Without readership on your blog, what exactly is the point of running a successful, money-making blog? Have you ever heard bloggers say “It’s not my blog, but yours”? Well, whoever came up with that is exactly right.
Okay, so we both know that since you own the domain, have access to the sites internal files that technically the blog is yours. But that saying has a deeper meaning to it.
My interpretation is that as a blogger, you write for an audience and are giving them knowledge within blog posts. Since content is king and content is what makes a blog go round, your readers also have a certain degree of ownership. It’s really a saying that can have many sides to it.
Since your readers are what make your blog, don’t they deserve something more than just great knowledge? Sure they do, they deserve acknowledgment.
If there is one thing I can say that I am good about in terms of blogging, it’s the fact that I keep up to date with the people who visit my blog and leave comments about my articles. It’s not just me, anyone who has ever written for this blog has always given back to the community, in more ways than just sharing an article with them.
Because I feel I am so good with the community on my blog, I am going to go over with you a few of the things I do to better connect with you as my blog reader.
1. Reply to comments
I figured I would just get this out-of-the-way early as this is a given. It is very important that you respond to the comments your readers take the time to write out. Seriously, you may not understand how lucky you are to be getting any comments on your blog. Many bloggers have difficulties with this, so be courteous and don’t take the fact that someone has spent their time to talk to you for granted!
I have been replying to the comments on this blog ever since the beginning, and I have to tell you that getting comments like this really makes me feel like I am on the right track in communicating with my community:
…I read a lot of articles about but never comment on them. The reason I commented on yours was because I noticed that you responded to EVERY comment someone left on your article. Your attention to detail really stood out to me and motivated me to do the same thing when I start mine.
This was posted by a very cool graphics designer, Raven Bedenfield in a past article where I explained how you can kick start your freelance business through blogging. Comments I get just like that just keep motivating me farther and farther to get more involved within my community.
2. User of the Week
This is a fun idea I took from a forum, and we are planning on doing this in our upcoming newsletter. This will be a great way to really make certain members of your community stand out, and I am going to explain why right after this little plug:
If you want to sign up for our new blogging tips newsletter, you can do so in the sidebar. Our first newsletter goes out this Sunday, November 1st. Don’t miss it guys!
So the idea behind this “user of the week” thing is to basically find someone who has made some kind of contribution to Blogussion in the past week. As I explained in our recent redesign announcements, the things we look for are:
- Participates in the comment sections of the posts, even with other users
- Writes constructive comments and advice
- Guest posting for the blog helps too
- Interacting in older posts on the blog
- Sharing posts on social media sites (Twitter, Digg, etc.)
And after we select our user of the week, we will be writing a little about them and their contributions, as well as putting a link to their blog in it.
This is a really great way to start making more connections within your community. Don’t you think if you did this week after week, building your list of dedicated readers one by one, you could have a very solid community in the works?
This is an idea that we are sure to write a post about in the future as we start announcing our users of the week. Stay tuned, and don’t be afraid to sign-up to our newsletter!
3. Getting Involved in their community
This may be a little tedious at first, and if you have a lot of people who comment on your blog – a little hard. But, it’s incredibly valuable if you can get yourself involved in some of your reader’s community just as they have done for you. There are a three major ways we get involved in our friends communities here:
1. Commenting
A good comment every once in a while on our friends blogs really can make a difference in your relationship. If you leave your blog URL behind, there’s a great chance that the author will comment back.
2. Guest Posting
We are guest posting nuts here, and we have built much of our readership that is here today through guest posting. Take for example, Nick from SiteSketch 101. Seth being the friendly guy he is decided to write a great guest post on Nick’s blog about friendly competition. The community over at Nick’s blog appreciated it, just as we’re sure Nick did.
3. Link Loving
I have linked out to two bloggers so far in this article and it’s really a great way to show that I appreciate their contributions to my blog. It never hurts to link out to others, especially if you link to content that can support your ideas and beliefs.
Have you ever contributed to someone else’s community? Have you commented on their posts, guest written for them, linked out or done something else?
4. Connect on Social Networks
Everyone uses Twitter now right? I can guarantee you that the majority of bloggers you find in your community will have a link to their Twitter account on their blog.
Chatting on Twitter for example is easy and doesn’t take much effort. But you aren’t limited to just interacting on Twitter. You can send sites you want your friends to stumble on StumbleUpon, make friends with other people on Digg and a lot more.
A while back on Blogussion, I posted an article where the readers in my community could post their Twitter accounts. I have closed that topic for new comments, but I think it may be interesting to reopen it and try it again with our now much larger readership. See it here.
5. Ask Readers Questions, Get Feedback
This is an idea just built off of the whole “this is your blog, not mine” concept. At the end of many posts I write here, I always ask a question regarding the topic. For example, if I were to write about how to increase traffic from Digg, I would ask something like What have you done to improve your social media presence? at the end.
Also, if you have noticed I have been asking questions at the end of a few paragraphs in this post. It can get you more involved with the idea of this article, which in return will help you learn more from it.
When I wrote the tutorial about how to recreate the subscribe box on Blogussion, I asked for your opinion on the hierarchy of it. As a result, I found out that many people who read the post followed it with no problem and came out with a great result. I also learned that I misspelled a few words, but that made my article better by two words!
How do you get involved with your community?
So I am asking you now – what do you do to create better relationships with your readers? I just told you things that we do here to get involved, and now we have about 4,000 Twitter followers, and a strong community where each post gets over 25 or more comments on average. That’s all earned through a little dedication and friendliness.
Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts no matter how much effort (or how little) it takes!
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?I also try to reply all comment in my blog. And also i think that getting involved in their community is a great way to have more loyal readers.
.-= Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Comment Visibility in High Traffic Blog =-.
You should always do your best to reply to every comment on your blog. Seriously, I don’t know how many people I wouldn’t have became friends with if it weren’t for replying to all of these comments!
You seem to be reading day and night looking for good stuff to post lol
Bloggers should always read, not just write!
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Ironically enough, now there’s a post in itself!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
Great Post.
I also agree with the replying to your readers comments. There’s nothing more irritating then leaving a comment and not getting a respond. I currently use the Top Commentator plugin to keep people commenting. Not only do people get a link back from the Top Commentator list, but they might get a bit of traffic as well. Launching some big contests on your blog also will increase readership and interaction.
.-= Teen Blogger´s last blog ..3 Easy Ways To Improve Google Pagerank =-.
Contests are great! We hope to launch a contest for our first birthday, so hopefully that should prove to be a great traffic source for us.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
You definitely have a growing comment count…I’ll add to it myself as I’ve just subscribed.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
This is going to get bookmarked. I know all these things, but I always need to be reminded. Thanks!
Peace.
.-= Sid Burgess´s last blog ..Building “honorable” Public Spaces =-.
Isn’t that how life is! Sometimes the most important things you learn are the ones you already have. You just need to be able to conceptualize them into ideas you can see clearly.
.-= Seth´s last blog ..How to Connect Better With Your Community and See Results =-.
Glad you found the article bookmark worthy!
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Conversation is the essence of blogging and a powerful means of marketing, getting involved with your reader is a good way of gaining brand in your field, its attract loyal readers and promote the blog because why would someone want to leave a comment on your blog or get involved in a conversation if they are not seeing you do the same on your own blog?
.-= Webmaster Forum UK´s last blog ..Why SEO is necessary for a website =-.
I know firsthand that your statement is 100% true. A lot of the long term readers here who have posted a comment have gotten to know us better and I like to think it’s because I simply replied to their comment.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Yes Alex that is really one of things that stick me more here, you are doing a great job around
even with the guest post..
.-= Webmaster Forum UK´s last blog ..How cheap is cheap web hosting? =-.
At the moment, i have a competition for the top commentators. After a week, I provide free 125×125 ads for the person, who commented. Also, I create a post to announce the winner and provide link from that post as well. The post also, include top 5 commentators, with a link to their site as well.
I think it is really fare to reward the participants of the blog. As without readers, feedbacks, and comments, the blog would be worthless.
.-= Internethow Blog´s last blog ..Competition: Free Advertisement For Top Commentators =-.
That sounds like a fun idea! How does that work out for you? Does it engage your readers more?
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Now your others eaders have their work cut out for them…I’ve just subscribed!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
I definitely agree on replying to readers comments. This is especially important if a reader asks a question in their comment. Promptness in response time is important also. If you take a week to respond to a reader’s question the response may never be seen.
Of course having great content that gets readers to want comment is the first step
Question: Does having your Comments section be dofollow and using LinkLuv help increase the number of commenters? I have only been following your blog for a few months so I’m not sure when you began using LinkLuv and dofollow. Thanks.
.-= Computer Tech Tips´s last blog ..MiFi – Cellular Mobile Wireless Internet Hotspot =-.
We see a number of new visitors who are attracted to reading our information and commenting because they know we both will benefit. You don’t want spam, but a little encouragement goes a long way.
.-= Seth´s last blog ..How to Connect Better With Your Community and See Results =-.
Last week I did an ‘introduce yourself’ post which I first saw on this blog, amazingly today i received a number of intros a week after the initial post. So yes I totally agree with you Alex, offering your community value add, greatly helps your blog in the long term.
.-= Muzi Mohale´s last blog ..Win 2 nights stay and game drives at Thula Thula for naming baby rhino =-.
That’s great Muzi! What’s the link to the post? I would love to see it.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Here is is the link Alex: http://www.travelwires.com/wp/2009/10/hi-am-muzi-mohale-from-travelwires-com-and-who-are-you/
A very cool idea, thanks!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
Another set of useful tips. Connecting with readers is so critical. Getting involved in their community is a great one…if time permits, I suggest everyone starting out should seek out others in the same niche and similar popularity. Go reach out to those guys, they’re wearing the same shoes as you are.
.-= Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..Blog like you’re writing for a 14-year old girl =-.
It’s hard to reach out to everybody especially if you’re blog is fairly large. But, I like to get as many as I feel like. I would love to get on many more of my blog readers blogs, but time usually doesn’t permit me to do so all of the time!
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Name 3 things that;s a better use of time.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
How much will major advertisers pay to advertise on your blog? I’m not talking about pay per click. There are some fitness blogs that “The biggest Loser” sponsor as well as the South Beach Diet. Any tips?
.-= letter writing tips´s last blog ..Reply to someone whose application for a job has not been successful =-.
Honestly, we have made it so clear that we do not want ads on our blog that no one has ever contacted us for an advertisement spot.
But, if you can create an active community, then the chances of you getting advertisers increase. Of course, many factors go into pricing your ads, traffic being probably the largest factor!
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
A post on how you DO earn from this blog might be nice…..assuming you do, that is.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
Nice post with useful tips.
I agree, replying to comments is a must if you want to establish a relationship and build a following. Acknowledging the fact that someone took their time and read a post, then commented is often times overlooked.
The one thing i try to do every day is to learn something new, and that comes by way of interacting with others. That’s the beauty of the internet, everyone is good at something which allows you to expand your own knowledge base.
Thanks for the read, I enjoyed it.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Pandora Joins the Social Media Club =-.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the post!
I am in agreement with you, it’s just like meeting people in real life – you can’t be afraid to talk back to them!
Whenever I learn something, often I find that telling them I learned from their article will make them feel great! Don’t you feel great when someone says they learned something from you?
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Alex, you almost wrote all the possible ways to interact with your commentator. I also feel good when i receive a personalized message when i comment on someone’s blog for the very first time. I hate it when i get the same but an automated one. It is like a community is accepting you as a new member. I will prefer to see a little blurb about the blog in that email as well. I hate it when i receive a follow up soliciting email on feeds. Not to forget first impression remains for a long time. Right Alex?
.-= Business News´s last blog ..Home Prices Increase in Major Cities in August-Report =-.
Glad you enjoyed the article!
First impressions are everything, and when it comes to blogging – you’d better make a damn great one.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
What we have to do is find ways to get more consistent in everything we do from commenting to sharing to linking to each other. To that end I just created a DoFollow-Blogs list in my @GrowMap Twitter account so I can quickly hone in on what our fellow dofollow bloggers are doing.
Anyone who wants to be added can send me an @GrowMap message. Those in niches beyond blogging or online marketing will want to start other lists such as dofollow-golf-blogs or dofollow-Mommy-bloggers, etc.
I would like to personally invite you all over to GrowMap. One thing I know is that when someone comments in my blog or reaches out to me on Social Networks I consistently return the favor by sending them visitors (from StumbleUpon, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and Delicious – to be expanded to Reddit and other sites), recommending them, reviewing them, and linking to them from new and existing related posts.
All of these things are what we need to be doing consistently for each other. The more often and better we take action in support of each other the more we all benefit. Now is a great time to visit because I just compiled links to my strongest and most beneficial content.
If you have related links you’re welcome to drop them in my comments and I will move them up into the body of the posts where they belong. If we all take @ProBlogger’s “blogging buddies” concept fully we can all grow exponentially.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Best of GrowMap: Our Pillar Foundation Content =-.
Sounds like a good idea, I hope you get some people from over here to join in! Are you using that new lists feature Twitter just announced to power this group at all?
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Wow!!!! that’s great…I can only say that Google is the world’s largest search engine who provide more secure service platform & It is more trustworthy service provider…. So, better to go with this, Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed the article! Thanks for stopping by.
– Alex
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
I have 1&5 down pat for sure! 1 can take a couple hours, but it is well worth it! My own Reply to comments post was in my most popular list for 7-8 months…I’m a firm believer and certain parts were a wee controversial
.
I always comment on other blogs that leave good comments on mine. I haven’t guest posted yet, although I’ve been asked, and my link love has also suffered greatly due to my health disappearances…getting there though! I also need to really get back into the social networks.
I’m going to steal user of the week.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
Yeah Dennis, you definitely have #1 down! Good job my friend.
Guest posting is seriously amazing. I don’t know if you read it yet, but Seth wrote a great article about how guest posting got us 200+ subscribers in 2 days. Look into it man!
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
Nope not yet, but I will for sure. i just can’t decide which to put on others and which to keep for myself.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
Hey Alex, You have shared col points over here. These are really effective and addition to these points, one should be active on one or two platforms like Twitter or Facebook and stay connected with different bloggers of same community. Nice list buddy.
.-= Sanjeev´s last blog ..Google PR (Page Rank) Update Done, Internet Techies Now PR3 =-.
Glad you enjoyed the article!
I agree, you should have multiple traffic streams!
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
OK you made me chuckle so I had to visit your blog. Good stuff man, how do you get that featured article area to rotate?
I chuckled because so far Twitter and facebook are the first two networks that I canceled my account. LOL
Actually I canceled to start over from scratch, but it struck me funny.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
Installing plugin that show the top comentators is a great idea too. And I believe if you reply any comment (even it just a greeting), your blog will be more attractive and communicative. This kind of blog is growing up very faster in subscribers and readers. Also, be active in your own blog so visitor will always feels that you’re still exist in your blog.
.-= Reza Winandar´s last blog ..5 Tips to Increase the Number of Subscribers for Beginner =-.
I think the reason this community grows as fast as it does is because of the constant conversation happening within it. Like, it’s not just the author of posts here that reply to others comments, but community members do chat a lot too.
The top commentators plugin is a great way to keep your community interacting on your own blog for sure.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life =-.
“it’s not just the author of posts here that reply to others comments, but community members do chat a lot too:”
Threaded comments is another plugin sent from god, ain’t it? LOL
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
You bring up a very good point. Whenevr I notice a new name/face in my comment section, I make sure to reply with a Welcome aboard! comment…it goes over quite well…
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
i always reply all of my readers comments or question. But only few of them come back to my post to see what is my answer. It seems hard to build big readership.
I saw your problem straight away. You’re using a blogger blog to which you are not able to add plugins, are you?
One of the very best plugins for a wordpress blog is “subscribe to comments” as you see on this blog also….the commenter just icks the box and all responses go to their email to which they can then come back to reply again.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
exactly!
the problem is all about the lack of comment system
I’ve tried to install disqus comment system, but when i try to upload my html code, their system just don’t match.
.-= mytheory´s last blog ..Last PR Update : From N/A to 3 =-.
Wholeheartedly agree with you on replying to every comment and also commenting back on their site ^^. Even if its just a ‘thats awesome’ or ‘Great post’
By the way love the design of your site and all the valuable information! Really tons of useful stuff for people who want to improve their blogs. Cheers
.-= chubbybots´s last blog ..Night of the living Uglies!! =-.
“Even if its just a ‘thats awesome’ or ‘Great post’…”
Whoa no no no, never do that. I realize you may be thinking that the blog owner may recognize you and therefore not care about the spamminess of the comment and appreciate you dropping by.
As this may be true, never forget every other commenters on that post that will see your 2 words and instantly decide your blog is not worth visiting.
Getting the owners attention is important, yes; but so is the attention of all others with eyes on you.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – $10 LESS! – As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special! =-.
This kind of blog is growing up very faster in subscribers and readers.
I get involved in communities by reading and commenting thoughts of value. I also boost my readership above me in order to help them get to where they want to go and hopefully they’ll come back for me; you know “Leave No Blogger Behind”.
I subscribe to nearly every feed and read just about all of them every day something new is published, luckily not everyone is on a daily publish schedule. I also reward my readers and commentators with link love and a special spot in my side bar for free.
.-= Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..10 Reasons to Start a Blog =-.
i reply my commenters. it shows you have respect and appreciate the commenters.. Anything that will benefit a commenter if he comments ,will always bring in more commenters and quickly build a community.We are all moved majorly by what we can gain most of the time.
.-= mk akan´s last blog ..5 GREAT BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATING IN BLOG COLLABORATIONS =-.
Replying means loving your readers. It means you value them. Not to mention additional words that can certainly hit and boost your page rank due to more keywords and valid qualified links.
I think the best option is intereation with the readers and make them interact again and again.,
Cool….
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