Trolls

Have you ever had to deal with a troll or another troublesome blog visitor? In the real world, we are often advised to deal with bullies as well as small annoyances by just ignoring them and therefore taking away their power. This would seem to be particularly relevant online when a rogue commenter could lose interest quickly and never return. Even if they do stick around, what's the worst they can do.

Unfortunately, this has some drawbacks. In the real world, ignoring really isn't that great of an idea if it could escalate, and it could easily escalate online. In the worst case scenario, you could end up with a cyber stalker on your hands. Deleting or flagging the comment  might just give them ammo and cause the problem to quickly escalate.

In my opinion, the best solution is one I have not implemented, mostly because I haven't had the need to: a commenting policy. This way, if you do find yourself needing to delete a comment or block a user, you can direct them to the policy to show them why you are doing it. Consistency will weed out some of the problems and cooperative readers will follow the policy, which will get rid of problems that are only caused by misunderstandings.

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My Goal for Followers

When I first startd blogging, I figured it would be a good idea to set some goals, so that I would know how I was doing. Of course, at the time I didn't really know what realistic goals would be, so I waited until my blogs had been up for some time before making them.

Well, one of my goals was to have a total of 50 followers for my two blogs by the new year. Right now I'm at 31, so I think I have a chance at making it.

Admittedly, I haven't been doing my fair share of gaining followers by neglecting this blog for over a month, but I'll make a deal with you: help me find more followers and I will update my blog regularly. To show my committment to this goal, look for another post tomorrow.

So, to your part of the deal: how can you help me get followers? It's pretty easy, actually. If you read my blog, but do not follow it, go ahead and click the folow button. If you already follow me, then just spread the word about my blog. like it on StumbleUpon, recomend it to others, or just keep coming back for new blog posts to get my stats up and encourage me.

With your help readers, I can acheive my goal.

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Attracting Viewers

As blog writers, I assume many of us are also active blog readers. This is very beneficial as we can look at our blog posts from two perspectives, one of which is more objective than the other. If you are not following a considerable number of blogs right now, go do it! Starting with this one!

While getting your name out there is relatively easy (see my post on advertising for some ideas) getting people to read, and continue to read is different. I do not read every blog that show up in my news feed. Some just don't appeal to me.

The best way to get regular readers in my opinion is to first have a way for your readers to get to your blog, or even better, for them to see when it has been updated without going to your blog first. Since only the title and the first few sentences will probably be shown, it needs to be eye-catching. Include a photo as well. Finally, update regularlarly so that your readers will not forget you, reply to comments, and make sure your writing is worth reading. Also, consider a statistics meter. I recomend Google Analytics. This gives you a count of who is coming to your site, how they are getting there, even how much time they spend there and how many pages they view.

What makes you want to keep reading a blog?

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Personal Blogs

It seems that, despite criticism, personal blogs are the ones that do the best. They have the most subscribers, they are most likely to be on the Blogs of Note if they are a Blogger blog, and they get the most coverage. Why is that? Afterall, we're constantly told that no one wants to know what our day is like, we're not important enough. But I'm thinking, yes, we are important enough. And that's not being arrogant.

Look at it this way: as bloggers we are often told that the key to getting more readers and comments is to be personal. We should write our posts in first person and include an about me page saying who we  are, not just what the blog is about. I think this has to do with how blogs are seen. They have become a way for the average person to share his or her opinions. Readers also expect to be able to ask questions and have discussions with the author and get their questions answered. They have an easier time doing this if they can relate to the author and the author is seen as an actual person, not just a screenname.

So the moral of this story is, even if your blog is not a personal blog, find a way to connect with the readers. Offer assistance, come through with your promises, and share information about yourself while still keeping safety in mind.