10 Tips on how to engage your readers

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    Blogging is not just about write, publish, promote and forget. Blogging is all about creating a community and to make your blog a place where people like to come back again and again. How can you measure which community is the best? Off course the community where people are active.

You may have read a lot of posts about how to get traffic and now you know quite well how to bring some visitors to your blog but in the end of the day, all of them turn over and go back. Don’t check your blog’s statistics about how much traffic you are getting. Focus on how many people are staying on your blog for a long time.
If generating traffic is the first step, engaging your readers would be the second step to build up a great blog and to make the best from your hard earned articles.
Now here are some steps which will guide you to engage your readers on your blog,
1. Write great articles
Off course the content is the king. No one will last in your blog for longer if there are no interesting articles to read. One of the greatest articles that attract readers is the articles which inspire someone to do something. If you write an article which guides someone to do something, then your readers will be interested and will do that. Lots of articles about ‘How to’ are one of the top favorite choice of many internet users.
You can also engage a reader by inspiring him or motivate him to do something great with inspiring articles. Your readers will be highly attracted to your blog when you will present lots of articles on your own experiences.
2. Killer headlines
The word ‘Killer’ -itself is also a killer word to attract anyone. I learned this trick that, if you write a great headline, you will get the more chance of getting noticed by your readers. Killer headlines works also with social Medias to get more buzz. Write a great headline of your article which is more attractive and also tells about your post.
Its better to write a long article title (10-12 words) and to add some of the keywords on the title. Like I added the keywords, How to, engage, readers, connected and blog on this article. This will help me get better ranks in search engines.

3. Showcase the best you got
Its easy to bring someone to your blog but don’t let him get away. Showcase your best articles on your blog so that the visitor can also check other articles too. Another great addition is to create a page with your ‘popular articles‘ -just like you see on my blog. Add some ‘categories’ which will help your reader to browse your blog. Add uncommon and attractive categories like I used ‘Money making‘ -instead of ‘make money’; ‘Organic traffic‘ -instead of what everyone uses, ‘SEO.’ With all of the great articles, your reader will stay on your blog and come back again.

4. Offer RSS feeds and more ways
Offer RSS feed of your blog and place the RSS feed icon on the top of your blog. Add an option to get updates via email. You can also use other options of feed for your readers. I have offered comment feed, my twitter feed and friend feed along with regular RSS feeds. Giving more options will help your readers to get connected. Transforming your visitor into your daily RSS reader is better for the long run.


5. Show off your readers
Show off your readers on your blog which will give you more creditability. You can use a Mybloglog widget to show off your recent readers. This will make your visitors feel that he is not alone in this site and other people read it too.
Show off your RSS feed counter that lots of people like to read your blog and you should subscribe too. Blogger allows you to add a follower’s widget. Add it to your blog if you have a good number of followers.
6. Make it easy to connect with you
You have to reveal yourself if you want to develop a successful blog. Reveal yourself and make it easy to contact with you. Show off your social profiles on your blog which will help your readers to connect with you. If your readers communicate with you, they will come back to your site regularly and you can make a long term readership.
Show off your social buttons which will attract more people to connect with you just like you see on BlogKori.
7. Comments and chat
Make it easy to leave a comment and ask your readers to leave a reply. If someone leaves a comment, thank him for the comment and build up discussions. Comments can boost up when you will reply to your readers. People will come back again and again to read the follow up comments. You can also add a chat widget on your blog to engage your readers with your blog. You can also show off a recent comments widget to attract more comments on your blog. You can easily add a recent comment widget. Add a new RSS feed item on your blog and add this address, http://yourblog.com/feeds/comments/default

8. Ending lines
Don’t complete your article with every possible information’s. Use a good ending line which will engage your readers. Ask questions and ask them to leave a reply. Ask them to describe their own opinion in the comments and to complete the article. You can also use it as a reminder to them to promote it. You can learn it by taking a look at my article ending lines.
9. Keep it going on
When you will provide a great quality article, you readers will be interested in your blog and will keep coming for new ones. Don’t make your readers wait for longer and write new articles regularly. Keep up new ideas coming and create another great article. Don’t rush, take your time to create a better article. When you will write a great article and readers are enjoying it, leave it for a while in the front page. You can use your popular article’s idea to extend it by making a sequel of it or creating a series with more great informations the article.
10. Don’t forget to promote
Once you gave the best article, don’t forget to promote it with different methods online. The best time to promote the article is within the next hour. Use social Medias like digg, stumble upon, yahoo buzz and other methods to promote. Tell your friends to have a look and ask them to help you too. Use a ping service to notify search engines. Email your friends about your latest article and ask them for a social vote. But please do it and only with your best articles, not every post!
How do you engage your readers?
There may be lots of ways to attract people and to keep him for longer in your blog. What do you do for engaging readers? Please tell me a little about your blog. Please leave a reply.