Engaging your readers: If you build it, will they come?
Guest Post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess
Regardless of whether you’re a business owner or an individual with a dream, you want people to know 
Are there bloggers out there that you simply love to read – so much so that you can’t get through a day
without checking them out? What do they have that you don’t? They’ve found a way to make their blog a place where things are happening and they want to be part of it. What do the other pet bloggers have that you don’t? Probably a niche. What’s yours? If you can find it you can corner the market on it and soon readers will be flocking to your blog like kittens to a milk dish!
Here are five tips to draw them in:
- Be interesting. This may sound like a no-brainer but sometimes blog writers forget about that. Here are a few ways to help make you interesting: a) use “how to” titles; b) use lists, top 10s, etc.; c) offer money saving tips; d) write about what’s topical today; e) be unique
- Is your content easy to read? Do your sentences flow smoothly into one another? Do you stay on topic? If your title says, “How to save money on pet food” but you write about, “What’s the best organic food for your pet,” you are in the same topic area but not on topic. As with newspaper articles, get to the point quickly because readers will stop reading if you haven’t engaged them within the first paragraph or two. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, numbers.
- Are you using SEO (search engine optimized key words)? While you don’t want to write for the search engines you do want to be found. If you’re writing about dogs, use that key word, if you are writing about poodles and want to be found on that topic, be specific.
- Talk to me. Does your blog allow for comments? Do you ask questions in your blog that writers would be interested in engaging in with you?
- Be shameless… in your self-promotion. If you’re writing a blog, don’t just hope that readers will find you; take their virtual hand and lead them toward your blog. Promote yourself on Facebook, Twitter, add sharing buttons to your posts, tell your friends and ask them to share your information.
How will you set yourself apart and draw readers to your blog – not only draw them there, but keep them reading.
Hi Y’all,
Thanks for some thoughtful and helpful points. We all need reminders…and then we need to stop and think if we are following through in our own posts.
BrownDog’s Human
Another way is to push out content with old fashioned email newsletters, assuming you have a mechanism for getting people to opt-in. A monthly wrap-up highlighting a month’s worth of blog posts is a great way to remind readers about topics they may have missed.
Reaching out to other bloggers helps a lot. Comment on their blogs. Participate in their contests. Re-post their posts on Facebook, etc. Don’t just spam these other sites. Engage with them. Be a real person. You probably have something useful to add to the conversation. If you participate enough, people will find your site naturally.