I had a meeting with a client yesterday who was getting very discouraged because he hadn’t yet received any comments on his blog. His discouragement meant that he wasn’t blogging as often as he should because he wasn’t seeing the value in it. Unfortunately, this sporadic blogging can lead to a downward spiral which will lead to a self-fulfilling failure. While blogging at first can feel like you’re talking to yourself, patience and dedication almost always pay off.
Look to Other Metrics
Instead of expecting people to comment on your posts, take a look at your statistics to see if you’re gaining ground. When we took at look at the statistics for my client’s blog, his traffic was steadily increasing and even had some spikes on days when he was blogging. We also saw traffic going from his blog to his e-commerce site, which was even more exciting.
People are Passive
Most people are very passive when they’re online. They’re mostly reading. Some are posting, and even fewer are actually interacting. Think about when you’re online. What percentage of the time do you bother to leave a comment on a blog or post? Probably fairly infrequently. The same is true in general. While it takes some time to build up a regular readership, it takes even longer to build up a community that’s willing to interact with you.
Be Active
Don’t wait for people to comment on your blog. Comment on other blogs. Ask people to comment (friends, colleagues, customers, etc.). There’s no reason you have to be passive when you’re building up your blog. Most people are happy to help, if you just ask.
Be Patient
Blogging takes patience. To build up a readership, you need to commit to posting regularly (whatever that is). The more often you can blog, the better. And it can take 6 months or more of consistent blogging to really start to see some impact. So while blogging can be a very cost effective way to build up your reputation online, it does require time and patience.
Do you have any blogging tips?
(photo by Kevin Jaako)