Someone commented on one of my blog posts and here is part of the comment, of which I will discuss today.
I think the toughest is to build a community and getting traffic to your site. Whoever said blogging was easy is lying. There is a lot of learning curve.
The commenter is absolutely right. Blogging is not easy! Blogging is actually one of the hardest things I have ever done. Sometimes I have writer’s block, but it is building community and generating traffic that is the hardest.
I think it is the hardest because building a community and generating traffic to your site takes time and patience. Not only that, you have to get out there and be seen almost everywhere. Sometimes that is not so easy to do.
Building a community and generating traffic to your site is like anything else in life. One thing is for sure, you must get out there and make things happen. That is the only way you will succeed.
If you want to build community and generate more visits to your site, here is what I recommend. Imagine yourself sitting in the comfort of your home. Ask yourself how you would build a community and receive visits to your very own home.
1. Go hang out in other people’s neighborhoods. Hang out on other peoples sites and see what is going on and what topics are being discussed. You will be amazed in your findings. You never know, you just might decide to stay.
2. Be kind to your visitors. No one likes to be hurried away when they are visiting. Everyone likes to receive special treatment. Give your visitors a reason to come back time and time again. Respond all comments, if it is only to say,”thanks.” Pay your new visitor a visit and comment on their blog. If you like what you see, become a regular visitor/commenter on their site.
3. Throw a party and offer something that will benefit them. Publish a report that will be beneficial to your visitors and give it to them for free. Throw a few contests and giveaways in the mix and see what happens. Everyone loves a good party and something free. Let your hospitality shine!
4. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yep, the golden rule! If someone shares your articles and you get wind of it, let them know that you appreciate what they did for you. Whenever you have a chance you do the same for them. Don’t be afraid to make the first move. You never know where it will land you.
5. Give people a reason to pay you a visit. You may have something that will help your reader. Be mindful of why others visit you and give them what them what they seek. Translation. Write quality content that is helpful and beneficial to anyone who lands on your site. If you do this, then you will see your visitors increase.
6. Have a clean looking hangout. Make sure your house is neat and clean. Neatness and cleanliness will help your visitors find what they need in little of no time. They will also feel comfortable hanging out with you.
7. Give your friends a call sometime. It takes no time to shoot someone a quick email to let them know personally that you appreciate what they do. I think this means the most to me. I’ve had people send me messages on You Tube and on my blog just at the right time.
8. Don’t be quiet and shy. If you want people to be a part of your community then you can’t sit around and keep quiet. You have a voice and you must use it. It is the only way you will get people to hear and notice you. If you are quiet and shy, you have to push that to the side.
Warning: You must work hard everyday to build community and generate traffic. If you don’t do this, then you will have no community and very few visitors.
I know these tips are not what you are use to seeing, but I thought I’d take you down a different path.
Stand out and be heard!
How do you build community and generate more visits to your site?
Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
About Evelyn Parham
Would certainly agree with you. One of the points that I have witnessed through my journey as a blogger is that a clean looking blog is much better and is bound to get more readership than a page full of ads. That’s an important learning as well. One ad is fine; we don’t need to clutter the whole page with ads!
Vishal Gaba recently posted..How to increase comments on your blog
I also found that commenting back on someone’s original comment, question, or request retains my visitors for much longer. Websites with fewer social media options tend to be less frequented, with exceptions, of course.
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All tips pertain to techniques that focus on your potential visitors. Personally, as a reader, I want to see a clean and neat site. I find it pretty much interesting to browse if the site meet my taste. I usually bookmark those sites.
Cole Stan recently posted..Birthday Gifts for Dad- You Can’t Go Wrong with These 3 Great Birthday Gifts for Dads
This is a really nice post. I love interacting with people. Business topics can sometimes come in handy when thinking about things to talk about. Sharing ideas and having an open mind on suggestions. :)
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That’s one good thing about blogging. If someone wants to improve their writing abilities, there are many sites which offer writing challenges and lessons on word construction. Using a blog is a great way to practice writing plus test the waters. One thing about those who read our work, if we ask, they’ll tell us how we’re doing and where we can improve.
Thanks for great advice. blogging need dedication and steady promotion i don’t agree with those bloggers who add anonymous post with no sense and said blogging is fun.
blogging is all about passion, dedication. i write hardly one post in a week but i write what my visitors wish to read tips, tricks, tutorial etc
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Evelyn, you make some good points. What i most like about them is that only one tip touches on SEO – keeping your layout clean. The rest are social skills we may have learned in kindergarten but have forgotten in this fast-paced world.
It is so important to realize that, like Wayne said, we can work smart – not hard. Building a community is only hard if you’re holding two bricks and envisioning a Rec center. :)
Cheers,
Mitch
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I agree with everything you have mentioned in this article.
Brilliant advice on building community, thanks for sharing.
I’m so glad you gave us this reality check! It’s so true that blogging is “hard” work, takes consistency, and especially patience! I appreciate the tips for encouraging more traffic – love the metaphors.
Sandra Lee recently posted..Timeless blogging advice- 12 great links
Hi Sandra,
Hard work and then some! ;)
Thanks for sharing!
Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Healthy Vegan Sweeteners
Thinking of on-line visitors like visitors to my home, Is a great way of blogging. Your right, having visitors to a messy house is not very welcoming. Not speaking to each of your guests would be impolite and most guests would just shrink away. Putting it this way makes it easier to find what makes your guests feel heard, welcome and hold a desire to stop by again. And while stoping by does sometimes happen…if you are throwing a party you better get busy and send out some invites. Thanks, for putting blogging into a new context for me!
Katybeth
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Hi Katybeth,
Thank you for stopping by and chiming in! I love your avatar. Your dog is adorable. :)
Take care,
Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
Thank you so much for this post. The analogy was perfect. I have a question/issue related to comments and traffic. I have 3 sites, two are informational and the other is my personal blog. Is there an article that you can recommend that is guidance on when or how to leave comments? That may sound silly, but I get stumped, and ultimately don’t leave any, but I know that’s a good way to get visitors to my site. Should I leave a comment with my name or my site’s name and how often, etc.? With the latter, I was identified as spam! Help! :-)
Hi Tiffanie,
You’re welcome!
Sometimes, I get stumped when it comes to commenting. I will leave and return later to leave a comment. If I can’t think of anything to write, then I don’t say anything. I simply re-tweet the post and move on.
When you add a comment, make sure you add something to the conversations. Don’t just say nice post, or great post. Some bloggers will not allow comments like that to be posted and mark it as spam. So be careful!
Search this blog for any information about commenting. I also recommend that you check out Problogger.net for articles on commenting. There is a wealth of information there too.
Take care and best wishes!
-Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
Thanks for the quick response and advice. I’m gonna visit the site you recommended and be a little more careful in my comment posts!
You’re welcome!
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
Wonderful tips, thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! :)
Evelyn recently posted..Healthy Vegan Sweeteners
Well said, Evelyn. Blogs are certainly no easy task, I am at the very bottom of that steep, steep learning curve.
Hi Renee,
Thanks! Just keep on and don’t stop. Thanks for stopping by and chiming in! :)
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
And you have to keep doing those things over and over… and over again. Your community is counting on it.
Hi Brandon,
Absolutely! You can’t stop. Thanks for chiming in! :)
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
Surely there is a lot of time involved in order to get traffic to websites and blogs. The more users create blogs on the internet, the more time is needed to promote the website or blog because the niches are getting more dense and filled.
Hi Andreas,
Thanks for sharing!
Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Healthy Vegan Sweeteners
These are wonderful tips! Sometimes, I’m not giving much attention to my blogs. I’m just posting my articles and customize the site yet I think it’s not enough. You need to think of a better strategy or perspective to improve your site. As what you had said, there are a lot of things to do to make it presentable and catchy to the eyes of the readers…I’ll work on my blogs now…Thanks for the post!=)
Hy Lyan,
Thank you for stopping by and sharing! :)
Evelyn recently posted..Healthy Vegan Sweeteners
Good advice, you need to be as proactive with your readers otherwise it’s not worth their time or effort to spend time on your blog. Thanks for sharing.
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Hi Arlene,
Exactly! Thanks for chiming in!
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Building traffic and retaining a community can be viewed as separate ventures. Traffic comes from sticking to an SEO or Internet Marketing plan, while a community develops from an audience attracted to your content. While the quantity lies in the traffic, the quality of your blog lies the community that comments and passes the content along to others. In the end, both work in tandem to help build a solid blogging experience :)
Hi Matt,
This is very helpful information that you have shared. I will keep this in mind. :)
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
Definitely some solid tips. Building traffic isn’t as hard as some may think, just have to be smart about it. A lot of people think that the traffic is just going to automatically start pouring in but that is far from the truth.
Like Kathy mentioned, you have to be willing to learn as much as possible. Stepping out of your comfort zone helps a ton also.
“The lone blogger won’t be a blogger for long”
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Hi Wayne,
I totally agree. Things that have worked or me is to get out of my comfort zone. That has been the best thing that I could have ever done.
Thanks for sharing!
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Hi Evelyn,
I totally agree that blogging is hard work! There is always one more thing to do when you want to be successful with your site. Not to mention wanting to build a community, as you suggested. You’ve given some great tips on how to do that and I couldn’t agree more with making your readers feel welcome when they come to your site. They are spending their valuable time and energy at your site and they should go away with learning something new, motivational, or with a warm feeling about the experience.
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Hey Karen,
It seems like there is always something to do. Having a successful blog is hard work! But so well worth it. :)
Thanks for chiming in and sharing your insight!
Take care,
Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Healthy Vegan Sweeteners
Hey Evelyn,
I like the analogy of hanging out in other neighborhoods to meet new people and see what is going on. Great job with this post!
Chat with you later…
Josh
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Hi Josh,
Thanks for chiming in!
Take care,
Evelyn
I agree with everything you have mentioned. I also think that it is important to keep learning. You have to keep trying new things and sharing your results with your readers so that they too may benefit.
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Hi Kathy,
Yep, continuing blog education is a must. You’re absolutely right about trying new things. If we don’t try new things, we’ll be stuck in time.
Thanks for sharing you insight!
Take care,
Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..10 Killer Steps to a Better Blog- A Step by Step Guide to a Better Blog
Excellent advice on building community! Just like it takes time to make friends off line, it takes lots of time and attention online too. Patience and persistence are musts! It’s definitely worth the effort though.
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Hi Jean,
Thank you! I totally agree! ;)
Take care,
Evelyn
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