Having Trouble Keeping Up With Your Favourite Blogs?

If you own and operate a blog of any kind and for any purpose, chances are you also love reading other people’s blogs. Along with being insightful and entertaining, reading blogs is also critically important for gaining inspiration and direction for your own blog.

 

Unfortunately, there never seems to be sufficient time in the average day to keep up with the blogs you love. Particularly when you find yourself coming across new blogs all the time which instantly make it to your must-read list.

So if there simply aren’t enough hours in the day, how can you ensure you successfully keep up with your favourite blogs?

1: Edit Your Reading List

Well, the first thing you need to do is revisit your e-mail and RSS subscriptions. Assuming you have a reading list that is growing all the time, it is inevitable that you are going to need to make room by eliminating any blogs you can live without. Be as brutal as necessary to get rid of those that are not quite up there with the rest.

2: Get an RSS Reader For Your Tablet/Smartphone

You might also want to think about grabbing yourself a decent app to help you keep up with your favourite blogs on the go. There are plenty of paid and free mobile apps available, which are designed to collect, manage and read RSS feeds on just about any mobile device

3: Turn Blogs Into eBooks

It might sound like a strange course of action to take, but converting the blogs you read into files that can then be ported to your e-reader can be surprisingly effective. Particularly if you tend to go long periods of time without catching up with your favourite blogs, only then to find yourself with more updated content then you know what to do with. And of course, reading from the screen of an e-reader can be so much easier on the eyes than reading from a smartphone or tablet PC.

4: Look for Podcasts

If you can get yourself into the kinds of blogs that also feature podcasts, you’ll find it so much easier to keep up with your favourite bloggers. Particularly if you spend a lot of time behind the wheel – podcasts are a great way of passing the time during short and long journeys alike, while at the same time accessing the information and insights you need.

5: Skip Irrelevant Posts

Last but not least, regardless of how insightful or entertaining your favourite bloggers may be, this doesn’t mean that each and every post they publish will be 100% relevant to you personally. In fact, they may publish quite a lot that’s of no value to you whatsoever. As such, it’s worth getting yourself out of the mindset whereby you cannot bear the thought of missing a single word they publish. If the headline and/or first sentence doesn’t appeal to you instantly, skip the post entirely and move on.

5 Ways to Encourage Blog Comments

 Consider this everyday scenario for a moment. You’re searching for information on a subject you’re interested in, and in doing so you check out a blog. The content is decent enough, but not a single person has bothered to share their thoughts, feedback or opinions in the comments section below.

Now, consider the same scenario, only in this instance, the comments section is alive with debate and discussion.

Which of the two would immediately hit home as the most prominent, appealing and authoritative post? Which of the blogs would you assume to be more popular and worth keeping an eye on?

Blog comments aren’t just about collecting feedback and suggestions from a target audience. They’re among the most important signs of engagement – they can even be a hugely powerful SEO ranking factor.

In which case, what can you do to encourage more blog comments? If you’re posting on a regular basis but seldom see anyone taking the time to join the discussion, how can you turn things around?

1. Target conversation-worthy content

For one thing, you could start by targeting the kind of conversation-worthy content that’s guaranteed to stir debate. This means keeping a close eye on current events that are relevant to your niche, and prioritising those your readers are most likely to feel strongly about. Don’t be afraid to stir a little controversy – anything that sparks debate is pure dynamite for engagement.

2. Start the conversation yourself

Not literally, but there’s no reason why you can’t ask your colleagues, your friends, your family members or even your employees to set the wheels in motion. It’s a simple case of getting the ‘snowball effect’ up and running, which can be as easy as manually starting their discussion. Just as long as the comments are valid, original and in some way meaningful, it doesn’t really matter who they come from.

3. Respond to comments

More importantly, still, you need to ensure that every comment you receive is responded to. Even if it’s as simple as a “couldn’t agree more, thanks for getting in touch!” or something similar, you need to show your audience that you are listening to and appreciating their feedback. If there’s scope for doing so, feel free to get as deep into the debate as you like and keep the ball rolling.

4. Make commenting on your posts easy

You also need to make it as easy as possible for people to leave comments on your posts. It should be as simple as entering text in the box below and hitting the bottom. No need to submit personal details, no requirement to open an account and no lengthy verification checks to go through. Comments are almost always left on the spur of the moment – make it quick and easy to comment or they simply will not bother.

5. Don’t forget the CTA

Lastly, slipping a gentle reminder into the mix can make all the difference. If you want people to comment on your posts, tell them. Don’t just give them the opportunity to comment – make use of calls to action and invite them to join the conversation. And don’t forget to express your appreciation, making sure they know their thoughts and opinions are important to you.