Does your blog attract embarrassingly few readers?
And do you struggle to convert any of them into loyal subscribers?
The fact is, once you learn how to start a blog, even if your content rocks, you could still be driving people away by neglecting one simple thing.
If a key element on your blog is either inadequate — or missing entirely — visitors could feel confused and leave.
It may stop people who find your site with a search from clicking through and checking you out, too.
I’ve been reviewing scads of blogs lately, helping writers set them up to earn better, and I’ve found that one blog element is a consistent problem.
The tagline.
Your Readers Need You to Give Them a Sign
One of the first places your new visitors look is up in your header. They’re feeling a little awkward, because they don’t yet know this virtual place. They’re hoping your blog’s title and tagline will fill them in.
Your tagline is a key piece of directional signage on your blog. It’s like one of those big freeway signs that indicates what attractions you’ll find if you exit at the next off-ramp.
Don’t you hate when those are unclear, and you end up in the wrong town, or you can’t find the fairground? I personally loathe getting lost.
Imagine your new blog visitor looking up at your header — your road sign — and wondering, “Am I in the right place? Is this blog really for me?”
If your tagline is either non-existent, a random statement, overlong, or vague, your reader can’t tell if your blog is really for them. And confused visitors are visitors who leave, often never coming back.
Why Big Blog Taglines May Have You Confused
Part of the problem is that bloggers get inspired by the hugely popular blogs they see — and copy them. But taglines are one of those situations where you, as a newbie, can’t do it the way the big guys do.
When you’re Gizmodo, for instance, you can do something funny or random with your tagline. (Theirs is: “We come from the future.”)
You can also have no tagline at all, because everybody already gets it. If you’re, say, Mashable. Other big blogs with no taglines visible on their headers include Engadget, Cheezburger, Jezebel, Deadspin, and Kotaku.
That doesn’t mean you should have no tagline.
When you’re a new blogger trying to build an audience and not an internationally known brand name, your tagline is a critical piece of real estate for communicating with both readers and search engines.
How can you construct a tagline that helps your blog attract just the sorts of readers you want and turn them into loyal subscribers so you can eventually make money blogging?
There are three effective ways a good tagline can attract new readers and help them quickly understand what you’re all about:
1. Refine the Topic
The tagline goes beyond the information we get from your blog name. If that name is a bit inscrutable, the tagline explanation is completely key.
Sometimes the tagline helps narrow down the topic, as on Gail Gardner’s Growmap. From that title, I’m not quite sure what type of growth we’re talking about, but the tagline spells it out for me:
Aha! This is about business growth. If I’m a business owner, I’m sticking around. If I was looking for personal enlightenment tips instead, I move on.
Other times, the tagline signals a broader scope and includes readers who otherwise might have assumed the blog wasn’t for them.
Take Tiny Buddha, for instance. Hearing that blog’s name makes me think that maybe this site is just for Buddhists. But their tagline welcomes a broader group of readers:
Whose life isn’t complicated these days? With those five powerful words, they’ve made this a blog for nearly everyone looking for insights and stress relief.
Many blogs are named after the author. In these cases, the tagline is super-critical in defining your topic, as you see here:
This one’s really clever — because who doesn’t think of themselves as smart? Steve gets everyone saying, “Hey, that’s me!”
Which brings us to the next key aspect to incorporate into your tagline:
2. Include the Reader
When they land on a new blog, one of the big things readers want to know is, “Is this blogger writing for people like me?” If not, they’re outta there.
With the mommy blog Outnumbered 3 to 1, for instance, we don’t quite know what the blog topic is from that headline. But the tagline tells us who the reader is:
Many blog names are flat-out inscrutable without their tagline, as with this legal blog:
Aha! Now I know that if I’m someone who’s interested in the intersection of crime and the law, this blog is for me.
Many big blogs leave the reader out of their tagline. For instance, The Huffington Post’s is “Inform. Inspire. Entertain. Empower.” But as a smaller niche blogger, it’s vital that you let your readers know right away that you get who they are, and that you’re writing about what they need to know.
Many bloggers don’t include the reader in their blog tagline, I’ve found, because they have yet to crystallize in their own minds who that reader is.
If this is you, stop now and create a profile of your target reader. You can’t grow your blog without knowing your audience. Stop saying your blog is “for everybody, really.” No successful blog is like that.
Once you have a picture of your reader in mind, see if your tagline would speak to that reader. If not, rewrite it until it does.
3. Show Your Personality
Your tagline is also the ideal place to give us a sense of your writing style. Will we get humor, snarkiness — what’s the tone here?
For instance, the blog of writer John Lee Taggart, Storytime with John, helps you get the drift of his writing approach with the conversational language and content of its tagline:
Likewise, we get an instant sense of the snort-milk-funny worldview of The Bloggess’s Jenny Lawson in her tagline:
Personality-driven headlines aren’t always funny ones. Sometimes they’ve got a no-bull attitude that signals the way they do consulting, as with business expert, author, and TV personality Carol Roth:
Carol isn’t looking for emotionally fragile business owners to work with — and she makes it clear right away. Getting your personality into your tagline can help you screen out the undesirables, and people who love your attitude will want to stick around.
How to Get Your Tagline in Front of Your Readers
If your blog has a graphical header, the easiest way to showcase your tagline is often to add the appropriate text directly on the header image.
However, some blog layouts don’t really have a good spot for a tagline there. If that’s you, there’s always the option of hiring a developer to modify your existing theme, or of switching themes to get a tagline spot.
But if you don’t want to change, that’s OK! You can still get your tagline out there.
One way is to put your tagline in your home page’s <title> tag. That way, readers can see your tagline in their browser’s tab or title bar.
That’s what celebrity-news site TMZ does. There’s no visible tagline on the site, but their browser tab says: Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Celebrity News | TMZ.com.
Another advantage to adding your tagline to your blog’s <title> tag is that it will appear in search results — another place where potential readers need to decide in a split second if your blog is right for them.
Quick Sprout uses this method to get the tagline “Make Better Content” to appear next to the blog name in Google’s results:
In fact, you should consider doing this even if you’ve added your tagline to a graphical header, because any text you embed in graphics won’t be visible to search engines.
So how do you achieve this in practice?
The Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress makes it easy to change the <title> tag for your site’s home page. It also allows you to update your blog’s “meta description,” which is the text appearing beneath the result’s title. You can use this feature to expand upon your tagline to tell readers more about your site.
Case Study: Watch Me Improve My Tagline
Why am I so obsessed with taglines? I found my own tagline for Make a Living Writing hard to create, and it went through several iterations. Here’s the original, which wasn’t helping me get many subscribers:
What was wrong here? The tone is kind of snarky — “frank advice,” to me, sounds sarcastic. Which would be OK if that was the tone I was going for, but instead I’m trying to be helpful, approachable, authoritative, and fun.
It also leaves open the question, “For whom?” An audience of editors? Businesspeople? It’s not good to create mystery about who you’re writing for.
The other problem? I soon learned that most writers don’t think of what they’re doing as a business! So I was probably sending away the bulk of my audience with that phraseology.
I applied the three principles above to rewrite my headline. The “business” part stuck out to me as the biggest problem in identifying my target reader, so it had to go:
That helped, but “frank” still had a tone that wasn’t quite right, and now there wasn’t enough definition about the type of writer who would benefit from reading my blog.
Novelists? Staff writers at newspapers? People who write in personal journals? There are lot of types of writers out there!
This tagline wasn’t striking the right tone, defining the topic well, or identifying the reader with enough detail.
I kept on tweaking, until I finally got all the elements incorporated into one succinct tagline.
Here’s what my tagline is today:
See the difference?
The tone is more in line with the vibe I want. You get more detail on what you’ll find on the site — real-world, usable tips. And now the readers are more clearly defined as writers who are looking to earn money from their work. Bingo!
The minute I switched to this tagline, subscriptions picked up. I had a few hundred subscribers back in the “frank advice” days — and I have 17,000 now.
The final improvement in the new tagline is the length. The original tagline was seven words long, and this one is five. That may not seem like a big difference to you, but it will to your time-pressed readers.
Shorter taglines are snappier, more memorable, and more impactful in helping readers decide whether to stay or go.
Write (or Rewrite) Your Killer Tagline
If you’re not getting the numbers of readers and subscribers you want, it’s time to write a tagline, or tweak the one you’ve got. Don’t be discouraged! It isn’t easy to sum up everything you do on your blog, and who you do it for, in just a few words. But it’s worth the effort.
Show visitors you know them, clue them in about your topic, and share the flavor of your writing. That’s a killer combo that helps you attract the exact subscribers you want.
I struggled for a long time with a tagline. And then I decided to let it go.
When people come to my home page, they see right away the words “Are You Tired Of Asking Yourself…What Should I Do With My Life?” Along with a free download to help them discover their life purpose.
For me, that works just as well as a tagline…
Definitely better than nothing, Ed — but if you could boil that down to something like: “Discover what to do with your life” it would be quicker for people to ‘get’…
I agree with Carol. Another idea is “Find your life’s purpose”. Brainstorm some ideas with others or just keep a notebook handy and jot down ideas as they come to you until one grabs you.
Thank you so much for sharing your valuable experience, Carol. The devil is in the details and I know that experienced bloggers like yourself have all the help to prevent newcomers like myself from tripping over ourselves!
You are appreciated!
Thanks for this, Carol. Really helpful stuff. Just wondering: is it OK for your tagline to say “A blog about…” or is that too wordy? The reason I ask is that it’s not obvious from my website name (MyKids4Humanity) that it’s a blog. So I was thinking of saying something like: “A blog about raising compassionate kids”. Right now my tagline is Teaching my kids social responsibility” but I don’t think people really get what that means. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.
I think it’s self-evident, Karen…and that “Raising compassionate kids” makes a VERY snappy tagline!
Thanks for the advice – much appreciated!
Yes, you gave the answer to your best tagline in your comment: “Raising Compassionate Kids” is perfect.
I love this post, Carol, because you provided so many visual examples to make the concept so clear that anyone can apply it.
This is also important for how you brand yourself. The best example I can share is Matthew Pollard. If he told people he was a business coach (which he is), people would yawn and think, “I don’t need one of those right now”. But instead, he tells them he is the “Fast Growth Guy”. Who doesn’t want to know more about that?
He focuses on helping people figure out what their personal brand tagline should be – which they can then use on their site and blog, too.
Thank you Carol!
Writing effective taglines is one of the toughest things I teach our students. Everyone wants to be cute and clever but misses the experience from the visitor’s perspective and what the visitor needs to see to determine if the site they just landed on is for them.
Thanks for giving me a handy reference guide! 😉
So true, Marsha — much like with your LinkedIn tagline, too many people don’t understand that this is key real estate for orienting your reader, and for SEO.
Thanks Carol for sharing about tagline on the blog name.
After reading it through, I should start thinking about my blog which is the reflection of life. That should/ will draw in more crowds.
And my next step will be subscribers to my blog.
Marvelous article. =)
Hi Carol,
Great post (as always!). I keep coming across content surrounding branding, so I think it’s time to buckle down and figure this out! A tagline is something I knew was needed but dropped it because my WP theme didn’t really have an optimal spot for it.
I’ll be following this post step-by-step!
Jennee
Hi Carol,
Great to see you back on BBT… um, I mean Smart Blogger! 🙂
Thanks for the great tagline tips. You gave me something to think about. I’ve long held the belief that my blog’s title (Be A Better Blogger) was one of those rare domains that explained to the reader exactly what the site is all about — no tagline needed.
“Oh, this site is about how to become a better blogger,” I imagined my hypothetical visitors thinking to themselves.
But I’ve long thought the same about your domain name, Carol. “Make A Living Writing” is, to me, super descriptive. I knew exactly what you were all about the first time I visited your site.
And yet, you have a tagline. Not only that, your number of subscribers skyrocketed after you changed your tagline’s tone!
So, maybe I could benefit from a tagline as well. Food for thought. 🙂
Hope you’re having a great day, Carol, and I hope this post of yours receives 100 comments. Off to tweet!
– @kevinjduncan
Hi Kevin — I agree that your blog name is fairly self-explanatory — but I wouldn’t miss out on the chance to orient us a bit more with the tagline. What will you GIVE me, so that I’ll become a better blogger? You could give us more descriptors that add allure in the tag.
Carol, as I have worked through the Small Blog Big Income workbook, the need for a good tagline has really stuck out. An effective tagline can really add depth to attract new readers. In many cases, that one glance is all you get.
I agree this is *SO* important, Carol. When you have just a few seconds to make that first impression, a great tag that tells a story and shows a benefit is huge. I’ve also gone through several iterations to polish and hone. Nice work! What an excellent guide.
Absolutely — writers, keep tweaking! Just because you wrote one tagline, doesn’t mean you can’t keep improving it.
Also, introducing a new tagline is a great soft-sell marketing opportunity. “Hey, I changed my tagline — let me know what you think!”
Thank you, Carol:
I thought I was sleepless all night re-thinking my tag line because I was insane….
I run two blogs and while I don’t have a tagline on my fiction writing one (yet) I do have one on my make up blog. I’m so tired of make up blogs telling me what colours and products I should be using just because the season has changed, so I’ve taglined it ‘Your Face. Your Rules’.
I like it!
Hi Carol.
Thanks so much for the tips.
My blog is Lydias Official Blog, I blog about everything social,picking out the excesses of the government.
I do need a tagline.
I’ve been thinking about using “A Critic’s Library”.
Hmm…what would a critic’s library BE, exactly? I’m not sure that’s enlightening us.
Well then…
I’d appreciate if you would help me with something enlightening,really.
I’m just a critical writer.
Lydia, perhaps start the thought process along the lines of …. “A critical look at the world around me”.
Thank you Carol.
And here I was thinking my tagline was good enough. Now second thoughts are starting to creep in. Taglines is just one of those that I didn’t pay much attention to, after all I thought the other content was much more important, but you’ve at least encouraged me to brainstorm some ideas. We’ll see how that goes.
Hi Carol,
I so enjoyed reading your post – clear and to the point – thank you.
I know I am not alone in my failing – trying to be too clever (whether literary or humorous) as opposed to appealing to what the reader actually wants and delivering it clearly.
Marsha will bear witness – I’m always trying to stuff greens into people who want cupcakes.
So thanks, Carol. Will study and one day I might learn!
I can’t tell you how many taglines I’ve seen that are a quote from some famous writer, Twain, or Austen or something. That is NOT what you want. Make your tagline YOUR voice!
Phenomenal post … esp. the case study section on your own evolution!
I like Demian Farnworth’s, “Essential web writing advice.”
And naturally I’m partial to my own, “Saving the world from bad content.”
I like it!
Carol,
Great post and thanks for the advice. I just started my blog after months of agonizing over a domain name, trying to narrow down my focus. I do have a tag line to go along with it but I am not quite sure if I’m in love with it yet. The blog title is Life Is Better With Tea and the tagline is “simple healthy tea recipes for body and soul.”
I am trying to get across that it is more than just a tea recipe site. This blog embraces the nature and philosophy of tea; happiness, balance, spirituality and wellness. I am hoping that makes sense to other people besides myself.
I think you’ll need to find a way to get more of that into your tagline, Mary Ann.
I agree. Just haven’t found it yet.
‘Recipes for balance, health and happiness’ ?
“happiness, balance, spirituality and wellness.” It makes sense to me! This sounds like an awesome blog idea. I’m going to check it out. 🙂
Just changed my tag line five times. Thank you, Carol. Why do your posts feel like a green light for change?
I’m glad to hear they feel that way — I never write for people to just go ‘huh’ and then go back to their day. I want things to really get better!
But…why five times?
Tweaking it toward a more representational tag. With a blog titled BoomerPdx I need to separate baby boomer from 1960’s. “Where Baby Boomer 1970’s Live In Every Post” made the final cut. The other four were variations that wouldn’t improve the draw.
Carol,
Timely advice. I was struggling with the Tagline for my blog and I finally refined it with the advise from this article.
Also, Wanted to let you know that under “About the Author” the link to “small blog,big income, the link is broken. You would need to add “.com” at the end. Currently, If i click on it, I get “Server not found” error.
Oh crud! We’ll get that fixed up.
What a stellar post. Interesting AND practical.
I’m driving myself just a little wild with taglines these days.
Revamping my site and newsletter as I step up and write more content.
As a coach and inner wilderness guide, I work with capable, thrivers who feel it’s now time to explore new horizons and/or how to show up for life as them self.
Blog is mad explorers club. Why? My newsletter is ‘meet at dawn’.
I’m a bit of and contrarian offer a slightly different take on life.
I want the same tagline on blog and newsletter.
thanks for the inspiration. I. Will. Persevere. 😉
Thanks Carol. For long I’ve admired your tagline. It’s good to know it wasn’t always as perfect as it is now. That gives me confidence that I can create a better tagline than I’m using.
Great post! Thanks for sharing.
how much of a difference can it make? doesn’t seem like much. Most people probably wont notice or care. The content is more important. There may be a confirmation bias to look for successful blogs with taglines and ignoring the unsuccessful ones with taglines
I can totally see how it can feel that way, Dileo — but the problem is if your header/URL/blog name/tagline don’t orient me, I may well not read further and dig into your blog posts to see if they’re for me.
As I note in the post, there are plenty of big blogs that don’t have taglines, because they don’t need them, at this point. Including this one! But for a new blogger, or one that still doesn’t have much traffic, you’d be foolish not to give new visitors all the way-finding help they can get. It’s like if you came in a supermarket, but the ends of the aisles didn’t have any signs about where the ketchup was, or the produce aisle. That’d be pretty overwhelming!
Yes, you could search the store aisle by aisle, or try to find someone to ask, but you also might be frustrated and give up.
Are you saying that being ‘big’ means you can stop orienting new visitors? I’d have to take issue with that!
The issue is that a title on its own is usually short and snappy to be memorable, and often that’s not enough to give a clear picture of what the site is about. So the tagline gives you the freedom to do that because you can add extra information.
You say, “The content is more important.” But you can’t assume people will read it. You have to use the title, visual design, etc to get them there.
Carol,
I glean so much from your articles, so thanks for all your advice. Never thought about how important the tagline is. Will be updating today, as soon as I come up with something fantastic.
Feel free to share what it was, and what you’re changing it to!
I can only testify that as I evolved mine and it got more and more aligned with what my reader really wanted to know, my subscribers just shot up.
Previous tagline: Write right.
New tagline: Exploring the English language with a side of sarcasm.
Not great, don’t love it, but it will do for now. I plan on changing my whole websites/blog strategies anyway.
Hi Carol!
Thank you for this. I didn’t think about that.
I still want to write about many things, but now I know that it’s good to have more specific tagline (actually, to have one!).
I’m not still trying to attract many visitors because first I need to have more content, and I’m doing on that. I just started blogging.
I have many ideas for a tagline now, but I’m thinking how to put together a tagline and the logo to look harmoniously…
Creating a great tag line certainly isn’t easy. I wrote mine on a whiteboard and changed it a couple of times a day for ages before I resolved on the one I now use. My podcast is RetiredExcited which doesn’t quite explain itself. So the tag is : Inspiration for an excellent retirement.
I love it! Let’s me know what I’ll learn, and who should read it. And it’s short! Nice job.
The positioning statement is … A brilliant podcast for the nearly retired, newly retired and folk to frightened to retire.
Carol I was so wrapped up in my own stuff I didn’t thank you for your great content and generosity.
Thanks for the tips! My theme didn’t include a tagline so I let it go, but now you changed my mind :). I have to work something out on the theme “Helping your whole family thrive”. Do you recommend a logo to go with it or tagline only is fine in your experience? Thanks!
A graphic really helps. 😉
Carol,
I went to your website. You’re using Trebuchet MS font. On all my devices the “w” decomposes. May not be on everyone’s device, but makes for slightly annoying reading …..
just saying.
Ian
I let my editor know–looks fine to me!
AND … great post, by the way. I have only recently (few days) started my blog, so I’m a newbie (but oldie in years). I concur, the tagline IS relevant and important. Hadn’t given it a great deal of thought. I can see why some would say that the content is more important, but that’s only looking at it from the writer’s emotional perspective. There’s far more emotional; investment in “what I want to say” rather than “how will I get them INTERESTED in what I have to say.” I’ll think more about my tagline on http://www.headmend.com
Other relevance is that it’s common knowledge readers are more interested in first few lines and last few lines. Makes sense to hit ’em between the eyes with the tagline.
Hey Carol,
I think it’s about that time to make another change. I haven’t made a graphical but at least my tagline is visible. I think it’s too long though and needs to be even more specific. You gave some great ideas, and I like the idea of including your tagline next to your blog name for search engines to pick up.
Thanks for sharing Carol! Have a great weekend!
Hello Carol,
Thanks for this lesson you shared today. I’m now rethinking about my tagline which I recently change from Poetry, Photography, Travel and More to Ignite Creativity. Invent Perfection. Though I feel the new tagline is much cooler than the former I’m still rethinking for a revision.
My blog is Kuya J’s Journal and is divided into four categories Poetry, Photography(soon), Personal Perspective (Yet soon), and Blogger’s Choice (yet soon.)
Should I change it? May I ask your suggestion? Thanks in advance.
I think if you can have fewer unrelated categories, it will help your blog.
A Tagline is no less than a textual logo for a blog site. And for anonymous users, it can make a great impression if apt set of words are chosen for it.
Thanks for sharing it, Carol.
Awesome post.
Hi Carol!
Great to see you here!
I’ve known the tagline is important, and have tweaked, as you have, for ages. This great post helps me see what is still wrong. My site is TheConqueringMom.com and my latest iteration of the tagline is “Conquering through Him. (In case your own way isn’t working…)
I thought the quasi Bible reference would weed out and attract my main audience and the “not working” part would further delineate the help function of it.
But it’s far too long, which I sort of already knew.
Back to the drawing board for me.
I think a tagline that spells out who this is for, with key words, might help you attract more readers, Katharine.
Good grief. What a diff that makes in what and how I write! THANKS!!! 😀
Fabulous article with helpful tips! Over 10 years of blogging I have had a tagline and not had a tagline….right now I definitely need one. I just can’t decide. I was using something like “Be A Better Runner” but ugh that’s so boring. Lot’s to think on now!
Hi Ms. Tice,
Great post. I love advice that I can immediately put into action. Check out my header remake.
You would think that this would be an obvious action to take. It is now. Thanks.
Wow! The advice in this post was amazing. I never thought a tagline would be that important. I was wrong. Many bloggers neglect their tagline or are too comfortable with it. Thank you for the great advice!
Thank you, Carol. I’m changing mine over the next couple of days. I’ve had this nagging voice in the back of my head saying, “You’ve evolved; you need to change your tagline to reflect that, darling.” And so I will. I never dreamed that I would be writing about the environment and bamboo bicycles. Nor did I set out to write about charities, so I have a challenge on my hands. Thank you, again. I tweeted this awesome post.
This is also something I need to work. Tagline should be small and should define business. I hope your tips will help;.
I found this blog about 3 days ago and I must say that I have been educated. My blog is only 2 weeks old. I am a complete newbie. I have already learnt a lot through this post and others like. I just discovered that I am targeting the wrong audience and I have a plan to stop posting for awhile, sit back and think.
I just want to say thank you for these posts. You have been a lifesaver! I’ve got to go and think about a tagline that is short and right on target. Thanks again.
Hi Emmanuel,
I have just read your post and wanted to thank you for being honest and for sharing with us.
Unfortunately, I am no one to be of use to you but I can wish you every success for your re-launch. Go, go, go!
Tagline helps us attract the right audience for our blog and give them a brief description about our blog.
Truthful words,
A Tagline is no less than a textual logo for a blog site. And for anonymous users, it can make a great impression if apt set of words are chosen for it.
The blog tagline is the perfect example of how the little things matter. I’m looking into this for my site now.
I guess I don’t think of your tagline as a little thing, Brian — it’s a key piece for orienting new readers, and for search engines to find. It may be a SHORT thing, but like “Just do it,” it can really make your blog’s brand memorable.
Fantastic article , appreciate it
Hey Carol,
A great share indeed. The tagline of any blog is the perfect place to capture the attention of your audience and let them know what they can expect to read/ get here. As you said, it is actually a simple yet much neglected part in many blogs. Writing an effective blog tagline is a tough job no doubt. But it is the way to let your audience confirm that they have landed the correct space.
Thanks for sharing the actionable tips. Take care and have a great day ahead 🙂
Carol,
Thanks for this post. I’m pretty sure my tagline conveys a clear statement of what i do. As always good actionable advice!
Great post thanks.
Having a tagline is definitely important. So far my tagline is “The authentic way to become a confident French speaker”, but I feel like it could be improved. It communicated the idea, but it doesn’t sound that exciting.
I don’t have a tagline, but I love my pinned tweet: “My four great passions are reading, writing, dancing, and speaking Spanish. When I can do more than one at a time I am deliriously happy.” I honestly didn’t think of the importance of having a tagline in my blog until I read this post, but now I’m thinking of shortening that tweet down to something I could use as a tagline. Most of my blog posts are related to one or more of those topics, so it would fit. Thanks for giving me something to think about!
Greta, the problem is that statement is all about YOU, what you like to do, and what makes you happy. What’s in it for the reader? What will I learn if I read your blog? Cast it in that light, and you’ll have a strong tagline.
Hi Carol. Thanks for sharing the importance of the tagline. I know a handful of bloggers who leave the default tagline on their WordPress blogs. It’s hard to take a blog seriously when the tagline is “Another Wordpress blog.” Back when I started my blog I changed it because 1) it was visible on my website and 2) it seemed like a good place to put my keywords for SEO. It makes good sense, like you said, to use it to further clarify what your website is about, especially if you are branding yourself with the name.
Oh, whatever you do, don’t be ‘just another WordPress blog.’
Be unique!
Hi Carol, Thanks for such a greatpost it has been an eye opener for me and very helpful. My blog is not about promoting business, it came about as (a) means of sharing my reflections on the things that I encounter on a daily basis and (b) as springboard for my writing aspiration. I would love to attract more viewers my wish is to make my blog more inviting but I am struggling on that front. What suggestions do you have for me.
Mabel what you’re writing now is like a diary you’ve put online.
To attract more viewers, write in service of a reader. Pick a focus and provide useful info that helps readers with their lives. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to grow an audience for and monetize a blog of daily reflections…and it doesn’t make a good springboard for a writing or blogging career. Readers AND prospective clients want to see that you understand service, and how to stay on a niche topic.
Read through past posts and see if a key theme emerges that you could express in your headline and tagline, and if you could angle it to not just be your thoughts, but to extract useful takeaway lessons or info for readers.
Thank you Carol, I hear what you are saying I just hope I have understood what I need to do to improve my blog. I still have a long way to go to produce a piece of work that would serve the reader which they will find worth reading.
Good tips, you are absolutely right, blog taglines are really important, it helps in branding too. But most important part is consistently creating valuable contents which our readers will love and be benefited from.
Well this is certainly excellent advice Carol!
And you have certainly caused me to go back to
drawing board asap!LOL!
A really effective “tagline”, is almost or maybe it is as
critical, as writing a really effective sub headline.
And until I read your excellent post, I truly did not
fully appreciate, the amount potential first time traffic I may have repelled
all of this time!
Thank you!I’ve got to really do better in this particular area!
So useful, thank you! I’m inspired!
Holy cow! What a revelation. My new blog will be, “Breakthrough for weightloss” I like the tagline, “Everyone deserves to be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy, even you”. I like it because the blog will be about combining those 3 efforts for women to reach and maintain. permanent weightloss. But maybe something like. “Get thin, be happy” would still reflect the essence of the blog, but be short and snappy. What do you think?
Jody, short and snappy wins over long every time, when it comes to taglines. I think 5-9 words is about all you want.
Also, that longer proposed tagline is what I’d call an ‘all in’ slogan, in that it tells me everything I need to know, so I don’t need to read the posts.
“Oh, OK, I deserve to be healthy and happy.” Moving on…
Where, “Get Thin, Be Happy” raises the question, “Well, HOW do I do that?” And I must read more to find out. 😉
Hey. Carol, Thanks a million for the speedy reply. I know you’re busy. I understand. I’ll continue to brainstorm short and snappy subs. Should I consider something similar for the headline? There are tons of diet blogs out there. I need to immediately establish that this is not yet another jacked up, big promise program. It is different because we will be integrating the whole person’s health. Emotionally, mentally, as well as physically. How about, “what’s eating you?”I am brand new at all this, and just found your helpful article. I’ll be looking for more.
“Revealing the secrets of professional persuasion” – how’s that? 🙂
Tagline is really important, it defines what you blog is about.
Hey Carol, Thanks for the wonderful write up. Articles like this are of great help to newbie bloggers like me.
Great article! I just launched my new blog, and I think a tagline that orients my readers is a missing piece. My blog is called Ecstatic Soul Calling, and the current tagline is “Reaching below the surface to hear what flows from the soul.” I think I’ll change it to “Spiritual depth for the non-religious”.
This is a really helpful post, thank you! I’ve been trying to come up with a tagline for my blog that I started in February and am slowly trying to make it better and better. My blog is called “Sleepless Mommy & Me” which in my mind gives readers a good idea of what I write about. If not – I’m a new mom and I’m writing about pregnancy, the good, the bad, family and the babies first years (so far). Do you think my blog title is descriptive enough? I’m having a hard time.
I think a tagline could give us more of the flavor, Sara, as in ‘Survival tips for tired parents’ could include the guys. Or ‘Comic relief for stressed-out moms of toddlers’ would take it a different direction. See what I mean?
If I’m writing about being a direct sales consultants and about the business I work with what would you suggest my tag line be if been thinking about it for a couple days now and I’m still stuck I can’t think of anything that sounds good
I’d have to know a lot more about your goals for your blog and who your audience is, Tina — really, only YOU know your people and what tagline would resonate with them!
My goal for my blog is to 1 get my name out there and 2 let people know about befragrant who they are what we sale why it’s safer to use their products then other products of the same kind how being a working stay at home mom is doable
Sounds like you mostly have an agenda of selling a particular product line. Are you sure that’s what readers want from you? Couldn’t they buy that one line somewhere else? I’d think deeply on what uniqueness you bring and what audience would connect with that. Selling shtuff should always be a byproduct of listening to readers and finding out what THEY want, rather than beginning with a premise of pushing a product YOU want to sell, whether or not that would be of interest to your audience. Best of luck with it!
No I’m not sure that is what readers want from me but I’m not sure what else to write about