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.

This one!

I’m pretty new to the blogging thing, so thanks for the insight!

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.

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!

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!

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

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.

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.

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!