Send an email to a commenter today (Day 7-31 Kick Butt)

Written by Grant Griffiths in Kick Your Blog In The Butt

Edit Page ‹ Blog For Profit — WordPress.jpg Today’s task in the 31-Days To Kick Your Blog in the Butt is going to focus on one of the ways of building your community. But even more important, it is going to focus on your readers and those who are engaging in your conversation.

Today’s Lesson

While today’s task is simple and all you have to do is email a new commenter, or two or three, on your blog, it is still very important. If you consider for a moment that what we are wanting to do is build a community around our blogs. A network of people who become regular readers of our blogs. A community of people who are interested in what we have to say and what we may have to offer to help them with their problems, or a solution to their need.

If building community is our goal, we have to personally interact with our community to build it and keep it. If you will remember from our post a couple of days ago where we talked about engaging in the conversations taking place, we need to include those conversations on our own blogs by replying to comments. For today, we need to take responding to comments a step further.

Emailing commenters is a technique I used early on in the life of Blog For Profit and it is something I still do. Especially if the comment is a good one or a new commenter I have not seen before. Your readers are the lifeblood of your blog and you must take the time to interact with them and give them some personal attention. I am not saying you need to email each and every commenter to your blog. Though there are a couple of plugins that do that as they send out an email to new commenters. I tried it for a week or so just to see how well it would be received. I only had one negative response but that was from a very experienced blogger who felt it was too impersonal.

However, if you take the time to send a personal email to a commenter, it will pay off. But don’t stop there. If the commenter has a blog of their own, and they were smart enough to leave a link to their blog in the comment fields, visit the blog. Read through some of the post they have and leave a comment on one or two of them. Just make sure it adds to the conversation.

Building a blog audience takes baby steps too

Will using this technique get you instant gratification? No, you are not going to get hundreds of new readers overnight using this method of building community. But, you will build loyal readers. And loyal readers become your subscribers and your “town crier” too. Loyal readers talk to their own readers and the news will spread rather quickly too. And remember, loyal readers come back time and time again and that builds your audience and influence too. Don’t overlook the simple things we can do to build our community.

Today’s Assignment and you better do it too.

Take some time this week and each day, email at least two commenters a day. And when you send the email, make sure you do some simple things for added effect.

Make sure you have a link to your blog in the email
You could even put a link to your blog’s RSS feed in the email
Put a relevant subject in the subject line so they know what the email is about

I know there are some of you participating in 31-Days to Kick Your Blog in the Butt who don’t have blogs of your own. No worries. We have already discussed what you can do. Because you should be out there building your network now, even before you launch your blog. Visits some of those blogs we found with F.L.E.E. and leave good relevant comments. Doing this now will actually increase the odds of you having a successful launch or relaunch of your blog.

Finally, makes sure you leave your comments to this post so we can keep the conversation going.

October 7, 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

Wayan

Oui, have we just backslid to Blogging 101? I thought this course was for those who are blogging a while to improve their game. Emailing commenters to thank them should be a given, right up there with reading RSS of other blogs, which you talked about in an earlier post.

So who is this 31 day course for? Newbies or those with experience looking for a boost?

And if you are going to email readers, may I suggest that you do a bit of research on them - look at the site they linked to, see how you can relate to them, point out resources they might like (on your blog or others), and invite them to write a Guest Post. If you are just starting out, do this with your first 100 commenters to seed your community. If established, do this with anyone who comments repeatedly. They are your most loyal and engaged readers, covet them as such.

Joe Hafner

Wayan - I like that you speak your mind. That said, this is a free course that you are subscribed to. The useful and constructive comments that you make are overshadowed by your criticism of those who _are_ starting out. This comment would have been far more valuable to the community without the first two paragraphs.

Donna Seyle

Thank you, Joe. I wouldn't have even read Wayan's 3rd paragraph if you hadn't pointed out there was something of value in the comment.

Christopher G. Hill

Grant,

I am in pretty good contact with my commenters. If for no other reason than many of them are in the legal/construction industry. Because of the focus of my blog, I tend not to attract the "random" search hit. For this reason alone, I have built a pretty steady list of commenters with whom I communicate by e-mail and even (gasp!) by phone.

Mrs Green

This is a brilliant suggestion. I always respond to comments on my site, but I don't think I've ever written personally to someone. That's a great idea and one which would really touch me if someone took time to write to me.

Will definitely be trying this one out! I'm wondering how you make it sound genuine and not like you send the same comment to everyone ...

Any thoughts on that?

Grant Griffiths

Easy, don't send the same one to everyone. Seriously, I try to personalize them as much as I can. Even if it is to just mention something about their site. I also try to reinforce something they may have said in their comment. The email doesn't have to be long either.

margie hanson

Hi .. Really enjoying your daily input on blogging. Makes me feel good to see you focus on "commenting." It takes blind faith and you are cementing in my mind that it isn't me missing the boat that makes it take time ... it is the process. Also Twitter is a "great" place to experiment and "feel" the power of a new connection just from a simple comment. "It has to be experienced" is what I tell my clients. I've had a goal since August to try and comment to at least 3 Twitter tweets a day... one way or another. Amazing what it does! Thanks for this 30 day exercise!

Christine Livingston

Hi Grant,

I've done some e-mailing spontaneously to people who've commented, but I hadn't thought to email more systematically. Funnily, I can only think of three bloggers, yourself and Michael Martine being two, that have ever emailed me when I've commented on their posts. Nevertheless it does make me think that those emails have been a vital part of creating and building a relationship and that I should follow your lead.

Right, back to post writing....

Christine

Grant Griffiths

It really does work in building that relationship and connection even further. In fact, if my memory serves me, emailing was just one of the ways Michael and I originally connected through our blogs.

Dawn Elaine

Okay, so I'm rushing around trying to get everything done before I leave on vacation on Saturday, but I felt bad because I hadn't done my homework, so this morning, I read through all the stuff for days 1-7 and signed up for Google's blogsearch tool and then started finding what people were saying. Some of the stuff was just not helpful to my overall business strategy, some of it wouldn't do anything but send another horde of whining "me first" fathers to my firm (most without money to pay me, the rest with no intention of taking my advice). I didn't bother to reply or subscribe to those. I did find a couple that were worth commenting on so I read them carefully and constructed a careful comment . . . two and a half hours later I was done.

That wasn't that much to do but it takes FOREVER! Sorry, I gotta go. I'm trying to bill enough time to make today somewhat profitable, not to mention leaving with most of my clients feeling as if there aren't any big crises looming, and then, there's those pesky children who need my attention.

I like the ideas, Grant, but it's no fair saying that people who don't have time to follow your strategy are just whining. Sometimes, they're just busy!

I'll try to keep up, but it's not going to be on a 31 day schedule, that's for sure!

Grant Griffiths

Dawn - Each of the strategies we discuss are just that, strategies. What you will need to do is pick those you feel you can budget into your day. And if you are getting results in your search with Google blog search or other search tools, try narrowing your search terms. Also, try the advance search tools most search sites have.

Also, keep in mind that not all of the strategies we discuss work for everyone. While you need to at least try or seriously look at them all. You also need to initially pick the ones you feel will work for you.

Carla Duclos

Hi Grant,

With all due respect for your work, I like your posts, I am a reader form your blog and I am really enjoying this 31 days kick but, but regarding today's lesson I would like to tell you that I actually disagree with the suggestion.

I am not saying that this doesn't work. You have experience with that and I don't. But I don't think that is appropriate to send an email to someone who gave me his email in a mandatory field from the comments form. This person is trusting me that his email will be used just for the comment and that I am not going to use it for anything else.

If the person wants to receive an email from me, he/she will explicitly ask for it subscribing to receive the updates by email, or choosing the option to receive the feedback from the conversation by email. If the person didn't ask by an email and I use his information to send him an email, for me this is a kind of spam, and I strongly disagree with any kind of spam.

Personally, I will just send an email if my readers ask for it, even if this will cost me much more work to build a solid base of readers.

I think it is important to think about all sides/aspects from anything, and I think this is an important point for reflection. From one side people can feel good and glad about a "thank you for the comment" or more personalized email, but on the other hand, we would be using information that was gave to us for one purpose for another one, to send an email that was never requested by our reader.

What do you think?

Thank you for sharing!

Grant Griffiths

I have been doing this practice for over 4 years and I have yet had anyone complain. In fact, they usually respond back with a thank you back and we usually exchange an email or two after that. I in no way feel it is a violation of the SPAM rules you are most likely eluding too.

Thanks for your comment and for adding to the conversation.

Carla Duclos

Hi Grant,

Thank you for your reply. I am thinking in read more about the violation spam rules. I consider this very important and I prefer to be more restricted about it.

When we are running a blog, is very important to be aware about all this things.

It is always good to share ideas.

Thanks,

LoneWolf

If they have left a comment with their email address then that is permission for you to respond with an email. They didn't have to leave a comment (or a real email address) so they aren't being forced to give it to you. So, don't be afraid to do this. I've done it a couple times and it helps build relationships.

If you harvest the address and add it to your mailing list, then you've crossed the line.

As for an automated response -- I'm not sure I'd classify it as spam, but I don't like to see them myself so I don't send them. I have the same problem in Twitter where so many people think it's cool for some reason to DM me after I follow them.

Joe Hafner

LoneWolf - I DM my Twitter followers (after screening them to see if they are real people or not). But I don't auto-DM. My message is usually, "Hey LoneWolf, thanks for the follow." Followed by a conversation starter either about their profile or one of their recent tweets. Would that still be a bother to you?
Obviously this only works if your screening and processing rate is greater than your new follower growth, which mine still is.

Carla Duclos

Hi LoneWolf,

I am not sure about it: "If they have left a comment with their email address then that is permission for you to respond with an email". I agree that they could've gave a false email, but on the other hand they are not explicitly agreeing with an email.

You have a good point when you say that an email listing would be crossing the line. I think the big question is "where is the line". For you an email listing would be crossing the line, but maybe for others, wouldn't. They could think that they got the email in a voluntary way and then, they would not being crossing the line.

What I am just thinking about is where is this line. Is a personal email to someone who comment on your blog a crossing of the line? I am not 100% sure it is, but I am not also sure it isn't.

It is always good to think over.

Thank you!

LoneWolf

@Joe

A personal welcome DM is appreciated (but not necessary). It shows that you took the time to find something about me and respond. It is the auto DM that I don't like since it is 100% phony. Someone is having a machine pretend that they are interested in me. They probably don't even know that I'm following them yet -- that's if they even get the e-mail notifications and bother to check.

All-in-all, I skip the DM unless there is a reason to have a personal conversation with someone. YMMV.

@Carla

I don't think you need to worry about using the e-mail provided. Why would you give your email address to someone? Just so they know what it is? If someone provides you with information then they are giving you permission to use it in the context in which they gave it. If you leave a comment on a blog then response to that comment is an acceptable use (actually, the only one).

To cover your bases you can make sure that your Privacy Policy outlines what uses you will make of the email address. Add something that states you will only use the email address provided with a comment to respond to issues that arise from the post and comment.

Mary McGuire Smith

Hi Grant,

Thanks for all the Kick posts. I have been out of town and have had to catch up on the lessons....luckily, I am doing most of the things that you suggest (so far), and do not have too many plug-ins on my blog. I have had to adjust my thinking to accomodate the fact that I use Google's Blogger and I think that the plug-ins that you suggested have Google counterparts that I am already employing. The FLEE concept is a philosphy that I am already employing, although I like the acronym, and now I know WHY I am doing it! LOL I am looking forward to the rest of the series, and I will be more studiously employing the FLEE concept. Thanks again!

Mary

(at the risk of being what you call a baiter-- I apologize if my blog link is not kosher)
http://iridedressage.blogspot.com

Donna Seyle

Hi,Mary: I find many of the social media strategies to be very time-consuming as well (not just Grant's). I've really had to establish time boundaries around how much time I spend investigating these strategies so I don't wake up in the AM in a panic. My strategy with this course is to print out the lesson for the day, spend a certain amount of time working on it, check off what I've been able to accomplish, and then go on to the next thing I've got to do. And if something is taking too much time vs. what it's accomplishing, I just stop and get back to it another time.

Also, I weigh in in favor of the thank you email. It's like thanking someone for following you on twitter, & I think it's not crossing a line, as long as you don't use it again for something else, unless they respond to you.

Catherine

That's an excellent suggestion. It never occurred to me to send new subscribers a personal email. It's a nice touch that creates a human link.

I'll use it.
Thanks

Cathy Ribble

I'm also playing catch up! Really enjoying the discussion, pros and cons. As I'm getting blog and business in full speed, great reminders re avoiding spam to your followers, BUT don't miss the opportunity to engage them and BEGIN BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP!