Mar 5, 10

Creating a Community via Comments | Blogging Tips

Written by: Maren Kate // Comments

Recently I’ve noticed an amazing and exciting trend within my own blog and others who I read avidly, its a practice I call building a comment community. Let me explain this blogging tip that I think is a good ear mark of a healthy blog. Some bloggers respond to the comments they receive after a post, others don’t do this so much. I learned from Pat Flynn in one of his stellar posts that responding to comments is essential to building a community around your blog… but even more interesting is when you notice the commentators responding to each other. This is truly a community being formed around whatever you blog’s niche is based on. So if you have a food blog where those who comment ask about recipes and then there are some “leaders” within your food blog who will routinely respond to others comments, even often before you do, this is a GREAT sign of a healthy and interactive blog.

Here are some tips I’ve gathered on creating a community within your site:

Ask questions. This is pertinent to building a conversation within your blog. It doesn’t matter what the question is, just make sure it is something that will engage your audience. Examples would be “what is stopping you in your escape from the 9 to 5″ or “what blogging tips would you find beneficial for a blog post to be written on” etc.
Set up action items. This is a challenge you lay down to your readers asking them to join in the ‘community’ and start really acting on all the info they are getting. Whether it be “go get your LLC” or “Tweet to me telling me who your favorite entrepreneur is and why” this seems to work well at building up a community effort around your blog.
Be relevant. This is simple but important. It is necessary for you to be relevant to your readers, not relevant to search engines or for SEO. What matters the most is your readers loving your content, if you have that you’ll rank well no matter what. Look at Johnny B. Truant he has made it very clear he doesn’t write for Google yet he has built a super loyal following up around his blog.

Most importantly is writing from your heart, if you show you truly care about your audience and the message you believe in you’ll build a community around your blog no matter what. People want to belong to a “Tribe” and they need a leader, if you can corner a very small niche and build up this community and lead them with your thoughts you will become part of the 20% of people in the world who make 80% of the difference.

Now get out there and start building communities around your comment sections!

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Jeremy Aragon

A little advice from an avid facebook convo instigator. If you are ever looking for cheap stimulating entertainment post a loaded political or religious question to a facebook community like mine that consists of Dems,Repubs and everything in between. (Something about the health care debate would be perfect right now) Then proceed to pour a cup of coffee, return to your internet portal and occasionally stoke the fire with a dash of devils advocacy sprinkled here and there , its a jolly good time! I tend to do so in the wee hours of the morning when my brain is naturally more creative then try and keep with it for the at least half the morning :O

Eric

I have to agree Maren. Interact with people and be real. If you show you care about what you talk about and that you can about your readers then you're in a much better position.

Maren Kate

It is so true Eric, I always try to send out a personal message to each blog I read that I really like... helps build relationships and grow your network.

Philam

I totally agree. Me, personally always find ways to communicate with other people through commenting on interesting blog topics.

Excellent blog!

Maren Kate

It works well and helps develop relationships I've noticed, thanks for commenting by the by!! :)

GetYourBizSavvy

Awesome words of advice. The most important I feel is relating to the readers and not SEO. I have started asking questions but need to begin doing setting up actions. Appreciate the tips Maren Kate!

Maren Kate

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it

Archan Mehta

Hi Maren:

Well, thanks for yet another excellent blog post. Enjoyed reading your thoughts. I am starting to become a fan of your blog.

It's funny that you mentioned Johnny B. Truant.

Johnny's by far my favorite blogger, and I only discovered his blog recently thanks to Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing (check it out, folks!).

I am a quirky sort of fella--and a born eccentric--so I really appreciate bloggers with an individual style.

(But that's just me; you may disagree.
It's just that we have different tastes and preferences, that's all.)

A blogger like Truant has found his unique "voice."

Plus, he writes interesting stuff and knows what he's talking about (although sometimes I disagree with Johnny, with due respect). That's what I look for.

Plus, I like Johnny's blog because he packs a comic punch and has an awesome sense of humor. Wow: Johnny cracks me up each and every time.

And he looks like James Dean and I want to look like James Dean too coz the chicks dig James Dean and think he's cool and groovy like Woodstock.

Jokes apart, I think it's important for bloggers to respond to comments and stuff like that, but sometimes due to the sheer volume of mail and comments and other distractions, it become difficult. (Think about it).

Without mentioning any names, quite a few bloggers have complained to me that they just can't keep up. They already have too much stuff going on.

Hey, life is difficult, so let's give these gals and guys the benefit of doubt, if not a shoulder to cry on.

And many of these people--like Jay White of Dumb Little Man--blog on the side. They have lives too and full time jobs, you know. Time is limited.

So, I think it would be helpful to be compassionate towards bloggers who try their best, but can't always make the grade. We all fall short, sometimes.

Sometimes, it is easy to judge others, but more difficult to understand where they are coming from.

We snap to judgment when we don't have all the information on the table, and this is what I have learned, over time, having interacted with so many bloggers, commentators and critics.

Anyway, hope this perspective helps. And folks, cheers and have a nice one!

Maren Kate

Thanks for the comment Archan, I've thought about that myself... how to 'scale' responding to emails and comments as blogs grow bigger... I guess it is always a personal choice and a line each blogger has to draw. I'll try to keep up for as long as humanly possible.. :) but that is just me, thanks!

Ouida Vincent

Hi Maren:

I am embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me until recently that a blog, my blog, should be part of the social discourse. A few months ago, I sent out a message on FB and Twitter asking what people would like to see on my blog, I did not know what to expect when I asked the question so when I got 2 or 3 suggestions I felt discouraged. Thank U! your post is a key reminder that a blog isn't just a platform, but a way to contribute to the human dialogue.

Maren Kate

Thanks Ouida I am glad you got something out of it :) Keep us posted on your blogs success!

TheInfoPreneur

Hey Maren,

To me the readers of my site are everything, they are the reason why I am here and the reason I keep going.

I reply to everything you have to it's so important if you ever want to survive

Maren Kate

I totally agree James, it is vital to respond to comments for many reasons, but mainly just because it encourages readers to interact more.

ami@40daystochange

Maren: another great and relevant post. I think the blogs with the greatest staying power develop strong communities. It's strange to me to see relatively new blogs with active commentators and relatively big blogs with relatively few comments. I think the smaller blogs with active comments are going the slow and steady route, building up a true community of passionate fans.

With respect to comment "leaders" who answer other commentators' comments before the poster/hoster does - what do you think motivates them?

Maren Kate

I think a love for the 'niche' that the community is built around, like since I love start ups and entrepreneurship it is awesome if I can answer any questions and be relevant to others who are curious. Also it has to be partly because people want to be seen as experts within their field, which is completely great if they really do know their stuff. I noticed that startupnation.com's blog has literally 1-2 comments per post even though the site is MASSIVE i think that really shows about the difference between a heavy traffic blog & a highly interactive blog.

Wilson Usman

Paul I totally with that. I mean for real come on! If we don't write to our readers we are like computers ourselves. I don't know if you get what I mean. Example: I sometimes land on some blogs that as soon as I read the first paragraph I know it's not written by a human or at least for a human.

Maren Kate

Yep, I find that ALL the time... drives me nuts and i leave that blog quickly!

Wilson Usman

sorry I meant Paul I totally AGREE with that.

Experimently

As a blogger it is indeed important to have that community behind it, or rather the community that is interested in the same things as yourself. It's what would keep me going and most likely many others as well.
About the question part.. Just asking questions to ask a question isn't really something I'd do myself. I'd do that when I truly have a question and not just to get the readers to interact. As that in itself requires interaction with them again, time sometimes better spent on finding new stuff to write about for example.

For pages with static content it is of less importance, they can be nicely SEO'ed.

Maren Kate

Agreed on the static pages... I need to go through and do that myself actually!! :)

Paul

Maren,

I like your use of the following; "It is necessary for you to be relevant to your readers, not relevant to search engines or for SEO." This is so true many blogger who are selling have affiliate links on their blogs have a habit of writing content for SEO purposes.

Readers and your relationship with them is like any other relationship, offline, it has to be built and developed with care.

Regards

Paul

Maren Kate

Totally agree Paul, it becomes very obvious when a blogger is VERY attuned to making money... even though there is nothing wrong with that, I just think you have to show more than anything you want to be relevant and give first.

Fiona Verschoor

I like seeing that we read the same blogs, that's awesome!

Anyways, on topic - I've found that with my own site, I have a hard time getting comments, but because of interacting with the readers that's becoming less and less of an issue.

You have to show you care about your readers, and if you can manage to do that (not only by replying to comments, but also by commenting on their blog or communicating via Twitter and Facebook), you can create an amazing community.

Maren Kate

I agree with you completely, reading others blogs and responding on Twitter etc. are great ways to extend building a commenting community :)