Welcome back damas y caballeros, now that we've gotten their attention, it's time to move onto the next A:

Authenticity

Once they have given you their attention, it’s up to you to earn more. How do you do that? By giving people what they need and what they want. (These are two very separate things that require very separate approaches.)

What they need is a helpful resource.

Of course you’ve got that in spades already. You're sharing the 10 things they can do to get better in 5 minutes or less each day. You're revealing the 6 best sites they can use to discover ways to live awesomely, frugally in their town. Whatever it is they need, you’ve got it. You have their back from a functional, pragmatic perspective.

But rational, logical appeals do squat when it comes to developing a relationship.

Keep it logical and they'll go nowhere beyond this article.

Now we're getting to what they want.

They want someone they can trust. They want someone who understands them as a human being. They want someone who understands why they need what they need. In other words, someone who sees them.

They want someone who writes in a unique, interesting way. Reward their generously given attention by giving them something they can't see just anywhere. They deserve that. Make it different. Making it interesting.

Make it specific.

Use examples from your own life. There is huge power in this.

1. It humanizes you. It shows there is a person behind these black and white letters flashing on their screen. It allows them to build a character in their head. It helps create a consistent voice throughout your pieces, so your readers come to know and understand you better. When you become familiar, they know exactly what to expect in one of your pieces. When you're both interesting and reliable (or reliably interesting), you've got the idea. They’ll sign up for your newsletter. They'll gladly gobble up your work. They’ll continue to read. They’ll support, because they want to.

2. They see that you’ve earned this data; you’re not just a researcher. This data has specific meaning to you. If it truly means something to you, they're much more likely to empathetically assign more meaning to it in their own minds. It's similar to how someone connects with a human with whom they are having a face-to-face conversation.

3. It’s better for you and the world. It’s better for your long-term career to do this. Facts are a dime a dozen. But a person who can make facts interesting, who can add humor, who can add apt analogies that help educate readers, who can add levity and brighten someone’s day... Not only is that someone who recruits attention and builds readership - forget those small picture goals - that’s someone who makes change.

That is, after all, what you’re trying to do here, right? To make change? Making a living is important, sure, but it becomes a lot easier when it's a secondary objective. It's easier to make a living when your primary goal is to help more people get what they want and what they need. When your fundamental objective is to make positive change in the world. When you're actually meaning to create a better world every day.

Be authentic, and you'll win their hearts as well as their minds.