My Self-Help and Advice Blog Versus My Crime News Stories

Photo from News4Sanantonio.com.

At the beginning of this year, I began an experiment where I focused on writing and marketing local and national crime news. Needless to say, the results were spectacular. My views increased 272 percent, while the number of visitors to my site increased 123 percent. It was like expecting a gorgeous lady on a blind date and having Jessica Alba sit down across from you. My theory had been that if I focused on crime stories and followed a strict marketing strategy, my visitors and views would increase. My theory was extra right, but the outcome created some unique problems for my site which I’ll explain. As a side note, this marketing campaign was all organic and unpaid.

The Strategy

I’m not a big social media user, other than Facebook, but I have X, TikTok, Instagram and other social media accounts. I decided that I would promote and post links of my articles on these sites. I mean, hey. They were just sitting there dormant, and they were a resource.

What I came to find out is, the audiences of Facebook, TikTok and other platforms engage with content much differently. TikTok users love videos and music, while those who use Facebook are more likely to interact with comments and text-heavy content. These sites share differences like the two friends who hang together only because of you.

The admins of the [groups] I was not a member of sometimes deleted my comments without a second thought.

I obsessively — probably overly excessively — posted links to my crimes news articles directly to my Facebook page and in comments of other posts about whatever subject I had written about. On Instagram, I posted screenshots of my articles and added links. For X, I followed the same process as I did on Facebook, choosing to post my articles directly to my page and beneath the posts of others. Wherever I saw comments on Facebook or Twitter that had a lot of comments or reactions, I also posted screenshots and links to my articles. I created short videos with my articles for TikTok. My thumbprints were basically indented in the phone screen at this point.

Also, I already had some Facebook business pages, so I posted my articles with links on these pages as well. Other than my own pages or groups, I posted my articles with links in groups that I was a member of and some that I was not. The admins of the ones I was not a member of sometimes deleted my comments without a second thought.

Facebook restricted my comments whenever I left a significant number of links…

Here, I’ll note that Facebook eventually started restricting my comments, preventing me from commenting for a few minutes. The site had had enough of my back-to-back posting. Facebook restricted my comments whenever I left a significant number of links to my articles within a few minutes. When Facebook unrestricted me, I was commenting again. I cross-posted my articles as well to LinkedIn and Threads.

It dawned on me to not just link my articles within articles but to link similar stories. Doing so increased the number of articles read by visitors. I saw a jump in my number of subscribers which may have partially been influenced by this. These readers subscribed for more of that content.

Time was another factor I weighed. I decided to set my articles to automatically publish at 5:30 am CST. I chose this time because my audience is spread across the world. This time works well for my American readers who wake up early for work or to complain but others in countries such as Ireland and China. This seemed like and proved to be the optimal time to reach most of my audience.

On top of all of this, I increased the number of articles I published. This website started off as an advice and self-help blog with a small loyal following. Much of my previous content also focused on reflecting on my own life and publishing editorials. I published maybe 12 articles at most a month before this marketing campaign experiment. During the experiment, I published on average twice as many.

… the overwhelming success of my marketing campaign created an audience and content problem for me.

Ironically, this site was originally named WhoIsJReed.com, a sort of tongue in cheek jab at people who had opinions of me. I don’t think their opinions of me have gotten any better. They’re probably the opposite. At any rate, I changed the name to TheReedersBlock.com after the death of one of my uncles and to pay homage to my family. Both names are still used.

These things noted, the overwhelming success of my marketing campaign created an audience and content problem for me.

The Audience and Content Problem

I’ve built my audience over the past near-decade with my opinionated blogs about life, celebrities, advice and self-help. For the most part, this content is reassuring and tends to make my readers feel good about themselves, as you should. You’re the best person ever. If the cops pull you over, tell them that, and let them know I said it. But my self-help and advice content is also personal, raw and emotionally satisfying. It’s not something I felt comfortable sharing on social media.

The news stories that I’ve written cover crime, unthinkable acts and shocking information. This content brings readers by the drove. It sometimes includes videos, and readers of this site watch and rewatch those videos.

The issue is, those who come for crime news content are not my usual audience…

The issue is, those who come for crime news content are not my usual audience, and my early followers don’t follow me for that content. It seems that I would be trading a smaller but more loyal following for a larger but not as loyal audience if I focus on crime stories.

Another problem is that I started this blog to have a place to voice my opinion — and I have many, most of which are unpopular — and share advice. Part of doing that is writing about what I want to write about and not what everybody else is thinking about. My blogs on self-help are what motivate me because they can and do help others. They make people love themselves more and become more confident in who they and the decisions they make. My crime news articles simply quench the thirst of some who are fascinated with it.

My bachelor’s degree is a Journalism degree, but it doesn’t prepare a writer for the emotions they feel covering crime stories regularly. There is very little happiness in crime stories, especially where there is death or worse. You find out, there can be worse. You also find out that crime is a heavy subject to write about and does not produce any positive emotional value. It does produce large audiences and viral views.

The Upside

Having run this marketing campaign and watching it explode, I know how to increase visitors and views to any website. I wrote out a plan and used many of the social media tools at my disposal. I used screenshots, links and posts to spread the word. In comment sections, I found popular comments and left behind screenshots and links with my own comment. I increased the number of articles I published and released them at 5:30 am CST, an optimal time for my global audience.

This marketing campaign took a tremendous amount of effort and energy.

Knowing those things, I can use those strategies to increase the number of readers here for my self-help and advice content. Those blogs are personal most of the time, and I intentionally keep those off of social media. I’m more comfortable now sharing those blogs with a larger audience. I think everyone needs and deserves a little encouragement and to be told, “You will make it happen, and here is how…”

This marketing campaign took a tremendous amount of effort and energy. Not only did I write, proofread and publish articles almost every day for four months, I did the research and fact-checking as well. As noted previously, I did all the marketing. I’ll do the same for the self-help and advice content by writing more of and sharing it. We’ll see how it goes.

Just as an aside, I’m considering creating a separate crime news website that will exclusively cover it. I’m conflicted because writing about it is not my passion, but I could have someone else cover it. I’m not sure how economical the second idea would be. And then, what am I supposed to do? Start an entire news agency? I’m laughing at the absurdity but actual chance of that happening which is too high. I might, but someone else would have to run it.

The Takeaway

I ran a roughly four-month marketing campaign experiment to increase the number of visitors to this site and its number of views. The experiment was an overwhelming success, with visitors increasing 272 percent and views increasing 123 percent. This created a content and audience problem for me which I can address by following the same marketing campaign using my advice and self-help content. I can also create a separate crime news website so that the crime audience content does not drown out my self-help and advice blog. We’ll see what happens.

Thank you to all my Loyal Reeders. Follow me on BlueSky @TheReedersBlock.com and X @jreed913.

This article was written by Jermaine Reed, MFA, educator and the Editor-in-Chief of The Reeders Block. Join the email list to get notifications on new blog posts and books. This article is 100% human-written. And remember, if you see an error, that’s what makes us human.