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

Hola friends and new readers-soon-to-be-friends!   Today’s topic is a continuation of last week’s discussion of blog design.   Let’s talk about your (probably overloaded) sidebars.  I say that they are probably overloaded because, well, most sidebars, INCLUDING MINE, are.  Whether you have one, two, or more sidebars, the stuff you stick over there needs to have some sort of purpose.

Generally, we want things in our sidebars to entice our readers to stick around and read more.  Your sidebars are also a good place to put information that lets your new readers get to know who you are and who they are reading about.  When your sidebars are too cluttered, INCLUDING MINE, people tend to ignore all of it because it’s too cluttered.

One excellent way to clean up your messy sidebars is to add pages.  Under my header, there are links to pages that contain information that I previously had in my sidebars.  With a little html/javascript/css knowledge, they can be added to any template.  Just google “adding pages to blog” and you’ll find about 261 million sites willing to help you.

Let’s talk about the MUST HAVES for your sidebar(s).

1.  Subscribe button

Make it easy for people to subscribe to your feed.  My subscribe button is over there to your left, right up at the top.  Easy to find!  I really like that particular button because it makes it easy to add the feed to any feed reader.  You can get that button, too, at addtoany.com.  However, I think there’s something to be said for the universal RSS button…

, it is highly recognizable and it might be a smarter option.

2.  Cast of Characters/About

When a new reader stops by, they need to know who and what your blog is about.  In my sidebar I have my name, a picture of myself, the names and ages of my kids, and my husband’s name.  This information is a CRUCIAL thing to have in your sidebar.  New readers can use this as a reference so they know who you’re writing about in your posts.  (The picture isn’t 100% crucial, but I do feel more connected to the bloggers that I can “see.”)

I think it’s also important to have an “About” page where you can tell a little more about yourself than you can with just a few lines in your sidebar.

If you don’t already have this on your blog, I’ll wait for you to fix that RIGHT NOW.

**taps fingers**

3. Your email address

I mentioned this last week in our discussion of blog design.  It’s still relevant this week.

4.  Comment Policy

You need to let commenters know what you do and don’t allow people to say in your comments section.  Be sure to let readers know if you edit comments, delete rude comments, or if cursing isn’t allowed.  Here’s a great explanation of comment policies from The Blog Herald.

5.  Search Box

This is helpful for those who come to your blog and want to search for something specific.  I often use search boxes on other’s blogs when I’m looking for a post that I wish to link.

6.  Review and Disclosure Policy (For review bloggers)

With the new FTC regulations regarding bloggers, endorsements, free stuff, and integrity, this is a vital component to a review blog.  This does not necessarily have to be listed in the sidebar, it could certainly be a separate page. I  mention it here because it’s a MUST HAVE.

Those six items listed above are probably the only ABSOLUTELY necessary things you should have in your sidebar (or as a separate page).    However, most of us, INCLUDING ME, cannot resist the lure of other widgets and buttons for our sidebars.  So let’s continue to discuss some of the other things that are useful, though not necessary.

7.  Archives, most recent posts , and favorite posts, series of posts

Offering these in your sidebar makes it easy for people to nose around your site.   I have drop down menu for my archives, listed my month and year.  Instead of listing them in my sidebar, I made a page for my favorite posts.

The pages of mine that seem to get the most traffic (besides my “About” page) are “Bama” and “Smackdown.”  My very scientific hypothesis as to the reason behind this is that people are fascinated by the possibility that real people actually LIVE in Alabama.  (I’m kidding.)  I think that people are also looking for a good fight, thus their clicks on my “Smackdown” button.

8.  Links to your social networking sites, like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Flickr, etc.

These links let people know where else they can find and “friend” you.  I don’t have links to every site I belong to, but the sites that I use the most.  You can even dress up your links with fancy icons.  Here’s a great source for finding free social networking icons.  (There are many sites like this, just google “free social networking icons.”)

The next two items to include in your sidebar, I’m not 100% sure that they are at all necessary, but I know that some of us, INCLUDING ME, have trouble letting these things go.  I’d LOVE to have a discussion in the comments section about the following items and hear your take.

9.  Subscriber Number

Last year when I originally published this, I recommended displaying your subscriber number, as I was convinced that it actually helped increase my subscriber count.  I still stand behind that, I’m certain that it works.  However, I know that displaying my number prominently started to feel wrong.  It became this thing that could make or break my day.

If you are really wanting to get serious about blogging, if your goal is to make money or get a book deal, I’d recommend displaying your subscriber number.  For me, though, I purposely moved my number (it’s still on the front page, just not as prominently) to remind myself why I really blog.

In case you care, here’s an article from Problogger that discusses revealing your subscriber count.

10.  Blogroll/Blogger’s Blog List

Since most people’s blogrolls are hundreds of sites long I really think that they can make a blog look incredibly cluttered (especially the Blog List on Blogger sites.)  I KNOW that so many of you actually USE these for your own reading pleasure, it’s just that they take up SO MUCH space.

There are ways you can still have a blogroll, but without so much clutter including:

**Creating a separate page that houses your blogroll, or even linking to a separate blog where you keep your blogroll.
**A rotating blogroll which shows just a few of the blogs you read at a time
**Expandable boxes for hiding or showing your blog list (also excellent for hiding awards, buttons, etc.)
**Scroll boxes.

(By the way, my blogroll is NOT updated.  Since I use a feed reader to keep track of the blogs I read, the only time I add people to my blogroll is when someone asks.  If you’re not on it and wish to be because I’m on yours, please email me and I will add you.)

As I mentioned last week, make sure that whatever you have in your sidebar is not holding up the loading of your page.  Long load times means lost visitors.  Many of the award buttons and twitter widgets cause these slow loading times.  Beware!

I realize that I have many things in my sidebars in addition to the items I mentioned above like ads and my book list.  Like my Internet addiction, I’m slowly weaning myself from the lure of excessive widgetry*(new word!).  It’s a work in progress.

I’d love to know what you think is necessary in a blog’s sidebar.  What do you think is unnecessary?

Previously in this series…Writing Tips, Blog Promotion and Social Networking, StumbleUpon School, Blog Design