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This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:
See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project
Previous article: Care passionately about your readers
BLOGTASTIC!: Set aside time for your blog fans
When you give a public speech, people will come up to you at the end of the talk. They will ask you questions, clarify things, and share their personal experiences. It takes time to interact with your fans.
In the blogging world, each post invites feedback from your fans. If you write quality blog posts, you’ll find comments appearing on your blog and in your inbox. That’s a great reason to celebrate. It means that people took enough interest in your post that they want to continue the conversation. You should be happy that they went out of the way to take time to comment on your stuff.
However, your fans will expect you to interact with them. Your blog must be more than just a broadcasting station for one-way communication. A blog is place for mutual and group conversations. If you have attracted quality readers, you will learn from your fans’ comments—perhaps even more than they will learn from you.
If you want to attract and retain quality readers, then you should set aside some extra time for your fans. If you spend fifty minutes per week writing posts, then make it sixty and set aside ten minutes for replies. If you spend five hours per week on your blog, then you should set aside an additional hour for replies and conversation with your fans.
Note: Of course everyone understands that you have other things to do and you cannot attend to every single comment and respond to every single email. Make the rules clear as to how and for what you will respond. People understand that you don’t have unlimited time and resources.
Blogging Tip: Time buffers are important
In life or on your blog, your projects will rarely unfold the way they were planned. If you don’t keep enough buffers for unforeseen circumstances, your life and the lives of those that are close to you will be filled with stress.
Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow