The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I know you've all heard that one before. And as simple as it might sound, it's a very powerful statement. The way we approach certain issues is what makes them far more difficult than they should be.Take building your blog's following for example.
True enough SEO techniques, attractive templates and themes, countless hours spent reading and commenting on other blogs, joining forums, getting listed in as many blog directories as we can find are all great ways to get your blog out there - to really get it noticed. But none of these ways offer that one thing that all humans need and require - a personal touch.
Can we all agree that the art of blogging is the act of creating a conversation. Bloggers communicate information and hope readers contribute through commenting. Just reading blogs isn't nearly as much fun as reading comments left by other visitors or commenting ourselves.
The more readers the better the conversation. Thus, the need, the desire to reach as many followers as possible begins.
As I stated earlier, there are many ways to get your blog noticed. But how do you add that personal touch to your home in the blogosphere that will most certainly keep your visitors returning for more?
One of the most important ingredients in fostering a more personal touch in your blogging is through responding to your readers. According to statistics for every 100 visitors your blog receives, only 1 person is likely to leave a comment. So how do we get those other 99 involved in the conversation? The answer is by showing that 1 fearless commenter how much you appreciate what he has to say.
Always respond to your comments. This can be quite a task if your blog has a large readership. But I'm speaking to the thousands of bloggers out there who don't quite fit into that category yet.
Responding to your readers makes them feel important (which they most definitely are). It makes them feel valued as an active participant in the conversation. We all like to feel needed and more importantly - wanted.
Another idea for establishing a personal relationship with readers is through email thank you's.
Just a few days ago I received an email from a fellow blogger. At the time I thought it was just more of the spam I spend so much unnecessary time deleting. But something about this email grabbed my attention.
The sender's name was simply Baker and the subject was Thanks for the inspiring comment!
When I opened the email and began to read it. It was the nicest little 5 sentence paragraph I've read in a long time. It was from the author of a blog I'd visited through Stumbling a few weeks back.
He thanked me for visiting and commenting. He spoke about how exciting blogging was and hoped that I "stuck" around. "Don't be a stranger" I believe were his exact words. In closing he offered his assistance in any way with....well, I guess with ....anything.
Now I don't imagine I'll be needing Baker's assistance for anything I can think of at the moment. However, offering himself to me in that way showed his desire to make the relationship between his blog and his readers personal.
I was so impressed by this email I immediately returned to his blog (the address was included in the his email signature along with his Twitter ID and his RSS feed - wow, this guy is good), left another comment and subscribed to his feed!
Now I'm sure Baker sends these type emails to any commenter that's new to his blog. It's probably a scripted or auto responder he utilizes. But it worked! While I was reading his email I felt as if he was speaking directly to me which was exactly the reaction he was trying to obtain.
Perception is everything.
If you're working diligently to build your following through the more technical and time consuming techniques I mentioned earlier, great - keep it up. Just remember to incorporate some of the simpler more personal methods into the mix as well.
Happy Blogging
