7 Ways to Build a Community Around Your Blog

This post is based on Episode 61 of the ProBlogger podcast.

I talked about it last week Building a community around your blogand how it can benefit you as much as it does your readers. Well, this week I’m going to share with you seven practical tips and strategies on how to build this community.

But before I do that, I need to clear up a few things.

First, what I’m talking about today is more than just commitment. Do not get me wrong. I still think you need engagement on your blog. But in the end I’m after more than just comments, likes, shares and votes. I want to give my readers a sense of belonging and personal responsibility and enable them to practically embody the values ​​of the blog and to live together.

Second, you can’t just set up your community and then view it remotely. You have to be part of it. In fact, I’d go so far as to say you have to Be the community you want to have. You need to be there from the start to shape your community and define its values, tone, and what is acceptable and what is not.

Besides, if you don’t want to be part of your own community, why should anyone else?

Okay, now let’s look at what you can do to start building your community.

1. Write with a spoken voice

It is important to write in an engaging manner. I always try to write the way I speak, and I think the most successful bloggers do the same. Often my best post starts with writing to a reader in an email or answering a question in a very chatty tone.

I also try to tell as many stories as possible, even if it’s just a few sentences. It makes your writing appear more personal and you more relatable.

When your readers feel like they are talking to them, they are much more likely to want to interact with you.

2. Invite you to interact

Many bloggers fall into the trap of talking at the their readers rather than With You. But the art of conversation is just as much as the interested how it’s about being interesteding. Good conversation partners ask questions. You take a break to let others speak and listen to what they are saying.

So I think it’s really important to ask questions on your blog, invite people to interact with you …

… And then stop and let her talk.

The most obvious way to do this is to ask your readers for a comment. Invite them to share their opinion, story, experience, or their own tips. Or, you can just ask them if they think you are right or wrong.

And when you do Invite your readers to provide comments and lead them with a more specific question than just “What do you think?” or “Please leave a comment”. Give them some alternatives, or maybe some examples, to help them make that first comment.

You can also encourage your readers to interact by giving them a challenge or taking a poll and asking them to vote on something.

3. Set up (or from) your own community area on your blog

While your readers can comment on your posts (and each other’s comments), there are better ways to build a community around your blog.

Forums are an option. They’re a bit old-fashioned, but some readers really love them. Not only can you help build a community, but you can also increase reader engagement, generate user-generated content, and increase page views.

But you also have some challenges. They can be difficult to set up technically, they need moderation, and you need a critical mass (i.e. hundreds of people) for them to be effective.

To get around the technical problems, you can use a Facebook or LinkedIn group instead of setting up a forum on your own website. Remember, however, that you need to stick to the rules, which makes moderation even more important.

4. Use interactive and accessible media

Try to be a little more interactive, approachable, and transparent to encourage people to join your community. An easy way to do this is to post some pictures of yourself when you blog. It may sound a bit strange, but I’ve seen a number of cases where bloggers have started posting pictures of themselves and completely changed the dynamic on their blog.

Another option is to post a video. It doesn’t have to be spectacular. The first video I made for ProBlogger was a simple head-to-head video where I stood in front of a camera talking about blogging. I don’t even remember what the blog post was about.

But I do Remember, the comments come in.

That day I received comments from people who had read the blog for years but had never commented before. This video really touched people on a deeper level and made the content more personal. They saw my face and my body language. They heard my accent and my expression. And it opened up conversations in ways I never expected.

It takes courage to stand in front of a camera and talk. But I encourage you to try. Of course, we can all do live video these days, which takes even more courage. But it’s also more interactive, which can make it even more appealing to your audience.

5. Do a project or challenge on your blog

I am often asked what the turning point was for ProBlogger in terms of readership. And while there were a few, the first one was when I ran this 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Every day I would ask my readers to do a blog-related task and then come back and share what they had learned.

I had no idea what was going to happen. But it turned out to be an amazing event that built a community in ways I never expected.

Of course, there are many other ways you can challenge your readers. My wife Vanessa made a style challenge where she nominated a different color or pattern for people every day for seven days. She then asked her readers to take a photo of themselves wearing that particular color / pattern and post it on Instagram.

Try to find your own challenge. However, I recommend starting with 7 days instead of 31. It is a lot of work to complete a 31-day challenge. But a 7-day appointment is achievable and won’t overwhelm your readers either.

6. Try to have real-world interactions with your readers

One of the most powerful things you can do to build a community with your readers is to meet them face to face. Yes, the meeting as a group is a logistical nightmare at the moment thanks to COVID-19. But it’s amazing to get together with a handful of your readers.

I did this in a pretty simple way. My first attempt was a meeting in Melbourne where I just tweeted, “If someone wants to meet up for a coffee or a drink, please let me know.” About half a dozen people answered, and we all met at a bar for a drink. It was a bit awkward and a bit strange, but I found out who was reading my blog and it started to deepen relationships with some of these local readers.

Another option is to attend other people’s meetups and events. I have attended conferences in Australia and internationally. And when I did, I would tweet my readers (and sometimes post on my blog), “I’m going to be in this city at this conference and I’d like to meet you.”

You have to make sure that no event is in competition with another conference. You don’t want to kidnap it. But many conferences don’t mind you doing this as long as it is at a time that doesn’t collide with something they’re doing.

Of course, you can take things to the next level by running your own events. Our first ProBlogger event was relatively small. 120 to 130 people came to us in Melbourne. But the numbers grew rapidly and in a year we had 714 bloggers from Australia, New Zealand, various parts of Asia, the Middle East and the US.

Running these events has immersed the community on and around our blog in ways I could never have imagined. It could never have happened to the same extent through social media or any other tool.

7. Put your readers in the spotlight

Back in 2006, I wrote a very short post about ProBlogger encouraging bloggers to make their readers famous. It was kind of a throwaway idea at the time and not something I really thought too much about.

But since I wrote this post I have tried to do this on both of my blogs.

The idea is pretty simple: put your readers at the center of your blog. Most bloggers move into the spotlight. But if you put the reader in the spotlight and make them famous for a few minutes, your readers will really take note of you and your blogs.

One way is to turn a reader’s comment into a blog post. Sometimes a reader makes a really insightful comment on your blog. They can tell a story, give you an observation, or give you a great tip. Unfortunately, few of your readers will actually see it.

However, if you convert this comment into a blog post, the comment will have a far greater impact. And it will show your readers that you really value their comments.

You can also post on a readers blog and encourage your other readers to take a look at what they have written. Or, you give your readers a chance to apply in some way. From time to time, I invite my readers in my Facebook group to share their Facebook pages or blog, or to show a blog post that they have written in the past.

Another way to put your readers in the spotlight is to invite them to guest blog posts.

How are you going to start building? Your Community?

Hope you found these tips on building a community around your blog helpful. But there is a lot more you can do. The key is to be the community you want to be. You need to build your readers, serve them, pay them attention, make them feel noticed, and do everything possible to make them feel part of them.

Yes, it will take time and effort. But you will reap the rewards many times over in the years to come.

How are you going to start building your community? Let us know in the comments.

Photo by Levi Guzman on Unsplash