Back when I first started this blog, I was posting about every subject you could think of. Over time, I decided to narrow down to blogging/design tips, but there was always something that bothered me about going with that path; my top posts were of a completely different topic. While I’ve learned that my audience does enjoy blogging tips and tutorials, it hit me recently that I’m missing what a huge part of my readers have in common: they’re college students. And they love college related posts.
I think the reason it took me so long to realize this is that readers my age interact much differently with the blogs they read than say, young adults or mothers who have blogs of their own. My readers who have their own blogs tend to comment, share my content, and interact directly. Readers my age (I’ll say the 18-23 range) don’t usually comment, share a lot on Pinterest, and simply read my content without making it obvious that they’re doing so. I wasn’t confident about this assumption until I started looking through my most popular pins on Pinterest, and holy cow, my college related pins have spread like wildfire! One post in particular has done extraordinarily well (for me at least), and it happens to be one of the simplest posts I’ve made: a college shopping list.
So, why of all posts did this one receive such constant attention? As a college student myself, I’m constantly searching Pinterest for helpful tips and new information, and I think a lot of college-age girls out there do the same. Pinterest makes it so easy to scan graphics for what you’re looking for, and this post was obviously something people wanted to read. This pin, for example, has over 58,000 repins!
I decided to test out a few different graphics to see if I just happened to have popular pinners share my post, and after 3 changes, the pins kept coming, so I knew that wasn’t a fluke. My most recent graphic is actually a shorter version of the shopping list, with a prompt for the pinner to click to my blog for more. I think this tactic is great if you don’t want your pins to end up on a board and never lead the pinner to your blog!
It also seems that there aren’t as many consistent college bloggers out there, meaning there aren’t many bloggers who continuously pop up on Pinterest and gain a name amongst pinners. This seems to lead to a better opportunity at showing up in search results, where two of my pins are at the top of a common search phrase (along with my girl Gina!):
I thought this post might just be a one-hit wonder, but my second most popular post is about 12 dorm room must-haves, and that was enough for me to confidently say that blogging about college is something I should tap into more. The college blogging world is one I haven’t looked into much, but from what I’m learning, it seems like a lot of college students are wanting to start blogs and read more of them, giving me a great opportunity to jump into that category.
Update: When I originally wrote this post, my blog’s main topic was blogging tips. After writing this post, I realized just how much potential there was going into the college blogging world, which is why I created JessicaSlaughter.co! This blog is home to all of my previous blogging tips, but with a much higher focus on college and lifestyle posts. Since making the switch, my stats have skyrocketed and I’m finally able to focus on what brings in the most readers!