Blog creation is what we blog ghostwriting specialists and online marketing gurus refer to as “the fun part.” Picking out a snazzy-looking blog theme, choosing fonts, creating fun weekly posts and lists are tasks that all make up the “fun part” in question. But even once you’ve got that lovely-to-look-at blog jam-packed with all kinds of nifty content to read and forward, you’re still missing one thing: an audience. With a lot of hustle, commenting and social media marketing, a good beginning blogging-for-business worker bee can start building an audience.
But while you’re growing that audience, be sure you pay special attention to the early joiners. They’ve invested a piece of their soul, or at least some time, in you and your blog, and they want recognition as loyal trendsetters when the blog starts to take off. Make sure to recognize them, or their feelings will get hurt, they’ll poison the comments and it’ll all be over except the shouting.
But just how is this done? How do we hang on to the readers we already have while trying to entice new ones?
With blogging audiences, it’s all about the love. Not the hand-written Valentine variety but the thoughtful exchange back and forth type of love. To start this love fest, talk to your readers. Readers love when bloggers take the time to respond to comments and give their thoughts. This is a simple way to keep your faithful visitors happy while showing new peeps that you’re the type of stand up blogger who interacts with his audience. If you are light on the comments on your blog posts, there’s a couple of things you can try. Ending blog posts with provocative questions or discussion of possibilities helps readers feel inspired to type back. And remind your blog readers who also follow you on social media to come and get involved by leaving comments. Usually a loyal friend or two will help you out by dropping some comment love. Aside from comments, fresh content is the best way to give your readers a big digital hug. New posts daily or at least weekly give your readers something new to look forward to and, more importantly, frequent reasons to visit your site. Readers will really love you if these posts are filled with information and perspective they can’t get everywhere else. Packing posts with your knowledge and expertise can only make them more unique and lovable.
Finally, when it comes to getting new readers, spread the love around. Read and comment on other blogs similar to yours, guest post on other blogs (particularly any pertinent ones run by readers of your blog), comment on message board threads and promote your blog on social media. These are all fantastic avenues for promotion and for learning about your blog contemporaries. And you may even find yourself enjoying the process. Who knows? After you get the hang of it, blog promotion might become the “fun part” too.
Leave a Reply