Most of us know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the benefits that can be enjoyed when a blog is perfectly optimized within its niche for relevant search engine traffic. However, with the massive changes taking place on the web and additional avenues created everyday for attracting new traffic we cannot focus on SEO alone. This is where what I like to call Community Optimization comes in. Community Optimization is definitely a subset of Social Media Optimization (SMO) but let’s focus on how we can develop and grow our blog’s community directly through community building interactions and practices.
7 Very Powerful Tips for your Community Building Success
1) Show Love
The best way for bloggers to connect with others in the blogosphere is to show their love by commenting and contributing their thoughts to posts. This works great especially for new bloggers who are scratching their heads wondering how to attract traffic to their blog on a zero dollar budget. 90% of bloggers will visit your blog if you contribute a thought of value through commenting on their site. Use the commenting opportunity to link to an article that supports their post and ask for feedback. This is a surefire way to start blogging relationships.
2) Guest Posting
Guest post, guest post, guest post, I cannot stress this one enough. Guest posting can bring you excellent unique traffic especially if you guest post on really popular blogs like Robswebtips.com and Sitesketch101.com. Through guest posting you improve your credibility as a blogger, gain exposure, increase great organic back links and achieve a higher page rank. Find out how you can guest post on Sam’s Web Guide here.
3) Be Prepared!
If you’re going all the way to attract new visitors to your site and you’re a dedicated blogger, you need to have something to offer your visitors when they arrive. Imagine attracting 1,000 unique visitors today, but you only have 2 or 3 posts on your blog because its new. What do you think the visitors will think? More than likely they will not return because you will seem really new, unprofessional and not serious about your blog. Of course, we are all new at some point but we don’t want to promote ourselves as newbies. Spend some quality time to build up your blog with some great posts with your unique views or have some excellent tutorials on how to overcome common challenges. 10 or more posts will do.
4) ASK!
There is nothing wrong with asking for what you want. Whether its help, subscribers or comments, you’ve got to ask for what you want. As with the sales profession you need to ask for the sale, you need to ask for that comment or that subscriber. How will anyone know what you want if you don’t ask. Plus, you would be surprised at how generous bloggers on a whole can be.
5) Reply to All Commentators and Offer Assistance
As your blog grows, you will definitely begin to get lots of visitors commenting on your site, provided that your content is interesting that is. Firstly, always thank your readers for commenting on your site, ensure that you clearly understand what your commentators are saying, engage them with questions and by giving further insight. Before all of this gets going though, ensure that your commentators can subscribe to your blog’s comments by downloading this plugin. This plugin allows your visitors to receive comment updates in their e-mail. So when you post a reply to a comment, the visitor will be notified via e-mail and would be able to reply.
6) Use Comment Luv
Show more love by using Comment Luv along with your comment box. This plugin displays your visitors’ last blog post whenever they leave a comment. This is a great way to help other bloggers advertise their posts on their blog in a very non-intrusive way. The plugin can be downloaded here.
7) Collaborate with other bloggers
Do not treat other bloggers as though they are competitors, but treat them as partners. Although that may not be their “official title.” In any business, treating other entities as competitors often stifles business relationships and limits what you can learn from each other because you will be more focused on beating them rather than being successful with them. Try collaborating on a blogging project with other bloggers in your niche and you will find that the ideas will flow like a river and income opportunities will skyrocket beyond what you expected. Plus, if you are really interested in learning all there is to learn, then try to collaborate with an experienced blogger. You have nothing to lose!
The tips above will definitely kick start you on your way to building a massive blogging community. Always write your articles and design your site in a manner that stimulates visitor interaction and participation. SEO is great but community optimization can be even greater especially when launching your new blog.
Hope this helps you to go Viral!!
Group Discussion:
What other methods or practices do you think would fit within Community Optimization? Is SEO more important? Please leave a comment to let us know what you think.
Be really careful with #3 Be Prepared.
While you don’t want too little, you don’t want to many either, especially if it’s really good stuff.
Sounds off huh? Fact: most will simply get lost and buried completely unread. Very few will dig through archives. Publish 50 articles before you open and 40+ may go unseen.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Comment Contest Continues Through April! =-.
That’s true.
Thanks for backing up that point Dennis. I wouldn’t say to use as much as 50 articles before anyone get’s started though but the site just should not be bare. Something of value should be there.
I’ve realized that for a new blog, posting frequency should not really be daily until regular traffic starts to build up. This allows the blogger the time to effectively market each post and get some traffic.
Thanks for reading Dennis
Oh yes, and it works GREAT!
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Blog Comments and Blog Comment Contests – Lets Chat about Paying for Comments =-.
Nice Post!
These were great ways to build a community on your blog. I think it is very important to try to build a community this way you know you’ll have returning visitors. These visitors who keep returning to your site will most likely purchase anything that you’re promoting. Just for the simple fact that you’ve built enough credibility and they trust you.
Building an online community and communicating with other people can also give you new ideas for blog posts. It is always great to genuinely try to connect with people who take the time out to comment on your posts. After all….. they don’t have to do it.
.-= Jay´s last blog ..The Power Of Thesis =-.
Thanks for being a returning visitor Jay!
Its all about building trust. Trust enables true long term success and is the foundation that any blog or business should be built on. Provide value for the community and they won’t mind paying for it because they know that they can trust the source.
#7 is one of the most important aspects of blogging. Too many looking out for themselves and failing to connect with others. Be a contributor and grow some relationships. Hey, it’s enough blogosphere for everyone and no blogger will corner the market, just do what you do best and be for real.
The lesson is this… you cannot blog from an island all alone. get with some folks and share the love. Makes for a much better social experience.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Blog Maintenance – Keeping Your Blog in A-1 Condition =-.
Well said Jimi.
Whether a person is blogging for business or personal, a high level of interaction with other bloggers is what will kick start their success. There is no such thing as blogging for self, because as soon as it becomes evident that a blogger is selfish he/she will begin to lose valuable readers.
The gold rule is: “Give and you shall receive” this applies to all areas of life and business.
Thanks for reading Jimi
Great tips Sam – I would like to add social media in the mix. Social media is a great way to add “pull marketing” to your new blog.
Pull marketing basically means exposing your brand on social networks with high traffic, then you’re “pulling” the traffic back to your site!
Finding a great blogging community that’s active is key to getting traffic back to your blog.
.-= Jack@Online Marketing Blog´s last blog ..A Fool Proof, “Three Ps” Method to Successful Blogging… =-.
Most definitely! Social media belongs to this discussion. It is because of sites like twitter that I’m enjoying an increase in traffic and exposure for my blog.
Thanks for commenting Jack.
Hello Sam, I am visiting your blog for the first time and this post lure me to click on it and read it. Very nicely written. You are right that community optimization is a very needed part of blogging. I have seen many blogger who really do not want to communicate but there are many pitfalls to that. The points that you have pointed out are accurately right and I have been following most of them except guest posting for right now I want to build a base for my blog and totally concentrating on building an article base on my blog as your pointed out in point #3 since my blog is new. I will be starting blog posting in a few days and I think it will be a pretty much beneficial thing. I am expecting some help from you too
.-= Shiva@Web Magazine´s last blog ..How to Calculate the Price of my Website’s Link? =-.
Hey Shiva, I’m glad you found the post interesting.
Blogging is about communication and if a blogger is not interested in mastering the art then they may not be serious about their blogging success.
I checked out your netchunks.com blog and its awesome. You have a great blog going there. Guest posting is a great way to gain more exposure and push your blog even further. Give it a try on some really popular sites.
Thanks again for reading and I’d be happy to offer some assistance when needed, just send me a mail.
.-= Sam´s last blog ..My Blogging Journey So Far – March Blog Statistics =-.
Love this. Let me know when we can start using the term “Community Optimization” in our blogging because it’s a perfect way to describe these activities.
.-= Tia – BizChickBlogs.com´s last blog ..8 Minute Post – Becoming Un-boring =-.
Hey Tia,
“Community Optimization” is actually a term I coined. I searched the entire web and could not find anyone who uses it, but its perfect for these activities. Sure you can use it