Building Your Blog Audience? Pace Yourself!
One question I get asked a lot by brand new bloggers is how do I go about building up my audience, my readership? They’ve read that they should post frequently and comment on a lot of blogs, but what exactly does that entail?
Some of them try their best to post every single day and comment on countless blogs as often as they can. Chances are unless you’re not ready for this approach it will diminish the quality of content you’re trying to provide, and the comments will come across rushed and disingenuous.
One comment isn’t enough to build a relationship, but 15 boring, uninspired ones aren’t either.
My blog doesn’t have a huge audience, but this video gives some insight on an approach that has worked for me through the course of my blogging initiatives. Enjoy!
How do you build your blog audience? Do you set goals for yourself on the # of posts you want to post in a week? Do you wait and write when you have something important to say? How often do you comment on other people’s blogs?
Let’s have a good discussion in the comments section about building our blog audiences, including proven strategies and approaches that work. And maybe some that don’t. I know I have a lot of learn from my community. How can I better serve all of you?
Building Your Blog Audience? Pace Yourself! — http://is.gd/qqa6
If you enjoyed this video and found the content to be valuable please consider subscribing to receive future updates or connecting with me via Twitter or LinkedIn
Popularity: 17% [?]
I think when you’re first starting out, it’s good to do it enough so that it will become a habit. So maybe for the first two weeks, you try writing every other day just to get your feet wet. You’re not writing a lot at this stage — just enough to get used to setting aside time each week to write. After the first two weeks, maybe try 4-5 days in a row.
The schedule doesn’t really matter. As Ryan said, he writes sporadically. The important thing is to make it into a habit that you enjoy, because no one is going to force you to write. But the benefits to doing it can be immense. So just find a routine that works and keep at it.
One final note: DON’T WORRY ABOUT YOUR TRAFFIC FOR THE FIRST SEVERAL MONTHS!
[Reply]
admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Charlie brings up some good points, and I don’t want to put anyone in a box by any means. If your approach is to write shorter nuggets of information maybe more frequently is fine, but if you like to build out every single post, complete with links, etc. maybe twice a week is optimal.
What matters is that it’s something that works for YOU, and is relatively sustainable.
I like that Charlie brings up setting aside time to write. I wish this was something I did (I write when I feel compelled/have the chance.) I think saying on Monday and Wednesday evenings I’m going to give myself an hour to write. Or maybe it’s Sunday afternoon I’m going to write for three hours and post them throughout the week. Again, whatever works for you.
And Charlie’s right about the traffic as well. Don’t get caught up in the numbers, just try to provide value to the few people that are reading from the start. If it’s solid they’ll tell a few people, who will tell a few people (and that’s how it grows my friends.)
Thanks for your contribution!
[Reply]
Ryan,
I like what you have to say about pacing yourself — slow and steady wins the race, isn’t that how the saying goes? I don’t have a huge audience for either of my blogs, but it’s my hope that a community of people, however small or large, centered around conversation and good ideas has been built. Likewise, I try to contribute to communities when I can but, more importantly, when I have something to say.
This happens in either blog posts, comments, or even Twitter retweets. I never really had a set blogging schedule, usually writing and posting whenever I felt passionate about something, though I’m realizing that I might have to revise that a bit to generate more content. What I’ve been doing has seemed to work for me, though, as the community is a great one with people who seem to stick around.
I like how you say “one comment isn’t enough to build a relationship, but 15 boring, uninspired ones aren’t either.” I find this to be true, which might be why I only contribute when I feel I can add insight to the conversation. If I appreciate a post but don’t really have anything to add, I’ll retweet it on Twitter.
I think each person needs to do only what they’re capable of for fear of what you say — burning out. It’s easy to write “great job” and leave it at that, and while that’s appreciated, it’s the conversation, the insight, the relationships that I feel really add to the community. For myself, it’s part of the reason why I blog.
Great job
[Reply]
admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 1:07 am
@Susan – All great points. There’s virtually nothing I can add to that. It seems we have very similar approaches. Perhaps we can needle each other to be a bit more regular in posting content.
[Reply]
Ryan – you make some great points here. I just posted a blog up today about ‘Pimping your blog’ and my last word of wisdom was PATIENCE. You have to have patience – get your name out there, promote yourself, your blog, and your overall brand, but you can’t be afraid to let things coast and grow naturally. You aren’t going to have a huge readership overnight, traffic from Google doesn’t happen instantly – it all takes time.
I’ve been in the blogging game for a while, and each time (until now) I’ve gotten discouraged because I haven’t had patience. I’m thinking, and I’m sure most other bloggers are as well, “I keep writing this great stuff and NO ONE is reading it” – so in the past I’ve just said ’screw it’ and have given up. I’ve learned and matured over time and realize now that ‘If you write it, they will come’.
Setting goals is ideal. I tell myself I’m going to write at least 3 blogs a week. I make an effort to comment on a certain number of blogs a day. I make lists, and cross things off when I’m done. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and lets yourself know that you ARE being productive. The comments and subscribers will come. Be patient, pace yourself, and watch the magic unfold.
[Reply]
admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 1:08 am
@Matt – I love your insight into patience. One remedy for the patience problem is to make sure you’re writing about something you’re passionate about. If you care about what you’re writing, and putting your thoughts on paper is helping you think more intelligently about content and you’re learning and growing as a blogger chances are you will worry less about the other, and it will come naturally.
[Reply]
My goal is to first build community and out of that I’m confident that traffic will follow.
For me Twitter has been an excellent way to extend my virtual handshake. On Tweetdeck I’ll break out those categories that represent my niche and everyday I become part of the conservation (but not the point of being a promotion whore). My goal is simply to help people get what they want from either fulfilling that need myself or introducing them to someone that can.
Now that my site is up and running I want to begin highlighting some of readers, especially those that have their own blogs. I love what you and others are doing with video and can see myself starting to do something similar.
[Reply]
admin Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 1:08 am
@Anne – Let me know when you start doing some video. I’d love to take a look. And this is one of my favorite things from the entire comments section, “My goal is simply to help people get what they want from either fulfilling that need myself or introducing them to someone that can.” — IF EVERYONE just did that on regular basis, wouldn’t this world be a better place? Couldn’t we learn so much from each other? Thanks for stopping in and contributing.
[Reply]
Nice video my man… keep up the good work! Your blog continues to evolve and grow and it is because you are consistent and build upon your previous successes!
@lewishowes
[Reply]
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:45 pmStarting out in blogging is tough as far as getting an audience. It can become very frustrating over time if you aren’t getting the readers even when you are doing what everyone suggests to do.
Commenting is good but it doesn’t always work. Really in my opinion the best way to get and keep readers is your content. If your content is weak then anyone who comes to your site isn’t necessarily going to come back.
I like what Matt said too. I have started and ended a couple of blogs due to a lack of patience too. Setting goals and making lists is definitely a good way to do it. This way you are getting good informative content up with some regularity and it gets you on a schedule.
[Reply]
April 4th, 2009 at 12:20 pmGreat video, and it reminds me of the fact that I probably should have some kind of strategy. I’ve never really had an organized, thought-out strategy, I sort of just do things randomly. So far that has been fine for me, but I definitely want to think about ways I could be doing more. And I like your point about how you define “elite” — no one should measure themselves against people like Dan Schawbel. It’s all about what your own goals are, and shouldn’t be about comparing yourself to the really successful bloggers.
[Reply]
April 5th, 2009 at 1:39 pm