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13.2 Easy Ways to Build a Thriving Blog Community
We’re frequently asked about our secrets for creating a healthy, thriving active blog community. We’ve heard comments like:
- It’s a blogger’s dream – alive!
- You have some of the most active conversations around.
- How are you creating such dynamic discussion?
Anyone can have what we have. There is no magic secret. All it takes to create a thriving community is some time, some socialization with readers, some personality and some interaction.
Be Active
Harry and I have a background in forum moderation, and we firmly believe this foundation set the stage for proper handling of a comment section. A question required a response. A comment required attention. A joke instigated a reaction. We were active and present at all times, often far into the wee hours of the morning.
Be Responsive
Some bloggers tend to let the comments pile up and then zoom in for a quick catch-all before zooming away to never return. That doesn’t happen on our blog. People know that we’re responsive and that if they post a question or a comment that deserves an immediate answer, they get it.
Be Present
Taking to the walls isn’t a good feeling. Neither is the sense that you’re completely alone in a crowd of people. Everyone – even those that disagree or that instigate flame wars – deserves acknowledgment. That’s why we answer every comment we receive. Every single one. People know that when they comment on our blog, someone will answer.
Be Personal
Not only will someone always acknowledge a comment, someone will always provide personal attention. It’s a good feeling to have a blog owner single you out and respond to your comment personally with a customized answer that shows they’ve listened and heard what you have to say.
Be Personable
We’ve tried to go the purely professional route. It doesn’t work. It’s also silly. Everyone – including us – is just regular people at the end of the day. We don’t wear suits 24/7 and we have personality to fit with who we are. Readers and commentators can relate to us by feeling that we’re just regular joes. Nothing wrong with that.
Be Real
Showing personality in our posts and in our comment section makes a huge different in how people feel about us. They know that we’re just one of the gang – we’re equals. We don’t come off as the untouchable big blog owner with minions of fans. We’re guys with a blog and we aren’t big shots who lord over the followers that come.
Be Silly
Everyone likes to have fun. We all like entertainment and a break from the day’s seriousness. It’s common to see Harry and I poking fun at each other or sharing “inside” jokes that everyone gets. We goof off. We play. We go off topic and let down the serious side. People like that. We like it too, and the whole ambiance is relaxed.
Be Professional
We show personality, we goof off, but we also know where to draw the line. We remain professional and we don’t share intimate details. We share some of our personal life with readers, but we don’t drop our pants and let it all hang out. We know where our job and our blog ends and where our personal life begins.
Be Supportive
When people ask questions, we answer. When people need help, we do what we can. When people struggle, we offer our insight. As forum moderators, we offered support, help and advice at all times. We carried that forward to our blog. We try to offer help with our posts, and we bring that support into our comment section – even if it’s just to empathize with someone having a bad day.
Be User-Friendly
When our commentators speak up about the functionality and user-friendliness of our blog, we respond. If our commentators remark on an ugly submit button (that now looks slick) or a too-wide column (that now fits just right), we fix it. A small irritant important enough for our readers to mention is important enough for our attention.
Be Firm
While present in your blogging community, do your part to ensure that conversation remains respectful, polite and diplomatic. Have a comment policy. Nip nasty comments in the bud. Tug the reins when you see discussion getting out of hand. By showing that you won’t let flame-wars occur and that you aren’t a welcome mat to walk all over, your community learns your limits and operates within them.
Be Permissive
Let people speak their minds. They come to your community to talk and debate, so allow people their voice to do so. Editing comments to remove negative feedback isn’t smart. Negative feedback offers the opportunity to display your credibility or work on areas that need improvement. Handling debate properly to turn it into a positive experience for all involved lets you grow and gain more readers.
Be Easy to Use
The more red tape to comment, the less comments you’ll have. People like one-click action and the easiest road. If you set up captchas, logins and registrations, your commentators become frustrated and stop participating in discussions. Likewise, offer full feeds over partial and provide a “subscribe to comments” plugin so that everyone stays in the loop.
Bonus Tip! Be Neutral
Harry and I each have our own personal views, values and morals. We have beliefs and political stances. We’re pro- this and anti- that. But we keep all this “off the boards”, to use an old moderator term. We also respect everyone else’s views, choices and opinions if they share theirs. We’re polite, we’re diplomatic, and we remember that manners matter online.
Now that you know our “secrets” to a thriving blog community, step into your own blog comment section and be active, real and present. But don’t forget – you still have to work on bringing people over to your appealing, welcoming atmosphere
Help spread the word!
Welcome to our community. Kick back, put your feet up and join the discussion.
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The reason I have come to love you guys so much is exactly because of the way your are handling your commenting strategy. You raised some great points here and like you, I’ve always tried to answer every single commenter on my blog.
People deserve to be acknowledged for taking time out their own busy days and making an effort to stop by.
So, I’m patiently waiting for Brett to turn up and make me a virtual flat white. You wouldn’t have any cake to go with that would you?….
…….oh uh I nearly forgot. Easter bunnies…..happy Easter to all of you crazy Canadians, Americans and wherever else you hail from.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
Now that you’ve mentioned Easter…
Peep Show
Don’t worry, its SFW (Safe For Work…or family)
Is it really easter, or are we just making up holidays now? I thought easter was in april??????
Signed,
lost & confused, party of one
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Corporate Mentality: How Understanding It Can Help You
@Amy: It’s insanely early. I don’t get it either.
Benefit of a thriving blog community 13.3: someone’s always around to tell you when the holidays are
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Corporate Mentality: How Understanding It Can Help You
@ Harry: bunnies…..bunnies falling over each other.
@ Amy: don’t worry, I’m confused like you. I think the world is upside down.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
@Monika – forgive my stupidity, but do Australians (as a whole) not celebrate Easter? Clearly, I don’t celebrate it (or even know when it is) as an American, but I’m curious whether it’s a recognized holiday even? If you’re not really Australian and I’m thinking of someone else entirely, then…..er….never mind the question.
Benefit 13.4: someone else is always as confused as you are
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Corporate Mentality: How Understanding It Can Help You
@ Amy: Yes, Australians do celebrate Easter. I don’t however. I generally don’t celebrate any of these public holidays since I’m a big anti church person (uh, does this make me new enemies now?)
My referral to being confused was to do with what you said “I thought Easter was in April”. Hope that clarifies this.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
@Monika – I am with you. I was only curious. I am always interested in various religions and holidays and such, even though I don’t celebrate them myself. I am strange like that.
Amy – Write From Home’s last blog post..Corporate Mentality: How Understanding It Can Help You
Well I came for the cake! Seriously, this is definitely one of the best blog communities around. I really appreciate the tips and plan to shamelessly steal every single one of them. It’s not often that I go to blog where I enjoy the readers as much as the blog posts!
Karen
Great post–you shared so much info there, you should charge for it!
But I’m glad that you didn’t. Great tips, much appreciated.
@ Amy: curiosity was eaten by the cat. Hehehe….but seriously, it’s great to be curios as learning new things helps us to grow. There is nothing strange about being you!
@ Karen: there you go *Monika has spent the last hour baking a yummy chocolate cake and hands Karen a slice*.
You hit the nail on the head there, this community truly rocks.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
Well, I’m not religious or anything, really, but I do have supper with my mum at Easter and go to church at Christmas. They beat those two holidays into you pretty hard when you’re raised Catholic.
That said, I’ll be on dialup this weekend (Harry: we have uber short loading times on dialup, you’ll be pleased to know) and my Imperial presence may be spotty.
@ Karen – If you came for cake, you must bring beer, too. It’s in the rules.
@ Kelley – We’re all for free. We eat lots of Kraft Dinner, but hey
@ Amy – Did you know Australians celebrate Christmas in the summer?
@ Monika – In today’s speedy world, anyone who takes the time to drop us a comment has gone out of their way and we appreciate that. We do like to make it easy for them, though
Happy Easter to those who celebrate it, Happy Weekend to those who don’t. Cheers!
Holy cow, James & Harry, hats off to you – this place is *the rockinest place on the net” (is “rockinest” a word?)
Go out for dinner with the inlaws and I’m lost. Bigger envelopes be damned James, I could have used an iPhone tonight (*winks at Amy*)
@ Monika – here’s a virtual flat white, just for you
and I’ll have another one to follow that, whenever you are ready!
@ Harry – peep show, classic – hey, I think I know the one on the left…
Easter. (*pagan alert*) If you aren’t religious and still want to celebrate something, celebrate the spring or vernal equinox as Ostara around this time of year – it is a fertility festival. Light bonfires, paint some eggs as a symbol, eat drink & be merry with friends, get drunk (if you drink) and jump over the fire.
Chocolate cake and beer (XXXX, of course for Monika) are welcome.
(Can you tell I like parties?)
@ Monika – I’ll bet that cake would go well with a flat white, here’s another one
@ James, I’m still hungry after my supper, got any Kraft Dinner left?
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
@ James: Easy peasy sounds like it’s cheesy. Uwahahahaha……..
@ Brett: I’ll have a go at jumping that fire. Damn, I just burned myself – oh well, I have a beer then. No – hold that, coffee sounds like the thing I need most to get my brain into action. Give it back, give me the beer back – NOW.
*she takes a big swig of the ice cold XXXX*
Did somebody say parties, I love ppppppparties, *hick*….ahem, is that you Brett? Uh ahem why do I suddenly see tttttwo of you? Oh my head is spinning madly. I have to lay down, this is too mmmmuch *hick* for me.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
@ Monika: nothing wrong with a beer in one hand, a coffee in the other – I’ve done it myself on occasion
if you burn yourself, just have another beer and all will be well (done that before too)
If you see two of me, it isn’t the beer, it’s a side effect of John Hoff’s cloning experiments above… sometimes I could use an extra “me”, one to go to work and do the boring stuff, and one to stay here, hang out with all of you folks, and get my other stuff done…
Whoa, pass me another beer, would you
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
@ Amy – Oh my. My whole family is looking at me oddly because I just started laughing…
You are… amazing. !!
@ Monika – Mmmm… any of that chocolate cake left?
@ Brett – Eh, who cares if it isn’t a word… it shall be known as one now!
@ Whoever – At the risk of making myself look like a complete idiot… anyone care to explain what the heck a flat white is?
Great post, but I think a lot of whether your blog has a great community like this or not also has to do with your readers. I try my hardest to do just about everything you listed, but I think part of it is that most of my readers are not the type who are online 24/7 and checking their feed readers all the time like most of us here are, plus, well, there’s not a whole heck of a lot to discuss about sushi!
Allison’s last blog post..Oh? Crudmonkeys.
@ Allison – that was totally amazing what Amy said, wasn’t it… I’m still laughing about it
And thanks for your support, that makes you the rockinest person around!
A flat white is “a coffee beverage served in Australia and New Zealand, prepared with espresso and milk”, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_white
Very tasty, if you like coffee.
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
@ Brett: that experiment sounds like fun. I could do with a clone myself and tell it to do all the spleeping for me so I have more time to come and hang out too.
Let me hang.
*passes Brett another one* enjoy mate.
@ Allison: you are kidding , right? And here I was thinking I was the only species of that kind left on earth.
You are however forgiven since flat white really is a term used mainly in Oz and NZ for a special coffee.
Definition of a flat white: A flat white is a strong, smooth espresso drink – less milky than a latte, and not as foamy as a cappuccino. The art to make it perfect lies in the crema which is when the oils of the coffee bean release themselves into the actual shot of espresso while pouring it.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
@ Monika: maybe John can share his secrets with both of us, we’d have more time to “let go” of the unimportant stuff and be with our friends here.
*mmmm* thanks for the beer, that’s great!
@ Allison: I like Monika’s description of a flat white better than mine, so go with hers
they are super good in any case
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
Yum, reminds me of cafe con leche which I drank by the vat when I was in Spain in the long ago. Nothing the coffee shops make here in the U.S. ever matches that memory, and certainly nothing I can brew up at home, though I try valiantly. Maybe it was the air…
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: Be Transparent, or, (One More Reason) Why I Heart Jeff Bezos
@ Brett: thanks for that. I might convince John to do a little coffee show once he gets his paper.
@ Kelly: cafe con leche….ah that evokes memories alright. It’s funny though, it is really hard to get a decent coffee in the USA. The best is probably Starbucks, at least they are drinkable. But go into any diner and the staff isn’t even good enough to water my house plants.
You can probably tell that I’m a real coffee connoisseur. And by the looks of it, Brett is too.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
How else to explain how he works full time, has sixteen children, and still posts comments like a man on fire? Clearly, coffee is mission-critical.
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: Be Transparent, or, (One More Reason) Why I Heart Jeff Bezos
@ Monika: hey, you’re a “real Aussie” and I’m just a “virtual Kiwi” so your description is bound to be better! The only flat whites I get these days are made by me (and pretty good, in my humble opinion – although I’m still working on the artwork in the crema). Yes, please do ask John to put on a little show for us!
@ Kelly: if there was a caffeine equivalent to crystal meth (“crystal caff”?), I’d be a “caff-head”… (I admitted that to Amy recently
) for my next trick, wait until my “real blog” is up and running – I’ll need one of John’s clones to help out, coffee or not!
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
@ Kelly: I know, where the heck does he take all that time from? I think he failed to tell us that he actually did develop a super clone in his bunker and now his clone is mixing in with the crowd here too.
Be assured though, whenever he makes reference of the real thing *coffee* it isn’t the clone.
@ Brett: Thanks for the flattery. I will actually film John making this cream trick when he does at work and then you guys can become lifelong slaves to Brett’s virtual coffee magic. Just a bummer you can’t drink it.
Monika Mundell’s last blog post..Let Go Of …!
We celebrate Easter in the Caribbean too, though not being particularly religious for me it’s just a welcome four day weekend.
@ Monika: ever try those thick bowls of chocolate in Spain. Another breakfast specialty with some little dough things called churros – and the chocolate is thick enough to stand your spoon in. Yum!
Sharon Hurley Hall’s last blog post..Adding Some Glue To Online Relationships
@ James: quick work on the name thing. Since you two never seem to sleep, you probably did it way before I noticed.
@ Allison – I have no idea why you’re worried about what people would discuss on your blog. Write about sushi, and your blog community will write about anything *but* sushi.
The name thing for posts is done – author will be at the top of posts now, so you all have to find Sharon a new game to play to make up for it.
@ Sharon – We sleep
But we made that change within seconds. What can be done now, should be. That way, I can procrastinate on more important things 
@ Monika and Kelly: you see, I’m actually a vampire… who happens to like coffee!
@ Monika: yes please, a video would be great, I can sometimes draw an apple or a heart, but I’ve seen people do some really neat stuff and I’d like to learn.
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
Brett,
In that case, if you didn’t drink coffee you’d exhaust the kids’ blood pretty fast, so I guess your wife is happy about the substitute.
Sharon,
Churros! I’m instantly in a little town called Elche, A grey day in March, 1985. OMG!
Allison,
In spite of these stats-chasers here at MWP, there is nothing wrong with a smaller band of readers who really get what you’re doing. Okay, I love my stats too, but if you’re really focused on your sushi-loving niche (fish niche… respectful giggle) then it’s just not going to have 50,000 readers per hour, or you’ll dilute your quality.
On the other hand, I think you can probably do a lot of lifestyle talk that does stay focused on the niche and come up with a pretty endless supply of things to talk about.
Supplies, reviews (you could even approach readers who live in other areas of the world to do national/international reviews as guest posts), 10 best cities in the world for sushi, I dunno… appropriate drinks, for sure (how to make the perfect tea, whick sake goes with what, martinis that make your sushi rock even harder)… do you have dessert sushi or any other takeoffs on tradition like that on the site? I didn’t see it… I’m just riffing here.
You have eye-candy down with the beautiful photogs, maybe just expanding how you define the blog a bit would give you a million new ideas and a hundred new subscribers, which in a smaller niche is nothing to sneeze at.
Also, think like your ideal reader… when they sit down to Yahoo! or Google, what do they type in? Make sure the ten to twenty phrases you suspect they search for appear in your posts at least a couple of times a week. (Not all of them, I mean one at a time… just keep up a steady stream of writing that makes use of phrases they’d be likely to be looking for, and slowly you’ll see readers wander in.)
/end riff
James,
Procrastination rocks (but Sagittarians and Capricorns get to call it “careful consideration”).
Hasta luego,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: Be Transparent, or, (One More Reason) Why I Heart Jeff Bezos
@ Kelly: yes, I’d better stick to the coffee then
although I think they are little vampires too, at least when we look at the costs for food, daycare, clothing etc. we are tempted to call them “bloodsucking dependents!” (cute ones, that is)
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
I think that’s what my ex calls me and my daughter. Thank goodness for the nice judge.
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: Be Transparent, or, (One More Reason) Why I Heart Jeff Bezos
@ Kelly: hmm, that’s not a nice thing to say when it’s not in fun… and you are right, thank goodness for a nice judge
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the road ahead.
@ Brett and Monika – Thanks for the explanations! Yeah, seriously… never heard of it!
@ Kelly – I think you misunderstand my point. I’m not worried about getting tons more readers to my fish niche (*giggle* that was a good one!), and I have soooo much to write about… just not enough time to write it all! Instead, I’m just wishing for a community like MWP has here. I know there are many reasons why I don’t… a lot of my visitors come from searches and don’t really stay long (I need to be stickier… like rice
), a lot of my loyal readers are super busy and don’t have time or necessarily a desire to hold a big conversation, and I’m sure it mostly has to do with how I approach it. I’m thinking maybe I just don’t have an open enough style of writing the posts and responding to the comments?
Allison’s last blog post..Oh? Crudmonkeys.
Allison,
I see what you mean but I do think that the ideas may still apply, but let’s rephrase from chasing readership to being “stickier.” When I am at epicurious or other online recipe sites it’s in and out once I’ve found a recipe that suits what I cam searching for. If you really only provide “what’s for dinner” type answers it is harder to form community around that.
I don’t mean it as a drive-by critique, that’s the Men’s job; I meant it to be helpful, looking with an outsider’s eye. It’s what I do, but here I’m just thinking out loud. (Feel free to ignore.)
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..What’s Hot Now: 39 Inspirations With Sticking Power
Kelly – I completely understand! I realize that a lot of your ideas would be super useful to my blog! There’s a whole heck of a lot I can do with it, and once I graduate and have the time to do more sushi research and stuff like that, I intend to expand the breadth of my blog.
If the MWP do drive-bys, maybe you are a… sniper?
Seriously though, I did find it helpful. Thank you so much!
Allison’s last blog post..Oh? Crudmonkeys.
Sniper. Hehehe. I was almost an honorary MWP once, but then the whole (Wo)Men thing got in the way. Maybe I could be a moll? Nah, as Groucho Marx said, I wouldn’t be a part of any club that would have me.
Like I said, I shoot this gun for a living. I just try not to aim it at innocent bystanders too often.
Keep up the fish-niche work!
Kelly’s last blog post..What’s Hot Now: 39 Inspirations With Sticking Power
@ Allison – Kelly is right. Have recipes only once or twice a week, and have other entertaining stuff, reviews, talks, questions answered the rest of the week. Go get the people who want more than recipes. Hell, you can even do Oriental decor days. What good is sushi without the ambiance? If you have a high bounce rate or if you have people who don’t stay long (in, get recipe, out) but you want a community, then you have to change your tactics and strategies to find the readers who want a community to.
Lead, and they shall follow.
Men with Pens – Where Even the Mafia Doesn’t Rock So Good.
Hey guys!!!First of all a many many thanks to you,as you guys have solved my problem……BUT now as I know well that you will SURELY help me out…..I have a question to you……How can I send you my further queries I mean ur email ID etc…..Bcs I am whole new to blogging world but I am very keen to know more n more abt this thing…….So plzzzz reply me soon
Till then take care,bbyeeeee
I learn more and more here.
thanks