Driving traffic to your blog and making those people to read your content is one side of the story. That is a BIG side of the story, indeed!
Traffic generation is one of the all-time challenging tasks to any blogger/internet marketer – just like losing weight lol.
Anyway, even if you manage to drive traffic (I mean lots of traffic) to your website/blog, it is not an easy thing to retain that traffic.
You not only need new visitors for your blog, but repeat visitors or loyal visitors.
Both new visitors and loyal visitors are equally important.
And if you manage to convert every new visitor into a loyal buyer (and hence a potential lead and then a customer) how would you feel?
In my honest opinion, one of the most vital keys to building a successful online business through your blog is to convert every new visitor to a loyal visitor by building real relationships.
I will share 3 simple yet sneaky things I do on my blog that are well received by my blog readers. I get a lot of appreciation mails each day by the new visitors about the ways I use to connect with them.
Everyone seems to like it. And I’m being constantly asked what plugin/code I use to do those.
So instead of writing repeated emails, I thought that I could put up a post so that I can refer my readers to this post when asked about the same.
Moreover, it is not a secret. I want all bloggers to make use of the methods I’m using.
I have a “Thank You for commenting” page. Whenever someone comments on my blog for the very first time, I redirect those first time commenters to that page.
You can take a look at that page here – http://www.probloggingsuccess.com/thank-you-for-commenting/
As you can see, there are a few factors in that page that need to be noticed.
(i) First of all I thank the first time commenters, and appreciate them for not being a silent reader. Honestly, that’s a great thing indeed. Not everyone who visits my blog leaves a comment!
(ii) Second, I highlight the perk they get from commenting on my blog – I highlight that I use premium commentluv plugin on my blog and that they get do-follow keyword-anchored backlinks.
(iii) I invite them to join my mailing list so that I can stay in touch with them even after they leave my blog.
(iv) I then softly introduce three things – (a) the page where I list all the internet marketing tools I use (many readers of my blog repeatedly ask me about this) (b) my ebooks and (c) my free e-course.
(v) I then provide links to popular blog posts so that they can do some more useful reading before they leave.
I use the Comment Redirect plugin by Yoast to redirect first time commenters to the above mentioned “Thank You” page.
Send A “Thank You” Email For First Time Commenters
Whenever someone comments on my blog for the very first time, I send them an automated email, thanking them.
Of course, I won’t be able to do this manually when each time a new commenter stops by and leaves a comment on my blog.
Two plugins I know are having this little cool feature available. (i) Maxblogpress Subscribers Magnet and (ii) Immediate List Building Pro.
I prefer using Immediate List Building Pro since it bundles many cool features into one!
Read my detailed review of Immediate List Building Pro here.
Whatever plugin you use, make sure you keep your email short and to the point.
At the same time don’t forget to extend an invitation to join your email list. Here’s how my email to first time commenters look:
Subject: I appreciate your comment
Body:
Hi {Commentator’s name},
I thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and posting a comment. I genuinely appreciate comments like yours on my blog and I hope you will stick with me 🙂
If you liked my content and want to read more, I highly recommend you to subscribe to my newsletter. Not just that, you will get 2 free ebooks to help you start your journey as a blogger. Visit the following link to subscribe:
http://www.probloggingsuccess.com/free-ebook-time-management/
Let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing you around the blogosphere.
Take care!
Jane Sheeba
http://www.probloggingsuccess.com
This little email gives me another chance to connect with my blog’s visitors/commenters even after they leave my blog.
But I don’t do it annoyingly – I don’t contact them more than once and I don’t write pages of email!
First things first. Interaction in social media doesn’t mean posting your blog’s links!
By interaction, I mean REAL interaction. Of course, you cannot be spending a big chunk of your time on interacting with people on social media, since we all know that social media is a big distraction and a time killer.
However, we must also face the fact that social media is one of the top places where your crowd gathers. So you ought to be there.
While it is true that you should login to your social sites to post your blog’s links, you may not expect “conversions” or think about building REAL relationship with your readers/followers if you merely post links (I mean your own links).
I find it great when I participate in informal conversations in social media. To me, Facebook works great. For you, it could be something else.
But the point is: Building relationships.
You could do it in various ways – participate in informal and off-marketing discussions, share funny/entertaining stuff, participate in discussions where people are seeking solutions to a problem (if you could help), find out whoever is liking and sharing your stuff and give them some love back and so on.
The possibilities are actually endless.
By being a casual person (and not merely an internet marketer who dies to promote his/her blog), I get attention quite easily.
When I share my blog’s links, they are well received!
But make no mistake. I don’t “pretend” to be a casual person and this is not a marketing tactic. I am like that and fortunately that works for my business as well.
Here you go – 3 cool ways to connect with your readers. These 3 ways are my favorites and they always work!
And, as you can see the first two tips are actual “set up once and forget” kinda stuff, which is very cool. You don’t have to put in a lot of energy to keep up.
So what are you waiting for? Don’t just read this post and leave. Take action and see the results for yourself.
I’d appreciate if you could do a bit of social sharing if you liked this post (I’m sure you liked it ;)). Thank you.
Let’s talk in the comments.
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