Have you ever asked a child what they want for Christmas?
They\’ll tell you exactly what they want, describe it in glorious detail, even point it out to you in the store so that you don\’t make a mistake and come home with the wrong version.
Then on Christmas morning you get to see their eyes light up as they open the wrapping. It\’s a thrill… until New Year\’s Day when the toy is lying forgotten in the corner and the two-buck stocking filler is the game of the moment.
Your users can be a bit like that. It\’s something that\’s well-known in the marketing world. Companies will say that they want products that are new, exciting and edgy. They\’ll say that their focus groups suggest that current offerings are boring and old. Then they\’ll turn down anything that doesn\’t look every other product that\’s already out there.
In part, that\’s because they don\’t know how to market them. It\’s much easier to sell yet another first-person shooter computer game than something like Spore that requires explanation.
But it\’s also because users might say they want something, but they don\’t always really know what they want.
You though do. The fact that you have readers means that you\’ve already hit upon topics that people want to read and subjects that they\’re interested in. By offering content about issues that you find interesting, you\’re already attracting other people with similar interests.
You might have thought to hard about your formula for success but the fact that your site has a following and is growing means that you have one. It\’s something you need to protect not lay open to anyone with an opinion.
That doesn\’t mean you should ignore the comments that people leave and not use them as inspiration for new posts. They can offer very valuable suggestions. But be careful about people telling you what you should put on your website — even when that advice comes from your users. There\’s no better expert than you.