Building a Blog Audience
Some of the most frequently asked questions I’ve seen around the blogosphere are “How can I build my blog audience?” and “How can I get more people to comment on my blog?”
One of the ways to build a blog audience is to be a blog audience. I know several bloggers who have formed great community and conversation on their blogs by being intentional with interaction. They respond to comments on their own blogs, and they join the dialog by commenting on other blogs.
Scott Williams, our NW Oklahoma City Pastor, has been building an audience by both interacting on his blog and on other blogs recently. You’ve probably seen his contributions here in the swerve comments, and he regularly engages with people who comment on his blog. Another blog known for its discussion and community feel is Anne Jackson’s FlowerDust.net. Anne, who begins working at LifeChurch.tv in January, interacts with her readers and also comments on blogs who have linked to hers. You can find who’s linked to your blog by using Technorati.
As you do leave comments, be sure to add value to the conversation and not simply try to shamelessly plug your blog. The people who visit your blog will be drawn there because they respect your perspective, not because you’ve left links to it. It’s easy to discern when people truly value conversation or if they’re just trying to promote their site.
What are some blogs that you have noticed which have a good “community” feel to them? What encourages you to join the discussion?
Visit 
I like it when the blog authors’ interact or respond to the commenters by name. I try to do that on my blog, particularly for first time visitors.
Also, I’ve visited a number of blogs that don’t provide any reason to leave a comment. The blog post is a one-sided monologue of a person’s feeling on an issue with no question or opportunity for response. To get people commenting, provide a reason to leave a comment! Ask for an alternative view, ask for feedback, ask for more depth - just ask!
I mentioned this on my blogging tips comment on the previous entry…but I agree with Todd.
Interaction with your readers is key. Always respond to their comments.
I also do a weekly Friday question that actually has a few people looking forward to it and gets a lot of responses.
It’s always good to involve your readers.
I started Bloging to promote the church and also the book i am currently reading but I have found the ability to interact and sharpen iron with others something excellent that i was not expecting. It is a great way to interact and connect with people that you cannot do via preaching. From being sceptical wether there was any value in blogging I am now encouraging my peers to do the same and we now have three blogs running from the church.
Another way to encourage community is to join an online community that centers around your blog “theme” if you have one. For example, I am a member of a fashion/beauty blog community called Coutorture (nice name, huh! haha) since that is what my blog is about. It’s a great resource for new info, support and ideas. And our community sponsors weekly giveaways and occasional contests that we can run on our blogs. It’s been a great resource so far.
Am i getting carried away? I cannot help but to add to these posts about blogging. I am learning so much!
But I love the job done here at swerve. There are a couple of blogs that seem to always have the comment section blocked, i dont understand that. I just read on Monday Morning Insight that we (bloggers) should allow or rather invite people to comment, its like always talking at your child versus talking to or with your child. Most kids dont ever appreciate or like that.
I love being able to read others thoughts desires and if i have something that might help them r i can find something that will help me, then the purpose as far as im concerned has been achieved.
Bobby- Thanks for the love, you are exactly right; your comments need to be valuable and your blog content needs to be good! Once you have a relationship with a blogger, your comments can be a little more “whacky” just like any other relationship.
People respond and read blogs where there is some sort of community dialogue. Many readers, read through their RSS Feed and might not comment; however they still enjoy reading other peoples comments. There are some good blogs that I read, which in my opinion woud be much better if they opened them up for comments and community involvement.
Here are a few blogs that I have noticed to have a good community feel:
*Swerve
*Anne Jackson
*Ragamuffin Soul
*Mark Batterson
I was just thinking through this thought. Not from the perspective, which I fight, about people paying attention to me. But for a good motivation. I am constantly challenged to write or cut and paste (giving credit of course) good worthwhile stuff. I feel a little overwhelmed by the techy stuff but here is a great idea that will only take a few minutes a day. Keep the conversation going on other blogs without a thought towards your own. If Jesus blogged…He would probably do it this way.
Jesus did blog.
http://www.jesuschristscoolblog.blogspot.com/
But He retired
I think Scott Williams is absolutely right above. I think the great community, a personal feel, and a genuine sense of transparency of those blogs is criticial(Mark Batterson, Anne Jackson, Ragamuffin Soul, and Swerve is great!) That is probably the key, as I see it. I would add that all have and nurture an ability to tell a great story with Christian human significance. This seems to answer the: “Why should I read your blog?” question with ease.
Of course, following the golden rule of showing appreciation for folks that read and folks that comment is quite helpful and seems like the Christian thing to do.
From a techical and exposure perspective, I think blogging on the Wordpress platform (it has a separate tag search which tends to create a tight wordpress community) as well as being in the Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog online communities have also been helpful for my traffic.
Great convo!
I’ve had some experience with moderating and with authoring threads, and I have been a part of two different blogs where communities not only existed, but thrived.
First and foremost, writing interesting and compelling posts built around the purpose of your blog and its audience is essential. You’ve got to get people to read your blog and keep coming back.
I would also agree that interacting with posters is essential, if you want to have any sense of community, but the real community comes amongst the commenters/readers themselves. You can’t force it, but you can allow it to happen and, once it does, take steps to nurture it and help it grow.
One thing you can do is allow commenters to interact amongst themselves, and not moderate with a heavy hand. Even if it looks like a chat room, let it happen; you can still moderate comments that are offensive, or defamatory, or otherwise detrimental to your blog and the community.
And, don’t discount prayer.
You never want to use prayer as a tool to gain hits or visitors or grow your community - but what you can do is, as commenters/visitors make their needs know, to pray for those people and their needs. You might think that people would flood your blog with all kinds of bogus requests, but my experience is that there is a a real person behind each commenter, and they have real needs.
You can (and should) encourage them to work that out with their church community as well, but pray for those people; if God sends you committed praying believers to assist you, encourage them not only to intercede for the needs of the community, but also to intercede for you and your ministry.
Above all, be genuine. Whether you’re writing an article or commenting on someone else’s blog, if you’re fake people will smell it from a mile away.
And, finally, show the love of Jesus, even with people who vehemently disagree with you. Many of us can name blogs where the ‘brothers’ look like the devil in disguise, as well as pastors who say it’s all a madhouse and let’s abandon the blogs because of the ‘bloggers’. Let’s redeem this technology and use it to the glory of God!
I love the interactions and connections of blogging. I would say, “make me think, make me laugh, give me something I can relate to” and I will comment.
To build an audience, you definitely need to comment on other blogs. I try to respond back to anyone who comments on my site too. I do it through email and some do it right in the comments–as long as you respond somehow, especially to new people.
What are some blogs that you have noticed which have a good “community� feel to them?
This one!
I’m pretty new to the blogging thing, so thanks for the insight!
Went to Technorati and I was confused how it works? Any Tips?
Jenn,
If you search for your blog URL (http://jennifercady.blogspot.com/)…it will show a list of blogs that are linking to you.
If you search for a word or phrase it will search through all of the blog posts that it indexes to find which posts contain those words.
There are several other things you can find in technorati, but those to functions are a good place to start.
[...] - A great quote from Bobby “As you do leave comments, be sure to add value to the conversation and not simply try to shamelessly plug your blog. The people who visit your blog will be drawn there because they respect your perspective, not because you’ve left links to it. It’s easy to discern when people truly value conversation or if they’re just trying to promote their site.” - I liked his tips on how to build traffic and Craig on how to write blog posts and run a blog. [...]