Amy had been working with a client on their Facebook page and the client had suggested a discussion starter that was quite open ended and which required a long answer from readers. Amy switched the question into this format:

“What’s one word to describe…?”

This question lowered the barrier of entry for anyone considering responding to the question. Instead of having to write a few paragraphs in response, all that was required to participate was a single word. Amy reported a much higher than normal level of comments.

I immediately asked my own photography community a “one word to describe” question on my photography Facebook page.

367 comments later…

The same principle applies to generating comments on your blog … or any other attempt at reader engagement, for that matter. Make it simple to participate!

Another example of this was recently when a sponsor ran a competition on my photography blog. Initially, the sponsor wanted our readers to fulfill four requirements to enter the giveaway. They had to follow the sponsor and our site on Facebook, tweet something, and then leave a comment of 500 words explaining why they wanted to win the prize.

I pushed back—four hoops was more than I suspected most of our readers would jump through. The sponsor decided not to run the competition with us and I later saw them do it on another blog. The result? Three entries!

The same lesson again: make it simple for your readers to participate on your blog!

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Make it Easy for Your Readers to Participate

Last night I published a post on DPS that gave a few results from the survey (mainly the demographical information). As I was about to hit publish on the post something hit me that I’d not realized at any point over the last two years of developing the site:

“the audience of DPS is…. well remarkably like…. me”

On each section of the survey that asked about people’s demographics or photography habits the most common response was the response I would have given if I’d completed the survey.

Of course there were a lot of people who answered differently – but if I had to describe my readers they’d be people a lot like me.

I’m still processing what this means (if anything) – Neil in the comments on that post suggested that it’s like pet owners and their pets looking like each other – perhaps that’s true.

Perhaps it is also a bit of a learning lesson – develop a blog for yourself, or people like you.

• meet your own needs (or needs you’ve had)
• write about things that interest you
• write about questions that you’ve asked
• share experiences you’ve had and lessons you’ve learned

Do these kinds of things and you’ll attract people in a similar situation.

I’m going to ponder that some more – but in the mean time I’m interested to hear what other peoples experiences are – have you attracted readers to your blog that are ‘like you’?

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Do You Attract Readers to Your Blog that Are Like You?

“What Do You Spend Most Time Doing on Your Blog?”

Running a blog calls for all kinds of skills and activities. Writing content is probably the most obvious of these – but as I talk to different bloggers I often find that they each have their own activity that they tend to be drawn to spend more time than others. In addition to writing content – these activities might include:

• Blog Design
• Search Engine Optimization
• Guest Posting on Other Blogs
• Editing Guest Posts on Your Own Blogs
• Moderating Comments and Interacting with Readers
• Networking and Promotion to Other Bloggers
• Social Media Marketing
• Monetization
• Reading Other Blogs in your Niche
• Reading about Blogging
• Watching Statistics/Metrics

I’m sure there are more – but that list should get you started.

What do you find yourself focusing upon in your blogging at the moment? I find that I go through stages where different activities get more focus than others. For me at the moment I’ve just moved out of a phase of redesigning one of my blogs and am focusing more upon generating content (writing it myself but also editing posts of others).

Interested to hear what you’ve been focusing upon.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

What Do You Spend Most Time Doing on Your Blog?

Feel free to add a comment below to tells us more about your answer – I’m particularly interested to hear from those who have guest posted about how you found the experience.

PS: thanks to all my Twitter followers for suggesting poll topics and for @rustylshelton who inspired this one.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Have You Ever Guest Posted on Someone Else’s Blog? [POLL]

Today I had a good discussion with my Twitter followers about what they were doing with their blogs over the Christmas break later this week.

Most of the answers came down to the strategies that I mention in this old post here at ProBlogger – 7 Things to Do with Your Blog when you take a Vacation.

What are you doing with your blog these holidays?

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

What to Do With Your Blog Over the Holidays

Just to qualify it – I’m asking about ALL blogging revenue that you can tie to your actual blog. Advertising, affiliate revenue, revenue that your blog might have brought in in terms of consulting etc. As long as you feel your blog drew the money in then I’m happy for it to be included.

Looking forward to seeing your results.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

How Much Money Did You Earn from Blogging in October 2008?

For those not familiar with the concept – a blog carnival is an event where a group of bloggers all blog on a certain blog topic and where those posts are all listed in a central place (which is usually promoted by all those participating).

There are many variations on exactly how these ‘carnivals’ are held (sometimes the central page moves from week to week to give everyone a turn, other times they centre around a single blog each time) – but carnivals can be a good way to interact with other bloggers and get your blog noticed by others.

Of course there are other similar types of ‘memes’ or ‘projects’ that are not called blog carnivals. For example here at ProBlogger I’ve held quite a few ‘group writing projects’ which are quite similar to blog carnivals.

You can learn more about blog carnivals at BlogCarnival.com (a site that lists current carnivals to participate in).

• So – do you participate in blog carnivals (or other similar types of projects on blogs)?
• Have you hosted them on your own blog?
• Do they bring you traffic?
• What other benefits have you had from participating in them?

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

What Blog Carnivals and Memes do You Participate In?

Do you use your real name when leaving comments on a blog or do you use ‘keywords’?

I was moderating comments last night here on ProBlogger and noticed almost a 60/40 split between these approaches (with 60% using ‘real’ names).

My personal preference is to leave my real name – that’s partly because I feel it is more personal and also because I guess inadvertently over the years my name has become a brand of sorts – so it makes sense.

My personal preference for people leaving comments on my blog is also for ‘real names’ – although I’ve not moderated comments based upon people using keywords.

A Spectrum of Approaches

There is a spectrum of approaches that I see people using when it comes to what ‘name’ they leave on comments:

1. Key Words Only – For example some people are obviously just using words that they are attempting to rank for in Google. In my mind when you leave a comment under the name of something like ‘Bad Credit‘ or ‘Interior and Exterior Painting‘ or ‘Steel garages sheds‘ or ‘revenue‘ (all names used here on ProBlogger in the last 48 hours) you’re coming close to looking like you are spamming and doing it purely for SEO, even when your comments are on topic and genuine. I don’t honestly see the point in doing this. Most blogs (including ProBlogger) have nofollow tags in their comments so your links and the words you use have no SEO benefits what so ever. I doubt you’d get many people clicking on words like those either.

2. Brands/Site Names – Also on the spectrum but more acceptable in my mind are people who use keywords in more subtle and in ways that help brand themselves or their blogs. For example ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy‘ who is a commenter on ProBlogger. I don’t mind this type of approach because it is more personal and is tied to his brand (rather than just being an attempt to rank well for certain keywords).

3. Brands and Personal Names – The next step along the spectrum is people who use their name AND a keyword of blog name. Examples including ‘Vered – MomGrind‘ and ‘John Hoff – eVentureBiz‘ and ‘Janice (5 Minutes for Mom)‘. To me this works reasonably well as it gives a personal touch as well as some branding benefits.

4. Personal Names - The lastly there are those who leave just their name. This is my personal favorite and I find myself much more drawn to reading and interacting with these comments. I can understand that some don’t like to use their name as they want some level of anonymity – but for me a name actually makes me feel like I’m interacting with a human being.

Of course there are other approaches. Some use pseudonyms or nick names – I’m sure others will tell us about other options that they use too.

The above spectrum and ordering are based upon my own personal preferences and approaches – but I don’t have a monopoly on the truth and am interested in your personal approach.

What name do you leave comments by and why?

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

What Name Do You Leave Comments on Blogs Under?