Welcome back to class everyone! I hope all of enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend, or if you’re not American, I hope you enjoyed your regular ol’ weekend.
Today’s class is going to focus on building a community around your blog. What I mean by community is this: The people who visit and comment, the meaningful interactions with other bloggers, and positive word-of-mouth about your blog. Building a community around your blog is vital to attracting and maintaining readers. You want to create an atmosphere on your blog where people feel welcome and want to come back.
To build a community around YOUR blog, though, means regularly venturing out and participating in OTHER blog communities.
In the past year, I’ve neglected commenting on blogs and replying to comments left on this site. I KNOW that my lack of reciprocity and communication with others has negatively affected building this community. So, everything I’m recommending? I need to take these suggestions and actually start putting them to use again.
1. Comment on others’ blogs
I think that this is THE NUMBER ONE THING you can do to attract and maintain readers to your site. Commenting on other blogs is especially important when you’re first starting out with your blog. In fact, behind well-written content, I think it’s THE MOST IMPORTANT THING you can do to generate traffic. Find other blogs in your niche and let the comment love flow.
People LOVE receiving comments and your comment let’s people know that you visited. Consider your comment your calling card. Not only does the blog author see your calling card, but so do other visitors to the site. If you’ve left a particularly witty or well-written comment, you’re likely to get people’s interest piqued enough to click through to your site. Beware of leaving very obviously “traffic-seeking” comments, like “Oh that was funny. Be sure to check out my blog at Practically Comment Spam!”
With that said, there does come a point when commenting and reciprocating comments can take over your life. Literally. There does have to be a balance between commenting, social media participation, and writing on your blog. In an upcoming post, we’ll discuss time management.
2. Promote others’ posts via StumbleUpon or Twitter
If you don’t have time to leave a comment, but think that what you’ve read is worth sharing, then promoting a post via StumbleUpon or Twitter is almost as good as leaving a comment. Some people who really value their traffic numbers may even think it’s better than your comment. The one downside to this, the person whose post you’ve promoted may not ever know that it was you who sent them an increase in traffic. However, I definitely believe in blogging karma, what you put into the community will be repaid in full, which leads to my next point…
3. Devote time to social media interaction. Be accessible to your readers!
Whether you spend time on Twitter or Facebook, Flickr, or a message board, choose a place you enjoy, make friends, and participate. It will pay off.
These are great places to interact with people in your blogging community. I know that there’s many schools of thought on following/following back people on Twitter or friending people on Facebook and Flickr. My personal opinion is that if you’re trying to seem accessible and truly participate in the community, you should follow (most) people back on Twitter and accept friend requests on Facebook/Flickr.
In regards to Twitter, with so many applications that allow you to set up lists so as to keep track of those you are closest to, then not following possibly relevant people back is kind of rude and can be interpreted as elitist. This means that you should follow back people in your blogging genre (mommyblogging, food blogging, craft blogging…). That doesn’t mean that you have to follow every Tom, Dick, and Harry that claims to be a social media expert or random guys with no profiles set up. You can also always unfollow people that you realize you have nothing in common with.
4. Join weekly meme’s/carnivals
(There is some debate as to what these weekly participation things are called…from here on out for ease of reading, we’re going to call them carnivals, okay?)
There are so many different carnivals you can join to promote content on your site each week. Participation in these carnivals can be a great way to generate traffic, especially when you’re first starting out. Being a regular contributor to a particular carnival is also a way to developing relationships with the other participants. If you do choose to participate, it is a good thing to also visit the other sites participating.
As great as participation in weekly carnivals can be, it can easily be overdone. Carnival postings should be interspersed with original content.
Here are just a few carnivals in which you can participate:
Not Me Monday at My Charming Kids
Mouthwatering Monday at A Southern Fairytale
Wordless Wednesday
Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family
Things I Love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries
Top Ten Thursday at My Messy Paradise
Girl Talk Thursday
Thursday Thirteen
Fight the Frump Friday at Blissfully Domestic
Photo Story Friday at My Chaos My Bliss
Weekly Winners at Sarcastic Mom
You Capture at I Should Be Folding Laundry
If you know of any others to include, please let me know and I will add them!
5. Reply to emails
If someone has emailed you, REPLY. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve emailed another blogger only to get *crickets chirping* NO REPLY. This has also happened too many times to count, when someone has emailed me for advice or assistance, but never bothered to thank me for my reply. *shakes head in disgust*
Listen people. It’s rude not to reply to emails. If you don’t have time, then reply back and say, “Hey, I’m so swamped right now, I’m sorry I can’t reply right away, but when I get a chance, I will!”
(If you think I’m talking about you, well….) Speaking of replying…
6. Reply to comments left on your blog
Replying to comments lets your readers know that 1) you actually read your comments and 2) appreciate each comment left. Before learning about the greatest comment plugin ever that emails my reply to the commenter, I would just reply via email. Most of us don’t have time and it also isn’t necessary to respond to every single comment on your site. Some comments don’t require replies, but those comments that ask a question or that just make your day, SHOULD GET A REPLY.
The ability to respond to comments is also a point of contention between different blogging platforms. In fact the whole replying to comments issue is one reason I switched from Blogger to WordPress. I think that Blogger’s key flaw is that you don’t have to include your email address when you comment. Tsk, tsk.
6. Show your readers you care about them by linking to them
The greatest way in the world of blogs to let someone know that you admire their work, besides commenting! and promoting their posts in social media forums, is to link to their site. If a post of someone’s inspired you to write your own, LINK TO THEM!
7. Link to your own posts to help explain the backstory to new readers
Have you ever walked up to a group of people who are all laughing about some situation and people that you’re clueless about? You stand their feeling awkward and left out… This happens on blogs all the time. I regularly read new-to-me blogs and don’t understand what they’re referring to, then in the comments section I realize I’m the only one who doesn’t know the back story.
Remember that many people just randomly happen upon your blog and do not know your life story. If you want to make your new readers feel welcome and you’re talking about something that has a backstory or could be clarified by something you’ve already posted about, then LINK TO THOSE POSTS! Don’t let new readers feel like the new kid who doesn’t get the joke.
So basically what I’m trying to say…Building relationships in blogging is exactly like building relationships in real life. Be nice to others, return favors, and make others feel welcome. The goal should be to develop meaningful relationships with those to whom you relate.
I also think it’s important to mention that the size of your blogging community is only as important as YOU make it. If you have 10 loyal readers, that is AWESOME! If you have 1,000 loyal readers, that’s AWESOME, too…not awesome-er. When a blogging community becomes very large, it’s hard to maintain those readers through reciprocity in comments, replying to comments, or linking to new sites.
What do you think fosters a welcoming blog community? Who are the bloggers you feel like do a particularly good job building a community around their blog?
Previously in this series…Writing Tips, Blog Promotion and Social Networking, StumbleUpon School, Blog Design, Sidebars and Pages
This is a great post – For someone like myself who is relatively new to blogging and working on establishing a community, the tips are great. Thanks for your insight!
.-= Tiffany´s last blog ..Weigh in Wednesday – One holiday down! =-.
I love your blogging class! You push me to think about trying new things and you also make me feel proud of what I have accomplished so far.
I totally owe you two emails. They currently have a bright RED star next to them in gmail.
Great suggestions again Jennifer.
The issue I’m facing now is that as the kids get older I have less time to devote online. When I started blogging I had nappers that slept for three hour stretches. Now I find myself staying up way too long at night. It’s difficult to juggle all the things that need to get done IRL and the online hobby. No?
.-= OHmommy´s last blog ..Cocktails for Anissa =-.
Excellent advice. Almost every time that I’ve been stumbled, I figured out who it was and I appreciated it tremendously.
I also try to respond to comments on my comments. Threaded replies is a godsend.
And I think that Jill at ScaryMommy is excellent at responding, tweeting, etc.
.-= Marinka´s last blog ..Twitter for the Holidays =-.
Great reminders and tips for both new and old bloggers alike.
.-= Jen@Balancing Beauty and Bedlam´s last blog ..Lovin’ Leather at Frugal Fashionista Prices =-.
Great tips! Last week I was ready your older tips and at your recommendation I joined Stumble Upon. Yesterday I stumbled you. I thought it was kinda funny.
What’s a good way to find new blogs to comment on, to Stumble, etc.? I know there are approximately 800 zillion blogs out there, but once I’ve exhausted the blog rolls of the blogs I currently read, I’m sort of out of ideas as to how to find new ones. Do you have suggestions about that?
.-= NGS´s last blog ..Things I Just Don’t Get =-.
Great tips, as usual! I look forward to these posts every week – they help so much.
.-= LZ´s last blog ..How to Drive in Massachusetts =-.
I do so enjoy your Saturday blogging class. This is me participating in the blogging community. Lesson learned.
.-= Holly´s last blog ..Letter to Mister Waste Management Recycling Man =-.
Okay, so I could have really used these how to posts 3 years ago when I started a blog about my journey with infertility.
Because I was blogging about very personal experiences and feeling so vulnerable, it was not a blog I shared with real life friends. So I spent a good two months just wishing someone would land on my secret site and tell me they were going through the same thing. I didn’t understand how it all worked. I was just writing to exhale my sorrows.
Eventually, people did find me and tell me they were in the same boat, and since then I’ve been lucky enough to have two little girls. Still,like I said before, this kind of post would have been sooo much more helpful back then.
Blogging can be so much more than a hobby. Like you say, it can be a community, especially one of support or connection. You never know how much someone may need such a community or even just a comment like I did way back when.
And maybe, Jennifer, you will help someone else find their community and bloggy friends much quicker with your awesome posts like these.
I believe in blogging Karma, too.
.-= Lindsey´s last blog ..Dream Big =-.
Thanks for all of the great advice, Jennifer. It’s so great of you to share all of this information. I must admit, I am guilty of some of the things you mentioned. I had no idea I was being rude! Thanks for enlightening me. I want to be a better blogger like you when I grow up.
.-= Val´s last blog ..Lucy, Please Stop Calling Me – Part 2 =-.
I’ve enjoyed reading these posts. And thank you for the link to the comment plugin (still trying to get it work, but I’ll figure it out!).
I’ve been blogging for four years, but I took such long hiatuses sporadically in between that I lost all my traffic. Now the big fight is to (1) get my readers back and trusting that I’ll be around for the long haul (and I do miss them, which is why I came back again at all!), and (2) get my writing mojo back. It’s a struggle, and garnering the readership doesn’t seem as easy as it was four years ago.
Anyway, your tips have proven invaluable in the process!
Oh, and I completely agree about the reciprocal commenting. There are blogs that I’ve been faithful to for years and comment on constantly, but they don’t bother once they retained a certain status. I think it’s important to try to make an effort with your readership if you want to retain that connection and link.
So thanks! (And sorry I got a little rambly here!)
.-= Jessalee´s last blog ..I promised myself… =-.
Marinka, Yes! Jill does a great job, I agree!
I can’t wait to get my threaded comments figured out! I’m paying someone to fix mine, they will be the greatest thing since beer.
Shannon, Thanks!
NGS, That’s a great question. Aside from blogrolls, I think Twitter is a great place to find new reads. I often click links promoted by friends, but I also check out new followers’ profiles and click their blog links.
Another place I find new blogs is by following people’s Google Reader Shared Items. I subscribe to lots of different friends’ Google Reader profiles and have found tons of great new reads.
Finally, I think Blog Nosh Magazine is great place to find new blogs to read. They publish a variety of bloggers from many different blogging circles/niches. (I may be biased, I am the Managing Editor there, but it really is a fantastic way to find new people to read!)
Lindsey, I remember first starting out, too, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how people got comments (or even how people found your blog.) I do hope that new bloggers find these tips helpful, so they can really become a part of their community!
This is really great advice. I don’t always e-mail people back (I do make sure to visit their blog and leave a comment), but I think I will start.
.-= Noelle´s last blog ..An Afternoon of ‘Culture’ at the Nutcracker =-.
fantastic tips! i’m so sorry to see you’re on the naughty list
.-= MommyNamedApril´s last blog ..Do You See This Ridiculous Cuteness? Of COURSE I’m Not Done Having Kids! =-.
I’m loving your classes.
I had to say that I HATED that about blogger… the fact that you couldn’t do the respond via e-mail thingy. I did find a “plug-in” that lets me do that on blogger now. It is SO nice to be able to just reply to the comment and know that the person is getting my response. I hated having to spend so much time trying to hunt people down to respond.
.-= Colleen´s last blog ..Grace in Small Things – 82 =-.
Great advice! thank you!
.-= Becky´s last blog ..first snow… =-.
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I like to comment and tweet. For example, after commenting here, I will tweet this post.
.-= Communications Guy´s last blog ..A Global Citizen =-.
I loved this post especially the carnivals comment. I am going to check them out and a question regarding linking.
Is it okay to leave your website in the comments. I do, is that acceptable??
Good question. I assume you mean that you leave your comment in the space provided (along with your name and email) AND you leave a link in the comment box. It is redundant to do so, as your link already shows up when you leave your url in the line provided. I personally don’t really mind, but I know many people look down upon leaving your link twice.
[...] I’ve recently taken and write a post based on one of the shots. There are also lots of sites that offer weekly memes or writing prompts that can help you get over the [...]