Today’s task in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge is all about building community on your blog and making an impression upon readers by giving them some personal attention.
The task is simply to email a new reader (or more than one).
While the tip sounds simple – too simple – it is actually a technique that I used in the early days of this blog (ProBlogger) and it really helped build up reader engagement.
What I found is that when you pay personal attention to a reader it significantly increases the chances of them not only returning to your blog but also spreading the news of your blog through their network.
So look over the most recent comments left on your blog and identify a reader that you don’t recognise the details of. Shoot them a quick email thanking them for their comment.
Make sure you include a link back to your blog so they know who you are and make the email relevant to their comment (ie answer a question they asked or add to their comment in some way). You might also like to point them in the email to your RSS feed (converting them to a loyal reader). While there are some tools out there that email new comment leavers automatically for you – the more personal you can make it the better.
Two Ways to Take this Further and Make a Bigger Impression
The above technique can really be worth investing time each day into – but here are two ways that you can extend this:
1. To make an even greater impression if the person has left a link to their own blog in their comment click that link and leave a comment on their blog. Again – this is another technique that I used in their early days of my blogging and it was certainly a factor in getting the ball rolling for me in terms of building readership.
2. Another quick thing to do is to respond to the comment ON your blog. Sending the email is great on making an impression on the person themselves but leaving a comment in your own comment section shows other readers that you’re interested in engaging in conversation. It also helps build comment numbers which can build social proof and show your blog is active.
Rinse and Repeat
If you’ve got a few extra minutes today – do this with a handful of new readers – the more the better. I’d also highly recommend adding this task to your daily routine – 10-15 minutes a day on this task could make an impression on thousands of people a year.
This simple tip takes just a moment to do but can create a loyal long time reader. Do it at least once a day (or set yourself a higher target) and you’ll build your blog consistently over time.
Is this Tip Not SPECTACULAR Enough For You?
Last time I shared this tip with a fellow blogger they rolled their eyes at me and told me that they didn’t want to find just one more reader for their blog – they wanted hundreds or thousands.
This blogger failed to realize two things:
- Loyal Readers Spread the Word – I’ve found that in many cases a single reader quickly becomes numerous loyal readers because when you make an impression on people it’s likely that they’ll spread the word about you. They do this through their own blogs, word of mouth, Twitter and other social networking sites.
- Loyal Readers Build Page Views – One loyal reader can potentially view your blog hundreds (if not thousands) of times. A daily visit from that reader for a year brings an extra 365 page views to your blog. Gain an extra loyal reader every day for a full year and the numbers start to add up.
While there’s nothing wrong with attracting thousands of new readers to your blog quickly – the majority of times they’ll come and go very quickly.
Build loyal readers one by one on a daily basis and can be a lot more fruitful in the long run.
Don’t have any comments on your blog yet?
I know there are a number of very new bloggers doing this challenge that might not yet have people leaving comments on their blogs to email. If this is you – don’t worry, I have another mini task for you to do today.
Spend 10 minutes visiting other blogs on your topic and leaving relevant, helpful and genuine comments on their blogs. The more helpful your comments the better – make an impression with quality comments raises your profile and can potentially drive traffic to a blog.
Related Reading:
- 10 Techinques to Get More Comments on Your Blog – for those who are still trying to get readers commenting.
- Should You Respond to Comments via Email or in Comments – two options for interacting with readers – both have their place.
Update – Find out how others are doing with this task over at the forum! Day 5 – Email a Reader
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
I haven’t got a lot of readers, but they are the best. I generally try to concentrate in interacting with them and at least answering new comments.
I don’t have a lot of time , so I spend it on writing more interesting content on my blog – I think this too will bring readers along.
Here are my thoughts about today’s post, although in french:
http://nathaliehamidi.com/2009/04/10/31dbbb-email-a-blog-reader/
I will try to interact more with other blogs in the future, thanks for the advice Darren!
Excellent post.
You know, I only just recently started getting a comment here or there, and this kind of thing never really occurred to me. Sure, responding in comments, but actually taking the time to email a reader sounds like a fantastic way to get more loyal readership. In the end I want to be personable and involved with my readers, and this is certainly a best first step toward that.
new to blogging – how do you know all this – I am learning so much from you – thanks again and I am following the 30 day challenge !
I was discouraged at first reading this post since I am one of the newbies without many comments on my blog (to be honest, I only have one so far!) :-)
That being said, I was happy when I got to the end of the post and you had covered the fact that many of us are new and don’t have any real readership yet.
You make a great point in this post. Personal touch goes a long way. This post reminded me of a recent post I read by Seth Godin about the impact that just 10 people can have.
If interested, check out Seth’s post here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/04/first-ten-.html
Great advice. I always try to leave a comment back, but I hadn’t thought of emailing anyone. This is a great method because it personalizes the process and gets those people who aren’t subscribing to the comments.
Upselling to the RSS feed at this point is a stroke of genius. Thank you for that.
Well, this lesson confirms in my mind what I have been thinking for a while – blogging is not a very good approach for the ESL world. There are just too many different languages that my students use as their primary language of communication. Still, this lesson was tremendously useful for my website, as I do get occasional recommendations of static web pages. Just now, I’ve emailed two people who have recently recommended my pages to their friends and I plan to make it a daily ritual. I don’t expect any responses but I may just build up a more loyal, if silent, group of visitors to my site.
Sweet! This is something I do already. I know people recommend it, but I started doing it for the pure reason that that’s what I want people to do for me: let me know that I’m not commenting into a void. The more readers a blog gets, the less in touch with those readers the blogger seems to be.
When I was with wordpress.com (now I’m self-hosting and using wordpress.org), I was one of the beta testers for a feature that I hope gets implemented in the near future. WordPress has recently rolled out threaded comments, but they also want to make it so you can respond to a comment from your email, and the comment gets put in just the right spot for the thread. What I liked is I could email my response and cc the commenter, so it was wham bam thank you ma’am and I was DONE!
Darren, this is a great help. I try to respond to people in the comment section, but never thought about personally emailing them. Word of mouth does travel fast. I will be working on this today. Have a great weekend!
Evelyn @ http://eves-journey.blospot.com
This is a great tip Darren.
I really like how you focus on building quality readers over time. It seems like there is so much advice out there on how to have thousand of readers by tomorrow – but will they stay?
It seems that if we focus on quality first, quantity will be had over time.
Thanks for all the help!
i found out that this is so true. I remember back when i have no one comment on my blog so i start to leave comments on other blogs and they’ll come and comment back.
after that,the more i get engage with comments on my own blog,the more people started to leave their comments. great!
i do have a question to Darren. If i reply to a reader’s comment on my blog,they’ll be notified through their email (via intense debate commenting system). Do you think i still need to send another personal email regarding to the reader’s comment?
I’m really enjoying this series. I started my little blog about a month or two ago and really haven’t done much with it until now.
Thanks for adding the mini-task for us newbies. I was worried when I read the first part of the post.
This is a good tip. It is all about your readers. These tips show that you are interested in them.
Sheila
i reply to almost everyone who comments on my blog, everyday. the only time i don’t is if it’s something that really just doesn’t need a reply – or if i’ve already emailed them recently. a lot of these people email back and we have ongoing conversations. it’s lovely. i only get about 10-20 comments per post, but it’s something i enjoy doing and, for me, it’s helped me build up a small and very happy network of blogging friends. and i always, always reply to a new commenter.
if i ever get to to the point where i have something like 50 comments per post, i probably won’t have time to do this to the extent that i do now. but it’ll be a good problem to have.
great tip. :)
I’m good about commenting on other people’s blogs and responding to comments on my blog, but I haven’t ever emailed in response to a comment, so I’ll try that. For those with new blogs with no comments, stop by my blog and I’ll try to return the favor!
Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile
http://infantbibliophile.blogspot.com
I just commented on other blogs because I don’t have a good list of new commenters as of now. Great marketing idea though, and I plan to use it in the future.
Well it was slightly hard to find their emails since Blogger does not necessarily want those, but I managed to do few mailings and actually enjoyed it.
This is a great idea, Darren. By DT-ing people on Twitter and emailing people who comment on my blogs I’ve formed better online relationships with people writing and working in my key niches. It’s even led to an upcoming interview!
I think the thing to take away from this exercise is that it’s vital to make personal connections with your audience. It’s a bit like sending a handwritten postcard or thank you card to a valued customer. They often appreciate the gesture.
I recently showed appreciation to my readers in a different way. I had my 2 year blogoversary last month. I made up a blog award and gave it to all my readers.
See Here
I get many lurkers, but few comment. This brought a few more out of hiding to say something. I didn’t do it as a ploy, I genuinely appreciate the fact people are actually reading my blog.
Great idea about emailing them. I generally answer comments on each post, then head over to their blogs and find something to comment about. The book blogging community is very proactive in handing out different awards for various reasons.
http://www.mytwoblessings.com
Robin
This is great stuff. There is a lot to comprehend. I have been in the process for 1 year and just realizing how much I did not know. Thanks to Problogger
I’m behind on the blog challenge (need to finish those taxes!) BUT just want to say thank you Darren for the inspiration and thoughtful comments. Being new to the blogosphere, I am grateful to have found your site early in the game. I am learning much. Now to apply!
This last challenge is actually already apart of my daily routine. Looking at the comments I get and give them a reply if I can.
As far as I can tell it has helped me get more and more regular readers. Another brilliant tip indeed.
These things all seem so logical, but it’s the basics that get things going. One step at a time and keep the top of the mountain in mind. (Don’t trip because you forget to look where you plant your feet though.)
I’m sure my comments are too far down these posts to be read, but I’m saving commenting until each task is finished, so I may well be talking to myself here!
Anyway. This is something that would never have dawned on me, so thanks so much. I’ve already emailed the last few commenters, and will try to do 3 or 4 a day.
Filed this one under “Bloody good ideas”.
Great advice! I will be doing this today for sure!
I am already doing that e-mailing back my readers when they leave a comment on my blog. There is some WP plugin which enables you to do this easily.
My mom comments regularly on my blog, but hardly anyone else does! Some people email me directly instead, and I always answer them. I’ve been linked to by quite a few people, but for some reason, no comments. I would really be interested in building this part of my blog.
It’s off to comment land …
If you’ve read The Tipping Point by Gladwell you’d know how much leverage can be had by hitting on the right reader.
Today’s task is much more powerful than it seems.
On our blog I happened upon one single guy that became an early contributor. Little did I know that in the early days of our site (a whole 2 months ago) visitors coming from his blog would account for 50% of our traffic!
I try to respond by email to every comment left on my blog. Some weeks I fail, and I realize it’s not going to be scalable as my blog hopefully grows, but at 3-6 comments per post, I think it is a really good way to build relationships with my readers.
The truth is I don’t have as much time as I’d like to read and comment on other blogs (although I’m trying), but that’s a fast way that I can still let people know that I appreciate them.
I do both of those (leave blog comments and reply to those who comment) fairly often. I don’t use SEO tactics but I do think that personal interaction goes a long way. I don’t have a lot of readers but I do get regular readers from those who visit. That matters a lot more to me than one time traffic.
PS- I wish everyone in the challenge leaving comments here would add a short blurb about their blog each time. I’ve got time this long weekend to follow up but have no idea who to start with.
Having typed that… my WordGrrls is about web writing, geared to personal sites as much as those making it into a career.
Great Idea! I actually did this in coordination with my task about the List Post Promotion. I asked for comments to my list post and have been responding to their comments on my blog. One thing I haven’t done is go to their blogs and left comments. I need to do that.
Hey MikeCJ – I am reading all the comments as they provide bits of ideas in themselves.
Anyway Darren kind of got ahead of you on this and waiting to see what results are.
The majority of my readers talk to me often on MSN, so no need to email. I emailed a couple of commenters today, hopefully I will get more readers soon as I love community!
I respond to all my readers and the response has been fantastic. I even installed a plugin so that if I respond to someone’s comment on my blog it shoots them an email to let them know I answered it. This is a great way to bring them back to your blog and start a conversation.
I have a large number of comments (and ad clicks) for the amount of traffic I get, and I credit my high reader engagement.
Thanks to all of you who have visited summertomato.com so far :)
This is a great tip! For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been getting up extra early just to read and comment on other blogs. I only leave genuine, interesting comments not generic ones. I detest “generic” comments from people who are fishing for new readers.
Also, I try to respond to every comment left on my blog. Right now, since I’m new, that’s manageable. When I gain more popularity, I’m not sure how I’ll handle that.
{phew} I’m so glad this is a task I’m already doing…I’ve been feeling “behind” on the daily tasks.
For anyone who wants to know what my blog is about, here’s my work-in-progress elevator pitch: Graceful Creative serves two purposes. First, it is a journal of my personal journey to redefine myself. Secondly, it serves as an inspiration for other women to reclaim their inner beauty, and become more than watered-down versions of themselves.
OK – five sent out. Probably a god plan as I have had a pile of traffic lately for one specific article that probably comes from folks not too likely to return – but those who leave comments must be the most interested, right?
David Hutchison
inGoalMag.com
I recently started commenting on the comments left on my blog. I have noticed an increase in comments being left now. I think it showed that I am open to conversations with my readers. I will try a direct email for a few today.
Your post spilled out quite knowledgeable info which would even help my blog to progress.
After it, I think I have become a permanent reader of your blog posts too..!! :)
Keep up the good work and keep updating nice info..
I actually already do this every single time someone emails or comments – I don’t get so many that it isn’t reasonable to contact them or attempt to engage them personally.
It cannot be overstated though how personal blogging has become. Whether you’re very prosperous like Darren or just starting out, there’s a human connection to blogging that isn’t found in other forms of written media. For that reason, nurturing that connection when the opportunity presents itself is a great way to gain loyal readership.
Think quality over quantity.
I don’t get a lot of comments, so it has always been easy to respond, and follow links back. I never thought about sending a personal email will do that today, if anyone visits my blog:
http://www.roundpeg.biz/?page=80 And in the meantime, I am off to post comments on blogs from other students in this program.
Really enjoying the process, and having nice response and results from some of the activities.
I don’t get a lot of comments to my blog but do get frequent comments and shout-outs through blog catalog
I have never done this before though I have receive emails from bloggers whom I had left a comment at their blog.
Anyway, I think this is a great idea to engage with your blog readers.
I just completed an email to a member of my community and realized something in the process. This person comments from time to time but I wasn’t following along with her blog. Shame on me – especially when I am trying to build my own community.
Thanks for the wake-up call – these tips have been a tremendous help…
@rebecatrautner
http://www.karmacooler.com
I reply to every comment I get on my blog, and every once in a while I will go to the person’s blog and comment there too. Never have I sent an email though, until now.
I may send multiple emails, but right now I’ve sent one so far.
I would like to have that interactivity on my blog but haven’t figured out how to move it there one thing I like about blog catalog it shows me the last time followers have visited my blog. So I can track if a message to someone or the group is effective in driving traffic
I did your suggestion on responding to comments yesterday actually, but it seems that the commenter left a link to something that appears to be just a website or interactive gaming site.
Since I use Blogger, the comment box does not collect emails and does not provide them to me. I am considering the option of implementing a program called Intense Debate on my blog, which may allow me to email comment authors without needing a WordPress hosted blog.
Still, I am going to add an extra version to your assignment and just email some of my email subscribers through Feedburner with the following purposes:
-thank them for subscribing
-invite them to comment on some of my recent posts
-ask them what they would like to see more of on my blog
or maybe email a few questions for them to answer that are relevant to a recent post.
Since the email is already being sent, I could also ask them questions about an upcoming post and then highlight their response in that post or in a separate post.
Darren,
Yesterday you suggested analyzing blogs in our niche which I tried to do. I guess I got side-tracked into reading about their ideas. As a result, I ended up commenting on them any way. But, my comments in one case at least, were not very supportive.
So here’s the question, as a blogger myself, is it OK to disagree with something on another blog on their blog comments section?
for some reason this post did not landed in my mail box…weird… am i off the group???
its good tips to get commnet for another blog with blog walking.
make thankz for info.
Thanks for the extra suggestion for us new bloggers. Getting the ball rolling can be difficult at times, plus there is so much to do at at the beginning of this process.
Great tip! It’s very important to always connect with your readers and show your appreciation. To encourage interaction and commenting, I like to ask a question of my readers. Whenever I do that, I find that I get some comments. I always respond to everyone that leaves me comments. If it’s another blogger I go check out their blog and leave a comment for them. For me, it’s about building relationships.
Today I will visit other bloggers that have left me comments and comment on their blogs.
A few weeks ago I created a video post to thank my readers and show my gratitude to them. http://lotusessence.com/2009/03/22/sharing-my-gratitude/