31DBBB Day 22: Pay Special Attention to a Reader

This is Day 22 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 60+ of us bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers.

One of the really cool paradoxes of life is the more you give the more you receive.  This is true in just about every facet of life.  Those who are generous with money find that when they’re in need more people are willing to help them out.  Those who are generous with praise and encouragement find when they’re down they have no shortage of people encouraging them.  Those who are generous with their time find others offering to give them their time as well.

This is true with blogging as well.  While some bloggers do all they can to hype their own blogs, those who help their readers will find no shortage of people willing to help them.

9 Ways to Give a Reader Attention

1. Use a comment as the basis for a new post.  I did this last week when Chris Branscome posted a comment asking “How often should you post to your blog?” and I wrote a new post to discuss it (and cited both Chris and Erica in the post by name)
2. Ask readers to introduce themselves in the comments.  We did this on Day 1 of 31DBBB.
3. Ask readers to promote their relevant resources.  For example, if you’re doing a post on Facebook Pages for churches, ask people to post a link to their church’s Facebook page so other readers can see examples.
4. Invite guest posts.  Something we’ve been doing all series long here.  I think it’s particularly helpful to include an image, short bio, and link their blog.
5. Write about a person and their organization/website/blog.
6. Interview a reader.  This not only promotes that person’s organization or website, but helps people make a personal connection with them.
7. Top commenters plugin.  There are WordPress plugins that display the names of the readers who have commented most often.
8. Tweet about your readers.  Tweet a thank you or #FollowFriday tweet about one or more readers.
9. Tweet about a comment.  Instead of just retweeting a link to your blog post, if someone makes an insightful comment you could tweet something like, “Great comment by @whoever about xyz http://shortened-link.com/directly-to-the-the-comment”

Of course, there are additional suggestions in today’s lesson in the 31 Days ebook.

One other thing to note, don’t limit your attention only to readers who have their own blogs.  Give some love to your non-blogging readers too.

Discussion

1. In what ways have you given readers attention in the past?  Which things did readers seem most appreciative of?
2. Do you have something that gives attention to readers as a regular feature of your blog?  Like a monthly reader interview?  Or weekly #FollowFriday?  Are you considering starting a regular feature?

The Extra Mile

A few other things you can do to take your blog, other bloggers, and this project even further today…

• Reply & give other bloggers feedback on the little things they do.
• When other bloggers include a link to a new article they’ve posted today, click, read, and comment on it.
• Tweet, share, & bookmark this post.
• Please review Kevin Weatherby’s blog, Campfire Cowboy Ministries, and give him some feedback.