Comments on: Offer Readers New Ways to Connect with Your Blog

By: cokid

cokid — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:07:09 +0000

Haven’t read all the comments, but did read several. I have a photography blog and it is VERY quiet. I also ‘do’ twitter and Facebook, but they haven’t helped much. Perhaps my content just isn’t compelling enough? So far, I have not read anything about the importance of content!! Doesn’t that count? Or is it all about community?

Beth
http://storyhourphotography.blogspot.com/

By: Mohammad Afaq

Mohammad Afaq — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 03:47:39 +0000

Great post Darren and I believe that connecting with your readers is really important to get passive traffic. If you connect with your readers and email them or reply to them then the readers develop your trust in you. It is a great thing to connect to your users and make your blog as user friendly as possible.
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Mohammad Afaq
Free Website Traffic

By: Make Money Online

Make Money Online — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:24:01 +0000

Starting a forum is easy nowadays. You can experiment with a plugin which lets you add a forum for free and then you can go ahead and buy vbulletin if you think its worth it.

By: J. Spinlde

J. Spinlde — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:38:19 +0000

One of my favorite ways of connecting to my readers is to participate in writing website communities such as eHow and Bukisa. These are also great sites for beginners to learn about SEO and what it takes to have a successful website. If you’re just thinking about getting into this business, sites like this are awesome for test driving the job and your willingness to do everything it’s going to take to do the job.

By: Tamar

Tamar — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:00:38 +0000

Great post Darren. Giving options on your blog is the way to keep it going. Thanks for the tips. Easy Internet Business

By: Tyrone

Tyrone — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:22:01 +0000

 Well the idea is great that we should offer a number of ways to our reader to connect to our blog. I allowing the readers to moderate the blog will be a good idea.

By: Tinh

Tinh — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:55:41 +0000

I actually used forum posts and social bookmarking to connect my blog posts with my friends. Twitter is now my main channel

By: Denise Lee Yohn

Denise Lee Yohn — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:58:12 +0000

what is the best way to drive newsletter subscriptions on your blog?
i have a link on my blog through which people can access my newsletter archives and sign up if they’re interested in subscribing, but it doesn’t get a lot of clicks — help! thanks much.

By: Sheila Atwood

Sheila Atwood — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:57:56 +0000

These are very good ideas for established sites. Taking on a forum is a big job and should only be done once you have the rest of your blog really running.

The better forums I have been on have a focus. My time is valuable so I like my forums to ad value to what I am interested in and not be a social thing.

Being able to moderate your forum or have other moderators is a must. I have been on forums that were left for the members to run and they fizzled out fast.

By: frugalgrad.com

frugalgrad.com — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:06:48 +0000

Forum is a great way to build a community but I think you kind of need a community first and then the forum is to round up and protect your already royal readers. It’s like a chicken and eggs problems. Either way, it take a lot of time and effort to build such a community. I can not imagine myself accomplished that. Nonetheless, I still enjoy reading new ideas about blogging.

By: Agent 001

Agent 001 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:24:02 +0000

Connecting with your readers is important. You should opt different methods. Creating forum is a good idea. Providing feedback form to reader is also a way to connect which I did today on my blog.

The Feedback system was quite helpful. Got my first compliment through it.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:10:51 +0000

I don’t think a forum is needed and am not a big fan of them. The comments section should be sufficient enough for multiple people to post opinions such as the 30 comments so far on this topic. Forums are too much work. Having to babysit people, delete spam, multiple thread on the same topic etc. etc..

In the end it just becomes a big flame war with personal attacks.
I blog about racial issues so the attacks would really get out of hand.

And I definitely agree with Robin. There’s nothing sadder than en empty forum where the administrators are talking to themselves.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:19:31 +0000

Eventually, I would like to add a forum to my site. The traffic doesn’t warrant one yet. There is nothing sadder than an empty forum.

By: SEO Tips

SEO Tips — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:53:36 +0000

I totally agree with this. I think niche websites would be better aiming at the forum and newsletter side of things where as larger niches would be better at looking at newsletters, social sites, twitter accounts e.t.c

By: Angela Mills

Angela Mills — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:35:29 +0000

I was just noticing today that a post i did on making grocery shopping lists has more views than anything on my blog. Maybe a weekly newsletter with a menu plan and corresponding shopping list would be a good idea! thanks again for a treasure trove of ideas!

By: Cristhian Bedon

Cristhian Bedon — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:31:49 +0000

This is having different ways of information attracts more readers. I myself rather get information sent to me by email, due to me having my email linked with my phone. I barely have time to use an RSS reader.

By: Felicia - I Complete Me

Felicia - I Complete Me — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:10:53 +0000

I only interact via commenting on my blog. I have been wanting to start a forum, but I have no ideas if I even have enough followers to start one. I do have a twitter account.

By: Chung Bey Luen

Chung Bey Luen — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:03:51 +0000

I think we can offer subscribe via mobile. This should be one of the coolest thing in the future.

By: Amy Harrison

Amy Harrison — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:56:22 +0000

Great article – sometimes I forget about engaging in direct conversation with my readers, and mostly asking them what they want from the blog. I’m still relatively new but working on my voice and interaction.

By: Jessica @ThriveYourTribe

Jessica @ThriveYourTribe — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:48:27 +0000

What a great way to respond to answering the same question again and again (’what is rss’) instead of just answering it, to actually respond to the deeper question (’can you offer something I’m familiar with?’). I think sometimes when people ask the same question again and again it’s easy to get wrapped up in the question itself instead of considering the deeper implications of what you could offer that would better support the audience–thank you for this important reminder!