This guest post is by Jeremy Myers of www.tillhecomes.org/blog.
Every blogger wants to be read. While some of the keys to attracting readers include writing valuable content, having error-free text, and using a clean blog layout, one of the most overlooked elements in getting people to read your blog is being a good blog reader.
Here are five tips to make this happen.
1. Read your own blog
Just because you’ve written a post doesn’t mean you’re done with it. After you post, you should read and respond to people who make comments on your blog.
One of the reasons people comment about your posts is because they want to interact with you, the author. If you do not reply, they feel ignored, and will likely not comment again. People will not continue to read what you write if you ignore what they write. The best bloggers out there try to respond to nearly every comment, even if they get dozens of comments per post.
2. Read your readers’ blogs
Another way to encourage your readers to keep coming back and commenting is to reward them by reading and commenting on their blogs. People like to be loved, and those whom you love will love you in return. Also, it helps to know what your blog audience is writing about. This enables you to write more targeted posts.
3. Comment on other people’s blogs
You should comment on at least five other blogs per day—more if you have the time. You should chose “target” blogs that you want to comment on frequently, ideally those that have similar content as your own. This gets the attention of the blog author and other blog readers, and some of them will come over to see what your blog is about. Also, if you comment enough, the writer of that blog may eventually add you to his or her blogroll, which will generate even more readers for your blog.
4. Repost excerpts from the blogs of others
When you read a good blog post, repost an excerpt of it on your own blog, providing a link back to the author’s blog. Don’t repost an entire entry—that’s plagiarism, and is illegal. But reposting a brief excerpt and linking back to the original is an easy way to get big-time bloggers to “guest” on your site, and if you use trackbacks, to get them to notice your blog.
Occasionally, they will even make a post on their own blog that you have reposted some of their content on your site, and that also sends traffic to your blog. Maybe that other blog author will eventually return the favor, and quote you on their blog, thus generating even more visits.
5. Repost the comments of others
Write an occasional post about the best discussion or blog comments you read that week. Include some of the comments people made on your own blog, as well as some from other blogs you read. If there is good interaction and dialogue taking place on a blog, either yours or some other blog, write a blog post about it. This gets more of your own readers involved in the discussion elsewhere, and frequently, they will mention that they found the discussion on your blog, which causes many of those involved in the discussion to come check out your blog.
Again, one of the reasons readers comment is because they want to be read. Nobody writes comments hoping they will be ignored. So show them you’re reading by replying and reposting.
A better blogger…
In today’s blogosphere, it is not enough to just write a great blog. You also need to read great blogs and interact with their bloggers in a meaningful way. This is the Golden Rule applied to blogging: Do unto other bloggers as you would have them
do unto your blog.
Do you read others’ blogs? Do you think it makes you a better blogger?
Jeremy Myers left the established church to follow Jesus into the world. Though he has advanced degrees in Bible and Theology, and over a decade of pastoral experience, he left all that behind to hang out with people who generally aren’t found in church. Jeremy writes about his ongoing journey at www.tillhecomes.org/blog. He also contributes Scriptural research at www.gracecommentary.com.
Hi Jeremy –
Great post, I totally agree that people want to comment more when you interact with them. It’s a huge goal of mine to respond to as many comments as possible – while I’m not as good about it as I want to be, I can definitely see a difference when I do!
Thanks,
Nacie
Nacie,
One goal of mine in replying is to keep the conversation going. It’s easy to reply with, “Thanks. Good point!” put this tends to shut the conversation down. Have you found any tips for getting people to reply to your reply?
What a great article, and thank you for ALL the tips. They’ll be so helpful.
I do find it interesting when bloggers write a blog post, and all of the comments are from others. It’s like the blogger is off doing something else and never checks back in.
Building a blog is all about relationships, and responding to individual comments is a huge way of connecting directly with your readers. I think I have more comments than anyone on my blog posts because I try to respond to those who’ve commented.
Thanks again!!
Meagan,
Like you, I always wonder why the blog author doesn’t reply. It makes me feel ignored, and I rarely comment on that blog again.
I think it’s okay for you to have more comments than anyone else. That’s the way it should be if you are responding to all the comments.
You are right that it is about relationships, even if they are just digital, online connections, this is what people long for these days.
Meagan,
I agree with you. I always wonder why some bloggers never get involved in the discussion on their own blog. It makes me want to comment more on a blog when the blogger responds. If he/she doesn’t respond, then I want to comment less.
I think it’s okay to have lots of the comments be your own. It shows you are doing a good job interacting with your readers.
Excellent advice. I especially like #4, posting excerpts from other people’s quality content. Not only does that show appreciation to the original author, it provides value to your readers.
Dan,
One time, for reasons I don’t understand, a blog author got offended at me for doing this without asking – even though I pointed people to his blog to read the rest of the story. He said I needed to get his permission before reposting some of his material. Have you ever had this happen?
This is one of the best posts I have read on the value of connecting and commenting. Love your idea to comment on at least 5 blogs each day. That is doable and smart!
Thanks. What makes it difficult is remembering where I’ve commented, and checking back regularly to keep the conversation going.
I know many blogs allow you to subscribe to comments, but I really don’t like cluttering up my inbox.
One trick I use right now is “starring” posts in Google Reader that I am comment on. I will check back every day or so to see if people respond. Once the dialog dies out, I remove the star. It works for now. Do you have any tricks for keeping track of where you have conversations on various blogs?
There are many blogs I want to follow and comment on. I have a couple blogs that I follow and regurally post comments to. However, there are too many great blogs out there and it becomes overwhelming. As a budding blogger myself, I feel intimidated by posting a comment to another person’s blog. It seems like many blogs have an established community and if I post my comment, I’m infiltrating their community–as if there has to be a right of passage. That keeps me from responding more often.
I know that sounds silly, and it’s something I’m working on.
At last, somebody who feels the same way I do! I thought it was an almost irrational fear of posting comments on the Blogs / articles of people I didn’t know so it’s good to know I’m not alone in that.
And like you, I’m working on it :)
This can be intimidating, especially on large blogs with lots of comments. If you are not “known” your comment gets lost in the noise. However, I have found that comment sections of blogs are generally some of the most welcoming areas of the internet. So I say, comment away!
The list of blogs i enjoy commenting on is kind of large but i have them set up in Google Reader so I can quickly and easily peruse for any articles I can comment on. That helps me at least.
Like Jeremy said, try not to be intimidated. If there’s a larger blog community that you really want to be a part of, be persisent, keep visiting and commenting (including interacting with other commenters) and eventually you won’t get lost in the noise as much.
Responding to people who leave comments need a response. This will build up your comment list also. Read more blogs and leave more comment to get more comments..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Right. People like it when they visit a blog and see “23 comments” or even “3 comments” on most posts. It shows that people are reading. So responding to comments builds that comment count.
All great things for your to be doing to keep in touch with other bloggers but it is so hard to find time to do all this along with regular link building and social networking. Us part time bloggers sure have to work hard! :)
I’m a part time blogger too, and I agree, it’s a lot of work. To be honest, I have pretty much given up on Facebook and Twitter. I just can’t maintain it all. I hear that both of those are good resources of readers, but like you say, it’s impossible to find time to do it all. Have you found it’s better to maintain Facebook and Twitter than to read and comment on other blogs? It would be interesting to see some statistics on this.
In my opinion, commenting on blogs is technically “social networking” too. For me, Twitter is quite important as well. I’ve met some good contacts and friends on there as well as strengthened my brand by helping ppl in areas relating to my niche.
I’ve got a Facebook page for my blog but I haven’t concentrated on building it quite yet but I see the potential.
For me, Facebook netted page views but not usually comments. My comments on other blogs draws the kind of readers who comment, since they had already overcome their reluctance to do so.
I use Facebook to establish relationships. and when I feel that it would not be an imposition, I send FB friends an invite via NetworkedBlogs to follow my blog.
I’m not on Twitter; it would be too much. I’m already trying to build up my online etsy shop and I teach dance in the evenings so there’s only so much I can do.
Jeremy, interesting contributor profile. I’m heading over to check out your blog.
I wish Facebook allowed more two-way traffic. It only takes info in, but rarely allows it back out.
For example, at one point, I installed Facebook comments on my blog because I was having two different conversations going, one on Facebook, and one on my blog, and I wanted to integrate them.
But when someone commented in Facebook about my blog post, the comment did not appear in my Blog…not even in the “Facebook comments” section. So, I uninstalled the plugin.
My love for reading blogs keeps my Google Reader queue very full. ;-)
Ugh same here! Everyday I wake up to about 200 blog posts to read, happily half of those are just pictures from Tumblr people I follow, but I have a big chunk of reading to do each day!
Same here. Delete liberally. Only read something that you really need to or really want to read.
And if you really want to read 200 posts, just get a divorce and stop eating and showering. That should take care of it.
Dave, the Dame, and Braden,
How many blogs do you subscribe to in Google Reader? I have 138 right now. One of my blogging buddies has 435. I don’t know how he does it. But I’m with you, you have to learn to scan, or just give up on doing anything else in life.
Of course, as you scan, take note of which posts grab your attention. This is part of being a smart blog reader also. You want to patterns your blog posts after the posts that grab your attention in Google Reader. For me, It is usually the Post title and the first sentence or two. Also, an opening picture helps. So, I usually try to write provocative titles, and start with a bang and a picture.
This is spot on. I have been realizing the power of this over the last couple weeks and ever since I have been reading and commenting more, my traffic on my blog has more than doubled.
Thanks for the insight and confirmation that I am doing something right.
Brandon
Wow. Good job on doubling your traffic. It sounds like you are on the right track.
Thank you so much for all the tips. I was happy to see that I am dong one thing right I answer every comment on the two blogs I have. One thing the app that I copied and put in home page can not do it on my iPhone not sure if I am doing it right.
Nice, common sense advice. Too often we don’t take time to to look around the social networking community in which we live. By following these simple tips, I think you become a much better blogger since you are more likely to be in sync with your readers and target audience.
Beariatric,
Yes. Survey the landscape. Stop and smell the roses. See the faces of the people around you, even if you can’t actually see their faces. All of this will help you connect. Blogging is just as much about understanding others as it is about understanding yourself.
Good advice. I will focus on developing a relationship with other bloggers from now on. Being new to the blogging scene has been an interesting adventure.
Since Facebook has now made it possible to access it using your Fan Page, I Like a lot of other Fan Pages and then log in as my Fan Page and comment on their posts. My name is unique and Im hoping that makes people want to click through to my Fan Page which has links to my site’s articles :)
I’ll be honest, I am somewhat of a Facebook newbie. I mean, I’ve had an account for quite a while, but I rarely use it or interact with it. I “like” articles, but don’t really know what you mean by logging in to your Fan Page and commenting on the posts. Would you mind explaining that to me a bit better? It sounds like something I would like to pursue.
It’s a new feature on fb. If you have a Facebook “page” for your blog (which th can hook to your blog and post updates whenever you publish an article), you can now go to “account” and then “use Facebook as page” making it so when you comment and such, you’re leaving a link to your blog’sfb page instead of your personal profile.
Oh, I wrote up a few things I like about the recent FB page upgrade: http://timmyjohnboy.com/2011/02/11/in-the-news-facebook-pages-get-a-much-needed-upgrade/
Building a good interaction is so necessary for my blog to grow, but it’s not really working effectively. Maybe it’s because of my subject, software development, or actually not being found in search result. Anyway, I liked this post for emphasizing to read more posts of others to be read by others back. Thanks~
Software development is probably a good topic, but that’s a tough crowd to impress, since they are all so tech-savvy. But if your blog looks good, and you have experience in the field, and are writing quality content, you should be getting readers. It may take some time to build, but be patient.
This is also applicable to other aspects of life.
“do on to others what you want they do to you”
Great article pal
Yep. Golden rule in effect!
Thanks for this nice sum up, i’ll start putting point #3 in practise then. Hope i can learn a lot more on this blog!
Ya, I agree with you. Reading your reader’s blog will make them come to your blog more oftenly.
If a person takes the time to comment on my blog a few times, I usually end up adding their blog to my Google Reader, and trying to return the favor by commenting on their blog. It’s a good way to share the love.
To comment on 5 blogs a day means you have to be reading a lot – I repeat – A LOT of content. Sure if blogging is your only job you might have time to work it into your schedule, but in reality for us people blogging as a past time I find it hard to just keep up with problogger let alone dozens of other blogs in my niche.
I’m sure I probably waste too much time doing things like watching TV and reading books, but a man’s got to have some relaxation time right?
The only downside to these thoughts is that all this time you spend reading other blogs and thinking of thoughtful quality comments you could be spending researching and writing quality content for your blog.
I’ll shoot for five comments a week and work my way up from there :)
5 Comments a week is a good goal.
I’ll be honest. I work a full week, but I don’t want any TV, or play video games. I try to read books, but even that has taken a back burner to reading and writing blogs. So yes, it’s a lot of work to keep upon 5 comments a day.
I like it when people comment on my blog frequently. I do add blogs that I like to my blogroll,and if someone comments frequently I will add them to my blogroll as well.
I’m the same way. Eventually, you have to prune the blogroll. But I find that sometimes, people just want to be added to the blogroll, and once they are, they stop commenting. I give them a grace period, but if they don’t comment for a few months, I usually remove them. Do you do something similar?
I am brand-new to the blogging world. These tips are exactly the type of thing someone new needs to help get started. I’ve already taken tip #3 to heart and posted here!
Way to go! Thanks for commenting. To reward you, I will visit your blog!
I’m just starting out with a new blog and these are some great tips to help me build a checklist. My blog is a part time thing so I’m going to have to figure out when I can run down the list. Maybe once a week. Do these sort of activities work to increase forum users? I integrated a forum into my blog because I thought it would be a good way to build a community, but now I’m having second thoughts.
Thanks for the insight and tips. I’ve only implemented numbers 1 and 3 and will make sure to try the others. I just wish I could get someone to comment.
How long have you been blogging? Sometimes, it just takes a while to get found. If you look at some of the archive pages of popular blogs, and go way back to the beginning, you will see that many of them didn’t get any comments for quite a while.
Thanks for the wonderful post. I try to read at least 2-3 blogs a day and I read at least 1 post from bloggers who comment on my blog. Also, I comment on other blogs and I have seen a real increase in the amount of regular commenters on my blog.
Good! I’m sure the people who comment on your blog feel appreciated and will become faithful readers.
Great tips for getting more readers, and some of which I use a lot myself. :)
Especially reading other people’s blogs. Got some valuable tips as well that I overlooked and will need to start implementing. Thanks! :)
Glad to hear you are using them also. Let me know how it goes after you implement some of the other ideas.
I’m subscribed to all the top blogs from my niche. I read them all and I leave comments. And I get some traffic back. But I’m not just for traffic and links. I LEARN a lot by reading these blogs and then I implement this knowledge in my writing and marketing.
I think that the most important thing for every blogger is to learn. Everyday, on every blog. Learn from the best or learn from mistakes. Read books, read comments, join the debates and you can learn soooo much this way. Develop your writing and build a network and you will increase your earnings for sure.
Great post! I agree with all points here.
That is a fantastic point. If we are not reading to learn, but only to “get readers,” people will eventually see that we only care about our own blog. So definitely read to learn. Thanks for pointing that out.
I’ve heard some of these before, but you presented them at a different angle. I like it :) Thanks so much!
Christin,
You are welcome! ;-)
Great post Jeremy. I’ve heard of the idea about commenting on other people’s blogs but never being a frequent commenter to one blog in order to bring traffic over.
It works! If you use Google analytics or even a stats plugin on your blog, it will often record where visits are coming from, and you can see traffic clicking over to your blog from comments you left somewhere else.
It’s funny you should bring up reading your own blog. I have read some of the older posts on my blog and was like “What in the world was I thinking?” Might have to spend as much some editing old posts as I do writing new ones. Great post though. If you want to be great you have to follow those who have already been there.
I know what you mean. I am sometimes ashamed of my old blog posts. Of course, if they are more than a year or two old, you can always edit and rework them, then repost them as new content. I have a friend who does this all the time.
I do comment on other blogs, mostly if that person also has a blog. # 4 i have no idea what an excerpt is (I know dumb lol). But by what you are saying you post about the comment someone left you? I think I have track backs figured out right. As usual great post here. See I left a comment.:)
Tony
Wonderful list! Thank you. I think I learn just as much from reading the comments as I do from the blogs themselves.
That’s one of the beautiful things about comments!
I actually wrote a short entry on my personal blog about overreading blogs. I now have vetted the best blogs to read and able to start writing more!
Great post and keep up the great work!
ps, problogger obviously made the cut, lol
Interesting. I will head on over and read it. Sometimes reading does get in the way of writing. Commenting also can get in the way of writing your own posts. It’s all part of the process though.
Sharing allows you to grow, and this is huge especially in the blogging community. I strive to hit all of these points, and when I do I definitely see the increase.
Good stuff Jeremy.
Great post Jeremy, I’d agree with the basic premise.
Once you’ve read a gazillion posts, spent all day commenting (I exagerate but you get the point) you have no time to actually do anything worth while.
Personally for me the next stage is the most critical – once you are generating traffic via commenting you have to provide really great quality content for them to read/see. Otherwise you will have short term traffic gain, but long term pain.
Organic growth out of this stage is the long term aim I would think.
Absolutely. Quality content is what keeps readers coming back. I think that writing quality content should be one of the first things you do every day, before reading other blog or commenting. That way, you set your priorities.
i normally neglect comments. but i would hopefully implement the afforementioned strategies. thanks for the tip
I liked the article very much. Great tips on the issue. Particulalry point no.3,4,5 are quite important. Really reading more blogs improves your knowledge to a large extent.Thanks for publication of this post.
Thank you for reading, and thank ProBlogger for posting it! I love the ProBlogger site and community.
Awesome. I like your views.
Frequent commenting has also opened up quite a few opportunities for guest posting on other sites AND finding guest posters for my site. These interactions end up being the strongest community members of my own social network and blog.
Great post, btw! I just can’t stop commenting!
You are right about the connections it creates. Thanks for pointing that out.
Great tips, I really like the part about leaving 5 comments per day on other blogs. Every morning I wake up looking for comments on the site http://mtnweekly.com but have forgot to share the love… I agree the authors and blog readers might be encouraged to look at the Mountain Weekly News site after seeing more of my post.
Thanks again!!
Share the love! Now you got it.
Great tips! I try to respond to every reader that leaves a comment on my blog. While I do read some of my reader’s blogs from time to time, it’s hard to get to them on a regular basis, since I blog part-time. I’d love to have more time to build better relationships.
Blogging does require a large chunk of time. I probably spend too much time blogging…
I am totally new to blogging. I found these tips really helpful. While right now my followers are my family, I do hope to gain a broader following so I will definitely take this advice to heart. Please keep looking out for us new kids!
Everybody is new at some point, and it’s never too late to start. Family is a good place to start too.
Good information. I do make it a point to respond to my visitors responses. I need to up my visits and posting to other blogs, though. Great advice.
You are making a good start here.
This is excellent! I’m glad I found this post, I actually didn’t know you could do excerpts of popular blogs in your niche, much thanks!
I once had a blogger ask me not to do this. I still don’t know why, but I respected his request and removed the post. Usually, if you don’t repost the whole article, and you link back to the original post, bloggers love when you do this.
Great tips and they seem so obvious. However, most of us probably aren’t applying them.
Hi Jeremy
I found your post immensely helpful.
It helped me understand what I’ve been doing wrong and what I need to do more of.
I spent a lot of time building my blog but not really interacting with the blogging community.
Thanks for the tips and for modelling your points in the comment thread.
Big thanks to everyone for the valuable tips and advice! My biggest challenge has been trying to balance a full-time 60-hour work week, with my love of blogging about film. I try my best to dedicate at least one hour every night to blogging and research, so as to keep my blog current and fresh. But inevitably, I lose sleep almost every night because of this and it’s affecting my job. Argh. So frustrating. So my question is this… Can I keep my blog still fun and interesting for my readers with WEEKLY updates and posts, as compared to my now DAILY posts that I’m losing sleep over?
I would say yes. The main thing for blogging is to keep it fun for YOU. If you find it becoming a chore, either stop doing it, or go back to blogging the way it was fun.
Great post, it absolutely makes sense! It’s like a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” type of deal. It could also be thought of as helping other people get what they want (which is more free traffic to their blog, more readers, etc.) and you’ll get what you want.
I love back scratching!
Great content in this blog post. I will use the information in a seminar. Regarding publishing parts of other bloggers post, I have seen some bloggers get very upset.
I have too. I still don’t know why…especially when you link to their site, only post part of the post, and tell your readers to read the rest of the post on the other site. It’s like free advertising! But whatever. If a blogger gets upset at me, I simply apologize, and remove the post.
Love your suggestion about posting the comments of others. Another helpful idea is to write a whole blog post out of different themes that come out of the comments a post may generate.
Yes, this is one suggestion I need to do a better job of. My comments posts are very rare.
I love reading your tips. Very helpful insights especially for me who just started creating my blog site. I’ll keep on returning to get myself updated and learn more.
Keep up the good work. Thanks.
Learn something every day. That’s how you get better with time.
I am new to the blogging. I love to read them and comment though. I like what you said about interacting with your commenters. It does make us feel like we have been heard.