However, during my recent move out of state, I’ve come to have more time to spend at home with family members who watch these shows. While these shows are on, somehow within minutes of entering the room, I find myself drawn to the perfect-looking people and high-end life styles that these fictional characters lead.

Even though I’m not the biggest soap opera fan, I’ve found myself asking questions and wanting to know what’s going on. For a brief moment, I find myself caught up in the lure of soap opera drama.

It makes me wonder, what if I could harness that same alluring power on my blog? What is it about soap operas that make them so irresistible that they can draw in even the most skeptical viewer? How could I apply that to my blogging efforts?

As I pondered the answers to those questions, I realized that there are techniques that I could borrow. Of course, I’d never subject my followers to stories about a young woman who, as the result of a family secret, accidentally marries her cousin, who really turns out to be her brother and ex-step-dad…

But I could do the following:

Pique Curiosity

I could hook readers fast and hook them early with interesting and engaging openers. No one wants to read a long and drawn out introduction. Start with a quick personal experience story or a vivid example that uses words that affect the five senses. That way, even if they hadn’t intended to read the full post, they’ll be compelled to stick around and find out what happens.

To keep readers coming back, create a carefully executed series of posts to create a sense of suspense up on your blog. Don’t be afraid to create cliffhanger posts that end in elipses (…) and a call to action to return the next day for the conclusion.

Create an Emotional Connection

You are your blog’s biggest star, are you allowing people to emotionally connect with you? Don’t be afraid to reveal some little known secrets about how you’ve solved problems and achieved success. People read your blog because they want to connect and get to know you – give them something to hold on to.

Be Controversial/Dramatic Sometimes

Don’t be afraid to speak out on something you really care about, even if it isn’t what most people will agree with. Sometimes, it takes one person who calls things into question to get others thinking about things from a new perspective. Stand up for what’s right and just, even if it’s controversial.

Create Addictive Content

Sometimes you’ve got to sprinkle a little crack into your posts (just kidding!) But you do want to make them crave your content; make them need a fix. When someone discovers quality content on your blog, the human want for more kicks in. That’s why one great blog posts with related links at the bottom can inspire a click through spree. One visitor can plow through tons of pages in one sitting.

Create an Experience

Whenever you can, give your readers a taste of the good life – or your life, however it is. People love to escape from reality and experience someone else’s life (why else would people watch Soap Operas?).

They want to take free trips into new and exciting worlds. That’s why it’s important to share your life experiences on your blog even when you think they aren’t related to your niche. In my opinion, any experience can be cleverly linked and related to blogging.

Take the inspiration for this post for example, it is a direct response to my recent life change. I analyzed my response to an emotional episode of Young & The Restless, and worked out how I could use some of those techniques on my bog, and so here you have it!

So what do you think? What else could you do to create an irresistible blog that your readers won’t dare miss an episode?

2 Reasons why scheduling can be a good thing

I was baffled for a moment until I ran across a follower whose profile only had a repeating rotation of the same tweets, posted at the same times everyday from an API. In fact, I couldn’t find anything recent that hadn’t come from the API. This person hadn’t posted anything live in months. Almost everything there was either spam or blatant self promotion. No replies or interactions with other users, no original non-link posts of his own – I began to wonder, is this even real human? And worse, if I continued scheduling all of my tweets is this what people will think of me when they venture to my profile?

As if that wasn’t enough of a sign, that very same day someone in my stream posted something to the effect of: “I can’t hear you over all these APIs!” I can’t remember who said this, but I got the message. It was an eye-opening experience and made me rethink my practices and the purposes for scheduling tweets in the first place. But clearly, there are some benefits to scheduling tweet that your followers will actually appreciate.

1. To allow you to spread your tweets throughout the day so you can stop hogging up the Twitter-stream:
Scheduling tweets can be a good thing, it allows you to spread your tweets over the course of a day without flooding the Twittersphere with back-to-back tweets. I find it annoying when one person decides to dump a thousand tweets in row and then leave. So what you’ve only got a few minutes to log on, interact and reply to all your @mentions. You’re hogging up the airwaves! No one else can get through and really after the 8th or 9th tweet in a row, no one’s listening to you anymore anyway.

So schedule your tweets so that you can spread them out evenly so you don’t over-tweet in a short period of time. I do this especially when I’ve got several replies or RTs that I want to post – it allows me to still interact with others, but without dominating all the space. They still see their mentions and no one has to complain because my face keeps popping up and drowning everyone else out.

2. To allow you to tweet during peak hours and tweet while you sleep:
This always you to be more visible at a time when more people are actually there to notice your tweets. If you know you won’t be available during those high traffic times, schedule your tweets so that they appear then. But don’t schedule them at exactly the same time every single day. It’s okay to post a tweet at 5:22pm, it doesn’t have to always be 5:00pm. If you have several tweets to post, spread them out – schedule no less than 15 minutes apart. Your followers will thank you for that.

Be careful when Scheduling your Tweets

I must warn you, though: scheduling tweets is not a substitute for authentically engaging others on Twitter, it simply makes it easier for you to do so in the least evasive way. You should still respond to and retweet other’s updates/content. At least 50% of what you tweet should be someone else’s work, although 60% is probably better.

Which API platform is the best to use for scheduling tweets?

So which API platform is the best to use for scheduling tweets? I’ve been using www.Hootsuite.com – it’s multi-dimensional and allows me also to schedule updates for Facebook and other social network sites. I love it the most because it allows me to have access to all of my favorite social sites in one neat place.

What other valid reasons for scheduling tweets can you think of?

This post is part of our Guest Blogging contest, if you like it then why not sharing it with your friends by retweeting it? this will give credits to the author and a better chance to win one of our awesome prizes.  By the way.. you also can participate in our contest, it’s not late!

Thumb image by: cyberella.posterous.com