Will Hardison

So you have a blog, now what?

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Nicole in Blog, Professional, marketing

About six months ago I started a blog for myself. I focused on health, nutrition and eating right. www.nicoleonthego.com It was a lot of fun for the first few months, then the “burn out” came.  After reading an article posted by Scott Hepburn on mediaemerging.com, I came to realize that I was going about it all wrong. I had thrown myself into blogging a couple times a day, adding followers on Twitter, subscribing to any blog that was even semi-related to mine and tried to comment on any blog I could. Not a good idea. I had no strategy going into it and therefore, I struggled.

I plan on continuing my blog again fairly soon but I’ve learned my lesson and I’m going to follow some of these tips next time.

1. Review Your Blog Subscribing Habits. Notice I didn’t say subscribe to more blogs. Some people need to follow fewer blogs so they can be more focused and attentive. If you’re not subscribed to any blogs, you might want to find a few to follow. The goal is to be a thoughtful and meaningful contributor as a reader and commenter.
2. Link to Other Blogs in Your Blog. This is one I screw up all the time. Your blog posts may be brilliant, but if you don’t link out to others, you’re walling yourself off. As the characters of LOST always say, “Live together, die alone.” [One tip: Outbound links should be threads of a conversation, not linking for linking's sake. Relevance is king.]
3. Share Posts That Inspire You to Comment. Your Twitter followers probably appreciate when you share links to good content. If a post is so compelling you’re inspired to comment, your followers will savor a chance to read and weigh in, too. If it’s worthy of a comment, it’s worthy of a tweet. You don’t have to say “I just commented here” — you can, but sometimes a simple link’ll do.
4. Invite Others to the Conversation — One at a Time. Here’s another one I struggle with. Tweeting a link and asking followers to weigh in is good…sometimes. But I love it when somebody shares a fascinating post and tags me, specifically, to ask me to join the convo. It says “I know you, I pay attention to you, and I know what issues you care about.”
5. Email Your Favorite Bloggers. Email is a powerful way to say thank you. Why? It’s intimate — one-on-one. And it’s private, too. Sometimes a “thank you” in the public comments feels a little…I dunno…theatrical. Send your favorite bloggers an email to say “I appreciate you, even when I don’t have your audience’s attention.”
6. Give Your Commenters the Publicity They Deserve. Did one of your readers leave an AWESOME comment? Tweet about it! Tell your followers to check out that person’s comments, and mention them by name in the Tweet. They’ll love the pimpin’, and your followers may make a new connection.

(Source: www.mediaemerging.com, Scott Hepburn)

Tags: blogging, comments, followers, subscribers, twitters