How do you treat your readers?
Unless you are blogging simply to keep your mom up-to-date while you’re off in South America with the Peace Corps or if you are Creed from The Office, you need to make sure your readers are happy readers. People won’t come back to your blog again if you don’t offer them a good reason to do so.
1. Keep it Interesting
If you like blogging about your pet or what you had for dinner last night, go the extra step and tell your readers a truly humorous or off-the-wall story about that pet or post that to-die-for recipe you used to make the dinner you blogged about last night. Personalize it, but also make sure it has elements that would be of interest to people who don’t know you. If you tell me about the time your dog got stolen from your back yard and then walked 15 miles to find its way home again, I’ll be reading with interest. Give me the secret family recipe for meatloaf that everyone you know loves, and I’ll more than likely even jot it down or bookmark it.
2. Give Your Readers Some Credit
Remove the No Follow tags from your comments. If your readers are taking the time to read your posts and write thoughtful comments, thank them with an outgoing link via their comment. You can download various plug-ins and widgets to automatically remove No Follow from your comments section, or you can simply go in and modify your theme. And as an aside, it’’s tacky to ask your readers to pay you money in order for the No Follow to be removed from their comments. Yes, at least one over-confident blogger is currently implementing this.
3. Reward the Regulars
I added a plug-in to my blog that shows my Top 10 Commentators in my sidebar. They each get an outgoing link. The list resets itself monthly, so it’s possible for anyone to make their way into my list at any given time. Look out, though, for other sites that use this feature but add a nofollow tag to the links. It’s no more useful to you than having your name up in lights.
4. Get in on the Conversation
Comment on your own blog! Reply to comments your readers have left. More than one of my readers has suggested that I add a threaded comment feature to my blog and I am working on that this weekend. I enjoy so many of the comments I read here and have picked up some great tips, too.
5. Return the Favor
Take the time to link back to your loyal readers’ sites and to comment on their blogs as well. It goes both ways when it comes to retaining readership and fostering commitment. Pure Blogging and Roberta Ferguson compile a weekly list of links to posts on their top commentator’s sites.
Thanks for the link love. A very insightful post you’ve written….I love the details. I agree with everything you have written here. I’ve installed the nofollow plugin as well, so that when you comment, it counts. I always get in the conversation, too, and that’s a great point.
Hey there Angie. Great post! It seems like you have a great manners code to follow as well
! I am currently implementing all of your strategies with my blog… thanks again!
BTW, because I am new to the blogging community, what exactly are the “No Follow” tags that randomly automatically show up under comments? Thanks in advance
[...] Suncoast Scribe gives us a lesson in Treating Readers Right! [...]
Excellent post Angie. Very informative.
Great article. And thanks for visiting my site.
Thanks for this great post! I have decided to remove the no-follow from my comments
Great tips. I try to all of this but am unsure if I have no follow or not. If I don’t I will certainly look into it.
Great post! I have no-no-follow on my blog too
I think the first point is very good – if it’s not interesting then people aren’t going to comment! After that, you have good tips to reward commenters and keep your blog interactive
Steve Zahn sends his regards.
I have no idea what I give my readers. Mostly a headache.