Blog owners get a lot from having an active community.  For some bloggers they pay the bills from the purchases and clicks of their readers.  So of course blog owners try to build a blog with an active community they can build trust on.

What might be surprising is the users who are the most active can often gain more from their efforts then the blog owners.

An Example

To explain this I am going to use Blogussion’s User of the Week from our last newsletter, Rob Rammuny.  Now if you did not get our newsletter you are really missing out because we share some very valuable tips. Last week we shared some of our plans for Blogussion’s  future exclusively with our subscribers. [Sign up for our free weekly email by clicking on "Newsletter" in the sidebar]

Our newsletter also posted a brief introduction to Rob, his contact information, and why we chose him as a “User of the Week”.  Here is part of what we said in our email:

Rob wrote an amazing guest post about Twitter Marketing, a variety of guest posts on Unique Blog, and promoted our posts excellently. Rob set himself apart by going out of his way to promote our content throughout the week with Stumbles, Tweets, and Diggs. You can also find a comment from Rob on most of the recent posts.

Look at the reasons we chose Rob for our feature in the newsletter.  He was helpful in providing us with great content, promoting our work, and connecting with other readers.  For blog owners, that is a big deal.  For Rob, its an even bigger deal.

Active Presence Has Its Perks

Being active has its perks for users.  These perks are important as the blog you participate on grows in traffic and authority.  If you stay consistent your activity will include a few of these benefits:

1. Trust - As blog owners we trust those that take part in contributing to our blog.  We see your efforts to work hard and build your own blog and often we respect that and help you in your efforts.
2. Links -We link to your articles if we know who you are and what you are writing about.  For example, in our Weekend Wire post we linked to a lot of our readers.  Many of the links were to readers that contribute regularly to our blog by commenting, stumbling, or writing.
3. Projects - When we undertake a new project often our closest community members get first dibs on seeing the new projects results and a chance to communicate with us personally.  In other occasions we might even outsource to you, invite you into a partnership, or ask your advice.  Being active on our blog and others could get you some very unique results.
4. Partnerships - Rob’s active presence eventually led us to invite him to be an author on Unique Blog.  He posts short articles whenever he wants and can link to his own articles pretty freely.  Its a great thing for him and he even gets a link and a picture in Blogussion’s footer.

Promotion Always Pays

Readers who promote the blog’s they read to others through Stumbleupon, Twitter, Digg or Delicious almost always get the favor returned.  It is not uncommon for Alex or I to get an email asking for a favor from someone who regularly promotes our content.  We then promote their work and hope to build traffic to the posts they ask for help with.  You see what you give you usually get.

When it comes to being active you usually get more than you put into it.  If you already read the articles here, drop a quick line in the comment box and we will not only remember your name, but respond.  Often our responses lead to personal emails and a quick look at your most recent posts.  If we like what we see we spread the wealth by promoting your content and linking to it.

Kindness Always Pays

This phrase works for blog owners too, but kindness always pays for readers.  Most bloggers read blogs that get more traffic then they do.  Many bloggers use there comments to drive traffic.  There is no better way to make your presence known and get some promotional help then by connecting with the Blog Owners you read by connecting over a variety of mediums.

Here is What I Do for Other Bloggers:

• Comment Regularly
• Stumble Their Posts
• Digg Posts
• Bookmark Posts on Delicious
• Twitter Their Posts
• Ask a Question on Twitter

After spending no more than 5-10 minutes doing these tasks you have suddenly become a very trustworthy reader the blog owner is going to like and connect with.  If you spend only 10 minutes a day doing this for a blog owner you will find your network of bloggers growing, your relationships increasing, and your traffic going through the roof!

Related posts:

1. How To Fight Spam Without Affecting User Experience

2. How to Connect Better With Your Community and See Results

3. Build Your Community, Stop Begging for One