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. |
This is a good reminder. I’ve tried to do this with new readers for my blog (which is about professional motherhood), but you made a couple of new suggestions that I can start to implement – thanks!
Jamie
I’m afraid I fall into the category of blogs without comments, so I guess I’m off blog reading.
Thanks a lot for the tips, they’re really helping me get a handle on the meaning and direction of my blog.
Whenever I get a comment, I never know whether to respond back to the comment or email. I feel that if I comment back, it gives me a false and inflated count on my comment number. I feel like I am cheating. I do respond to them all. I have been doing this since Sept. and I do not get many comments. I ask for comments, suggestions and opinions at times, but nothing ever comes of it. Maybe I just need to realize that people do not care to see my photographs!
I have some thinking to do.
Thank you again.
Thank you for the tips on how to get comments! I’m one of the new bloggers here and have almost no comments on my blog, so I was reading your tip and wondering how I was going to accomplish it. But then of course you gave me a direction. I will do what I can to increase my comments, and visit other blogs to leave comments. I read about 35 blogs in my reader, so it shouldn’t be hard to find some that are interesting.
If anybody here has a blog on parenting special needs kids, I’d love to add those to my reader. That’s not what my blog’s about, but an area in my life I’m looking for support and information.
Hi Darren,
Well, I realized the benefit of responding to comments because when you talk to your visitors they turn into subscribers.
But I was skeptical about mailing them because I am not sure whether readers prefer so direct a contact immediately. But seeing it from your perspective, I am beginning to feel a personal email can be a good thing.
Will definitely try this today.
Thanks for the tip.
Shantanu
http://www.threetipsaday.com
@threetips(twitter)
I’ve just done this, so we’ll see what the result is.
I also RECEIVED an e-mail today from someone else doing 31DBBB whose blog I commented on, and I have to say it certainly left an impression on me. If my feelings are replicated in the people I’ve e-mailed I’m sure there will be a positive result… I’ll be trying this a little more often from now on.
Awesome advice. I make a habit to do this regularly – especially with newcomers. Or if someone leaves a comment that really stands out – recognition is always a good way to encourage more involvement in the future – and it’s a great way to build relationships and friendships.
@mattChevy
http://www.lifewithoutpants.com
Hi, this is one of the thing I usually do, sometimes works, sometimes it doesn’t but I like the interaction with people who take the time to read my blog, so it’s worth it just for that.
I don’t like the email option, probably because I don’t like to received email from unknow people. But I answer directly on my blog or best visit their blog an leave a relevant comment.
salut,
t.
I have to admit that when I first read about this task, I thought I’d skip out on participating on this one. Then I read through the article and noticed that you also mentioned replying to comments, which I love to do. Sometimes, I get a conversation going in my blog’s comments.
I still am going to send an email to at least ONE commenter and turned it into a CONTEST! Ooo, how exciting. I mean, who WOULDN’T want to win some personal attention from me?!
http://larriecampbell.wordpress.com/
I neglected this when I first started up and it KILLED me. I always thought it was the least important thing, so I usually made it the last thing on my ‘to do’ list… which meant it hardly ever got done.
Very bad strategy for a movie review blog.
http://www.smalltowncritic.com/
I’m going to try to make it the first thing I do every day to see how it changes the dynamic of my traffic and conversations.
Hi Darren,
I do respond to comments left on my blog, and I go and visit their blogs and leave a comment. With some I have become friends and we visit each other regularly. I do not send emails out unless there is already a friendship going, somehow I don’t like doing that. They left their email address to be able to comment, not to receive unsolicited emails. Maybe I will look into the plugin with a thank you note for leaving their first comment, it feels softer.
My community is at the beginning stages of growth, and for now I need to attract new readers leaving comments. The ones I have, are regular readers already, and very appreciated by me.
One note: I understand that you have way too many comments on your blog, but… where is your interaction with us? :-)
Here is an example of my interaction with my readers, on whose blogs I also leave comments.
http://www.buddhatrance.com/the-spiritual-side-of-eating
Thank you for another great tutorial that helps us focus on building stronger blogs!
Currently I try and reply to each comment I receive (apart for the many spam comments I receive… *sigh*) as right now I am very grateful people take there time to read my blog.
I think I already do this for the most.
But I did receive a new comment today from someone I don’t know so I’m going to shoot them a reply back.
I try to do this as often as possible–but I don’t always have time to do it every day. I have found, however, that not only does the personal e-mail keep the person reading your site, it is a great way to turn a reader into a friend as well :) Some of my favorite “blog friends” started out as commenters on my blog (and vice versa)!
Darren,
Great idea! Since it’s a mini-task I’ll do both. I believe that’s it’s important to build relationships and by showing my support for other bloggers will be a great start.
Great idea Darren. I started doing that early one and made one mistake ( that i”m aware of). My blog is anonymous and I emailed an unknown commentor w/ an address that revealed where I live. I’ve since created [email protected] so I can comfortably email. I”ve also visited blogs, commented and added a few of them to my blog roll. so far, as best I can tell 2 have returned the compliment by putting me on their blog roll. One of them also let me know about problogger.com and this course ( thank you life lessons 4u!!)
Thank you. My commenter list is low at the moment so this is easy to do.. I hope to grow, grow, grow.
df
1. I always comment back on comments, check their blogs/sites and thank the commenter or comment back on their blog
2. I mail people who have downloaded something 4 weeks after they did and ask them if they liked it and have some feedback for me so I can write more to their liking. I prepare the mail and time stamp it (in Outlook).
I decided now to mail people who didn’t subscribe to the replies.
Thanks Darren.
I do not think I have ever written an email to one of my commenter’s.
I do however try to go to their blog and look around, leave a comment if possible. I always try to answer everyone one that leaves me a comment.
I have part of the lesson done already as habit. WoooHooo!
Maybe I can find a blogger that has commented here and doesn’t have many comments on their blog and give them some. ;)
I try my hardest to do all these things, but depending on how much my “real” life takes over, some days I do better than others! One upside to this is I often get additional ideas for posts from this outreach!
Darren,
I don’t usually email people that leave comments though i do try and visit their blogs and leave a comment for them. I had set up auto responder but I’m not sure how effective they are since people know its an auto responder. I will email a couple of my new readers today.
Thanks,
I have actually done this. There are some bloggers who I really admire, and I often will mention them on my blog or just shoot them an email with a link to items pertaining to their genre. I also take time to look at who follows me on twitter, and respond to posts. These little things get people looking at your blog and create more hits, as well as build your blogroll and help you to network with other writers.
I try to comment back, but try also not to overuse it. Of course, the interaction is one reason why I started a blog.
When a comment is longer than ‘great post…’ and it adds something to the topic and/or the conversation I find that I have to react on comments via the reply function. Otherwise the conversation runs totally out of balance. It would be like walking into a bar, saying something to a couple of people just to start a discussion and then leaving them behind.
Today I’ve sent an e-mail to a regular visitor who wasn’t around for two weeks, to ask if he’s OK and if he’s annoyed by the Aweber lightbox that appears (once per visitor) after 20 seconds.
However, interaction is important.
Ever since I started my blog I have responded to every single comment. That is my way of staying connected to my readers. This is one of the best ways I’ve seen to build community.
Well, my readers don’t normally leave many comments and when they do they leave links to their sites, not emails. So I tracked a reader down on twitter and thanked him. You can read more about my thoughts on this idea at 31DBBB Day 5: Email a Blog Reader
Thanks for this tip. I just emailed a commenter. My bigger problem is I rarely get any comments. In fact, just the 1 person I just emailed.
I would welcome some tips on increasing comments.
Thanks.
this is a technique I’ve been using since when I started my blog. At the beginning it sounded strange to answer to readers comments on my blog, but then I found that this helps building stronger relationship.
Ciao,
Luca
Day 5 is one of the obvious things we should do, but as the comments show, we get lazy or put things off.
Thanks Darren for helping us all to get back to basics with regards to staying with and nurturing connections with our readers.
I love this idea because it is engaging. It creates a conversation. Pretty cool.
I always, always do this with anyone who comments on my blog. I send a thank you email including a nudge to subscribe with a link to both my blog and my feed.
Great reminder to follow up by adding comments in your own blog. I let this one slip by too often.
Adding,
I also do the same with followers on twitter. I respond with a thanks, a comment about their blog or what they do plus a link to my blog. It has really increased twitter references to my blog as well as increased followers on twitter.
Again, Twitter is helping me with this. Also LinkedIn. At times that means there’s a DM (direct message), which results in an email, but connecting through these social portals seems more effective for me than via email. Love the connections and appreciate even just a few targeted readers that are getting value from what they read. -Lori
I usually respond to the comments, but I never thought of emailing people! (of course I have received those emails, but didn’t think about doing the same!)
Great idea!
Just remember not to make a canned response-I always delete those and grumble. :)
http://www.thecentsiblelife.com
As usual, not only is this post insightful, but so are the comments! I cannot reiterate enough how happy I am with being able to interact with you all.
My question lies in time. I never thought of emailing commenters directly, although I usually reply to comments when they happen. Now I don’t get comments regularly… Would you suggest digging deep into the past and emailing commenters?
@nadiapayan
http://littlemebigyou.com/
I try to reply to each comment I receive. I have been doing this on my blog, but I will start replying directly to the more frequent commenters.
I will also leave a comment on their blog. In some cases, I have added their sites to my blog roll.
This should be done daily. You need to set aside atleast 30 mins if not more in leaving comments on other people blog every day.
I actually do this, although maybe not as much as I should.
When I email a commenter a little ‘thank you’, they are usually quite shocked. Apparently, this practice is not common at all!
As a result of this series one of the participants contacted me and said that she would be bookmarking my blog for future reference. I think this series is going to be great for my new blog on distance education!
As I do not have many comments yet, I put a slightly different spin on this challenge, writing a blog post featuring one of my readers who had recently complimented me on my blog (through Twitter).
Of course, none of us have the time to do this with everyone one of our readers, but as this particular musician’s website was so relevant to my readers (as my blog offers advice for independent musicians), I feel that this was an excellent way to not only engage a reader, but also to help my other readers in the process.
My hope is that this will not only generate good will, but act as an example to my readers that my blog truly is a conversation, thus encouraging more interaction in the future.
http://www.musicismydayjob.com/case-study-modersextrash/
(that’s the name of the band, by the way, not some sinister link or spam :) )
this is very useful indeed. I have been trying my best to keep this as a routine/ daily habit.
I’m always a little leery about emailing someone who has left a single comment – but I routinely follow links back to their blogs and make a point of leaving a comment with a thank you for visiting. I’ve built most of my “usual readers” that way. I also try to respond to at least 90% of the comments on my blogs. Since I’ve got my own little blog challenge and contest going, and am providing a place for our group of bloggers to link their “homework” posts, I’ve made a point of visiting every single person who’s commented the last three days. Thanks for your insight and guidance!
In hopes that someone reads your comments from the bottom up…I’ll leave one.
I always try to e-mail back to new readers who leave comments, because I’m fairly new and don’t have dozens of comments a day. However, using one of your tips on getting more comments, I did a post asking readers of my blog on travel and books to leave book suggestions for one of 10 specific destinations. I have gotten a lot more comments that usual on this blog. (I’ve also been updating which destinations still need recommendations on Twitter to help keep the post alive.
Many times, I have gotten into a nice back and forth conversation by e-mail with the commenter. It is a great tool.
Nothing says “stay away” louder than an unanswered comment on a blog. That has always bugged me, and with so many blogs to choose from, it’s VERY easy to move on to another one who will respond in some fashion.
Being online, we often forget our “offline manners” which should be with us no matter what. So I always make it a point to at least welcome the commenter on my blog even if I have nothing else to add. Sometimes, that’s all that’s needed.
I’m excited to see that two of our recent assignments – responding to a commenter and promoting a post – I’d already done that day before I read the assignment.
Thanks for the great posts!
I have generally always replied to the comments on my blog. I am sure the way I initially built readers was by commenting on lots of other blogs. Emailing directly though, I haven’t tried. I’ve responded to any emails I’d had but have never initiated any conversation. I will actually give it a go as there are a few potential people that have commented that I think I could expand on in terms of discussion.
I did this yesterday – who knew it would be the assignment today. It got me a little traffic. My blog is new and so I have had just a couple comments so this was a great way to garner some more.
Thanks for the tool!
I think this is a great reminder. Whenever I email a reader, they are so surprised that they are getting something personal from the wizard behind the curtain (when it’s really just little ol’ me). I do think it makes them become loyal. Thanks for another great tip!
You know, I think that this one is something that personal bloggers really excel at. I’m embarrassed when I think about all the comments I *didn’t* answer back in the day when I started blogging – but now I try to answer every one. (This ties into studying what successful bloggers do, too.) AND I just got the upgraded comments from Typepad so I can reply to the comment email I get from them and the commenter gets my response via email AND the response hits the blog. So that rocks, although it doesn’t work from my web mail, so I have to be at home to do it.
It’s kinda shocking to me that anyone would roll their eyes at this stuff, but I guess it speaks to the different ways people come at it.
The thing I am personally working on now is clicking through to commenter’s blogs and commenting back. If I like the blog and/or the person comments a lot I add them to my reader, too.
Just a shout out, are there any Finnish bloggers doing this challenge besides me? If yes, I would love to hear from you at markus.ossi@gmail
Same on Finnish: Onko ketään suomalaisia bloggaajia lisäkseni, jotka tekevät tätä haastetta? Jos kyllä, olisi upeaa kuulla teistä osoitteessa markus.ossi@gmail
On-topic, I just e-mailed one reader earlier today and will do just one more before I hit the sack. I have tried this earlier, but I have a lot of trouble setting the tone of the message right. I sometimes feel like I am invading these people’s e-mail and privacy by e-mailing them.
It’s refreshing to read this. I’ve been seeing the benefits of contacting bloggers in similar fields. Building loyal readers is always a focus of mine
One thing that works for me is leaving comments and then Tweeting certain articles I enjoy. Blog authors are thankful you are promoting their work. You open up the door to talking with “happy” authors, networking and getting some extra traffic for yourself.
Hi Darren,
Another excellent suggestion and one I’m thrilled to discover I’ve been doing for quite some time. BUT….I had no idea the value it created in the way of loyal readers, and those readers being parlayed into even more readers!
Early on, I definitely was one who didn’t understand the importance of going to other blogs. And not only with the idea of having them return the favor, but of developing some wonderful new friendships and associations with truly fascinating people.
Yes, there’s the occasional dud…and I’m sure some have visited me and thought “ok, you’re a dud.” But overall, it’s an online version of what we try to do in our own neighborhoods: Build Community.
All the best,
Christopher