What do you do when someone leaves a comment on your blog for the first time? Do you send them a quick reply comment? Do you email them? Do you reward or acknowledge them in some way, shape or form? For example, I use the Top Commentators Plugin to hi-light regular readers/commentators here on the blog (it’s on the sidebar).
Making a good first impression…
When someone takes the time to comment on your blog, they’re effectively saying you matter, this post matters, thank you for inspiring some thought. They’ve taken the time to comment when they really didn’t have to. The least you could do is take the time to acknowledge them by posting a reply comment (to say thank you or engage in a discussion) or better yet, send them an email to acknowledge them, welcome them and thank them for taking the time.
I’ve done this before using a tool called Eyejot and the Eyejot this Bookmarklet! Basically, it allows me to send a quick personalized video email to someone and using the bookmarklet, it allows me to play the video and share a site with the recipient. Here’s a quick video I created to show you how this works: (please excuse the disconnect with the video/audio)
What effect did this have on my readership/commentators? I noticed that it dramatically increased the likelihood of my readers coming back to the blog to comment on a regular basis (or better yet, stay subscribed). For the most part, people who received a video email were pleasantly surprised that I took the time to do so. A select few even joined Eyejot just to send me a video back.
The Lesson: If you genuinely engage your readers, you increase the likelihood that they’ll subscribe (and stay subscribed) to your content. Doing something as simple as responding to comments and reaching out to say “Thank You” goes a long way! So, that leads us to today’s task in the 31 Day Blog Challenge…
Today’s Task:
Look at your recent blog comments and spend some time emailing them. Thank them for taking the time to comment but be sure to include a link to the original post so that they remember what you’re referring to. Close with an invitation to subscribe to the blog (via email or rss) if they haven’t done so already.
Now yes, there are some tools/plugins that do this for you, but the more personal you make this interaction, the better!
Make this a part of your daily routine…
Get in the habit of:
- Responding to comments (quickly),
- Emailing your readers every now and then to thank them for leaving a comment for the first time and welcome them to the blog (the more you do this with new readers/commentators, the better).
Don’t have any comments yet?
Some of you might not have very many comments just yet and that’s ok. Your task for today is to visit other blogs (both inside and outside of your niche). I’d target (at least) 10 of them. Spend some time reading through their post and then, leave a few genuine, insightful comments with a link back to your blog. The more helpful and sincere your comments, the greater the likelihood that they’ll drive some traffic back to your blog.
When you’re done, report back with your results. Did you send folks a personal email? Did you reply to all of the recent comments on your blog? How’d you do?
So, do you email your blog readers?
Do you make it a point to reply to all of your comments? What’s more, do you take things a step further by emailing your blog readers or do you think that’s too much? I’d love to hear your thoughts. So as always, the comments are yours… 🙂
