More Thoughts on Building Your Audience

After a little Journals hiatus, Journals UI Designer Holly posts an entry following up on BlogHer 2006, which was a blogging conference this week by, for and about women bloggers.

She wanted to share some of her notes from a session topic you might be interested in, Building Your Blog Audience.

Now, even if you didn't read the Pew Internet report on bloggers a few weeks back (that I never got around to writing about, sorry), you might still agree with its findings -- that most bloggers are:

"...focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology."

But what about you bloggers who specifically want to get out to a wider audience?

Check out Holly's entry -- it consists of notes from Simply Recipes blogger Elisa Bauer's discussion on how to build your audience. It includes:

Tips on Content -- like have great content, avoid filler posts, and be excellent.
Build Community -- participate in others' blogs, through comments, tags and links
Visual Design -- use font sizes, colors and photo sizes that are easy to read.

Pretty good tips all around. I think that, especially for general interest bloggers -- people who are just talking about stuff going on in their lives, random observations, etc., -- building community is especially important.

It's not enough to say "I want more readers" -- unless you've got an unusual viewpoint, like you're a big cheese at a major company, well-written waiter dishing dirt or bouncer at a hot nightclub [language warnings, not to mention book deals, for the last two], how will you get people interested in what you've got to say? After all, there are a lot of personal blogs out there.

The trick to get someone interested in your blog is to get them interested in you. And that's not going to happen until they get to know you. And that's not going to happen until you get to know them.

It would be great if you could just start a blog and get showered with attention from strangers, leading to book deals and instant fame. But for most of us, that's not going to happen.

So, what you do is engage with other people; read their blogs, leave comments, and really talk to them (not, "Good entry, now visit my blog.").

Just my two cents on top of some good advice.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blogher, holly, getting more readers

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This entry has 11 comments: (Add your own)

#11 Comment from chidrake
8/23/06 5:43 PM | Permalink

I'M THE AUDIENCE AND I WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH! SWITCH PLACES WITH ME FOR JUST A FEW MINUTES AND DONT TIME ME BECAUSE IT IS A LIE THATWE ALL USE AT TIMES AND THIRTY MINUTES LATER WERE ASKING FOR JUST TWO MORE MINUTES. I THINK WRITING SHOULD FOCUS ONKEYWORDS AND HAVE THE ABILITY TO TRUST THE READER BECAUSE BY FOCUSING ON KEYWORDS WITH MORE DEPTH OF KNOWLEDE WITH PASSION AND EMOTION THAT HEIGHTENS THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE LEARNING PROCESS AND SHOWS US THAT YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO EMPHASIZE THE KEY WORDS WHICH ARE ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION AND TRUST IN US TO CHECK YOU OUT VERY THOROUGHLY. AT THIS POINT FAITH IS IN TOTAL OPPOSITION TO THAT LAST STATEMENT! I DONT BOTHER WITH MY SPELLING ON MY FIRST TRY BECAUSE IT'S JUST PRACTICE TO ELIMINATE ERROR AND SELF DECEPTION. AND REMOVE ALL UNNECESSARY WORD WHICH SHOWS I HAVE RESPECT FOR MY AUDIENCE. ONE MORE THING I AM JUST A FILLER !HOLLY I HAVE NARROWED MY LEARNING FIELD FOR A SPECIFIC REASON! TO BE A FILLER SO SOMEDAY I WILL BE OBSOLETE !THAT WILL NOT MAKE SENSE TO YOU !SO I ASK OF YOU TO TRUST ME AND SHOW ME THE MEANING OF BELIEF! TO ME FEAR AT TIMES SEES SENSE AS A NECESSITY , WELL AFTER ELEVEN YEARS WITHOUT IT BELIEF SHOWED ME THAT I CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT ITFOR MORE THANA DEFCADE.DONT ATTACK A MAN OF FAITH WHO ASK YOU TO WAIT FOR THINGS TO MAKE SENSE, BECAUSE ITS WHAT BELIEF MEANS AND HOW IT OVERCOMES FEAR. I ASK YOU NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE ME IN ANY WAY BECAUSE IT STOPS YOUR GROWTH AN INCREASES MINE!I AM A FILLER HOLLY COMBINED WITH GOD'S MERCY!
#10 Comment from dramachick45
8/5/06 11:41 PM | Permalink

Hey I am having major problems here with getting ppl to read I have no idea how to link or do anything I am totally lost help?
#9 Comment from monponsett
8/3/06 10:05 PM | Permalink

I was kind of hoping to strike a fire in you there, Joseph.
#8 Comment from bobandkate
8/3/06 5:03 PM | Permalink

Thanks for this Joe. I will follow the links up and read the advice.
Kate.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/bobandkate/AnAnalysisofLife/
#7 Comment from dpoem
8/3/06 11:59 AM | Permalink

Oh. Just use a picture of a cracked egg or a monkey with a crash-helmet, and you'll capture my "essence" pretty accurately.

-Dan

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More Thoughts on Building Your Audience