but, to be honest, I’d probably only visit it once a week or so if my readers didn’t hang out there. It does, however, get a ton of comments and is one of the leading travel blogs around, so I know its a trendsetter. I love travel, and can always find a way to add to the discussion.
Local book club: 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20
Rationale: My local book club is amazing, and everyone gets really into whatever book they’re reading. The local bookstore always displays their latest pick and, although I’m not a member, I read along, so it would be a snap to add to the discussion.
GoodReads: 3 + 3 + 3 + 5 = 14
Rationale: I’m an avid reader, but GoodReads has never grabbed me, for some reason. I might log in once a month if I wasn’t marketing my book, but no more than that. It seems I can always add value to a discussion of my current read, but so many authors find ways to spam on there, I’m not sure anyone is listening.
Now, the above are examples I just made up, but it gives you an idea of how to use the scoresheet. Download the scoresheet and score each location you found in last lesson’s exercise(s), narrowing your list down to the top 5 locations. Have it done by homework time, because I’ll be issuing you a challenge! *throws gauntlet*
It’s Your Turn!
Do you have any other methods of scoring each location to add? Were you surprised which locations scored higher than others? Let’s discuss in the comments!
