PB061: How to Build a Culture of Community on Your Blog

Note: you can listen to this episode above or load it up in iTunes. 7 Practical Strategies for Building Community With Your Blog Today's episode is about how to build relationships with the readers on your blog. Having a community around your blog gives your blog social proof and makes your blog more useful and satisfying to you and your readers. This is the second part of a two-part episode. Part one was an in depth look at why you should spend time and energy trying to build community. Today is all about practical strategies and tips for how to build community. In This Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). In today's episode: How to build a 'culture' of community How to map out what you want your blog community to look like How to write in a conversational voice instead of talking AT your readers 7 different ways to invite interaction from your readers How a dedicated community area or forum can help you build blog community How using interactive and accessible mediums like video and live streaming can build community How to use projects and challenges to give readers the chance to show off and to connect with each other How you can use real life events to strengthen your blog community 7 ways putting your readers in the spotlight can build blog community Further Reading and Resources for 7 Practical Strategies for Building Community With Your Blog Episode 60: Why You Should Make Building Community a Priority in Your Blogging Episode 5: Email One of Your Blog’s Readers [Day 5 Of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog] Episode 52: 10 Writing Tips to Help You Sound More Human Episode 19: Write an Opinion Post [Day 19 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog] One of the 7 day challenges on my wife's blog, Style and Shenanigan Photo a Day challenges on the Fat Mum Slim blog Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hi there and welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 61. My name is Darren Rowse and today, I want to talk about how to build community on your blog. In episode 60—the last episode—I talked about the benefits and some of the costs of building community on a blog, but today, I want to get a little bit more practical and give you seven practical strategies and tips on building community on your blog. You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/61. Today we’re talking about building community on your blog. As I said in the last episode, this is so important. It has the potential to really build your blog, to build social proof, and make it easier to find new readers for your blog, but also to make your blog more useful and satisfying for you. Before I get into today’s seven strategies and practical tips. I want to talk a little bit about some overarching tips that I think are really important to acknowledge before we get into the practical stuff. Firstly, what I’m talking about today is not just about getting reader engagement. I see a lot of people talking about reader engagement. I like the idea of engagement, but for me, that’s not ultimately what I’m aiming for. What I’m aiming for is a culture of community on my blog. For me, an engagement from a reader is more about getting a comment, more about getting a like, more about getting a share, or a vote in a poll. All of those things are good, but in my mind, they’re just stepping stones to a real community. Engagement’s great, but most successful bloggers that I’ve come across go beyond getting those moments of engagement to something deeper with their readers where their readers not only interact with them or engage with them. But their readers actually have a sense of belonging, a sense of ownership. When the reader almost embodies and lives out the valu...