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Engage Readers to Increase Blog Readership

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Increase Blog Readership

Engaging Your Blog Readers On their Level

The two biggest problems that I found with my blogs has been learning how to engage readers, and seeing finding how to  increase blog readership. As time went on something happened that really made me take a step back, and see how getting down and dirty would really help me to get both. As I read some of the other posts made here, I realize that this is a common problem that  a lot of people have with their blogs.

After reading Stephanie’s post on  How to Obtain Comments on Your Blog, and reading the discussion we have going there, I decided to make a new post to talk about one of those most critical factors. Engaging your readers.

This is probably the most difficult part of blogging that you will ever face. Especially if you come from a background of technical writing, or like me, listening to self proclaimed experts teaching the biggest marketing blunders, while scalping you for every dime that they can.

Gaining the Trust!

You see, unlike many marketing experts, I don’t believe you have to proclaim yourself to be an expert in order to get your readers to trust you. The problem with the expert position is that you tend to focus on proclaiming and proving your expertise, and less time on getting down and dirty. Rather, what you need to do is create authority, and respect.

Contrary to what many people say, you don’t have to ” be an expert” to get either one online.  In fact, this myth is so common, that it almost made the list of the top marketing blunders. It was number six on the list. What you need to do is engage your readers by being open and honest. They will begin to trust you and you will increase your blog readership, as they begin sharing what you say with their friends, family, and even on their own blogs.

Open your eyes to your own foolishness

When I started out, I fell right into the same trap, until an incident in a forum opened my eyes to my own foolishness. I had spent months positioning myself as an expert, helping others, and built up a good reputation. When people really needed help, they knew that they could count on me. However, I started getting comments about how everything I touched turned to gold, and how I was so good, I didn’t need anything.  I had one person even call me a Guru. Now, to me, that is a dirty word, and what was meant as a compliment, I took as an insult.

I was floored when I saw that. after all, I had been struggling for months. I simply tend to focus on sharing the good points instead of the bad. By this time, I had been using my blog within the forum, and gotten 2-3 comments on posts that I made, and some good traffic to my site through the posts.

Share your Success

I decided to open up my mouth, and my heart. I laid it all out on the table. I shared my successes, as I had been doing. But, I also shared my failures, and the things that I was struggling with. That was my first tripple didget post, and I have seen only a few since then.

When you write on the level with your readers, and share your own experiences, trials and troubles, rather than trying to be an expert, and thus always sharing only what goes right, you engage readers on a personal level, and makes you more human in their eyes. Now, you are just one of us, rather than way up on some pedastal that nobody can touch.  I have even seen people since then promoting my products, and forgetting to use their affiliate link. That’s what you can do when you really engage people.

This has been one of the biggest lessons in building up comments more comments, as well as learning to increase blog readership on all of my blogs.

By sharing your failures, and showing that you do make mistakes, it helps people to open up, and share their own. I also think it helps build more trust, and respect, both of which are critical to your long term success.

You don’t have to be an expert to make your blog work. You just have to create authority, and the best way to do that is to engage your readers and really help them.

So, I want to hear your story

What have you done that helped you engage your readers?

What have you done that fell flat?

share your experiences in engaging your blog readers.

This post is part of our amazing Blogging Contest, plz add a comment and tweet it to support the author.

About

For over 2 years, James has worked to his online business in various niche markets and blogged about Relationship Marketing Strategies that really work. I built my own brand on relationship marketing, and especially using forums and social media. Learn more about the biggest forum marketing mistakes and how to overcome them with this free Forum Marketing Strategy report! (and see Hesham's amazing Thesis Awesome Product Skin in action too)

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{ 48 Responses }

  1. mike says:
    funny how so many fols expect to get readers without really considering their audience. as with most things, this is a "what's in it for me?" situation and, as writeres, we should always be mindful of this fact. Thanks for the article!
  2. Murlu says:
    It's simple but you do have to figure out what your readers actually want - you know how people ask questions at the end of the post? Sometimes it's not the right question. Not all questions are worth answering. So it can be difficult but I think one way to get people to answer your questions and become engaged through comments is to find out the real question they'd have after reading your post - this could be further information, how they can implement it or answering small questions about your experience.
  3. Bryan says:
    Hey James, I know lots of ppl have been commenting about how you should not elevate yourself to a guru status to get attention. But even if you are humble and the giving type, it still takes a while to get attention although I do agree you get to engage your readers better.
  4. JustenJusten says:
    I'm in the process of a redesign right now so I'll be adding new categories and subsets that reflect the skills sets I process (Style, , How-To, Organization, Efficiency, Law of Attraction, etc...) When I first started it was because I was reading great posts about making money from blogging and I saw a certain level of hype or star power that it could potentially create. Both of these filled a niche for what I wanted to attract in my life. Being the web savvy person I was, I decided to give it a shot. Using my Fashion Marketing background, I began to soak up all the information that I could about blogging, cewebrity and any possible avenue I could venture through. AMAZING free quality advice was at my finger tips and I was absorbing like a sponge. Turns out 2 years later that I had analysis paralysis. I was only looking at my blog through a few lenses (Marketing, Revenue, & Hype). The content that I was publishing was glossy and great but it was only the fluff to my rice cripsy! I just came across this blog today and am finding the array of bloggers with their own individual hangups and experiences to be exponentially helpful. When a post is authentically written well then there is a validation that occurs. My posts were primarily graphic and aesthetically enhanced to portray emotion and feeling. Both are great but I was missing the ME aspect that would enhance my personal brand and help bridge the gap between readers, supporters and myself. It was just recently that I decided for sure that Entrepreneurship was the one ship I wanted to sail. When in my mind I confirmed the direction I was headed, I was released from the shackles of what my future employers might think. Because you see... in school the focus is to mold yourself into a marketable/politically correct version of yourself. If I were to share to much of my personal/boundary pushing thoughts then perhaps I'd push away a potential career position in the industry. From now on my intention is to put me in everything that I do because in fact it is the best part of everything that I do. Being afraid of my greatness is no longer an excuse to only show what has been known to sell. It's time that I share what I know and how to bring that into fruition. Forging my way into uncharted territories and thus becoming innovative, provocative and thus profitable by being authentically me! Thank You! P.S. This is my first serious blog comment, feel special! P.P.S. Now I'm going to read all the comments to the original post to this because while skimming I found it ever so titillating! #PearlsOfWisdom
  5. Sandeep says:
    That's right James. As a blogger you should open up for your readers. You tell them what are the pros and cons of everything they wanted to know.
  6. Mia says:
    What keeps people reading my blog is all the semi-dressed pictures I put on there! Well, one can't help it when one looks like I do :)
    • Hesham says:
      Not when I remove the link to your blog ;)
  7. Stephanie Smith says:
    James, Thanks for mentioning my article. I am learning a lot during this contest and one thing I am learning is that a little self-depreciating humor goes a long way to connect with readers. Too much and it is mocking, but I have a wicked sense of humor and it tends to squirt out the sides of my posts in weird ways unless I channel it. Good article, lots to think about in there.
    • James Pruitt says:
      That is so true Stephanie. Sometimes, I have trouble letting my sense of humor out when I am writing, but when it does, it always works to build a better response.
  8. Paul Castain says:
    Some great points James! I would add that its not just the content that engages our audience, but our interaction with the reader. Too many blogs focus on being content machines and forget about the "conversation". Some bloggers are so focused on this that they completely ignore their comments and lose sight of the interaction. If we wanted one way communication, we could just go to a website, no? Want to increase blog readership? Strive for community and give people a place where they can interact with you and your thoughts and most importantly . . . be heard! Thanks again James . . . well done! Respectfully, Paul Castain
  9. ashok says:
    Your point about opening up and sharing the failures one experiences, I think, points to something even larger. A lot of bloggers are getting away with positioning themselves as "gurus" - I do think you're right to take that as a dirty word, to a degree - while not knowing much that isn't said elsewhere, usually in a better way. To me, the key to blogging is that one conveys a personality through the blog. Unless the blogger is Stephen Hawking, its unlikely that the information given is going to be novel and stand on its own such that it should go viral. But a lot of blogs are really lacking personality, and yes, some of them are successful in spite of that.
    • James Pruitt says:
      I agree completely. If you take time to let your personality out, it really makes your blog shine. The great thing is, when you do that, You don't have to spend hours and days building links. Your readers will do a lot of it for you once you build up that following.
  10. James Pruitt says:
    Thanks for all of your comments here. I have been away with a medical problem, and just found out my post went live. There are a lot of great comments and ideas being shared. I have been told so many times that I will make more money if I set myself as an expert, but when I quit trying to do that on all my sites and articles, my sales improved.
  11. Charles says:
    I have been blogging for a few years now, but my blog has been limited by my fear of having my comments bashed by my readers. As time went by and I got more use to it I began to blog more about my opinions. I still have problems posting what i think because I fear some "expert" may come around and make a fool of me but I am working on getting over that. I have been following some interesting blogs where I get some advise on how to blog successfully. It was enough for me to venture on my own and start a blog I could almost fully control rather than depend on a site and their limited features to speak my mind. I am only getting started so my readership is none existent but I have not truly began to expose my blog and haven't really written much yet but this will change in time. Now that i found places like Famous Bloggers, I just might get something started here. Hopefully. I think my biggest problem is sticking to a single niche. I tend to like more than 1 topic so this may be a small problem for my blog as I may confuse potential readers who may be interested in some articles but not others. Guess I may have to rethink the whole niche thing.
    • James Pruitt says:
      Hi Charles. Running a niche specific blog is the best way for a money making blog. However, that being said, I have seen several people who make a decent income from a general blog. Again it all comes down to how you target readers, and engage them into the conversation that you are discussing in the blog.
      • Charles says:
        Thanks for the reply. To be honest I am a bit at a losss. I blogged on a specific site for 3 or 4 years now and while I never got a lot of comments on any articles I wrote, it was easy to blog because the site had a community with a main page where every article would be on even for a few minutes or days and would always pop up with a simply comment to it or a "shameless bump" as some called it. Now I have a blogspot blog of my own and have only 2 followers who had added me about 2 years ago when i first created the blog but had not used till now. So in reality I have no real followers. I am having a bit of a hard time figuring out how to get readers to my site, which is how I ended up on this site, Famous Bloggers. I'm hoping it will help, but I have to do my part and post some articles so that those who do come have something to see. I may not be able to steer away from having multiply topics on this site as oppose to a single niche but I may have a way to make the articles more obvious of their topic other than simple tags. Hopefully it will work. As for making money, while something I hope to be able to do someday, it's not really something I am doing now since I have no real clue how to make money off a blog where I just write what I think. Perhaps some pointers? Advise? A site with more info? Anything would be greatly appreciated as making money on my blog would be a great idea.
        • James Pruitt says:
          Well for a general topics blog, your best bet is to go for google Adsense, there are a lot of blogs on how to use it. I only have it on a couple of my sites, so can't really be an expert on it. However, I have seen some general topics with affiliate products on topics that they talk about. What i generally recommend to anyone starting up a blog is to build up your blog, get up to about 30 posts or more, start building traffic to that blog, and begin building your community. that will be a learning curve all by itself. once you have the community started, then worry about how to monetize the blog, and start generating an income.
          • Charles says:
            That's some great advise. Thanks.
  12. Asad says:
    Engaging your blog readers is not an easy task. When i write an article, i sit at the place of reader and ask myself what i will like to read. I try to write articles that readers can easily understand.
  13. Harsh Agrawal says:
    In other words you are asking to form a community around your blog which will eventually help to gain trust between users. In my opinion one of the best way is to blog like a real person instead of Robot. One need to show a piece of their personal life and that's how readers can connect to you...
  14. Colleen says:
    "I decided to open up my mouth, and my heart. I laid it all out on the table. I shared my successes, as I had been doing. But, I also shared my failures, and the things that I was struggling with. That was my first triple digit post, and I have seen only a few since then." There ya go James, success in a nutshell. If everyone were to put as much personal effort and experience into their posts, we would all be successful. :)
  15. Latief says:
    I just share my experiences and try to reply all comments, then I visit back to the commenter blog's and left comment, plus I reward my commentators a room on my sidebar called Top Commentator and give them some luv with commentluv ;) Thanks James.
  16. element321 says:
    James, I agree with you. A blogger, buisness owner, should never advertise themselves as an "expert" or "guru". Let others advertise that you are those things. If you are honest, you tell the truth about your experiences, and share advice with everyone, then eventually you will gain the trust of everything and then a person deserves those titles. As for myself, I do not consider myself an expert, even if I had doing what I do for 1o years as some so called experts say they have been doing it. I am always learning more about my niche and I am sharing what I learn with everyone...
    • James Pruitt says:
      I agree. There are so many self proclaimed gurus out there that it really turns people off to see it. Be real and share what you have experienced yourself.
  17. Amanda says:
    Aside from what the others have mentioned above, I think majority of bloggers should know what they want before starting a blog and basically should determine who their target audience is going to be because from then on, you'll get to point out on how you'll plan each step accordingly with regards to topics to write about, languages or use of jargons if any unlike trying to beat around the bush discovering what your readers like then as a result be burned out because nobody reads your blog. Having said that, it's only from that point that you'll be able to create engaging content because you know who your readers are, what they like, and what level of understanding they have in terms of the topics presented on your blog. Niche sites have targeted readers. Unless you know your target, you'll then know eventually how to aim.
    • James Pruitt says:
      this is true as well Amanda. When I first started blogging, I was listening to an interview that said imagine that your best friend just asked you for advice on the topic, then write down how you would answer them. YOu should get a visual image of who your perfect customer for your blog is, and everything that you write should engage that person in the conversation. Once you have that picture, you will also find that you never run out of things to tell them.
  18. Dean Saliba says:
    I never call myself an expert or a guru. I'm just someone that is trying to pass on things that I have tried so others can hopefully make money with them and thus they help me earn more. The one thing I always do to engage my readers is I always reply to comments, no matter if they are possitive or nagative towards me.
  19. Sourav says:
    Excellent post James. Proclaiming ourselves as experts is somewhat like dominating, which will hold back others from communicating with us properly. From my experience I can say that since I am new to WordPress, I tend to bond and "engage" more with the new bloggers than those who have already reached a certain height.
  20. Chadrack says:
    Is it really wrong to present yourself as an expert in your area of focus? Do you have to be angry if someone considered you a guru? Of course those words have lost their essence since the advent of the internet. Calling yourself an expert or a guru today brings up a lot of feelings. But all the same when you know what you do and do it right, especially when it's helpful to others, many will look up to you as the expert. I think that is not a bad thing. I also accept the fact of coming at clean in your relationships. Be human and not some superhuman. You have your areas of limitation let others help you in those areas. I think when you're able to pass this across to your blog readers they will be able to bond more with you. Thanks for a great article.
    • James Pruitt says:
      hi Chadrack, If you truly are an expert, then by all means go for it. The problem is there are too many people who read one or two ebooks, and think this makes them an expert. I have many people who say that I am an expert at certain things because I have 20 years experience in the topic. Personally, I still dont proclaim myself as an expert. I just share my knowledge and experience. IF others call me an expert, so be it, but I cannot stand the self proclaimed experts that you find all over the net.
  21. Anna Haller says:
    I think the best way to engage your readers is to tell them the truth and keep it real with them. Everyone goes through failures and challenges and it's important to share with you readers all you can so they can learn from your mistakes so to speak. It is important that they connect with you on this level and will only deepen your relationships with them as well as build more meaningful ones in the future. Also, I find that when you write in a conversational manner meaning your writing like you are sitting there talking to them is better than you writing or talking at them. Great insights in this post James! Anna
  22. Mars Dorian says:
    Hey James, vital article. Gaining trust is the gold in your online community. People don't want (corporate-style) professionalism, they want someone who's walking his path and sharing the truth. Talking with your audience and helping them out is a kick-ass and fun way to earn trust. The better your relationship, the better it goes. I used to only talk about the good stuff, but now I'm sharing the other side of the coin too. It's just so more fulfilling, and you show the full person.
  23. Ryan says:
    Sensational post James. The point made about declaring yourself as an expert reminds me of the Napoleon Hill quote : "Tell the world what you intend to do, but first show it." As for engaging, seek to be real. Tell your real world experiences: good, bad and in between. By being real people can connect with you. The "oh yeah, that same exact thing happened to me" type of feeling can create a bond which develops into a lasting relationships. We can appreciate other's uniqueness but our commonalities make up the basis of our friendships. Be genuine and truthful in writing your posts so that many others can easily find these common bonds. Ryan
  24. Aaron says:
    Hi James. I saw a good engaging post the other day. The author would ask all her readers to comment with their facebook pages and all the readers would then be able to check each other's pages out and become fans or "like" them. Something like that works out very well and brings in some decent contacts as well.
    • James Pruitt says:
      Thats cool Aaron. I have not seen someone doing that. I may have to try that to build my own Facebook following.
  25. Dennis Edell says:
    Nail-head man, I couldn't agree more; right down to guru being a 4letter word. That feeling of accessibility is key. I had the same type experience on a particular forum when i was first starting. I said, nah man, I just help when/where I can. Truth be told, I've screwed up more hen you, which is exactly why I try when/where I can. lol
  26. Nabeel says:
    Great point raised. "When you write on the level with your readers, and share your own experiences, trials and troubles, rather than trying to be an expert, and thus always sharing only what goes right, you engage readers on a personal level, and makes you more human in their eyes." This is golden advice right here. I totally agree. This makes you 'accessible' to your readers and makes you more trust able in front of your readers. I also agree that I would also feel uncomfortable being labelled as a 'guru', even if I knew 'stuff'. Nabeel
  27. Jakes says:
    I am a sort of novice in blogging. Currently struggling with design issues, decision about domain, etc. Once I am free from the afore-said issues, I hope the points in the post will definitely help me out. Now, coming to my views, I believe that interaction with readers is important. Often, good interaction can lead to acquaintanceship which can earn you regular visitors.
  28. Mitch says:
    First, I don't see anything wrong with someone else seeing you as a guru. You never called yourself that, and trust me, it's better being thought of as something good like that than as being considered conceited or as a know-it-all. Second, I agree that one should be honest in their posting and talk about both the good and the bad. However, make the bad funny instead of depressing. Over the years on one of my blogs, I've talked about the inability to make any real money online, yet I'm always testing things. I'd love to be able to talk about being rich because of being online, but that's not happening yet. However, I've had other successes, so I talk about those as well. Life is what it is, and if you're willing to be open, people will come to you.
    • James Pruitt says:
      Hi Mitch. I agree. I hope some day I can blog about how working online has made me rich. I at least have made it my full time income, making more than I was in my previous job, but still not into the million dollar product launches or anything like that. Its funny when I see someone complain that a product only made 2 million in a launch. If I made that, I would retire, and just keep blogging for fun. Although it is a great way to make money, I find that I get a better feeling for having helped someone than I do from getting a sale.
      • Mitch says:
        I don't know that I'd retire, but I'd certainly find new ways to make that money work for me so I'd never have to work a real job again. Oh wait; I do that now, and I'm not making almost any money online. Gotta figure that out one of these days. lol
  29. Kristi Hines says:
    I think the best way to engage your readers is to listen to them and, in your blogging, write posts that answer their questions. I find that if one person asks a question, it is something that a lot of other people are interested in knowing the answer to as well. As far as things that have went flat, I have found sometimes that the posts I spend the longest amount of time on don't really make a dent. One post I spent 5 hours on didn't get comments for 3 days - it was simply overboard comprehensive, probably better marked as a whitepaper. I think the best way to engage is to just listen. Keep up with people on social networks, read and respond to comments, look at comments on bloggers' sites and see what questions get asked to them that they may not be able to answer. Giving readers the content they want to know about is what gets them excited and builds their trust in you.