Gamification for Blogs: How to Create and Direct Reader Engagement

If you read the whole of this blog post, I’ll give you a gold star.

How do you feel about that?

Happy? Bemused? Maybe a bit annoyed – gold stars and reward charts are for little kids, after all.

Well, why do you think people use rewards to encourage good behaviour in their children?

Because it works. And it works on adults, too.

A reward, even a small one, literally changes people’s minds. When you get praise and recognition for something you’ve done, it alters the chemistry and electrical activity of your brain.

People get addicted to scoring points and winning prizes.

And that means if they can get that kind of recognition on your blog, they’ll keep coming back for more.

Here’s how it works:

Success is an Addiction

A little win gives you a jolt of testosterone, the hormone of competition and adventure. That makes you feel three things:

1. More competitive – you want to keep winning
2. More open to risk – you’re ahead of the game so your confidence is high
3. More generous to others – you’re doing so well, you can afford to help out

Those are the feelings you want your readers to have on your blog, right? If you’re not sure, let’s break it down:

1. Competitive – your readers will work extra hard to do well at whatever task you’ve set
2. Open to risk – they’re prepared to try something new or take a leap of faith
3. Generous – your readers become a community when they start to help each other

Make sense? All you need to do is give your audience a sweet testosterone boost when they answer your call to action, and they’ll love it so much they return to your blog again and again.

Not only that, they’ll make an effort to act on what you’re saying to them.

To encourage deep interaction between your audience and your blog, find ways to hand out rewards.

Gamification Ideas for Bloggers

Here are just 2 examples of how gamification can improve your blog:

1. Comments – If you want to encourage thoughtful comments on your blog posts, start rewarding the readers who leave the best comments.

How? Well, that depends on your blog. You could thank them on Twitter and Facebook, use a comment voting system to let other readers reward the best commenters, or create a regular “Comment of the Month” post on your blog to highlight their contribution.

2. Evergreen Content – If you want people to start at a certain blog post and work their way through your evergreen content in the optimum order, make a game of it.

Award points for finishing each post and acting on it, with bonuses for extra tasks, and a digital certificate of completion at the end. Now you’ve got a mini-course or challenge series that’s fun and engaging – you could even use it as a free giveaway in exchange for email subscriptions or social media shares.

Whatever you want to see on your blog, create the framework of reward and recognition that will encourage readers to participate. Gamification works. Make it work for you.

Oh, and I haven’t forgotten my promise.

Here you go: one gold star. You’re a winner!

Thanks for reading this post, and I hope you’ll share your thoughts in the comments box.