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Posted: 08 Jun 2008 07:40 PM CDT

concern problems

There are many important things to think about when you start blogging. A blogger would usually have to think about the content, how to market the blog, and how to sustain the even growth of traffic. You must admit that the only way to actually get your blog out to the rest of the blogosphere is if you are famous, have the money, or you know someone in the blogging business. If you’re not any one of those, then it would be quite difficult for you to gain attention unless you communicate with your blog’s subscribers and readers.

Some of you may not think it is important, but I really think communication given to your readers, commentators, and subscribers are the key in marketing a successful blog. Lets say someone sends you an e-mail asking you to review his/her blog, but you decide not to do it since the blog mentioned seems kind of new and unprofessional. Not only do you not cater to the request, but you also leave that particular blogger hanging without a single reply. I agree that some of it may be spam or hate messages, but some are legitimate concerns or questions waiting for your reply.

There are many different ways and places where a blog owner receives these sort of messages. The most popular place that you would receive a message is through your e-mail inbox. Other places includes social networking sites, instant messaging, and even snail mail. I believe that it doesn’t matter where you receive a message because as a blogger, you should still reply to everyone that has a question or concern.

Besides replying to comments, e-mails, and other messages, I usually reply to trackbacks that are out of the ordinary. A trackback is basically when a different blog or website links back to your blog. If you use Wordpress, you would usually see it in your dashboard and know where it is from. Replies aren’t necessary for all trackbacks since some are coming from spam blogs, but I usually leave a quick “Thank You!” when I receive a link from a fellow blogger. This is only polite

The other day I received a very very rude e-mail from a 14 year old blogger that barely just visited my blog for the first time. I won’t be mentioning his name or blog.

” The first thing you should do to your theme to make it perfect is remove that photo(of the boy and girl) from the header. “

” But it is really not beautiful and i don’t like looking at it. Better get a good picture. “

That message I received did hurt and it definitely pissed me off a lot, but I take all concerns and opinions and I do not reply with rudely. What I did was reply with the following:

evil smiley ” I appreciate the opinion and I don’t ding anyone for leaving a negative comment, but I’m going to stick with the picture. “

What do you think you can learn from the e-mail I sent back to the sender? I basically took in whatever he said and instead of yelling back at him, I basically sent back a nice reply. This guy even unsubscribed to to my RSS feed because he disliked my header picture. After my simple reply to him, I was able to gain him back as a reader without asking it directly.

The next popular way to receive a message or concern is through your blog’s comments. I don’t know about you guys, but I read all my comments one by one and not just because they need to be approved. Comments are essentials in keeping great communication between the blog owner and the blog reader. It tends to create a connection where you’re able to discuss and gain ideas from your readers. As a blog owner, you don’t have to be the one thinking of all the ideas because others are willing to help as well.

Since there are quite a few very big bloggers in the blogosphere, some of them don’t tend to reply to their messages. I have personally sent John Chow and Shoemoney a few trackbacks or messages through their contact form, but I’ve only received one reply and it was from John. However, it does seem like Mr. ProBlogger, Darren Rowse, replies to all his messages even though he works a lot more than both Chow and Shoemoney. It just goes to show who is more concerned about us smaller bloggers and who is not.

I’m sure you guys understand where I’m trying to get at by now. As long as you suck in all the concerns, comments, and messages from your readers, you’re able to learn and change from it. Of course there are some things that you can not change, but it’ll give you an idea of what your readers look for on your blog.

Do you get back to your readers?

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