Build your blog community - They might save the day someday.
Jul21Written by:
2010/07/21 09:34 AM 
The term "no man is an island" is so true. As human beings we are dependent upon each other. In all facets of life, having a strong social network and strong community is an important aspect to our daily living
Blogging, another aspect of our social life also needs that network, that strong community. So it is important that you build your community from the get go.
Your blog community is there to help you
I recently experienced the great and fantastic bond and helpfulness of my blog community. In time of need many people in my community came to my aid.
You see, I had both my hands bitten by a dog. Could not type that well. So I thought to myself, let me try and make a plea to my readers and see what transpires. I asked for some to do guest post.
What happened nearly brought tears to my eyes. I got flooded with well wishes. Many also sprung into action producing awesome content as guest posts for my blog.
I had a blog post every day for more than a week. This was a tremendous help to me as it gave me time off to heal. Not only physically, but mentally as well.
If you build your community up correctly, you will be amazed as to how they will dive in to help when you need them the most.
Give before asking
The way to build up a successful community is to give before asking, and to give much. Don’t try to build a blog community just to get free traffic and free guest posts. That's not the idea. The idea of a blog community is for your participation, for you to get involved.
You need to build up other bloggers, promote their blogs, and write guest posts for them.
Come up with other ideas to how you can be an asset to your community. I have tried to do just that with this blog. Build others up, promote their blogs and to re-tweet their posts, as much and as often as I can.
- I have built a Blog directory where you can list your blog.
- I have and still do, give away free ads on my blog.
- I have often hosted collaborated posts where we have many authors write a single paragraph for one post.
- I have often helped with Design as well as SEO for other bloggers.
What ideas can you come up with?
How can I build my community?
Building a community is a long term effort. Have patience and be persistent and consistent. Remember trust and friendship are earned and never expected or demanded.
- Be a leader. Do first what you would expect others to do for you
- Network with others in your industry
- Encourage commenting
- Reply to comments
- Leverage social media
- Ask questions
- Link to reader’s blogs
- Answer your readers questions
- Create projects where readers can participate in.
- Set home work for your readers
- Comment on their blogs as much as possible
- Encourage other bloggers often
- Give your readers tasks to perform.
- Teach and educate
- Learn to listen first
- Most importantly, you must be the community.
Share what you are doing to build your community
So now it’s over to you. Start building your community.
What I would like to do is get you to list some task, processes that you feel is important to building a blog community. List them in the comments below. The reason why I want you to do this is for the community, obviously. Your experience and expertise might go a long way to help another readers here.
So your homework/task is to share how you are building your blog community. Share what works and what does not.
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