Okay, so you have a blog and you want it to be popular! Of course, who wouldn’t want their site to be more popular? Well, there are things you can do to bring on more popularity.
One thing that I really believe in is to build a community type site. Make everybody feel like they’re part of the community, encourage them to join in, and talk back to them when you can!
What do I mean by that? Well when people participate in your blog by leaving comments, respond to them! Engage them in conversation. Don’t just ignore them. Some people feel that they write a blog post, and they’re done. They’ve done their job. Now other people can come and leave comments, but the job of the blog author is finished. Well, I don’t see it that way. The more you respond to your commenters, the more they feel like they’re part of the site. Engage them, challenge them, when you do this. They’ll come back for more.
Take a look at the graphic above. This is a screen capture from the control panel of one of my other blogs. Over on the right side, where you see the little gray area with the number inside that shows how many comments were left on each particular post. So if you notice the post at the top got 54 comments, followed by 29, followed by 6, by 33, 29, 103, 28 and again in 28. What is that 6 doing in there? It’s been a long time since I’ve only had six comments on any post. So, how did this happen?
Well, on a particular day that this post went public, I was really busy and I was unable to respond to the comments. As you can see that man little interest from my readers.
So, do you want people to participate on your blog? Leave comments? Keep coming back to check what’s new? Well, you need to engage your readers than! Respond to their comments, let them know what you think!
I know people who have blogs, and a lot of them complain to me that nobody participates on their blog. Nobody comments. It just seems dead. Well, at times I left comments on their blogs, and there was no response. I kept going back to see if they responded to what I said, but nothing. So, after a while, I just quit going there at all. So in my eyes, their blog did die, at least for me, it did.
The graphic above tells the whole story. If you engage your readers, they’ll be back for more. If you start getting a few more comments like that, more readers will join in. It’s a never-ending circle. The participation on your site just keeps growing.
Don’t let your site die! Engage your readers.
You hit the nail on the head here, Bob. I really don’t know why, but a great many people, especially when thye are new to blogging, seem to be absolutely frightened by dealing with their readers.
I’ve probably made a few people unhappy when I have been asked for advice and questioned them on this very subject … they don’t want to deal with readers and interacting with them.
That’s a personal choice that everyone needs to make ..but if they come down on the side of keeping very private and hands off? Then blogging is probably not the best route to take. Plenty of other ways to set up something profit-making on line that doesn’t require interaction … but by it’s nature, blogging is almost always interactive.
The very first thing I do every morning when I hit the keyboard is check for comments to my various bogs. It’s a sad day for me if I find bone. I’ve never yet had anyone who has bene downright rude … I’ve had plenty people who didn’t agree, or even pointed out out and out mistakes I had made. that’s super, in my book. Not only did I connect with someone, I had a great opportunity to learn something as well … it’s a great way to start the day … keeps me, and the blog alive.
Hi Dave Starr – Yep, that’s exactly correct. Not only can you make your readers feel good by responding to them, but your readers can teach you when you interact with them.
Good comment!
Bob
I have seen many ads on your blog that relate to the Philippines and many of them look like they would attract clicks. Do you use a program that brings these ads to you? I have been offered to use a program called OpenX. Are you familiar with this program? BTW love the 49 ways book.
Hi Dan Mihaliak – I’m glad that you like the book!
I use a number of different sources for advertising on my sites. OpenX is an open source Ad Server that you can put on your own server to serve ads that you sell yourself. Yes, I do use it, actually, and it is a very good program. Keep in mind that OpenX does not offer you ads, it is simply an adserver that you can use on your own web server.