Building a Page for First-Timers - Part 2
We talked previously about how the needs of a new visitors differ from those of a returning visitor.
One way to solve this problem is to create a page specifically for new readers. It is very easy to do, and will help convert more of your one-off visitors into loyal readers.
Don't Change Your Home Page
The traditional blog home page is well suited for returning visitors. It lists the most recent articles first, it emphasises headline so they can be easily scanned, and has a clear About link for learning more about the blog itself.
This is what a person expects from a blog, and that alone is a good reason to give it to them. The New-Visitor page must be something people choose to use; not something that is forced upon them.
Building Your New-Visitor Page with Just 3 Steps
1 - Start with a simple Question & Answer section. Think about the questions a keen new reader would ask, and answer them.
The crucial thing to remember is that this is not your About page. Information about you and your blog (e.g. Why did you start it?) will be of little use to someone solely interested in the content.
Some questions you might answer would be:
- What is this blog about?
- How will it help me?
- Do you offer services for further advice?
- Where can I find the ________? (e.g. Free WordPress themes)
- What is _______? (Explain something unusual from your blog, e.g. RSS, or Twitter)
- Do you have a post on ________? (Literally. Explain how to search for a post, and that if that fails, they should email you with their question, and you might write a post about it).
2 - Move on to an introduction to the topic. This may involve articles you have written especially for this purpose, with basic language and concepts that a novice would need to know. Otherwise, you could link to external resources that you would recommend for beginners.
3 - Create a selection of your better articles, to let readers see the quality of the blog they're on. There are a few ways of doing this:
- Set up a site map with all of your articles, and link to that.
- Manually link to a selection of your best posts.
- Post a number of your most popular tags.
- Link to a special Post Roundup post (e.g. Pro Blog Design in 2007 and Beyond).
4 - Ronald Huereca from The Reader Appreciation Project has come up with a few more ideas for what could be useful, so check those out as well.
Getting People to the Page
All that remains is to give people a way of finding the page. You could do this simply by adding a link to your About-Contact list of links. Other, more forceful, methods would be to place a link specifically where new visitors will look:
- Near the logo or slogan. These areas quickly become blind spots to regulars, but a first time reader is highly likely to scan your tagline.
- Above the post headline. A rather intrusive approach, but practically guaranteed that your link will be seen.
- In one of your ad slots (if you have any).
One of the above would work better for a blog like this one, where the About links aren't overly noticeable.
And that's that. Visitors should now find your blog that little bit less daunting at first.
Is there anything else you would add to the page? Let me know if you decide to make one for your blog.
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About the Author - Michael Martin is the founder of Pro Blog Design. He works as a freelance web designer, loves WordPress, and has an unhealthy addiction to smilies. Written on 7th March 2008.
Other posts tagged with First Impressions, New, Returning, Targetting, Visitors.
7th March, 4:19 pm GMT
This is a really inspiring guide. It's almost as though it was written with my site in mind! I will certainly be following these tips to create a page for new visitors in my own blog, which I'm sure will be very useful.Thank you for the inspiration!Amanda (www.bloggerbuster.com)
7th March, 5:07 pm GMT
Amanda,
(I know so little about it. 
)
You have a great blog there! I'm glad I found it now. Always on the lookout for better Blogger resources!
Let me know when your page is up. If I get a few of them, I could add them to the article as examples.
7th March, 5:53 pm GMT
Thank you Michael, I'll be writing this up over the weekend and will let you know when it's posted. Best wishes,Amanda
8th March, 10:41 am GMT
Great post Michael! I made a few changes, thanks. Amanda, you have a nice blog!
8th March, 6:27 pm GMT
Amanda,
Thanks.
10th March, 5:35 pm GMT
very useful guide, thank you
15th March, 2:43 am GMT
Thanks for the straightforward guide. I had considered something along these lines but I ended up over thinking my approach. Now it's time to put something together...
15th March, 12:39 pm GMT
Robert,
Good luck. Let me know how the next attempt goes.
24th March, 6:30 pm GMT
Great tips! I have already been using the third step but I think that section needs a huge update :)Ps, this commentform doesn't work for me in FF (I can't write in the commentbox). Just thought I would let you know. It might just be me
24th March, 9:13 pm GMT
This is great! I should add a "start here" page to my blog.
24th March, 9:54 pm GMT
Malin,
Thanks for letting me know. There's an updated version of the script out now, so I'll install that. Maybe it will solve things?
Luke,
I think you should!
28th March, 12:07 pm GMT
Good tip, and the "new visitors page" idea is great.I had non-consciously made my "about" page quite like that, with infos about the blog and me.I will try to split that page to better serve either new and returning visitors with separate pages with more accurate informations.
28th March, 4:41 pm GMT
Gianluca,
A really good About page may well cover this for you, but I like the idea of splitting the two up.
22nd April, 10:56 pm GMT
Hi Michael,
I just read through your parts 1 and 2 and wanted to let you know how useful they are. I'm already reformulating my 'First time here" page. Thank you!
25th April, 2:13 am GMT
Liz,
I'm glad you found it helpful. Good luck with the re-write.
8th May, 3:05 pm GMT
good luck amanda and michael thank you so much for this!
10th May, 3:38 pm GMT
Hi Michael ~ Thank you for the wonderful idea of a new reader page. Being new to the blog world, we have been trying to find a solution for this and your information most helpful. We'll be attempting formulate and bring this live before starting our June weight loss challenge.
Sunshine wishes ... and many thanks! Ranae
17th May, 9:42 am GMT
Your idea of creating a separate page for the first-timers is brilliant. In fact, that's the first page I clicked when I first visited your site.
Why didn't I think of it?