Yesterday I wrote about being the head of the flock (okay, last sheep reference for a while…), but today’s commandment? Thou shall take care of thy flock (visitors)!
So you have your following built up. You have recurring traffic and you have a readership. But how do you keep this up. Humans will wander away if they’re bored or mistreated.
By mistreated I don’t mean that you beat them or verbally abuse them, but I mean you spam them with your ads or try to push stuff upon them. They will accept it for a time then leave. The trick here is not to plaster your pages with ads and to only offer them things sporadically so its still new. This will yield you better conversions as well as your flock isn’t just going, “not this again”.
To fix the boredom issue its simple post new content. But beyond that interact with your following, get them involved. You may notice I try to respond to about every comment left on this blog. I do this to try to involve you, my readers, and get people coming back because they feel like they are cared about (which they truly are!).
There are various methods by which you can take care of the people that are your source of income. The easiest is share some profits with them. Whether this be forum revenue sharing or contests and give always of stuff you’ve won or made, it will keep people interested an happy. After all, everyone likes free stuff.
Also be around your website. A community or website is no fun if people feel its neglected and/or no one is around. They will tire of it faster and feel less attachment to it if no one is around.
Another thing you can do is reciprocate to your readers. In this niche especially most readers have websites of their own. You can pay some of your readers websites a visit. Even if you don’t leave a comment, there is the off chance that they have a widget like MyBlogLog or BlogCatalog and can see that you’ve been there. This will make the user feel like they’re cared about and keep them coming back.
If you don’t take care of your flock it will wander off. When that happens you loose traffic, and online traffic is money….
So, heed my advice, take care of your flock (visitors)!
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I think you make some very good points. It is good to let people know just how important it is to take care of your readers, and this post follows up your previous post nicely. Well done as usual!
Thanks Jon. You for one take care of your readers well on your blog. By the way, talking about taking care of your readers. You are owed a 1 month 125×125 ad on this site (contest prize) email me the GIF or JPG of it, and I’ll throw it up for you..
Enjoy..
Ok, I just sent you the 125×125 jpg via e-mail. Thanks
Compliment:
Good write up there, mate.
Nice Sheep Screenie you got there.
Criticism:
No sub headers makes the article not quite easily scan-able.
Spacings between paragraphs a bit large. (Maybe its just me)
You forgot to mention EntreCard in your article. LOL
Understanding:
We Bloggers live to serve.
I made the mistake of neglecting a reader / visitor once, luckily I realized that mistake in time and managed to make him happy again. For that, I am most glad.
I must remind myself not make that mistake again.
Question:
What would you do if one day, you discover that you are receiving way too many comments for you to comprehend?
For myself, I have the “Better Late than never” mindset so sometimes I find myself replying to comments which were submitted many days or even weeks ago.
Post Slicing:
[Thou shall take care of thy flock (visitors)!]
DTA: Nice catchy title you got here.
[Humans will wander away if they’re bored or mistreated.]
DTA: Agree. Thanks for the friendly reminder.
[The trick here is not to plaster your pages with ads and to only offer them things sporadically so its still new. This will yield you better conversions as well as your flock isn’t just going, “not this again”.]
DTA: I admit that for a time, there was too much Ads on my site. I killed them and things look much better now, I think.
[But beyond that interact with your following, get them involved. ... and get people coming back because they feel like they are cared about (which they truly are!).]
DTA: Totally agree. What makes blog different is that there is a living individual behind it. The way I see it, blogs are very much like a virtual extension of ourselves in the Cyberspace.
[The easiest is share some profits with them. Whether this be forum revenue sharing or contests and give always of stuff you’ve won or made, it will keep people interested an happy. After all, everyone likes free stuff.]
DTA: Agree. Freebies works best.
[Also be around your website. A community or website is no fun if people feel its neglected and/or no one is around. They will tire of it faster and feel less attachment to it if no one is around.]
DTA: I wonder how those Big Bloggers keep up with this aye?
[Another thing you can do is reciprocate to your readers. In this niche especially most readers have websites of their own. You can pay some of your readers websites a visit. Even if you don’t leave a comment, there is the off chance that they have a widget like MyBlogLog or BlogCatalog and can see that you’ve been there. This will make the user feel like they’re cared about and keep them coming back.]
DTA: Better yet, drop your EntreCard into their Inbox.
Regarding comments, it works best if the comment is sincere.
[If you don’t take care of your flock it will wander off. When that happens you loose traffic, and online traffic is money….]
DTA: The same applies for the physical realm, in fact. A Restaurant with bad service is not going to have many happy returning customers…
Now thats a comment! Okay, let me get on this. If there are to many comments, I have the same philosophy, better late than never, because users will understand when they see the amount of comments that I am just one person and its hard to do.
Entrecard wasn’t mentioned because not everyone has it and it isn’t the be all end all.
Big bloggers I have found usually respond to a few comments only but do respond to emails most of the time. I think its understood when you have 1000 readers its kind of hard to address each one individually. Its more a of a “self serve” style there.
So true, I like to bookmark blog posts I comment on to see responses, and if I write out a nice thoughtout comment and see no reply, that doesn’t really make me want to comment again.
Developing a solid, interactive reader base is crucial for a growing blog.
Yup, if you take care of your readers they come back, if you don’t they do not. Its that easy.