Do You Have a Community of Readers on Your Blog?

Community of Readers

I’m here to convince you of the importance of creating a community around your blog. I will not show you theories, tips or tricks. I will show you clear examples of the benefits of having a community of readers on your blog.

Maybe you’ve read a few posts on how to create a community. We already know that the posts must be written in the first person, telling personal stories, trying to get the reader to identify with you and finally leaving the field open for participation and debate.

This is what we call engagement. But I do not bring theories, tips or tricks. I bring figures.

So do you have a community of readers on your blog?

Do you know how to recognize if a blogger has created a community around a blog?

When you write a post, you run to Twitter to post your link on the same day to multiply your regular readers. That is because you have a community.
When you spend some time doing things other than writing posts, your followers start to ask you when you will publish your next post. That is because you have a community.
Every time you publish a post, you get 40, 60 or 100 comments. That is because you have a community.
When you recommend a product, or when you recommend a reading support for a cause, tens or hundreds of people respond. That is because you have a community.

This is what you can get if you create a community of readers on your blog. Publishing your post will be read by hundreds of people on the same day that it goes out.

The next step is to get an influential community, which in turn will promote your content. This is the seed for your content to go viral. If not, at least you will increase your own community, which is called word of mouth in the offline world.

There is another way to get your content spread. This is the position of your posts on Google searches. They say that 70% of Internet traffic moves from the searches at various engines. But believe me the remaining 30% is already a lot.

What are the advantages of creating a community vs using SEO for better ranking positions?

This depends only on yourself. Connect with your readers for social networking, subscriptions to your blog or any other direct method. There are no middlemen and you decide when you communicate with them. If your readers land on your site because Google sends them, that’s an added benefit.

Fidelity = good recurrence. Your readers are faithful, know you and love to read what you write. This fidelity is a guarantee that today’s readers are tomorrow’s readers. The scope of your publications is repeatable and predictable.
Trust = good engagement. The power of persuasion of a blogger, is not even close in the dreams of the best SEO consultants. One of the best ways to monetize a blog that has a community is by selling services such as training or consultancy. Also, what works well is recommending third party products or services. Yes, your community trusts you and you must maintain that trust, so only recommend products that you would buy yourself.
Popularity = BlogStar. Your readers know you, leave comments and follow you on social networks. They would be happy to meet you, and you will be invited for lectures and presentations. This popularity will give you business fortune and networking opportunities, etc.
Promotional campaigns = brand magnet. Having a community on your blog will make it become an object of desire where brands will want to launch their campaigns. Review a product, promote events and run contests or sweepstakes. Such collaborations with brands are highly valued by brands because they allow measurement of short-term results.

You see, creating a community of readers has some benefits that you will not get using any other diffusion technique. Try not to forget the SEO, search engines and links from authority sites.

But what is more important is that you design your strategies and tactics around your community. Then measure your results. Look at what worked and what did not work-and you can make changes to your goals and marketing campaigns accordingly.

Albert Palacci is a contributor to his personal blog – https://albertpalacci.com. He is a passionate about digital marketing. He also regularly writes for other blogs on topics about marketing. You can find more about him or follow him on his Google+ profile.

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