The success of a blog is linked to loyal readership. You could buy traffic, give away stuff, or run competitions to get traffic. But these tactics will not give you loyal readers. Readers become loyal when they love your writing, your blog and you as a blogger. It is better to have a few loyal readers than numerous one-time visitors.
The following are tips for creating loyal readers.
Keep your topics focused
If you have a long category list, you are likely to lose your readers. Therefore, it is important that you keep your topics less and focused. Stick to your topics, keep them updated, and never digress from them. Digressing from your subjects means a decrease in the number of return visitors.
Continue interacting
The blogosphere is about crowds; chats, talking, shouts, speakers etc. Your blog readers are an important source of ideas, therefore get them talking. You might just learn something in the process. However, knowledge sharing needs to be mutually beneficial. When your visitors talk, you need to respond to them. Interact with them preferably through your blog. Where possible, avoid IM or email chats, but encourage visitors to use the contact from on your blog. Once the form is submitted, they are likely to read other posts in your blog.
Read and reply to comments
Getting comments is not enough; you need to respond to them. Unless you respond to them promptly, they become liabilities. When questions remain unanswered, visitors are left with a very bad impression of the blogger. Therefore, you need to make it a habit to reply to comments. You could respond to them all together occasionally, rather than responding to them one-by-one. This will not only save time, but will also keep you focused.
Ask questions
You can’t do all the talking all the time. Though you might be an expert in your field, you can’t give answers when you haven’t asked any question. When people visit your site, they might be left with questions. It is your responsibility to answer them before they leave. You can make things easier by asking questions. This will show that you value your visitor’s opinions. Therefore, when writing articles, it is advisable to embed some questions within the post.
Disagree
Disagreeing is a great way of expressing your opinions on a particular topic. If you disagree with an article posted on another blog, express yourself through your posts. Let your readers know that the writer missed it. Disagreeing is not necessarily a negative thing; it is just a chance to prove your expertise. So feel free to disagree with other bloggers who write about the same subjects you are interested in. Your readers will love it.
Don’t get corrupted
When there is too much information, you might get misled. You articles could end up contradicting other articles you have written previously. Your visitors will read your archives, and you don’t want to confuse them.
Be consistent Â
Maintain a regular posting cycle. It is advisable to have a schedule for posting. This way, your readers know what to expect.
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Author Bio
ZK is the co-founder of Web Marketing Blog where accomplished writers and bloggers share their tips, strategies and stories. Follow him on Twitter at @webtrafficroi.
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All are Perfect and definately going to works
As many top bloggers prefers this only. They are highly focused, keep continue interacting, reply regularly to their commenters, ask questiones and also gives answers with valuable suggestions, maintain consistency etc.
These are the only way which hold your reader on your blog and make them to do visit again and again.
Thanks a lot for sharing such a useful post.
Shower Heads, thanks for stopping by and commenting again 🙂
Not getting corrupted over time is a tough one to avoid being that people change and so do their opinions.
Additionally, in the world of SEO, for example, what worked last year may not work today.
I guess the best way to avoid this would be to link to the old post and point out that it has changed.
Great article, ZK.
Mark
Hi Mark,
That is a tuff one. information changes so fast online that it is hard to keep up. It seems sometimes what worked yesterday doesn’t work today…
Thanks for stopping by and sharing
I think regular and quality content are what keeps readers coming back. I don’t know if interaction in the comments helps but I do it all the time I like talking to my readers 😛
Hi John, interaction absolutely helps. Comments is like adding fresh content to your post. Search engines love that.
Good point about disagreeing, theres nothing like a healthy debate to attract some attention. And I agree with Mark, it is incredibly hard not to contradict yourself sometimes. I just try and make sure that if i do contradict something I have said in the past, I point out that I am awear that I am doing so, and justify why I am doing it. Everybody’s a hypocrite at some point accept it, just don’t be a hypocrite about being a hypocrite.
Hi Will,
Your right it is hard, especially when new information is coming out like all the time. All we can do is the best we can and hope our readers understand.
consistency is the key to any work and its been amazing reading this post , thanks for it
Thanks, Kathrine!
up to date info and quality contents always makes interest in your readers. another thing which is also important is the response to your readers and commentators.
Ya, Sire from http://wassupblog.com/ is a good example of that
Sensible words, ZK. It’s true that a few loyal readers can be more beneficial than many one-time visitors. Regular followers of your site create consistent traffic, rather than fluctuating site visitor numbers. You bring up key points in maintaining a healthy relationship with loyal readers, such as consistency and interaction. How would you feel if you walked into a KFC and was served spaghetti instead of fried chicken? There are numerous ways to make your site interesting and fresh to attract new visitors, but priority should be given to long time readers who are more than happy to assist in promoting your site.
Hi Roro, I agree with you that you should give priority to long time readers.
I have a few readers who don’t use their name or gravatars, but I know that they are reading my stuff and adding relevant content. So I always let them leave their comments.
I love this one blog about a girl having found her husband to be, and at the end of her blog is a series of questions for visitors to answer. It is fun to read different opinions from visitors that are related to the topic. You are right about getting your topics focused, when our visitors loved our first blog, most likely they would expect us to right something related to that blog.
Hi Deborah, I enjoy reading comments also..Often times I read the comments before I read the article
Thanks for stopping by!
I used to visit my old comments from time to time to see if there’s any reply from the blog owner. In this way, I would like to build a good relationship to the blogger. And indeed, I really enjoy exchanging thoughts or talking with other people so I do appreciate their efforts to make some reply no matter how short or long it is.
Hi Maria, I do the best I can to respond to all my readers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂
Yeah! And as a reader and constant visitor of your site, I do appreciate your effort to interact with us. I know you’re a pretty busy person and yet you find time to keep in touch to us. Thanks!
I think, the most important step to building a loyal readership is to keep your topics focused. In the past, I was writing about all kinds of subjects around internet marketing on my blog and I had almost no return visitors. Since I started to focus my blog on more specific subjects, I’m realizing that people are coming back to my blog and they are also commenting on my posts, which wasn’t the case before.
Great advise, as always. Yours is the most-read (and most readable) blog of all of those I subscribe to; your consistency in delivery and message has a lot to do with it. (I had to chuckle, though: “You want the same unique and distinct voice for your blog.” Think about it.