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Writing for a Male/Female Balanced Audience
Posted by ThriftShopRomantic • 9/17/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: demographics, female readers, male readers, readership, target audience, wide audience
We tend to talk about gender issues on BC=-- thought most often in some pretty big generalizations-- but I realized we never have spoken about writing for both a male and female audience.
So I was wondering-- do you as a blogger try to appeal to either specifically a male or female audience?
Does your blog skew more toward male or female readers?
Have you ever purposefully set out to try to attract a more balanced audience through your topics?
Have you ever chosen to not write content a certain way to broaden appeal of the post for both men and women?
Just wonderin'!
User Comments
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My blog tends to be skew towards woman readers and I tend to assume that my audience is mostly, if not completely, women. I know that my husband reads it, but I don't count him.
This is because my blog is about homeschooling and moms tend to be the ones that stay home and homeschool. This is not to say Dads don't stay home (I personally know a family where mom works and dad stays home to homeschool, etc), it's just it tends to be mostly women that do stay home.-
That makes a lot of sense. (PS- nice your husband does read it-- we've had a lot of discussions on here where bloggers say family and friends actually don't read their blogs.)
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Yeah it is nice that he reads it
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For me, I knew and expected my thrifty decorating blog would skew towards women.
With my humor blog I purposefully set out to not girl-up the place with my posts, to have more balanced general readers, so I try to select topics everyone can more equally identify with-- or flee from. -
Well, my blog always has a beer review, traditionally a male-dominated category, but you might be surprised that there are tons of female bloggers that are trying to get females to know what terrific options are out there and skip the bud light's of the world. But the beer review portion is only the common theme and the most predictable.
There is also always some storytelling in each post that I think males and females will relate to equally. Yes, I do throw in "she's a hot chick" once in a while or some sexual innuendos and talk a lot about sports, but aside from that, I think my blog has general appeal. Some of my readers I know only read the story part and skip the beer review, which is fine with me.-
Sounds like you've put quite a bit of thought into what you say, how much, and who's reading.
And hey, beer unites many. I tip a Guinness to you. -
I adore Beer, so hopefully you don't make it too male orientated with hot chick stuff.
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I think the response to my writing proves its gender free. My writing is about life, all life. If lizards could read I think they could identify with some of my aphorisms.-
Has the Geico Gecko stopped by yet?
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TSR-you've got me there. Who is the Geico Gecko?
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He's a mascot for Geico Insurance, on their television commercials.
I was trying to be funny and not-so-much succeeding.
So... maybe you can share with me an aphorism on that. -
Any attempt at humor is better than none.
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I laughed TSR
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Thanks Derek. Between that and the aphorism, I feel better.
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Aww, I love it when NP has no idea where a pop culture reference comes from. It's satisfying, as if I can continue my commercialized, inanity-saturated day content in the knowledge that not everyone does so. -
@Isms- Between the two of us, we probably balance out NP's not knowing.
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You know, I haven't really thought about it haha. I just started to write and so far men and women are reading and commenting. So I'm happy ^_^-
That IS a good start. I'd read somewhere there was a theory that guys wouldn't bother to read what a female blogger had to say unless she was playing it like a hottie...
So I'd been wondering how things would shake out, audience-wise.
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (Thinking)
I admit to expecting that the rude doodles, beavers and so forth would attract men readers (it did).
I have been pleasantly surprised to know that I get a good mix of both for all the other stuff.-
The doodles are for everyone, methinks. You seem to be getting better at it, too, as time progresses.
The Boggarts were great. -
Yeah mr. Boggart was really cool but I like Mr. Lopitof too! I like it all haha
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I have found that the doodles attract people in and then they actually read the post too, which surprised me
/blushes -
People love doodles ^_^, but have to say, you have a talent for writing as well!
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Aww shurrup! lol
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haha you were blushing, so I had to seize the moment to say what I wanted to say ^_^
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That was lovely
(Also a reason why BC is worth sticking around for) -
Get a room, we don't want any of this 'niceness'
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Crpitt - You're very welcome!
DB - You still have many things to learn -_-' -
Well if we are continuing the nice theme- You are one of the people I would of missed out on meeting if I had left BC and that would of been sad
As I love your doodles!
@DB you would love us to get a room. -
Let amplify the niceness (but I mean every word of it!)
But Claire! Let's be happy that this isn't the case! We have met here on BC and we can share books, doodles and so on ^_^. I really do love your blog and your a funny lady! So for this I'm happy!
(I have this feeling, like we're in a movie scene or something haha. Perhaps we can do a dramatic run towards each other?)
Haha I think he would like that yeah. -
you know me so well...
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And thus... in the middle of TJ's dramatic running through the field with sappy romantic music imagery...
We discover why Claire and TJ have pretty balanced male to female audience ratios....
(Bwahahahahaha!) -
I am not good at running and will no doubt trip up, falling into a puddle.
/ruins romantic scene
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Well... comedy works, too.
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Hahahah I would trip as well. Maybe over a rock that isn't even there, but that I imagined to be there.
*sighs*
That didn't go too well, but Jenn, I loved the background music! You could do the voice over too ^_^ -
Nah- I'm a crappy narrator...
I did one spoken-word piece for my blog once and you should have just HEARD the crickets chirping from the readers.
Run away, run away!
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I b!tch and it tends to attract members of both sexes. I don't write my posts thinking of who it will attract, I write just trying not to bore anyone who happened to stop by.-
And I thank you for that. I've unfollowed Twitter folks who forgot there was an audience reading.
No one wants to hear about minute details like somebody's favorite potato chip brand or their toe lint.
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I originally presumed the my blog would attract women (no surprise), but in fact, there are several Dads who regularly comment on my parenting articles. So, I've made more of an attempt to talk about parenting more generally, in a way that would appeal to both male and female readers.-
That's interesting that Dad's are chiming in and you've tailored it to be more family-oriented.
You also use a sense of humor and write well, so I think that also makes it easier for more people-- men and women-- to relate to. -
Thanks. [blushes] That's a great compliment.
What's neat about it is that including a Dad's perspective on things has improved my own parenting, especially of my boys. I don't think it ever hurts to try to consider more than one perspective. And when I think about my own family and neighborhood, there are single parents, divorced, widowed parents, custodial grandparents, and married parents. So, there are even more perspectives to bring in. They enrich the discussion topics in such a way that the traditional male/female audience issue seems like only one tiny piece of the pie.
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I don't write for either male or female technically. I just try to be me. The child abuse posts attract men trying to help their girlfriends. Those are truly the ones I work on going viral though. The others are just me and not much purpose I suppose like a journal.-
That's interesting it becomes a resource then people are giving to those they care about. I bet that makes you feel good at the end of the day.
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