Be A Proactive Blogger, Not A Stick In The Mud (Day 2-31 Kick Butt)

Written by Grant Griffiths in Kick Your Blog In The Butt

75945100jaJsPz_fs.jpg 1536×2048 pixels.jpg Today your task in the 31-Days to Kick Your Blog in the Butt series we are running here at Blog For Profit is to be a proactive blogger and not a stick in the mud. In other words, get off your butt and kick your blog in the butt along the way.

Today’s Lesson:

Sitting around and complaining you are not getting traffic, readers and subscribers is usually a waste of your time. Complaining about it is going to do you absolutely no good what-so-ever. In fact, if you sit around and wait for it to happen, guess what, it’s not going to happen.

Be Proactive

And this is not rocket science either. When ever I visit with clients or anyone about blogging, I like to use one of my favorite ways of explaining how they can be proactive. But before that, I want you to ask yourself if you are doing those activities you need to do which will make your blog successful. Are you out there in the blog world being active?

Here is what you need to be doing, F.L.E.E.

Find the conversations
Listen to the conversations
Engage in the conversations
Enpower or Enable your readers to get involved in the conversation too

Successful blogging is really a process and using F.L.E.E. gives you a set of directions you can follow in that process. A road map in a sense. One of the keys to having a successful blog is to get you and your blog noticed. And one of the ways to get noticed is to participate in the conversations taking place in your particular niche or market. The conversation is more then just what is being said on your own blog. You need to get out there and engage in the conversations everywhere.

How do we do that? By implementing F.L.E.E.

Find the conversations taking place in your niche, target market or area of business. How, start with Google. And use Google’s blog search too. Are you on twitter? Use Twitter’s search tool to find conversations taking place on twitter.
Listen to the conversations taking place that you just found. Use RSS to subscribe to blogs. Or subscribe via email. Follow conversations on twitter by using your favorite twitter desktop client. Read those blogs you are subscribing to also.
Engage in the conversations taking place out there in the blogging world and twitterverse. This is where you have to get off your butt and do something. You should be reading blogs and you should be commenting on a minimum of 4 or 5 blogs a week. Leave a comment that adds something to the conversation. Engage in the conversation happening on twitter too. And I know this next one is going to shock you, post on your blog. You should be adding to the conversations taking place on other blogs and on twitter by engaging in those conversations by posting your own thoughts and input on your blog.
Empower or Encourage your readers to do the same. Make it easy for them to comment and ask them to leave comments.

We are going to touch on each of the elements in F.L.E.E individually during 31-Days to Kick Your Blog in the Butt. In the meantime, leave your comments here on other ideas you might have on how you can be a proactive blogger.

Homework for Today

I am going to make this one easy for you. While I would like to tell you to do all of those things I just discussed above. I only want you to do number one, Find the conversations taking place. However, don’t let me hold you back. If you want to do all of the activities I suggest in F.L.E.E, please do.

October 2, 2009

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About The Author

Grant Griffiths is founder of Blog For Profit and co-founder of Headway, a premium WordPress Theme/Framework. You can follow Grant on twitter at @grantgriffiths

Christine Livingston

Hey Grant!

I enjoyed yesterday, have leapt back here on day two for more butt kicking and haven't been disappointed ;)

I'd like to go off now to the Twitter Search tool, but can't seem to get the link from your site to work. Are you using www.searchtwitter.com and/or do you know of a better tool?

Grant Griffiths

Link fixed and yes it is http://search.twitter.com/ Thanks for heads up on the link problem.

Mrs Green

Great second day post - thank you! I can say, from experience, that going to other people's blogs and contributing intelligent and useful comments to the article is undoubtedly one of the best ways to increase your traffic.

Don't get spammy; everyone can see through those sorts of comments, but by acknowledging something great about the post and sharing your own experiences, which in turn can help their readers, you start to pay it forward and people will come to your site to see what you are about.

I'm definitely going to go back to step one, however, as it is easy to get stuck into a rut of visiting the same blogs over and over. There is always some fresh content out there waiting to be discovered.

So off I go into cyber land to dig up a new treasure!

Christopher G. Hill

Thanks Grant! I'll be "FLEE" ig over to Twitter to check out some of the latest threads.

Jay S. Fleischman

So many legal bloggers don't turn their comments on, and it drives me NUTS. If you're blogging, you're doing it to spark conversation and encourage people to think about what you've got to say. If your comments are turned off then you're not blogging - you're publishing a newsletter. And that limits the interaction with the people who are reading your blog, defeating the purpose entirely.

Funny, there are some people holding themselves out as marketers and thought leaders who do not accept comments on their blogs. No excuse. Major FAIL.

LoneWolf

I've seen at least one big league blogger who doesn't have comments turned on. He encourages the use of Twitter to respond.

I don't agree with that since not everyone uses Twitter. Some like FriendFeed or Facebook. Some just like using comments on a blog -- keeps it right there with the relevant post.

Another thing that I don't like is forcing people to sign up to leave a comment. Just too much work to have 1,000's of logins and passwords and people just move on -- I know that I do.

Grant Griffiths

You must have read my mind. We talk about barriers to commenting in a day or so. And, not having comments on. What can I say. In my opinion, if you don't allow comments you are not blogging and having a one way conversation with yourself.

Steve Kennedy

It's amazing where you can find conversations. Thanks for the tip on using Google's Blog Search.

Christopher G. Hill

I very much agree Jay. I learn something new with each comment and it only helps with the interaction and fun of blogging.

Mark Hill

I've recently joined Friend feed group i.e profoodchat, that started as a twitter group, so that we could consolidate related messages.

Are you going to be discussing these types of conversations?

Grant Griffiths

I wish we could discuss all the ways to connect and have conversations. But, there is only so much time. Thanks for the suggesting however.

Melissa Karnaze

F.L.E.E. is a great way to remember the proactive steps to increase your traffic.

But, I hesitate to be in this F.L.E.E. mode all the time, because I've found the key's in balance. (Maybe you'll be covering this is later days.)

As in, the give and take. The going out there and reading other people's words -- more active step, and the staying in here and drawing from your own ideas -- more passive step. And putting the two together in a natural way. I've found that going to one extreme or the other misses out on something important.

Grant Griffiths

I agree completely. Balance is very important. But as Susan just said, don't spend all your time on your own "front porch". Thanks for your insight.

Susan Cartier Liebel

Well, you know I am a big fan of F.L.E.E. because half the benefit of blogging is participation not just on your own blog but others. I spend 50% of my time out in the ether talking, not just sitting on my own front porch waiting for others to stop by :-)

Grant Griffiths

"Front porch" I love that. May have to use that sometime.

Joe Hafner

I like Google Alerts to find conversations - you can set up a search and then receive an email digest of all new posts on that topic. For example, I receive a daily email with new posts that include both "real estate" and "social media". Then I can do a quick scan to find the blogs that are actually in my niche.

Grant Griffiths

I love Google alerts. I get some every day and not only follow keywords, but my company name and my own name.

Julie W.

I've learned to love Google Alerts, not only for connecting with other bloggers I enjoy conversing with, but also to get some of the latest topics in a certain area which helps spark new blog ideas.

Julia

Joe
Google alerts is a great idea. i am new to blogging and feel like I spend alot of time looking for blogs to comment on. Google alerts could make that process much quicker.

Grant
do you have suggestions on how to get a conversation going on twitter. I have not had much luck. any suggestions.

Grant Griffiths

Julia- Just keep providing value and information on twitter and the conversations will happen. And make sure to join in on other conversations taking place on twitter. You don't have to start them for the conversation to be engaging and a good one.

Stephanie

I use Google Alerts and love it as well. I have all of the major keywords for my niche and keywords for my store as well. Great tool

Paul Rebein

I read a few blogs, but never comment on them. Is there a tasteful way to include your blog address in your comments? Or, should you link to a post on your blog? Help!!

Paul

Grant Griffiths

Most if not all blogs have a place for you to actually put your URL in the comment. You will notice a line for your "website URL" in our commenting field. Put it there. You have to be careful putting it in the body of your post as some spam filters will spam your comment if there are internal links i the comments.

LoneWolf

I find that I struggle with a "feast or famine" mentality when it comes to this. I will get so consumed with reading other blogs, twitter, facebook that I don't have the time to get back to my blogs themselves.

Other times I get so involved in the blogs or other projects I'm working on that I drop the conversations.

Thanks for a good KIB to find the proper balance.

LoneWolf

Oops! That was meant to be KITB.

Lance Godard

Grant, this is very helpful. Your guidelines for "Engage" expose a weakness in my strategy. Note to self: set objectives for SocMed engagement that include writing as much on other blogs (as comments) as I write on my own. Yes, it's part of the process. No, it's not optional. Thank you, Grant

Grant Griffiths

Lance - You are so right. There really is no option not to do those things which will make your blog successful.

Gina Cuclis

What you outline here are the steps for participating in any form of social media. All social media is about conversations and finding and participating in the conversations that are right for you.

Grant Griffiths

Gina - You are exactly right. The same steps and processes we take on our blogs are the same we should be applying to social media tools such as twitter.

Donna Seyle

Blogging about what someone else has blogged about never occurred to me, but I guess I do it unconsciously by blogging about trends that are related to what I do. And I find alot out about those trends through other people's blogs. One thing is clear to me: when I blog about something that isn't trending, it gets much less traffic.

Also, in addiiton to google alerts, I find RSS feeds from pertinent publications or blogs to be a feast for ideas.

Marilyn Katz

Grant- I usually check Twitter every morning and evening and try to respond to a few tweets, each time. I also read ActiveRain but lately don't leave as many comments as I used to. I use AR for my blog and I also find it harder to find time and topics about which to write, even though I know the answer is...Just Post!!

Rosemary Breen

Would like ideas/discussion on what to do when someone retweets my tweets. This is surely a lead but I dont know what to do about it :)

Grant Griffiths

Rosemary-

I would not look at it as a lead as much as an extension of your influence. Which might someday turn into a lead. Never expect anything from twitter. Always expect to give way more then you ever receive. If you are getting retweets on your stuff, that is awesome. And it will pay off someday. Just keep joining in on the conversations and paying it forward.

GT

Grant, I'm really enjoying the start of this "KITB" program. The acronym really helps to remember "F.L.E.E." I agree with the getting involve in conversation and give don't expect anything in return at first. Just started to Tweet and now some are starting to follow me. Will you touch the blocking issue? Meaning that, you read about other peoples blog and you realize that other people are talking about "your idea" so why bother to write about it on my blog!

Grant Griffiths

The only people I block on twitter are spammers and the wonderful porn or dating sites that follow us. As for other people writing about "your idea", that should not stop you from writing about it yourself and adding even more to the conversation.

Dr Jon P Heins DC

Thanks again Grant for the great tips. I also really enjoyed the helpful tips from the fellow commentators and your feed back on them. Specially about 'balance' and the Google blog search with alerts. I will add that now. I already use twitter searches and also like to use Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.

Rosemary Breen

I agree with Melissa et al. The key is to find an ongoing balance. Would be interested to know what percentage of online people feel is could/would/should be dedicated to FLEE. Any thoughts?

Grant Griffiths

Rosemary-

I don't think there is any set amount of time anyone can or should dedicate to doing F.L.E.E. And it is especially hard to come up with a time until you see the next 3 post on the subject. I think you will see how F.L.E.E. is a many level process you can apply to blogging and any other of your social media activities.

Mitchell Goldstein

I tried blogging and had no idea about allowing others to leave comments. The whole point is engaging in a conversation. I agree that the give and take is important. I appreciate your explanation of how to engage in the conversation while helping other bloggers and yourself.

Rosemary Breen

Have I missed day 3?

Grant Griffiths

Not if you have signed up for the email updates. It will be there soon. We set up the series in our auto-responder after October 1st hit so those who signed up after that would get the full benefits of everything. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.

Rosemary Breen

MMM. I got Day 1 date marked 1/10; Day 2 date marked 3/10; and today is 6/10 and no Day 3 - fyi.

Grant Griffiths

I doubled check all of the emails and they have all gone out on the correct dates. Not sure why yours would be showing the different dates and you may need to check your spam folder for day 3. Thanks for the heads up.

Rosemary Breen

Thats a very good point Grant. Ive checked and its not in spam. Rather than clog up the forum with housekeeping would you prefer to sort this out another way. How many lessons have been posted? Cheers R

Grant Griffiths

You can use my email if you would like. grant@g2webmedia.com

Kris Krol

WOW! I played around with the Twitter Search for an area in my niche, and found an article that included a couple of videos that I can use for blog posts. I am also learning how easy it is to incorporate a video in a blog post and look forward to coming up with content to match the video. Great post.